Bo Eder
Platinum Member
So today I'm out doing some Christmas shopping, and while I'm getting copies of the new Batman movie on bluray, I notice the Led Zeppelin Celebration day CD/BluRay package, so of course, I throw that in the cart too.
Excited, in the car I open it up and pop in the CD, and my initial impression is that it's great. I hadn't seen any clips on YouTube or heard alot of people talking about it, and I'm a fan, so maybe I'm a little biased that it is great - it's Led Zeppelin afterall
I'm not going to say that I've made my mind up about it and have gone 180-degrees the other way, but the performances sounded great, and the production sounds great, and my, Jason Bonham was the obvious best choice to fill his dads shoes. So I'm not taking anything away from those guys. But I wonder if the new technology takes away something from the band. When Led Zeppelin was riding their hey-day back in the early 70s, subwoofers weren't quite so prevalent, and live recordings weren't as crystal clear as they are today. As I listened more to the CD, I missed a little bit of that dirtiness and "lack of" vibe from that technological era. The drums sounded perfect - you would definitely not hear any squeaking bass drum pedal - in fact, I think Jason's snare sounds almost too clean - you know that sound you get when you mic a snare on both the top and bottom? I don't think they did that to his dad ever. When they roar into Since I've been loving you, man, the low end from the organ I thought was going to blow my speakers! I wonder how many people in the audience wanted to vomit from so much low end? It was very cool, but my recollection of the songs are from the original recordings (before Page even re-mastered them) and their first movie. I won't count their Live at the BBC as a new recording when it came out because it wasn't, that was straight-up, raw Zeppelin.
So I love the fact that I now have documentation of this concert that I couldn't afford to go to, and it's nice to hear that they still got it. I think it would've been neat to have done it on same-era equipment (the same way I wished all the guys who played for the Buddy Rich Memorial Concerts should've all played on Buddy's actual drums). I know, as a sound technician myself, it's sacrilegious to 'not move with the times' as far as technology goes, but I was wondering if anyone feels the same way. Like, would you want to hear Elvis Preseley in an almost sterile recording environment? The whole thing is about vibe, and Zep has it in spades. I just think super hi-tech technology causes some vibe to be lost, especially if you know how you like to hear things. Maybe I'm wrong? Has anyone thought about this?
Excited, in the car I open it up and pop in the CD, and my initial impression is that it's great. I hadn't seen any clips on YouTube or heard alot of people talking about it, and I'm a fan, so maybe I'm a little biased that it is great - it's Led Zeppelin afterall
I'm not going to say that I've made my mind up about it and have gone 180-degrees the other way, but the performances sounded great, and the production sounds great, and my, Jason Bonham was the obvious best choice to fill his dads shoes. So I'm not taking anything away from those guys. But I wonder if the new technology takes away something from the band. When Led Zeppelin was riding their hey-day back in the early 70s, subwoofers weren't quite so prevalent, and live recordings weren't as crystal clear as they are today. As I listened more to the CD, I missed a little bit of that dirtiness and "lack of" vibe from that technological era. The drums sounded perfect - you would definitely not hear any squeaking bass drum pedal - in fact, I think Jason's snare sounds almost too clean - you know that sound you get when you mic a snare on both the top and bottom? I don't think they did that to his dad ever. When they roar into Since I've been loving you, man, the low end from the organ I thought was going to blow my speakers! I wonder how many people in the audience wanted to vomit from so much low end? It was very cool, but my recollection of the songs are from the original recordings (before Page even re-mastered them) and their first movie. I won't count their Live at the BBC as a new recording when it came out because it wasn't, that was straight-up, raw Zeppelin.
So I love the fact that I now have documentation of this concert that I couldn't afford to go to, and it's nice to hear that they still got it. I think it would've been neat to have done it on same-era equipment (the same way I wished all the guys who played for the Buddy Rich Memorial Concerts should've all played on Buddy's actual drums). I know, as a sound technician myself, it's sacrilegious to 'not move with the times' as far as technology goes, but I was wondering if anyone feels the same way. Like, would you want to hear Elvis Preseley in an almost sterile recording environment? The whole thing is about vibe, and Zep has it in spades. I just think super hi-tech technology causes some vibe to be lost, especially if you know how you like to hear things. Maybe I'm wrong? Has anyone thought about this?