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New Mystery Soundboard?


RockDude4492

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On 4/6/2017 at 1:04 AM, porgie66 said:

Yes, 2/12 is a damn good tape and I thing Flying Circus and Godfathers release are as good as it gets for '75 boards. The Bertha remaster of St Louis is great. 3/19/75 is a well balanced board tape too. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have a 73 tour show in the quality of a 75 board tape but that's probably a futile wish. 

No Quarter from 7/28/73 which is basically the version completely found on the soundtrack is my favorite ever, and yes... I do prefer the shorter, 73 versions. First of all, I don't care for the use of the cheesy electric "grand piano", I way prefer Jonesys use of the Rhodes for the solo. That's why I prefer the early 75 tour versions to the later west coast ones. I also think the '75 and especially '77 versions became too meandering and self indulgent. I especially dislike the foray into boogie woogie...totally incongruous to the mood of the song. Page sounded less coherent on his solo as the years went on, playing choppy fragmented phrases and peaking then ebbing, then peaking again. Many of the 75 versions sound disjointed and don't have an arc to them like the '73 versions do. 77 is even worse. That solo from the soundtrack though is a masterpiece of mood, feel, soulful expression and phrasing. I can't put any No Quarter from later tours in that league, though the Copenhagen warm up gigs were excellent versions. Just my subjective opinion though. 

When you say cheesy electric grand piano what shows are you referring to?  A real grand piano was used starting half way through the 1975 tour and for all of the 1977 tour.  It sounds fantastic, especially in the 1975 soundboards and the Millard 1977 recordings.

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3 hours ago, John M said:

When you say cheesy electric grand piano what shows are you referring to?  A real grand piano was used starting half way through the 1975 tour and for all of the 1977 tour.  It sounds fantastic, especially in the 1975 soundboards and the Millard 1977 recordings.

Right.  It does sound pretty good on the '75 boards, but in general I think the grand piano is the one thing that consistently sounds better on a decent audience recording.  On the soundboards, the sound pretty much cuts off when Jones takes his finger off the key, but on the audience tapes you can hear the notes carry out into the room if that makes sense.

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Just to add that my first Zep bootleg was a cassette copy from the vinyl of Dallas 1975, bought in a secondhand record shop in Dublin in the 1990s. Blew my young mind. It only went as far as Moby Dick, but that cassette was my only Zep bootleg for ages until I got a Brussels 1980 single CD, and even that, despite the lesser sound quality, was superlative, especially in contrast with their 1975 style.

Lack of access to other bootlegs, especially pre-internet, meant these bootlegs have had a stronger impact and my sentimentality about them gives them higher importance to me. Human subjectivity, first impressions and all that. So now, when folk go on about comparing dozens of SBDs (my preferred source) and multiple audience recordings, I admire their awareness but wonder jeesh how do you find the time to listen to them all?!! That said, I will give extra attention to the new Seattle SBD - sounds worth an intentful listen.

 

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3 hours ago, John M said:

When you say cheesy electric grand piano what shows are you referring to?  A real grand piano was used starting half way through the 1975 tour and for all of the 1977 tour.  It sounds fantastic, especially in the 1975 soundboards and the Millard 1977 recordings.

I guess so, I shouldn't have said cheesy... but at times the effects its run through make it sound artificial to me. Especially on the board tapes.  I just prefer the atmosphere created by the Rhodes through the phase shifter. I thought the actual grand piano was only used from Earl's court onward, because the late US tour shows still sound like an electric " grand piano". I suppose because of the effects. One remarkable thing is that piano never sounds out of tune.  I remember reading somewhere the legs were removed from the Steinway to accommodate the Taurus pedals.

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3 hours ago, John M said:

When you say cheesy electric grand piano what shows are you referring to?  A real grand piano was used starting half way through the 1975 tour and for all of the 1977 tour.  It sounds fantastic, especially in the 1975 soundboards and the Millard 1977 recordings.

 
After nearly 40 years as a Zep nut I just learned something new ..again. I love this forum. 
 
 
 
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For their 1975 American tour, Led Zeppelin decided to add a real piano on stage, as their budget could allow for even bigger, more extravagant shows. A Steinway grand piano was chosen, which is a common instrument for both pop and classical artists. Steinway, the most recognized name in classical pianos, has a long history. Known for their excellent tone and construction, the Steinway has become one of the most widely distributed piano makes, and thus a common choice for touring professionals since service and parts are available in most cities.

Having a real acoustic piano allowed for a truer sound, but also created new problems with tone, feedback, and tuning. To prevent microphonic feedback, a Helpinstall piano pickup system was used. The Helpinstall system was very common in the 1970s and used a long magnetic pickup to sense string vibration, like on a guitar. However John Paul Jones felt that the Steinway was "never right" during the tour. He was constantly plagued by sound and mechanical problems. "I had such a terrible time... always looking over my shoulder and shouting 'Turn it up! Turn it down!' It's hard to play when you're shouting instructions," Jones recalls.

For the next World Tour in 1977, Led Zeppelin hired a new keyboard technician named Ed Kolakowski, who had worked preparing live pianos for many artists (including classical pianist Artur Rubenstein and former Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney). Rubenstein spent a great deal of time preparing Jones' piano setup and monitors, and Jones felt the piano was "spot on" every night. One of the unusual requirements was the making of a special leg for the piano: As the standard leg spacing would not accomodate the bass pedals underneath, Kolakowski designed a special leg machined of aluminum that would replace the wooden leg and thus allow the extra space for the bass pedals.

John Paul Jones used a Steinway piano in the studio for many of their albums. His piano work is very standard, but effective. He explains, "Piano is close to my heart, but I had some bad experiences with lessons and I wouldn't go near it for a long time." Piano appears on "The Rain Song," "Friends," "Hot Dog," "Southbound Saurez," and "Darlene." (The piano on "Rock and Roll" and "Boogie With Stu" was played by Ian "Stu" Stewart.)

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1 hour ago, TheStairwayRemainsTheSame said:

Why do people act like Southampton doesn't exist?

73 DOES have a supreme SBD

Isn't Southampton a multi-track , not just a sound board feed? Its great , but the levels go all over the place, its an unfinished work in progress. Still a great listen , but not one of their best shows IMO. Wish we had some of the later winter Europe 73 shows in that quality. 

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Multitrack. But, fingers crossed its not the only one. Maybe there are others, like 4/1 and 4/2. Who knows.

Add 3/7/70 to the list of multitrack recordings. I suspected that it was, once the soundboard and new encore came out. B)

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I think a complete Millard audience recording of 3/12/75 would be just as good, but the 21st rocks folks, hold on to your seats, Jimmy and Robert are both at 11 from start to finish. I'm just warning you when you're surprised how good this soundboard is going to be. I don't want any of you older folk having no heart attacks. ;)

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3 minutes ago, Dirty Work said:

I think a complete Millard audience recording of 3/12/75 would be just as good, but the 21st rocks folks, hold on to your seats, Jimmy and Robert are both at 11 from start to finish. I'm just warning you when you're surprised how good this soundboard is going to be. I don't want any of you older folk having no heart attacks. ;)

Have you heard the recently discovered third source of 3/12? Not quite as good as Millard's recording, but damn close. A bit overloaded on the bass, but that aside, it's much better than the first source that was originally used for the majority of the show.

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all I know is the most recent versions of the show I've heard sound incredible, very clear audience recordings.  Thats when my opinion changed from 3/12 was no better than 3/11, to HOLY SH*T they were on fire. Hearing is believing. Highly recommended to any that have a hard time listening to and enjoying audience recordings. Coincidentally, I think that audience recording is just as good as 3/21's great main source. No audience noise, and the Jimmy/Bonzo machine hits you in the chest on that recording.

Are you suggesting the new source was taped by Mike Millard :ph34r:

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6 minutes ago, Dirty Work said:

Are you suggesting the new source was taped by Mike Millard :ph34r:

No. He taped the encores at this show, and his recording sounds different from this new source. The three sources used for this show are:

Source 1 (slightly bass-heavy, but very clear) - used from beginning of the show to the middle of Dazed and Confused

Source 2 (a bit noisy and distorted) - used from the end of Dazed and Confused to the beginning of Stairway

Source 3 (Millard's source) - used from Stairway to Heaven to the end of the show.

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Is the May 23rd NQ available on YouTube? What is the best boot of this show? I would really like to hear the Strat and his approach with such different gear.

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That Dallas show from 3/4/75 is a personal favorite.  I've mentioned this before, OTHAFA & IMTOD are phenomenal.    Actually, the whole run of Ft. WORTH and the two Dallas shows are quite incredible, and deserve mention alongside the Long Beach/Vancouver/ Seattle shows.

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13 hours ago, Amstel said:

That Dallas show from 3/4/75 is a personal favorite.  I've mentioned this before, OTHAFA & IMTOD are phenomenal.    Actually, the whole run of Ft. WORTH and the two Dallas shows are quite incredible, and deserve mention alongside the Long Beach/Vancouver/ Seattle shows.

I don't listen to that 2nd night in Dallas as much as I probably should.

Absolutely love the FW show.  Bonzo is just spectacular throughout the whole show.

And what more can be said about OTHAFA and IMTOD from the first night in Dallas??  Brilliant stuff.

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On ‎4‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 6:12 PM, Dirty Work said:

Multitrack. But, fingers crossed its not the only one. Maybe there are others, like 4/1 and 4/2. Who knows.

Add 3/7/70 to the list of multitrack recordings. I suspected that it was, once the soundboard and new encore came outB)

After repeated listens I don't doubt this one bit.

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On ‎08‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 4:01 AM, Dirty Work said:

I think a complete Millard audience recording of 3/12/75 would be just as good, but the 21st rocks folks, hold on to your seats, Jimmy and Robert are both at 11 from start to finish. I'm just warning you when you're surprised how good this soundboard is going to be. I don't want any of you older folk having no heart attacks. ;)

The Millards are good, but they still sound like audience recordings...no match for professionally recorded multis...

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Houston 73 is another example of a super bland 180 difference in performance perception.

The horrid audience tape provides such a heavy performance (Dig the HrtBrkr WLL & medley) Its blistering while I heard nothing like it in the soundboard.

Heck, maybe I need to listen again.

I remember the WLL ("Goin Down" sticks out) being one of the most bombastic best since D&C Nuremberg.... Whoop!!! {;-)

 

But, Any and all newly surfaced recording are always a great pleasure... still.. after 38yrs of getting my 1st live Zep tapes..

 

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On April 12, 2017 at 7:48 AM, rebeldhipi said:

so when can expect this boot?

I'll let ya know when I hear something. Not a member of dime, but I should have an mp3 copy around the time it hits dime anyways. Still waiting on artwork... Anybody seen the artwork yet? (hell, its worth asking, its a soundboard of 3/21/75) :)

Your move, Black Chuckles and John Smith aka WTH Twins :lol: :P

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  • 2 weeks later...
On April 10, 2017 at 11:32 AM, LedElvis75 said:

After repeated listens I don't doubt this one bit.

Multitracks... of Zeppelin. Pure gold. For good measure, add 9/29/71 to the list. You can hear it through headphones certain parts of the show. Which makes 9/28/71 a likely multi. Hampton soundboard could be considered a multitrack, but all we have is bass in the left track, and everything else in the right. So that makes Orlando '71 a possible multi.

My point is, Zeppelin recorded live in A+ quality never disappoints. Aliens would listen to this stuff.

Ps. Thank You from Orlando '71 is one of my top Page moments ever. Its Page and Bonham just double teaming a hot chick.

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