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"Vienna Fireworks: Live in Europe 1973"


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13 hours ago, MojoZoso said:

This upgrade is mindblowing. It's so good I featured it on my podcast, Heart of Markness. 

It certainly is a fantastic version of the show.  One thing I am surprised you did not mention in your podcast is the most unique and amazing moment in the whole show - the one of kind improvised intro to Heartbreaker.  In my view it is one of the coolest live Zeppelin moments.  Here they are improvising a riff to introduce one of the greatest rock riffs ever, and their one time throwaway riff intro is better than the best riffs that most other bands could ever come up with.  How fortunate that something so unique was captured in such quality.

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The recent Japan '71 releases are huge, but this has a significance all it's own. 

'Cause this is the shit. This stretch, March/April '73, finds the band realizing it's potential musically. It's the last stop for this underground band before utilizing the power of the media to present themselves as the earth shaker they had become. 

This is a snapshot of the band playing to and for themselves, and also proving to themselves they were ready to go public.  They were killing it, they knew it, and there was only one place left to go. Mainstream recognition and celebrity.

Apart from some soundboard excepts, this music has only been available to listeners with bootleg ears. This will serve well until a soundboard or multi-track of a complete show emerges from this this epic stretch of Zeppelin history.

 

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Vienna '73 has always been the bee's knees but this upgrade is SUPERSONIC! Supersonic just happens to be the word I use to describe most of the band's gigs of 1973. Both in intent and sound, they were going for sleek maximum impact.

That "Dazed and Confused"...hoo-boy, it's hair-raising!

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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. 

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On 4/24/2020 at 7:55 PM, pluribus said:

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. 

I'm not hearing that effect on the source that CS posted on YouTube. The 3.21.75 Seattle matrix was way worse and more noticeable to my ears. But this Vienna matrix sounds fine and dandy, in my opinion.

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26 minutes ago, Strider said:

I'm not hearing that effect on the source that CS posted on YouTube. The 3.21.75 Seattle matrix was way worse and more noticeable to my ears. But this Vienna matrix sounds fine and dandy, in my opinion.

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.

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