I have all the 2014 remasters on vinyl. They’re as good as it gets for remastering.
I don’t have the CD boxed sets, but I own multiple early and first release CDs. In most cases, the German pressings have the best SQ; very analogue-like with well-defined bass and kick drum which later pressings and remasters lack. There’s very good imaging and soundstaging. These original flat transfers are the reason the original issue LPs are so coveted.
All CDs were first pressed in the UK and Germany since the US did not have facilities yet. Japanese LZ issues have excellent sonics, although they tend to sound more detailed and analytical.
You’re spot on about Mothership. I have the LP and it’s compressed crap.
I learned my lesson about buying rock remasters and now only buy used original releases. There were some rock albums that were such poor quality that remastering was able to create a better version. But that was way before The Loudness Wars started.
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@big_greg, I know Classic Records uses original sources for mastering when possible. Do you know what they used to master LZ? |
SHM CDs are produced using the original digital master, either from digital tape or audio file. The quality of the master will determine the how the SHM disc sounds.
I have very good digital playback and well mastered Redbook sounds as good as SHM CD.
The real improvement in sound is from XRCD's. This is JVC's 24bit remastering process. I have a few classical discs. Don't know if there are any Zeppelin.
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I think what makes the SQ of the LZ SHM CDs so good is the high quality of the Japanese pressing plants. The original masters are from the 90's and the Japanese have improved upon them.
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OP, look for early release German pressings; close to analogue sound, good dynamic range. You can hear Bonham’s tight deep kick drum and JPJ’s bassline. Bonzo is my favorite drummer and you can hear that he’s using a smaller kit on LZ I.
I bought all my flat transfer Zep on Discogs. Also, found the best quality Jimi CDs and other classic rock.
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David,
Discogs.com
Enter Led Zeppelin cd Germany.
You’ll have to scroll through hundreds of releases, each will list country of origin. RM means remaster, so skip those. And you’re looking for dates 1985, 86, or 87 for original issues.
Some will say country: Europe, but click on the picture and look for Made in Germany or Manufactured in Gemany on the CD label.
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No Scorpions, but I have some Japanese CDs mostly Blu-spec that are exactly as you described. They’re in my never to be played again pile. |
There’s no way to know which master was used to make the music video. By 1990, a record label would use an audio production facility to transfer the track to digital videotape and send it to the editing house. This was now the master and the video was edited directly onto this tape.
It’s possible the track was tweaked for broadcast on television.
MTV was calling the shots by then and had specifications for audio and video, such as limited compression, playback levels, S/N, etc.
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Forgot to mention, in the 80’s the process was the same except a 1/4" audio tape was sent to the editing house which was typically transferred to 1" videotape. So the original audio master may have been digital, but the master for MTV was analogue videotape.
The point is, the music video master may be different than the mastering for vinyl and CD.
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@jafant
I was editing music videos as well as MTV content in the 90's. I experienced the changeover from analogue to digital technology as well as MTV's increased dominance in the biz and in our culture.
One change I saw was they started to reject videos not only for explicit content but because they didn't like a shot or sequence.
BTW, all video and audio was required to be uncompressed.
Getting back to modern day audio quality, on the Dynamic Range DB I've seen entries for "MTV version" in addition to the various audio releases. Saw this 2 or 3 times but didn't check to see the DR measurements. That would be interesting.
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That track clearly was remixed for the music video with effects and sound bites added. Presumably, original sources would have been used and once the film cut was finished, effects would be mixed with the music to create a new master.
A way to mix this track on the cheap would be to use the original uncompressed master and add sound effects. It's a big budget video, so I doubt it was done this way.
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