XLD, hands down: http://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html https://sourceforge.net/projects/xld/ It's free, easy to use, and will convert pretty much any audio file format to any other audio file format. It also burns CDs, so you can just load up your FLAC files and burn them to CD from XLD without converting them to WAV (or anything else) first. XLD also can convert the files so you can put them in iTunes, and then burn them from there. (Though for iTunes you'll be better off converting them to Apple Lossless than to WAV - smaller file size, and better tagging/artwork functionality.) XLD also can rip CDs, and it can do so securely, guaranteeing 100% bit-accurate rips (or notifying you when there's an error), something iTunes cannot do. Hope this helps!

Don't know what version the YouTube ones are, but IMHO the best-sounding version of the 7/24 Copenhagen show is a fan remaster done in 2016 or 2017. If it's circulating, it likely will be called the Pseudonym remaster. This remaster is not extreme, but rather tastefully done and remedies (or at least improves) all the original sources' shortcomings remarkably well. It brings a little more presence to counter the super-echoey hall ambience (apparently the 24th was taped from the balcony while the 23rd was taped closer, from the floor). It provides a bit more low-end oomph and overall frequency balance. And it somewhat tames the clackety-clack of Jones' alembic bass. Highly recommended.

"Lengthy ding-dong over the remasters" - I like that! We will indeed have to agree to disagree - and tolerate each other's ongoing posts about it in this thread.

What about the tracks I specified in the comment right above yours? Those are not alt mixes or backing tracks.

i agree with you on that. Not to mention, the Zep III and Coda companion discs by themselves offer a wealth of amazing material: Totally different take of SIBLY; That's the Way at the original speed/pitch with dulcimer; Jennings Farm Blues; Key to the Highway/Trouble in Mind; St. Tristan's Sword; blistering alt. take of Bring It On Home; the two 1972 Bombay tracks; great alt. version of In the Light; alt. take of The Wanton Song; radically different early version of Levee; Sugar Mama; and a great alt. version of Bonzo's Montreux that is superior to the original/official version.

I agree with what you say here overall, but I would add one caveat. Plant has not necessarily declined all ideas for collaborating with Page and Jones. He just doesn't want to work with them as Led Zeppelin - and if Plant's insinuations are to be believed (and maybe they shouldn't be!), Page and Jones (and I'm guessing mostly Page) want to do it precisely as Led Zeppelin. I think that's the rub. If there were a possibility of the three of them getting back together, with a cast of other musicians, to play stuff that influenced Zep (blues, rockabilly, folk, some world music, etc.), along with new arrangements of some Zep material, I'm guessing Plant would be on board. But I doubt Page would go for it - and even if he did, it's likely it would end up sounding a bit too much like "Robert Plant and the Sensational Space Shifters with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones."

Very cool! Would be great to get Five Live Yardbirds in less-awful sound quality (if the original recording permits).

I love Zep III, but it's my second favorite, because Physical Graffiti is and always will be my #1. To me, it's got everything: heavy bluesy tracks, beautiful acoustic stuff, multi-layered guitars, solo acoustic guitar, short fun tracks, long epics, the entire range. More specifically, to have one album (albeit a double one) with Kashmir, In the Light, Trampled Under Foot, Ten Years Gone, The Rover, and In My Time of Dying - wow, just wow. Hard to top that IMHO.

This is the most likely reason IMHO.

Agreed. And on a somewhat tangential note, Coda is a so-so album only because Physical Graffiti was such a great album. Had the seven 1970-72 outtakes on PG still been in the can and available for use on Coda in 1982, Coda would've been an incredible single album, or a very good double album, and to this day probably would be considered one of the two or three greatest albums ever released by a band after its demise.

"Let's hold hands and contact the living. What else can you do, really?" - That, in a nutshell, is why I love Plant.

That's interesting. I like it too - sounds very "rude," as Page has been known to say. And it's a nice variation from how his tone sounds on most other live Zep tapes. For some reason, though, a lot of the hardcore fans online say they hate his tone on this show - I guess they think it's too messy and fuzzy. I like it though.

Musicianship-wise, they seem like the real deal to me. It's also impressive that they're so young but already have been performing and writing songs for five years. Whether or not they're a flash in the pan or become established artists probably will depend on the quality of their songwriting, which to my ears is pretty good, if not great - but definitely agree there's a lot of potential there.

Steve, thanks so much for the link - very cool! But it sure sounds like the interview took place June 9 rather than June 7. Around the 28 minute mark, and then again later, the DJ says the band will play the four remaining shows Friday, Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday (e.g. June 10, 11, 13, and 14) and repeatedly refers to the Friday show as "tomorrow" and "tomorrow night." Also, earlier in the interview the DJ makes it plain that the band already have played one or more of the 6 NYC dates, and Page says they are off that day (the day of the interview). The only date that was (A) after at least one show had been played, (B) before the Friday June 10 show, and (C) a day off, was Thursday, June 9. So unless I'm missing something, the interview date was June 9, not June 7, yes?

I agree that the 24th is a fantastic show, and clearly one of the very best of any post'73 Zeppelin show, period. Like @Strider, I first was exposed to this show via the Japanese "Copenhagen Warm-ups 2nd Night" 3-LP bootleg, which I purchased sometime between '81 and '83. Only Zep vinyl boot I ever owned. I remember the cover said it was from '77, and I remember the track listing was all opposites or puns on the real titles. So "Black Dog" was "White Cat" and the Noise Solo was "So Low." This is indeed a very good-sounding audience source, but even after I was able to get ahold of the better-sounding versions, I've always felt the sound quality was overrated. I would agree that the best Blueberry Hill source is better, as are the Millard recordings and a few others. Even with that it's a very nice listen. The only 2 issues are (1) the terrible clackety-clack sound of the upper frequencies of Jones' Alembic bass, which is somehow even worse-sounding than it is on the '77 soundboards; and (2) the occasional loud whistling and hooting by whomever was near the taper. But what a performance - they're all just on, and in sync. Page is great, but what I really love is Plant - his howls just echo throughout the relatively small venue. Knebworth does not measure up to it, although the 4th is a very good performance, and the 6 or 7 songs on the 2003 LZ DVD, as a kind of "best of" that show, are great and sound amazing - a wonderful listen as a mini-concert.

Yes, the final guitar solo in the original is epic.

Fun topic! My preferences don't change often, but they have gradually changed over the past 5-15 years. Physical Graffiti - My favorite since I first started buying my own music at age 12 Zep III - This one has moved the most on my list since my tween and early teen years. The light and shade are just amazing Zep I - The second-biggest mover since my early years.i Has any band been more fully formed at its debut, especially after taking only, what, 3 weeks to make the album. Also, ironically this earliest album might be their best sonically too Zep II - After all these years, Whole Lotta Love by itself has like a half-dozen spine-tingling moments. Zep IV - Played to death of course, but Levee never gets old and listening to the reissue companion disc really sheds new light on how genius this album is Houses of the Holy - Love the songs, don't love the helium (TSRTS) and quaalude (No Quarter) vocals; and find the sonics/production a little too trebly and not quite muscular enough. I much prefer the versions on The Song Remains the Same soundtrack. Presence - I run hot and cold on this, depending on my mood. Sometimes I think it's a sterile, depressing record with no light and shade. Other times I think it's a tour de force of incredible intensity and energy. In Through the Out Door - I don't rank this as distantly behind the other albums as a lot of folks here seem to. In the Evening is a killer track and can stand with most other album openers in the catalogue. I'm Gonna Crawl is IMHO terribly underrated. I think Fool in the Rain is a fantastic song that no other hard rock band could ever have pulled off. And All My Love is beautiful. Coda - Just listened to it today from beginning to end for the first time in quite awhile, and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. I still will never love Ozone Baby, but the rest of the album is actually pretty solid IMHO. For what it's worth, if I were to add in the other officially released audio, I'd put How the West Was Won between Zep I and Zep II; The Song Remains the Same between Zep IV and Houses; and BBC Sessions between Houses and Presence.

It seems we're clearly talking past each other and appear to feel the other is not hearing what we're saying. Wouldn't be the first - or 1000th - time that has happened on an internet forum. Perhaps we can at least agree on that.

I agree we need to agree to disagree. As for an argument, I've made my argument, in detail, with a list of tracks and five different reasons why I think they are worthwhile. I agree with you 100% that you don't have to agree with my reasons - but to say I don't have reasons at all, is just silly. Conversely, your argument seems devoid of specifics, and your main "reasoning" consists of zingers ("we got a happy meal instead of a mother lode") and vague generalities that have no bearing on the actual argument: "music is judged with emotion and gut feeling" - well of course it is. We just feel differently about the tracks.

Again, you are arguing against a straw man. There's no graphs or pie charts here - and you know it. A 50% return is not "a crap return in any walk of life." If you think my argument is contrived, then provide some evidence for that claim. Mindless arrogance won't win you any arguments. Also, it helps if you display at least a minimum of accountability for what you say. So at least acknowledge that you're not the OP of this thread.

Unless you have two accounts here or the admins deleted the original first post in this thread, you're not the OP; Flares has the first post here. Your Titanic and happy meal jokes don't make any sense in this context. Your "tamborine slightly louder in the mix" comment is silly, and doesn't acknowledge that right at the outset of my comment I agreed that many of the tracks are indeed of little value. And so your claim, via the WIC analogy, that I actually know the companion material is lame but am trying to rationalize that it's better, is both inaccurate and condescending. I get that it's easier to argue against the view you would prefer others have, than to argue against what they actually write. You are welcome to your opinion, but you are not welcome to mine.

Good point about IS and GP - agree, especially about GP.

I disagree. Yes, the casual fan is not going to be interested in many of the companion tracks. And I agree some tracks are fairly pointless, providing very minor variations (e.g. Rock and Roll, Kashmir). And I agree that the companion-disc versions of Fool in the Rain, All My Love, and I'm Gonna Crawl on ITTOD sound terrible and it's an embarrassment that Page included them. But having revisited all 67 of the companion tracks (excluding the live Paris show companion to Zep I), my argument is that about half of them - just over 30 - are very worthwhile. I'm sympathetic to the argument that they could have released the best companion tracks on a single 3-CD set - and if they had, I am confident many naysayers would've changed their tune. But even so, these tracks are available inexpensively on CD - when they came out the Deluxe CDs could be had for as little as $1 or $2 more than the album-only CDs. Not to mention the companion tracks always have been available a la carte for $1.29 or so from the online music download sites. So I don't think how they organized them or priced them is a problem. At any rate, here are the tracks I think are valuable, and here's a key to my reasons for each one. Would be very interested in others' perspectives. Key to Reasons for Inclusion on the List: Previously unreleased (either totally unreleased, or never officially released) Significantly or totally different version, take, or mix Better sound than prior masterings Instrumental version that's interesting and/or benefits from removal of vocal Similar to album version but with better or interestingly different sonics or mix Zep II Ramble On (rough mix with cold ending) (2) (totally different feel from the album version) La La (1) Zep III Since I've Been Loving You (first take) (2) (totally different take) Bathroom Sound (4) That's the Way (rough mix with dulcimer) (2) (totally different version, and at original speed/pitch Jennings Farm Blues (1) Key to the Highway/Trouble in Mind (1) Zep IV The Battle of Evermore (4) Stairway to Heaven (5) Going to California (4) Houses of the Holy The Song Remains the Same (instrumental with guitar overdubs) (2, 4) (this has been a grail for many hardcore fans for years, and great to have without the sped-up helium vocals) The Rain Song (rough mix) (5, and also necessary to pair with TSRTS) Over the Hills and Far Away (4) No Quarter (4) (great to have without the slowed-down quaalude vocals) Physical Graffiti Brandy and Coke (Trampled Under Foot) (2 or 5) Sick Again (early version) (2) (a revelation) Houses of the Holy (rough mix) (5) Presence 10 Ribs & all/Carrot Pod Pod (Pod) (1) (Could include the alt. vocal version of Royal Orleans too, but it's horrid so I didn't ) In Through the Out Door In the Evening (rough mix) (2) The Epic (Carouselambra) (5) Coda If It Keeps on Raining (When the Levee Breaks) (2) Bonzo's Montreux (mix in progress) (2, 5) (better than the album version) Baby Come on Home (3) Sugar Mama (1) (different mix and better sound than the bootleg version too) Hey, Hey, What Can I Do (3) Four Hands (Four Sticks) (Bombay) (1) (grail for many hardcore fans) Friends (Bombay) (1) (grail for many hardcore fans) St. Tristan's Sword (1) (epic grail) Desire (The Wanton Song) (2) Bring It On Home (rough mix) (2) (totally different than album versions; a revelation) Walter's Walk (instrumental) (4) (great to have without the 1982 vocals) Everybody Makes It Through (In the Light) (2)

Do you mean the "It's Your Thing" vocal snippet from the final 1969 performance? If so, yes, still missing.

It's all subjective of course, but the EVSD generally gets praise for the '69 sets, but not the '71 sets. So I would say sound quality wise, this new release certainly is better than EVSD for the '71 show. However, Whole Lotta Love is edited, losing three bits from the melody, a total of 6 minutes (same edits as on the original 1997 official release). The best combo of good sound and a (nearly) complete Whole Lotta Love is the Japanese FM/pre-FM source that circulates here and there. It's got one minute cut but otherwise is complete. Edited, same as with the original 1997 official release.