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Led Zeppelin Mothership

I just got Mothership on LP. After loving the re-release of the Song Remains the Same I am a bit disappointed.

While Jimmy Page has done a good job at removing the sibilance, and over-saturation of the treble on the Classic Records versions of Zep I and II, he has also removed the excitement. The "Oh my God I feel like I am in the studio with Zeppelin" feeling has been replaced with a dull but clean sound. By mixing it so that no one instrument stands out over the other he has taken all of the "fun" out of the music.

Oddly enough he did a better job with the cd version. It sounds more analog then any of the prior Zep cd's. While it doesn't sound as good as the lp version, or the classic records albums, it is some of the best digital rock I have heard.
nrostov
phasecorrect's avatar
phasecorrect
2,013 posts
 
Let's be clear...the original lps outside of PG were never that good....I and IV being extremely muddy...I think mothership and the even newer remasters are a quantum leap...I also own some of the classic reissues that outside of being a bit bass shy ate quite good
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
that's weird. According to the Official Dynamic Range Data Base Mothership suffers from overly aggressive compression. Yet it sound sounds very good. What's up with that? Now, I could give a rat's behind if recording engineers wish to compress some pop music but for heaven's sake keep your twitchy fingers off my Zeppelin and Stones and Dylan which happen to be among the worst cases extant of severe dynamic range compression.
phasecorrect's avatar
phasecorrect
2,013 posts
 
Use your ears...who cares if a data base claims this or that...fwiw...rock is recorded with compression...so those who seek out early CD/pressings of classic rock hoping to get a compression free recording ate misled...its similar to running vocals through a PA...every heard "dry" vocals with no reverb,etc...sounds terrible
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Phasecorrect, I'm not sure at least judging from your response that you understand the severity of the problem. Compression is logarithmic so there really is no such thing as "no compression" as you infer. What j referring to is very heavy handed dynamic range compression that has been used not only for remastering rock classics but also for new releases. One need look no further than Dylan's Modern World about six years ago or the Stones' A Bigger Bang about the same time to see how crazy the problem is. I'm not hot dogging you.
phasecorrect's avatar
phasecorrect
2,013 posts
 
Fair enough...but if used judiciously... compression is not necessarily a bad thing...but this is highly subjective...and focused on Mothership...which is the orig post...a decent sounding best of.
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