Back on Black: LED ZEP 1-3

Does anyone know, wasn't Mothership just a taste of these albums that are slowly being released? I kinda doubt Jimmy Page would do an entirely new remastering compared to the one for Mothership six or seven years ago.

Thanks! My original looks to be a first pressing. It has the Crowley messages and the mastering info in the dead wax. Plus, it has the old Atlantic address on Broadway printed on the label. It was pressed by Monarch to boot. Anyway, the new reissue has much more air and life in the upper octaves. Some may call this bright, but it's what I prefer rather than a dull presentation with rolled off highs, which the original tends to go towards.

Geoffkait...These 3 new remasters clearly do not sound like Mothership. To my ears, they are new mixes with excellent dynamics and separation of instruments. They have good detail in the bassline and a powerful sound from Bonham, something that Mothership lacked. IMHO.

Plant's voice was out in front and may have sounded better on Mothership; here it is mixed closer to how the original albums sounded.

It's possible that after Page saw the enthusiastic response to Mothership, he wanted to remix the entire collection.

I thought Page's whole pitch was that a (digital) remaster hadn't been done in 20 years. I suspect Mothership (which I did buy on vinyl when it came out) was probably derived from those older digital masters. I haven't compared CDs of Mothership (which I don't own) to any 'native' digital files of the 2014 releases, but would assume they improved things- my only focus has been on the vinyl. I already wrote up my preliminary comparisons of the 2014 vinyl of LZ 1 and II to a couple of the highly regarded earlier pressings in a different thread here, but didn't bother with Mothership (vinyl). Since I now also have clean UK first pressings of LZII and III, I can do a short write up of the 2014 LZIII to a Classic III and a UK first pressing.

Whart, you may be right regarding Page's reason. But the greatest hits "Early Days/Later Days" were released in 1999/2000 and were pretty good remasters for that time (released on CD and vinyl).

But they don't hold up today when compared to how digital technology has progressed.
I wonder if Mothership came from those digital files.

Low rider, thanks for the info, I finally have the new Led Zep II CD and will have a listen this morning.

Low- this may just add to the confusion, and since I never focused on the
various CD versions of Zep, I can't really comment. But, apparently there
have been a number of remasters on CD over the years, and post #41 in
the first link below addresses Mothership in particular. There are also Barry
Diament (apparently the original cds) and Marino remasters. Apparently,
the transfers used for the Marino remasters, circa the early 90's, were the
basis for Mothership remastered by John Davis, if I am reading this
correctly.
I have no dog in this fight, so am willing to stand corrected, but offer it only
for additional
information, per the Hoffman forum:

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/led-zeppelin-original-cds-vs-
remasters.236470/page-2

(look at post #41).

See also,

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/led-zeppelin-non-
remastered-cds-question.88238/

(Post #12)

Finally, I think John Davis is the guy that did the actual remastering of the
2014 stuff, which I gather is also the same for the Zep mastered for
iTunes?
And did the Celebration Day release? (which was the 02 concert).
I can safely say that all of this requires someone with more knowledge than
me, at least on the CDs. (I did manage to hear them at the 02 show in
London, and they were surprisingly good for a 'revival' performance. I never
listened to the recording of that show, but probably have it somewhere).
Over and out.

I purchased the 24-bit version of LZ 3 from HD tracks. There was a bit more background noise as compared to the boxed-set CD pressings of a few years back, but there was a lot more palpable energy.

Whart...I'm getting errors trying to link to Steve Hoffman.

I forgot about the LZ "Remasters" Box set from 1992, so it's very possible you are correct that earlier remasters were used. There was a lot of excitement back then when LZ was finally remastered.

Low, sorry, I've been on an iPad and those aren't really hyperlinks. You'd
have to copy and paste the whole data set in to get to the threads. But, if
you do a couple searches on the Hoffman site itself, with respect to LZ CDs
and remasters, I think you'll find the threads. PS: If I understand the
process, they would have used the same digital transfers but the mastering
for Mothership was different than the Marino CDs from what I read. I'm
gonna stick to vinyl, it's easier for my antediluvian brain to process
(figuratively speaking).

Well, I'm stating the obvious here, but the vinyl was cut from the higher res digital masters, so yeah, they should sound better than the cds, which are dumbed down to 16/44.

By the way, I'm digging my copy of III more and more as time goes on.