Ah, now I get it. You’re “Enigma”, right? Detailing out a bad EQ job doesn’t make it sound any better. The cut in the 2nd gen before Thank You is not present on the IQ and Le-Mon bootlegs from the 90s, and not because of some made up cut-and-paste excuse. The fact that those bootlegs are not cut at that spot, and the T2K “Master” is, proves that it’s not a genuine release (as usual). On top of which, T2K/You went through the trouble of patching the beginning of the organ solo from Source 2 on this “Master”, yet forgot to patch the intro from Source 2 or the small cut in How Many More Times near the end. This shouldn’t surprise anyone with any knowledge of Tarantura 2000. Every release is a joke. And when they get the rare opportunity to release a potential upgrade, they ruin it with that horrible “mastering”.

Whaddya know, I also just gave a listen to the newest Tarantura 2000 release "Some Other Guyz", of both sources for Boston 1970, which AA lists "has been said that the quality is much better than any past title." Surprise, both sources on that title are worse than all previous titles. Same overdone EQ, this time introducing this awful hiss on top of both versions of the show. The 2nd gen of Source 1 and the 1st gen of Source 2 both sound much better, and have been around for years. What is it with that label? At some point, this has got to be a deliberate maneuver to mess with people. Title after title is just awful. Harsh EQ, overly tweaked sound, false claims of being from the masters, etc. Even when they do have access to a new source, they still butcher it (No Use Gneco, Live In the Fairly Tale). What's even more bizarre is that Tarantura 2000 already released Source 2 of the Boston 70 show 15 years ago in their "Wreckage In Boston" box. At least that version back then was closer to the 1st gen of Source 2. And yet, these are supposedly "much better than any past title".

You can hear it at the beginning of Stairway to Heaven, Heartbreaker, and other sections where the soundboard is predominantly used. The tape speeds can never fully match up, which is why it comes and goes throughout the recording, and you get comb filtering. It's the sound of the sources coming in and out of sync, like a chorus effect where the original signal is paired with a slightly delayed version of the signal, getting that chime and dissonance. This is unavoidable when doing a matrix. It isn't usually as noticeable when mixing audience sources that were taped further away, although the issue remains that you've now doubled the crowd noise. Where that chorus effect becomes most noticeable is when you start mixing soundboards or close-mic'd audience recordings, and then layer distant audience sources behind them. Comb-filtering, swishing in the cymbals, the "metal can" effect around the sound in general, and that chorusing sound. Four Blocks In the Snow has the same thing going on. As if Page had just purchased a chorus pedal for that performance.

It wasn’t the master. That’s a fact, proven by spectral analysis matching it to the 2nd gen that came out in 2009, just with the bass frequencies ridiculously cranked up. Seek no further proof than the cut right before Thank You that they patched with the alternate source. This section is complete on the old Bath CD bootlegs of the main source. Only the 2nd gen had a cut at that spot. This is not rocket science. Obviously you have an interest in seeing Tarantura 2000 titles sold. No surprise. This is also why you downplay all of the other labels on your site, right? When Lighthouse or Graf Zeppelin release a title, the review says “No new content” or “Nothing new to offer”. Whenever Tarantura 2000 have a title, it’s a “Huge Upgrade”. And yet all of their titles are garbage.

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.

I doubt that it will be any good. I had hopes that they had changed their ways with releasing legitimate releases, but the Bath 1970 boxset turned out to not really be from the master tape after all. And the “Enigma” mastering sounded like they just turned the bass up as high as it would go. The low gen Bath source sounds much better.

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.

The string broke during Celebration Day at 7/27. That red Les Paul was his backup, so naturally it was ready to go, mid-song. Page kept the guitar on to finish out Celebration Day and continue through all of Black Dog. After BD ended, the band paused for Plant's "Good Evening", and Page got #1 back, with a new string on it, which is what you can see in the movie.

The CD guitar solo on the original soundtrack was from the 29th, and the guitar solo from the re-do was from the 28th. A likely reason why the 27th wasn’t used is because Page broke a string during CD. This is why Page is seen with the red Les Paul for the very end of Black Dog in the movie.

Really cool that Nite Owl has been doing these new matrices. Personally, I’m not a fan of these, as I’ve yet to hear one of these mixes that doesn’t suffer from the same/inevitable drift across sources, which results in Page sounding like he has an 80s chorus pedal effect on his guitar. This Vienna matrix is no different, and the soundboard sections here are especially chorusy. Same goes for the Blueberry Hill matrix, Texas Pop, and Fillmore 69. I get the fascination with doing matrix versions, but artifacts are artifacts. So, it ends up being distracting, especially knowing so many of these shows so well. For new fans of this show via this matrix, party on by all means. Personally, for the Vienna show, I’d recommend the Eat a Peach audience mix, or the Graf Zeppelin Audience Version “A” CD + soundboard CD from that release. I think those both sound much better, and are the definitive versions of the show. Anyway, not intending to be a drag to the enthusiasm here. It’s awesome that there are so many people just discovering this show.

It’s funny you mention that. The Hiroshima show is just as long (if not longer) than the 1st night in Tokyo.

Just curious, why not use photos from the actual shows? I see that some of them use photos from the gigs, but most are from other dates: There are photos for a good majority of shows that you can find here and on Ledzeppelin-reference

The auctions you’re seeing on Yahoo = Air Raid.

Given how rabidly people are scooping up the Evolution Is Timing versions (now on it’s 3rd pressing in 3 months), and with a Part II also now out there, I think it settles the “please don’t upload our releases” debate. They are making good cash on these releases, sourced from a fan’s remaster that was uploaded for free to Dime, so why not repay the buying public by ending the practice of releasing partial soundboards?

You should email this to the Webmaster, Sam.

It's almost entirely the US shows from 1970 which have those photos with the venue lights on. This was due to the security having trouble with crowds, so the venue would turn the lights on. You can hear this on the recordings of the March LA Forum show (which is where that photo above is from), the April show in Memphis, the August show in Tulsa.

The pants and jacket were different fabrics. Pants look like they were made of black velvet, the jacket probably a thicker synthetic/polyester or canvas type material.

I think the EV business model is pretty straightforward at this point, now that it’s been running for 20 years. A soundboard every year, and filler in between - which often includes alternate versions/boxes/artwork of the soundboards to create even more sets to buy. For 929, with the Twist and Shout snippet on the 928 release, I think it’s obvious that they have the whole recording, so hopefully it’s just a matter of time now. Consider that they recently put out that 929 Boxset with the upgraded alt audience sources, but only used clones of fan remasters for the two soundboard mixes rather than make their own. Whereas with 928 they did a proper sbd/aud combo - so maybe they don’t actually have the rest of that one? Who knows. Next year is the 50th anniversary of the Japan tour, so that should give them plenty of time to sell stock of the current 929 and 928 titles. LA 3/24/75 has gone quiet, so maybe that might come sooner. Hoping for Long Beach 3/12/75 and Philadelphia 2/8/75 of course. No doubt they are also gearing up to release all of the Millard masters as they come out from Dime, so I would expect those releases to get a whole new round of boxes, etc.

It’s fine. Not as clean as the original source, but it’s great to finally get the complete show. And now Empress Valley, Lighthouse, and Graf Zeppelin have more material to crank out new releases.

The Earls Court gigs are similar to Bath 1970, Electric Magic 1971, and Knebworth 1979 in as much as they were milestone gigs that allowed Zeppelin to flex their stardom in front of their home audience. As such, they are more about the event and spectacle, and less about the quality of the gigs themselves. A “homecoming” is still a homecoming, regardless of whether the band is truly on fire or not. As for why people would like an official release of Earls Court or Knebworth comes down to the simple fact that those gigs were among the few that were actually filmed. Same rationale applies to the Pontiac Silverdome show from 1977, a completely average show which has been blown up into mythic status due to the likely existence of film.

According to the one person who has chimed in on the topic. Again, red flag.

This has disaster written all over it. Over a show that no one has heard, and which almost certainly is not a good performance. First, the only link to the “Seller”, is one person - yet multiple people have now claimed to have had these clips in possession for years. Not a good sign. Second, we have no idea what EV pays for soundboards, how they get them, and who is involved. $20k could be a completely off the mark figure. It sounds ridiculous to me. Third, what if this deal actually happens? Now all soundboards and rare Zeppelin tapes will be further hoarded for $20k+? Regardless of quality. What happened to the previous made up figures of $10k per board? Surely others remember the days in the 90s and 00s when otherwise reputable traders would deliberately gen-up their tapes, withold encores, or start enforcing “do not circulate” on everything that is perceived to have value. No thanks. Fourth, EV, Graf, Tarantura, and Lighthouse are all still very actively putting things out. With Seattle 75 and the Osaka 71 boards out there, this is the golden age of bootlegs. New things are coming out all the time. With that amount of money, you could literally buy a ticket to Tokyo and have a better shot of walking into one of these stores and literally asking if you could fund a new release. Fifth, it’s illegal, no?

There isn't a cut. His remarks start with "Wait...". Same on the 2 audience sources.

The 9/28 board is incomplete. Empress Valley has only released the first and second reels. Looks like the sound engineers missed recording Immigrant Song and the first half of Heartbreaker, which is why those parts are incomplete on the first reel and are patched with the audience source. The third reel is the last third of the show, and has yet to be released, which is why it is also patched with the audience sources.

Apparently, they didn’t record the song at all that night, which is why there aren’t any tape flips until after Stairway.