Led Zeppelin I-IV 2014 remasters considered the best?

The "old technology must be bad" argument for digital mastering simply doesn't cut it. Right tapes and good mastering are far more important. Wheels Of Fire and McCartney on DCC CDs prove it - still the best sounding versions.
Jimmy Page said the original master tapes were used for the Marino masters and were far better sounding than the Diament masters, yet the blind listening tests don't say the Diaments are the worst - indeed in most cases, they are the best sounding.

 

"as close to the original tapes are" would be flat transfers, which we know the remasters aren't, for better or worse.

 

Jimmy said it... not I.....There are quite a few interviews on youtube of him promoting these reissues.

If it's an EQ issue, and I assume most of you have and equalizer, then why not just EQ it to your specs..... I feel sorry for a lot of you who spend all your time complaining about what these records sound like on your system which takes away for the beauty of the music itself. I am a musician myself thus I care about the quality behind the music over how good it sounds on my $500.00 system (sorry I can't afford anymore)

 

You're right of course. I got overexcited there for a minute!

 

Good for Jimmy. That doesn't make him right.

And Alan Parsons didn't say that. Someone commenting on a story on the internet did.

 

Jimmy is saying that the Davis versions are better than the Marinos, which he previously said were better than the Diaments, because 85% of the Marino remasters were from the original stereo master tapes, whereas none of the Diaments were. Now we get the same story - previous releases sound terrible and these latest Davis versions are the first time the original stereo master tapes have been used. So which statement was untrue? Both were made by the one person years apart.
This forum is about music and the quality of music reproduction. People here are right to complain about substandard masterings if they impinge on the sound of the recordings. The performance of the music will remain the same, however - it's just how we perceive the sound of the mastering that alters.

 

Again I disagree, as the producer, writer & guitarist of THE band, Page has the final say....what exactly makes him in the wrong and the rest of you in the right?

 

What makes him wrong? Claiming things that aren't true.

 

Such as????

 

See above.

 

Or more familiar?

 

I wouldn't expect Jimmy to say otherwise. That said, I've previously owned the Diaments, Marino's, the SHM's and now the Davis remasters. Overall I prefer the latter AND Of course, they're not perfect but what reissue/remastered CD is?

 

Jimmy: "I've remastered the albums again. They don't sound as good as the previous ones but go by them, please."

Would he say that if it were true? Is it possible that it could be true?

 

thus subjective we are all wrong and right at the same time. Someone else mentioned it, Zeppelin was never supposed to be high quality audio. Jimmy made use of overdubbing because he wanted to recreate in the studio the power and energy of their live shows, which he couldn't with just one guitar. There's a lot of technical "mistakes" that were purposely left in to give that feeling of raw energy. If one remaster sounds high quality but the next remaster sounds muffled and EQ'd (or visa versa for that matter) it's obviously for a reason. Whether one agrees/disagrees with it or not is a matter of personal taste, but I detest the theory in which someone says the original or X version is better than a reissue because they have the technical specs or all analogue etc.

 

Whether it's true or not is subjective, everyone has their own tastes, music is not a competition....maybe Jimmy doesn't like they way previous reissues sound...and again it's his band so he can do whatever he wants. You don't have to agree with him.

 

I'd like to know how they compare to the iTunes format????

 

Of course Jimmy is going to positively promote the remasters in every way. Objectivity I doubt is a strong suit with any artist involved in the shortcomings of a remastering project they are intimately involved in.


I can enjoy the beauty of the music and state that Im not blown over by most of these remasters. And I can strive for the best sound quality and still enjoy the music.

As a musician one can twiddle knobs and change things in real time. Some of what has been done on a recording cant simply be reversed by twiddling.

No one is questioning the quality of the music. We all pretty much love these albums or we wouldnt care about sound quality so much. I dont think anyone os saying these are horrid sonic tripe. What they are saying is they believe that these could have been done better and scratch their heads at some of the logic behind choices made.

 

Thats right we dont have to. And many dont.

I dont get the logic of simply because a person is in the band that I automatically have to default and say "Gee you know, I must be crazy thinking this doesnt sound very good. Its _____'s band and he knows best. I better change my hearing and accept this."

I get the honor and respect of Jimmy Page. But just because he is one of the great studio musicians and laid down some amazing layering of tracks doesnt mean he is great at all things judgement wise concerning these recordings.

 

sure...whatever.... you guys win... pointless argument anyways. I'm glad I'm just a musician and not an audiophile.

 

You care about sound quality improvement in addition to the music? Youre an audiophile buddy .

Im a musician also. Just one who thinks its ok to care about sound quality a lot.

Im over in the Blondie thread. Polinator album. Best album theyve put out in quite sometime. A fun little gulty pleasure of a blast from the past in the songs. But the album is brickwalled crazy. And thats not just being sensitive. It sounds pretty bad dynamically.

But Im a Blondie fan and am listening to the album and will listen in spite of the poor sound choices.

But Im not going to say "Well Debbie Harry is the boss. So it must be right that its brickwalled out the whazoo." No, and if the pretty lady was sitting beside me on a plane and she asked Id tell her "Yep, awesome work Debbie but the sound is sucky as far as mastering." And shed probably look at me not caring wth I think lol.

Doesnt mean she is right though. Artists are many times really sucky at making decisions concerning presentation of their art.

Degrees of sucky choices vary.

 

Why on earth are you posting in a sound quality thread on a mastering engineer's forum?

 

Well I guess I am in the wrong forum then, if I could I would close my account.

 

I realize you are not arguing only with me here, but for what it's worth, I'll once again stress that I agree with your general point here. The music needs to drive the bus, not the equipment.

My only disagreement with you is that I don't think your general point - which again, I agree with - is relevant to this particular discussion. Every Zep release - Diament/Sidore 1980s, Page/Marino 1990s, and Page/Davis 2014/15 - has had EQ. None are flat transfers, or even close to it - even minimalist Barry Diament has said that he applied EQ of up to 5dB, which is not minor, and that in retrospect he wishes he'd EQ'd the tapes even more.

If you're playing a lot of Led Zep on your stereo, then you're sort of by definition not someone who's using the music to listen to their equipment. Many audiophiles are very familiar with the standard suite of "audiophile demo music" and Zep isn't it.

So with respect, I'd say a lot of the pushback you're getting here is because you're making pretty big blanket statements, not because people are hostile or dismissive of the idea that musical enjoyment is the main goal. I think virtually everyone in this thread loves Zep and realizes it's not audiophile demo-quality stuff to begin with. It's all about accessing as much of the thunderous awesomeness of Zep as possible, through masterings that hopefully let the music shine.

 

It's still true though... and I mean that in the nicest possible way.

It's probably why the Classics vinyl reissues are so well-regarded by one and all and sound so darn good... aside from the fact they were cut from the original mixdown masters, they had an objective ear in Bernie Grundman mastering them without Jimmy Page hovering over him and telling him how they should sound.