I'm Just Not Hearing It..., Do You???

What is "it" that you are no longer hearing?

We are listening for the "squeak" in the kick drum pedal assembly.

I listen to the music and enjoy it. I really don't get caught up in the media I use. It's much easier for me to close my eyes and forget the equipment, much more  enjoyable of an experience. But I get your question...just not my cup of tea.

I only listen to CD. I'll listen for the squeak tonight.

Curious minds want to know!

I first heard the squeaks many, many years ago, assumed everyone heard it.

It's EASILY heard ONLY if you have this press,

played on a Tech Das Zero w/ Etsuro Gold cartridge.

https://www.discogs.com/release/2241197-Led-Zeppelin-Led-Zeppelin-III

Seriously, at least on my modest rig and period US press it's subtle, but you have to be focused on listening for it-that takes away from the listening experience.

Kinda like hearing hearing the palm of a hand on the back of the guitar neck.

I'm guessing on  a generic CD  it's buried from the processing?

What does this have to do with music? 

So, does anyone hear it here???  Maybe I’m not listening for the right "thing", but I seem to recall it being a fairly distinct squeak from the early records.

Maybe it was a European pressing?  My friend had quite a collection and introduced me to all kinds of Rock back in the day.

https://youtu.be/wfPRgAD4pw8

Has everything to do with music.  If it's there, I want to hear it.

Why would you NOT want to hear it, one can have resolution, transparency and music, not a zero sum game.

I hear it clearly, on LP, CD, and on the file in my music library. I think it is very slightly more noticeable on the LP.

That pedal squeak is in the CD transfer. Could be that your hearing isn't as acute due to age. Believe me, as an aging boomer there are many things I can't achieve or perceive anymore...

The self-important types would say if your system isn't resolving enough (read: expensive enough) you won't be able to hear it. I agree with 2psyop, just enjoy the music.

Yes I hear it. Unfortunately I also hear it in my right hip replacement. 😆

Squeaky hi-fidelity clean topic.

I heard leather squeaks occasionally when listening to my set up. My sofa must be ultra high resolving…. Some of my doors too. I later discovered they had nothing to do with music, and it was reassuring to know that everything was working just fine

biwire, that’s what I’m wondering.

Certainly seems like it should be there if it’s there.  My Heil nearfield.

Listening to Led Zeppelin III 24/94 Hi Res Remaster on Qobuz through headphones, the squeaking is obvious from the start until Jimmy ramps it at about the 45 second mark, especially if you are listening for it.

Don't need super high resolving system to hear it. Now I suppose they could remove it during remastering, I don't know why they would but its possible some remaster out there has eliminated it.

I can hear it on the remaster , Qobuz. 
 

almost sounds like it could be something intentional if you didn’t know what it was, like a Mark Tree, or, I hear a Mark Tree and no squeak?

This seems similar to listening for that creek of the piano stool Ringo was sitting on when they played that final note of "A day in the life". No, it's not necessary to enjoying the music, but it is a fun little Easter egg.

You definitely don’t need any fancy equipment to hear it. I can hear it loud and clear on my phone using Qobuz.

I have the original CD and listened on the AKG headphones and still don’t hear it.  

I also had my wife’s healthcare worker listen on YT to Remastered version, nearfield, and she couldn’t hear it as a squeak.  She is really big into jazz.  We certainly heard other low level noises.

Maybe people are describing it differently, or maybe this is like the Emperor’s New Clothes...

Maybe it was one of the other tracks I remember hearing it on as a kid.  There are several that are of a similar "groove."  Maybe I’m going to have to listen to the early catalog on headphones to see if I can pick it out.

I was able to hear it listening on YT with headphones, until the guitar gets louder and masks it, as another user pointed out. But I'm blessed with fairly good hearing for a 66 year old. We all hear differently so I'm not surprised not everyone can. On Masterpieces By Ellington, Solitude, near the end of Strayhorn's piano solo there is a wooden squeak that I think is Billy adjusting himself on the piano stool. I also noticed a squeak on a Miles track where he removes his Harmon mute on his trumpet. To me these are just fun little organic sounds that are part of making music. As simao said, little Easter eggs. There are a side effect of focused listening and a relatively resolving hi-fi. Part of what makes high end audio fun.

Observation…. “I also had my wife’s heathcare worker listen”

Being a wife’s healthcare worker does not guarantee that person has good healthy ears.

This discussion is just getting sillier by the minote. 🎶

l was listening to an old concert recording and heard the musicians turning over their pages. I thought…”that’s not music, why is that there?” Then l thought, “yes it is music”

The idea is that a second set of ears didn’t hear it either and she is a bit more than half my age (40s maybe).  But she is here several times a week and when we listened to the YT version, we both heard the very low noises toward the beginning and these are barely audible.  She pointed it out and asked if that’s to what I was referring.  Again, we were listening for a distinctive "squeak" like you would hear from a spring mechanism that needs to be lubricated.

She is a big jazz and music fan (I always hear her car stereo playing when she pulls up) and loves the sound of my stereo.  Her favorite in my collection is Vince Guaraldi doing the Peanuts themes.  When I talk of classic rock bands, she knows who I’m talking about and is familiar with the songs.

She lives in a studio with her daughter and could never afford even a modest system let alone have a place to set it up. Her occupation has nothing to do with it.

Vince Guaraldi

l have known of this artist for 55 years…. Frightening thinking that.  I have had the original soundtrack from the film “A Boy Named Charlie Brown” since l was a boy. He wrote this spin off “special” instrumental music in 1970. I noticed an old re-recording by his Jazz “Trio” playing Charlie Brown material was issued on a 2025 Record Store Day LP.
 

You could say he started playing for peanuts but garnered a nice little earner composing for the long running TV cartoon series.

I have this one.

https://youtu.be/dbPy7hxvj9Q

BTW, I do believe that it was The Ocean that I remember the pedal squeak on.  And even now, I can still hear the pedal mechanism.

https://youtu.be/oqAmnEKlIZw

I don’t know what media conveys the music better.  There are good and bad recordings of the same album delivered on streaming, cds, or vinyl.  
 

One thing I have noticed for me.  Listening to digital music and /or solid state amplification I tire and get a headache after 1-2 hours.  When listening to vinyl through tube amplification I can listen all day or night.  I don’t need to know why but that’s just the way it is for me.

@triton20trx 

”l don’t need to know why but that’s just the way it is”

”l can listening to vinyl through tube amplification l can listen all day or night”

Same emotional feeling with me. My vinyl just sounds more beguiling than anything digital l have. Not a conscious thought and judged just the way my ears vote for how many hours l listen to both. I would say a ratio of about 3 to 1

l naturally reach for the vinyl 75% (or more) without a thought which is against the Maths (math in USA) as l have fewer records than CD’s.
My CD collection overtook my records only during the 25 years when new vinyl was not an option to buy. I suppose for me, that says it all.

Tiring of listening, fatigue, and headache are all symptoms of a problem in your system. High frequency hash and distortion causes these problems.  Old or inexpensive digital or solid state cause these problems. These are obvious  symptoms of a serious problem. I recommend approaching it as a problem, and not living with it. I have experienced it in the past and once gone, it is absolutely wonderful.

I can listen to my system (digital or analog) for hours and have to pull myself away. The moment I turn on my system I fall into its comforting quiet and bathed in warm beckoning music. Never jacked up or on edge because of it.  So many system strive for pulling out detail that they end up with all sorts of harsh artifacts that while not easily heard destroy the comfort of the listener. 

I'll have to listen to it tonight...later.

I have upgraded my system to include an Esoteric K03XD CD player. At the same time I bought a LED Zeppelin III CD that I vetted on Dr Loudness-War to have the best dynamic range. I can hear the squeak, but barely. I have a copy of the Mothership CD with much less dynamic range and in that version the squeak is prominent . So much so that it sounds like they pulled it forward in this version.

I think the squeek was in my hearing aid....Overload....Buy a boat and get a new hobby

John Bonham was famous for using Ludwig's SpeedKing bass drum pedal with tightened spring tension. This pedal has been nicknamed the "Squeak King" because of the large amounts of squeaking it produced which can be clearly heard on many Led Zeppelin songs..  

@cmsgtbo 

“Squeak King” 

Squeaky joints, (l was told by an ex premiership player) could be attributed to have been either a goal keeper or a defender. Injuries due to repetition and endurance were a byproduct of the job. For me and most others to be or not to be, it will be a sign of old age, or sitting down too long listening to music and not exercising enough.

Would tightening spring tension in bass drum peddles make it more difficult to operate? If so, it would probably lead to said drum players having squeaky knee/ankle joints later in life too.

With all this squeaky talk, what is more bewildering was not greasing the bass drum peddle so it would not squeak in the first place. Doh!

Head banging this problem was obviously a head bang too far.

I’m just having a laugh of course. 🤣

@mylogic  I'm laughing at this 'squeak-slide' we're at the relative bottom of...

'Course, I'm a fan of Van Morrisons' "Uh..." in 'Jackie Wilson Says"...

...still prefer listening to the rest of it. ;)

Are you kidding me?  Can't hear a squeak in the kick drum pedal assembly???  Incredible!  

Yes, been hearing it for years.  I even have a drummer buddy who had the same pedal years ago and it had a similar squeak. It was considered a badge of honor!  My group were all big Zep heads back in the day. 

38 responses commenting on hearing a drum pedal squeak or not ? God, I can't wait to be retired and have this much time on my hands,,,

I can easily hear Ringo's chair squeak as well as the various pianos' overtones in the piano fade-out of Day in the Life.

Final chord and completion

Following the final orchestral crescendo, the song ends with one of the most famous final chords in music history.^[57][67] Overdubbed in place of the vocal experiment from 10 February, this chord was added during a session at EMI's Studio Two on 22 February.^[68] Lennon, McCartney, Starr and Evans shared three different pianos, with Martin on a harmonium, and all played an E-major chord simultaneously. The chord was made to ring out for over forty seconds by increasing the recording sound level as the vibration faded out. Towards the end of the chord the recording level was so high that listeners can hear the sounds of the studio, including rustling papers and a squeaking chair.^[69] In author Jonathan Gould's commentary on "A Day in the Life", he describes the final chord as "a forty-second meditation on finality that leaves each member of the audience listening with a new kind of attention and awareness to the sound of nothing at all".^[70]

Didn’t the end of the record not end with that last note….. the natural but manipulated decay of the piano?

The repeat groove (from memory) contains a reversed recording that repeats, and repeats, and repeats…….
 

Or was l hearing/imagining things?
 

@mylogic

"The repeat groove (from memory) contains a reversed recording that repeats, and repeats, and repeats……."

"Never to see any other one..."

...And you would be well advised to turn down the volume a bit before it comes on.  I don’t know that this has actually been reversed because when you listen reversed, it is just as bad.

This track was not included in all versions of the media.  Some of the CDs don’t have it, but my copy does.  And on the CD, it does come to an end.

https://youtu.be/DaXnqw-Zv0Y

@toddalin 

That is the one l remember on my copy. Worth the price of the record alone. I didn’t know there were variations in pressings. I dare say that those with auto-changers never got to hear that it was there. The run out lift mechanism would have activated before the inner band.

One thing for sure is, the engineer who cut the original master was highly skilled at timing it to perfection. Spinning it backwards some peoples ears picked up a swear word in there somewhere.

@saugertiesbob l’m afraid it’s up to 43 posts now, but on a new subject.

On your retirement debate….. For every year you retire early, statistically you could have those extra years added back onto the end of your life. Depending on the job, working right up to the legal retirement age run out groove can be a killer.

SGT Peppers…. Run out band

l have had two copies, one with the old label and the newer EMI label.

l’m thinking now that maybe there were two versions of this repeating track. The OP says he has tested his copy and reports played backwards it’s still a load of noise. The one l remember from my first copy was quite profound and a clear reversal of the recording tape. I will have a listen when l get home for the weekend. It’s  been a long time since l did the trick with my original LP and to see how the replacement sounds. If l can hear the swear word in the sentence, or not.

Anyone else have any input on all this confusion with the revolution? Maybe there’s a secret out there somewhere, and the record company had to change the content. Those with early copies have a listen and report back if your pressing sounds different to the sample posted above.

Forward this sounds just like my CD, so it would be the same backwards.  Does this sound like a clear reversal of anything intelligible?

https://youtu.be/DaXnqw-Zv0Y

Well I didn't hear any Squeeking,is it my old ears ?

Are we really chasing a “squeak”?

People who hear my rig for the first time love it when I point it out to them...then they hear it an it's like a souvenir. 

The other easter egg is in Fever on Elvis Is Back! - at one point you can hear his clothes rustle as he moves in the recording booth. That is omega-subtle tho...

^^ it's at about 1:32

🐭