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Hampton 1971


Xolo1974

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"Trickier than a robbers dog" LOL."

I usually go with the Collectors Review site but AA has proved reliable on inquiries.

Passing on this one. Flagge is very hard to find but it is the definitive issue IMHO.

Godfather is a let down but if adjust your EQ you can enjoy it.

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16 hours ago, f2walsh said:

AA is a standup guy in my opinion and is a Led Zeppelin live recording expert!
I would trust him 100%.

He needs to get a better writer or a proofreader for his site. It is littered with garbled syntax and inaccuracies.

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so... any word on the content of Sonic Boom? The soundboard and the stereo/2 track mix have already been out there for a while, and considering there was no hype behind it it's probably not an upgrade, but who knows? I'd love a version of Hampton '71 that was on par with Orlando '71 and the Black Dog from 9/28/71, with clearer drums and hi hat etc.

My two cents... If it is a site dedicated to Zeppelin's live and bootleg recordings, chances are I like it. That site has more info on Sonic Boom than this site has.

Edited by Dirty Work
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10 hours ago, Dirty Work said:

so... any word on the content of Sonic Boom? The soundboard and the stereo/2 track mix have already been out there for a while, and considering there was no hype behind it it's probably not an upgrade, but who knows? I'd love a version of Hampton '71 that was on par with Orlando '71 and the Black Dog from 9/28/71, with clearer drums and hi hat etc.

My two cents... If it is a site dedicated to Zeppelin's live and bootleg recordings, chances are I like it. That site has more info on Sonic Boom than this site has.

I'm curious to know this too. A certain seller was offering the Sonic Boom set for free with the purchase of another box set. I was tempted to get the Destroyer set just to get the Hampton 4CD but $ are tight right now and Cleveland  '77 doesn't do much for me. I'm fine with my downloads of Dr Who ( Winston) of 4/27 and the Jason Peterson version of 4/28. Hoping someone shares the new Hampton soon.  Huge upgrade!!! Hmm?? 

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On 3/1/2017 at 2:20 PM, Strider said:

He needs to get a better writer or a proofreader for his site. It is littered with garbled syntax and inaccuracies.

LOL. I think he's in Europe so English is a second language. 

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About Sonic Boom: The stereo mix has the odd separation, Mr. Jones on the left channel while the other members have to share the right channel- not very satisfying listening experience.....

And now on to the good news: The mono mix has a good balance & you can crank it up to 11. Compared to EVs Florida Sunshine it is slightly less clear in the top range, particularly the voice, cymbals & keyboard. The only drawback is that the voice is a little overloaded (not distorted), means whenever Robert turns up there is a  low sizzling noise, but not disturbing to my ears. All in all the mono mix is very enjoyable.

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The bass is still a bit distorted on the mono mix and Plant's vocals break up at times. This new release has boosted highs and sounds brighter though than any other I have heard. I have Flagge's Dead Battery and that sounds dull compared to this mono release. I have a master>open reel>dat version that sounds good but less clear , high freqs. This is clearer and may be the most enjoyable this show will get. The stereo mix is a joke. It's all bass on the left channel. Awful. 

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Funny, that's is exactly what I said earlier in this thread ( but for some reason my post was deleted).   I posted a guess that one CD set would be the mono mix (bass guitar only in one channel and the other three in the other).   

It looks like this is exactly what is on these releases  

 

Edited by Sticks of Fire
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  • 5 months later...
  • 6 months later...
4 hours ago, lololabrute said:

Which master copy are you referring to please? 

Led Zeppelin, Hampton Roads Coliseum 
September 9, 1971, Hampton, Virginia 

Soundboard Recording 
Master > Open Reel > DAT 

1. Immigrant Song 
2. Heartbreaker 
3. Since I've Been Loving You 
4. Black Dog 
5. Dazed and Confused 
6. Stairway To Heaven 
7. Celebration Day 
8. That's The Way 
9. Going to California 
10. What Is and What Should Never Be 
11. Moby Dick 

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Hello,

I came across this thread looking for info on Hampton bootleg. For those interested in its quality, I'd like to quote the work from 'theface07' on Zomb Torrents web site. He's done an arduous job trying to improve the Sonic Boom release. In conclusion (and in his opinion):

1. Sonic Boom is the best release from Hamton '71 venue.

2. Its quality is far away from perfect.

Judge by yourselves (words directly from 'theface07'):

Quote

LINEAGE: Unknown Master source > ? > EMPRESS VALLEY "SONIC BOOM" LIBERATED CD > EAC > FLAC (LEVEL 8) > WAV > ADOBE AUDITION CC 2015.0  (Remastering) > FLAC 8

TRANSFER/EDITING NOTES:

This recording, taken from the most recent commercial bootleg release of the 1971 Hampton, VA performance on the Empress Valley "Sonic Boom" 4 disc set, is quite likely the best sounding incarnation available at the time of this upload. Having said that, it is FAR from perfect and presents a lot of problems itself due to the strange nature of the stereo mix. I decided to omit the mono discs since they sound very similar to previously released versions of this performance. The stereo discs, however, do present a slightly better sound fidelity compared to what was previously available. The big problem of course, is the fact that John Paul Jones' bass takes up the entire left channel! I can understand why the folks at Empress Valley may have done this, in order to produce a bit of perspective in creating what is really a pseudo stereo recording. It's not a fake stereo recording, akin to the various electronically reprocessed albums from the 60's where one channel is a carbon copy of the original mono signal, albeit typically slightly lower volume and quite often with some delay, echo and/or reverb added. The left channel was truly distinct from the right in the Sonic Boom stereo discs but did not represent an adequate stereo mix and instead, relegated the boomy, somewhat distorted low (bass) frequencies to the left channel exclusively.

My first task in remastering this recorded was to achieve a better balanced stereo image by mixing in about 72% of the right channel into the left channel. The original left channel bass audio was left at 100%. It took a lot of trial and error to come up with this number, taking into account a desire to achieve a good balance between the left and right channel, bring the other, non-bass elements of the right channel more to the center, while making sure the recording stayed in phase. I believe this has been achieved with satisfactory results to my ears.
Secondly, the frequency range/response of the overall recording was quite atrocious with an abundance of low end and mid range frequencies, masking a lot of the mid to high range audio. I therefore dropped the levels around 125 Hz by about 4.7 dB and 200 Hz to 1 kHz about 3 dB. I also added a slight boost around 8 kHz of about 2.2 dB.

Due to the significant cuts in level to the low and mid range frequencies, the overall level of the recording was dropped significantly. This, however, was a desired effect since the original right channel audio was unnecessarily boosted to the point of audible distortion. I don't know why Empress Valley did this. It was a bit of a hack job as far as mastering is concerned, which looked like it was done by a kid who didn't know any better! How they can demand hundreds of dollars for a recording with such poor mastering is beyond me. I suppose as long as hardcore fans shell out the cash, they will keep doing it. Anyhow, the right channel was close on being brickwalled on a lot of tracks.
The last, and most arduous and slow process in remastering this recording, was attempting to remove a lot of the auditory anomalies present throughout the recording. This included but was not limited to clicks and clips that plagued every single track. I therefore went through each track and isolated and hand picked the most audible clicks/clips and removed them using the wonderful heal tool of Adobe Audition. This was a painstaking process, especially since there were so many clicks/clips which had to be zoomed in on and removed one by one. Of course, there's no way I could remove them all so there are still a lot of these artifacts present albeit many less than on the source material.

Moby Dick was a track in particular that was very bothersome. For some reason, this track (the right channel specifically) was brickwalled, producing a lot of noise and distortion for the bulk of the song while Bonzo is playing his extended drum solo. Due to the extreme nature of the noise and the sheer volume of anomalies and artifacts present, I mastered this track the same as the rest but did not bother removing any of the clicks. If someone wants to give that a try be my guest but because they are so loud and obstructive, it will probably be hard to remove them without negatively affecting the sound of the drums.

This remaster took a long time and a lot of work to complete. I just hope somebody out there finds it an improvement over the source material!

Best regards!

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  • 2 years later...
4 hours ago, pluribus said:

Apart from hearing the rest of the recording - which surely exists somewhere, the best would be the Spiderweb version. It drops the bass heavy channel and gives a straightforward presentation of the recording.

will check it out, thanks.  how are you sure about that? Why the hell do they never release the encores?

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26 minutes ago, goldenretreiver157 said:

will check it out, thanks.  how are you sure about that? Why the hell do they never release the encores?

The Hampton and Toronto 71 soundboard fragments came out long before Empress Valley and the “soundboard revolution”, in the era of mystery reels and cassettes with fragments of shows, and traders who had no moral issues about holding things back. For soundboards from that era, In pretty much all cases, we are talking about 3rd gen and higher of source tapes of who knows what origin, copied without regard for things like azimuth adjustment or completeness. The masters for these shows are likely to sound much better, and feature the complete shows.

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3 minutes ago, pluribus said:

The Hampton and Toronto 71 soundboard fragments came out long before Empress Valley and the “soundboard revolution”, in the era of mystery reels and cassettes with fragments of shows, and traders who had no moral issues about holding things back. For soundboards from that era, In pretty much all cases, we are talking about 3rd gen and higher of source tapes of who knows what origin, copied without regard for things like azimuth adjustment or completeness. The masters for these shows are likely to sound much better, and feature the complete shows.

Thats what i thought, never thought they would just record a select few songs to sbd unless its jimmy thats looking for something particular. Ive always been and still am insanely frustrated by peoples misuse and carelessness, just being a devoted fan. Ive bought reel to reels of shows to try to find uncirculated material for the forum and for myself, ive scanned some uncirculated photos, just  try to do my part. People dont or didnt unnderstand the significance of things to fans, which sucks. I do appreciate everyone's work with the recent releases! Some huge finds recently. sorry for ramblin on. Thanks!

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