"Live in the Fairy Tale" - New Tarantura release of a new aud recording of 9/29/71

[ZepHead315]

Anyone heard this yet? It's a previously unheard audience recording apparently done by the famous "Mr. Peach". It's incomplete (cuts off during Moby Dick), but it's a very good recording, better than any of the other audience recordings I've heard from this show. It'll be overshadowed if/when the full soundboard of the show comes out, but it's an interesting alternative perspective nonetheless. 

Samples are available on Black Beauty: http://starship.jpn.ph/zeppelin/beauty/disp/boot.jsp?R_idx=2511

And here's a review of the release: https://www.collectorsmusicreviews.com/led-zeppelin/led-zeppelin-live-in-the-fairy-tale-tarantura-tcd-190-1-2/

[SteveZ98]

I downloaded SIBLY off Black Beauty and took a look at it in an audio editor. It is the most horribly compressed recording I have ever seen. Seriously, you would have to go out of your way to screw something up this badly. EV is not known for their terrific mastering, but this is just awful. I also took a look at Black Dog and it's just as bad, so it's not like they only did this to one song.

 

[ZepHead315]

31 minutes ago, SteveZ98 said:

I downloaded SIBLY off Black Beauty and took a look at it in an audio editor. It is the most horribly compressed recording I have ever seen. Seriously, you would have to go out of your way to screw something up this badly. EV is not known for their terrific mastering, but this is just awful. I also took a look at Black Dog and it's just as bad, so it's not like they only did this to one song.

 

Yeah I saw that being discussed on Royal Orleans. A real shame Tarantura botched it up like that. I understand they have a reputation for compressing/brickwalling their releases. Really hope the masters will fall into the right hands so this can be corrected one of these days.

[Bozoso73]

2 hours ago, SteveZ98 said:

I downloaded SIBLY off Black Beauty and took a look at it in an audio editor. It is the most horribly compressed recording I have ever seen. Seriously, you would have to go out of your way to screw something up this badly. EV is not known for their terrific mastering, but this is just awful. I also took a look at Black Dog and it's just as bad, so it's not like they only did this to one song.

 

Hi Steve. . I listened to SIBLY and thought it sounded pretty good.  Explain if you can what this really does to a 47 year old recording and what difference it would have made to the over all sound.  

PS What exactly am I looking at up here ^^^^^^^^^^^^???

THX:)

[SteveZ98]

2 hours ago, Bozoso73 said:

Hi Steve. . I listened to SIBLY and thought it sounded pretty good.  Explain if you can what this really does to a 47 year old recording and what difference it would have made to the over all sound.  

PS What exactly am I looking at up here ^^^^^^^^^^^^???

THX:)

A song like SIBLY has parts that are loud and parts that are soft. Heavily compressing it like T2K did removes the differences between the soft and loud sounds by making everything loud. That robs the music of a much of its life. By way of contrast, here's what SIBLY from the official version of the O2 show looks like. As you can see on the right side of the image, there are still differences in volume during the finale, even though the instruments are all being played loudly. Even then, there are still contrasts that help lend interest to the music. In the T2K version, everything is essentially the same volume because the compression was cranked up so high, and although the T2K version may not sound distorted or otherwise "wrong", the lack of contrasts will make it a lot less interesting than it would otherwise have been. The good news is that it's possible to undo much of the damage. However, it's ridiculous that anyone has to do that because T2K shouldn't have compressed the songs so much to begin with, especially at the prices they charge.

 

[Bozoso73]

2 minutes ago, SteveZ98 said:

A song like SIBLY has parts that are loud and parts that are soft. Heavily compressing it like T2K did removes the differences between the soft and loud sounds by making everything loud. That robs the music of a much of its life. By way of contrast, here's what SIBLY from the official version of the O2 show looks like. As you can see on the right side of the image, there are still differences in volume during the finale, even though the instruments are all being played loudly. Even then, there are still contrasts that help lend interest to the music. In the T2K version, everything is essentially the same volume because the compression was cranked up so high, and although the T2K version may not sound distorted or otherwise "wrong", the lack of contrasts will make it a lot less interesting than it would otherwise have been. The good news is that it's possible to undo much of the damage. However, it's ridiculous that anyone has to do that because T2K shouldn't have compressed the songs so much to begin with, especially at the prices they charge.

 

Wow. . Thanks you again Steve for that explanation. . Thats incredible. . Why would T2K think that this is a smart move? I have to believe they go back and listen to what they are doing.  I have a couple Taranturas from the 90's and they were always like flipping a coin . . not knowing what you are getting.  So with the new releases and you being a audiofile:) are you capable of decompressing and letting the music breathe?. . I just dont understand what there is to gain by compressing it to death. . 

[SteveZ98]

45 minutes ago, Bozoso73 said:

Wow. . Thanks you again Steve for that explanation. . Thats incredible. . Why would T2K think that this is a smart move? I have to believe they go back and listen to what they are doing.  I have a couple Taranturas from the 90's and they were always like flipping a coin . . not knowing what you are getting.  So with the new releases and you being a audiofile:) are you capable of decompressing and letting the music breathe?. . I just dont understand what there is to gain by compressing it to death. . 

I am not sure why they do it. One possible explanation is that they bought into the "loudness wars" and believe that the louder something is, the better it sounds. Another is that they promised whoever they got the tape from that they would compress it heavily so it doesn't sound as good as the version the original person has. It would let that person make some money but still have bragging rights to a better version of the tape. Or they could be intentionally "damaging" this version so they can sell a future version of the show that sounds better (i.e. is not an overly compressed mess.) Because the soundboard is supposed to come out soon, and there are rumors of the band releasing a multi-track version, that seems unlikely.  And the last one is that they just have no clue what they are doing. To me, that seems to be the least likely explanation. They've been at this a long time and using too much compression is a known issue that anyone who deals with audio on any sort of regular basis is aware of. It's too obvious of a mistake to make if you any clue what you're doing, which they should by now given how many shows they've released.

I do have tools to uncompress songs. I've done that kind of thing for my own amusement in the past. However, I don't think it's worth the effort this time, even though it's a Mr. Peach recording. For one thing, it's incomplete. For another, there are plenty of other better versions of this show from different sources. But mainly because the soundboard seems like it will be the definitive statement on this show, at least until the band releases the multi-tracks officially. (Please, please let that dream come true )

[Sue Dounim]

despite the compression, this is now, at least to my memory, the best sounding audience tape of this show.