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1975 Soundboards - The Best Sound?


EzyEric

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Im curious as to why the good number of 1975 soundboards out there have the best sound. The only other soundboards I can think of that sound this good are perhaps Southhampton, but thats borderline official release as I heard that was remastered for potential show before HTWWW was chosen.

Why do 77 soundboards not sound better? I find many others, especially 77 and 80 to be sort of flat or not have the "crisp" sound that 75 soundboards have.

Were the recordings done on the 1975 US tour done on a better recorder or something?

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Seems to me that a lot of the 1975 soundboards were intended to be mixed into something official at a later time. They're just TOO good. Flying Circus, Snow Jobs, Days Confused, St. Louis Blues, Conspiracy Theory...c'mon, those are too good to be anything else but potential releases.

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Seems to me that a lot of the 1975 soundboards were intended to be mixed into something official at a later time. They're just TOO good. Flying Circus, Snow Jobs, Days Confused, St. Louis Blues, Conspiracy Theory...c'mon, those are too good to be anything else but potential releases.

It was never possible for them to be "mixed" as the recordings are not multi-track recordings. They are just simple 2-tracks off of the soundboard. It is not possible for them to be remixed. Remastered yes, Remixed no.

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Well the SOUND may be too good, but really IMO 75 is Zep's worst year although things do get much better at the end in March but February is just terrible, at least Robert's voice. I don't know why people make such a fuss over EC especially when I hear it was their best shows but IMO it is one of their worst. Although I still am wishing for that official release.

P.S. - post # 444!

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Well the SOUND may be too good, but really IMO 75 is Zep's worst year although things do get much better at the end in March but February is just terrible, at least Robert's voice. I don't know why people make such a fuss over EC especially when I hear it was their best shows but IMO it is one of their worst. Although I still am wishing for that official release.

P.S. - post # 444!

Uh, OK. :blink:

Yes, Robert's voice was not stellar during parts of 75. However, parts of 73 were not great either and if that is your criteria then by the Tour Over Europe you must have stopped listening all together. That was the worst for Robert, by far.

I love the 75 shows/soundboards. The sound is fantastic and the vibe at the shows is purely comical. They give some of the best examples of why Zep was always about the original 4 and how they could never continue after Bonzo passed. The humor and comradery on stage, especially between Robert and Bonzo, was tremendous.

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It was never possible for them to be "mixed" as the recordings are not multi-track recordings. They are just simple 2-tracks off of the soundboard. It is not possible for them to be remixed. Remastered yes, Remixed no.

I tend to disagree where a couple of these are concerned, particularly Flying Circus. That sounds like a professionally mixed tape to me. Better quality than the original TSRTS recordings.

You may be correct. But it makes me wonder...

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75 started out rough with a broken finger and soar voice but it certainly had its moments, moments the future tours could not reproduce, IMO. Say what you want about the Earl's Court shows. They are far from being their best UK shows, but they certainly aren't bad either.

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Uh, OK. :blink:

Yes, Robert's voice was not stellar during parts of 75. However, parts of 73 were not great either and if that is your criteria then by the Tour Over Europe you must have stopped listening all together. That was the worst for Robert, by far.

I love the 75 shows/soundboards. The sound is fantastic and the vibe at the shows is purely comical. They give some of the best examples of why Zep was always about the original 4 and how they could never continue after Bonzo passed. The humor and comradery on stage, especially between Robert and Bonzo, was tremendous.

Robert's voice was WAY deep and horse he simply could not sing that good there are VERY FEW examples when his voice would come close to the previous tour. When did I say anything about 73 that year is very overated it isn't even close to their best although his voice did have a few great shows i.e. 6/2/73, and the July shows like Boston and New York. Robert actually had a turning point in 77 when his voice (most shows) actually had really good range in fact he was in his best pipes (again most of the time) since 72. His voice got even better in 79 when he gained even more range and control, I would say Knebworth is Plant's first great show since the U.S. 72 tour. In 1980 his did take a bit of a plunge but that was their first tour in 3 years, his voice was still easily better than 75 it was just really raw but the range as 79. The last tour where he could really hit the high notes was the U.S. 72 tour, but his last Incredible show was the L.A. Forum 8/21/71.

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I was just commenting on your opinion of 75 being their worst tour. Robert wasn't at his peak, quite far from it at times actually.

77 had some great Plant shows, vocally, and 79 he was better, agreed. But 80 was terrible for him, and they were only on tour for less than a month. I don't see how you could say that Robert's voice was better on the 80 tour than 75.

I am just respectfully disagreeing with you that 75 was their worst.

Peace.

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I tend to disagree where a couple of these are concerned, particularly Flying Circus. That sounds like a professionally mixed tape to me. Better quality than the original TSRTS recordings.

You may be correct. But it makes me wonder...

I thought I remember reading that the Flying Circus mix WAS a multitrack raw mix that Eddie Kramer had done.

Can anyone corroborate ?

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I thought I remember reading that the Flying Circus mix WAS a multitrack raw mix that Eddie Kramer had done.

Can anyone corroborate ?

2/12/75 is a raw feed from the board. Yes, it sounds awesome, but that's because the band's sound system on that tour was awesome. By 77 they added about a dozen or so more mics onstage, as well as enabled monitoring for each of the band members. So, a raw feed off of the board had a much different sound to it.

The tell-tale sign that the New York soundboard is a raw feed off the soundboard is the volume increase on Jones' bass during "Sick Again". It's present on both the audience source and the soundboard, at the exact same spot. Which means that the soundboard for the show is a straight feed off of the mixing board, and not from an independent multi-track. If it were from a multi-track mix, you wouldn't hear that volume increase.

Not to mention that there aren't dual microphones on Bonham's kick drum in any of the photos from the 1975 US tour. The only time that two microphones are seen on Bonham's kick are at Earls Court, which were the only 75 shows recorded professionally. One microphone for the house sound system and one microphone for the multi-track.

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2/12/75 is a raw feed from the board. Yes, it sounds awesome, but that's because the band's sound system on that tour was awesome. By 77 they added about a dozen or so more mics onstage, as well as enabled monitoring for each of the band members. So, a raw feed off of the board had a much different sound to it.

This is the type of information I was looking for, thank you much.

I had just assumed they could hook up a mulitrack recorder to the soundboard.

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Honestly my favorite 75 shows are the March LA shows which are audience, 3/19 Vancouver which is a great SB, Long Beach shows which are audience, Seattle which is an audience, then the Earls Court shows. There's a few shows here and there in February that are good, but Robert's voice was bad at the start of that tour.

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Im curious as to why the good number of 1975 soundboards out there have the best sound.

There's one recording in particular - Dallas 1975 (can't remember which date) where "Trampled Underfoot" is so loud that I have to turn it down whenever it starts playing on the iPod.

Led Zeppelin - too loud? :blink: I guess I did just say that. :slapface:

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Well the SOUND may be too good, but really IMO 75 is Zep's worst year although things do get much better at the end in March but February is just terrible, at least Robert's voice. I don't know why people make such a fuss over EC especially when I hear it was their best shows but IMO it is one of their worst. Although I still am wishing for that official release.

P.S. - post # 444!

Actually, Robert's voice isn't so bad during the St. Valentine Day's massacre at all. The band performs well and it's a monster of a show, really, for '75. To say '75 was Zep's worst year is utterly ridiculous. Page all smacked out in '77 was probably Zep's worst year as a touring live band. At least in '75, Page was still capable of firing on all cylinders and there are many good examples of that during '75. So please, stop it with the gross generalizations about how bad Zep was in '75. With the exception of Plant's flu, the band still achieved greatness at many shows.

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Actually, Robert's voice isn't so bad during the St. Valentine Day's massacre at all. The band performs well and it's a monster of a show, really, for '75. To say '75 was Zep's worst year is utterly ridiculous. Page all smacked out in '77 was probably Zep's worst year as a touring live band. At least in '75, Page was still capable of firing on all cylinders and there are many good examples of that during '75. So please, stop it with the gross generalizations about how bad Zep was in '75. With the exception of Plant's flu, the band still achieved greatness at many shows.

Ditto to that!

Even when Plant's voice is under the weather, he stills shines with Plantations !!! :D

I was just about to remark in the soundboard thread, his voice really is pretty good here. Definately above average for '75.

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For the '75 tour musically the band is quite good and play a lot of great shows. The problem is Robert's voice, which seem to disinegrate somewhat until gaining some of his range back for the '77 tour. Robert's quality loss seemed to happen during the tour of Japan in October, 1972. Quite a difference between that and the U.S. shows, a few months prior. Don't even need to tell you what to listen to. This was due to pallups in his vocal chords which he received medical treatment for, sometime after the 1973 tour. Probably due to all the stress he put his voice threw early on and generally not taking care of his voice and body as well as he should have.

If anyone can provide more detailed information on this I'd appreciate it

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Actually, Robert's voice isn't so bad during the St. Valentine Day's massacre at all. The band performs well and it's a monster of a show, really, for '75. To say '75 was Zep's worst year is utterly ridiculous. Page all smacked out in '77 was probably Zep's worst year as a touring live band. At least in '75, Page was still capable of firing on all cylinders and there are many good examples of that during '75. So please, stop it with the gross generalizations about how bad Zep was in '75. With the exception of Plant's flu, the band still achieved greatness at many shows.

I think what some people over look is Jimmy's sound. Jimmy is playing quite well in '75. It really is a continuation of '73. Jimmy's amps were modified before the '75 tour to have more output. This made the sound more clean and less overdriven. So he is missing some of the crunch he had with stock marshalls. Jimmy's speed and fluidity are still there, but with a cleaner sound. As any of you that play guitar know, distortion and overdrive covers alot of mistakes. Cleaner sounds can make it sound like you are tripping over yourself. Real clankity sounding and not as smooth and compressed. Jimmy's sound '75 onward is my least favorite tone of his.

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