Led Zep Reissue on vinyl

Moryoga: I think the 'muddy' sound of LZII (at least on several tracks) is due to the huge amount of crude processing done when the album was originally assembled- you can hear the overdubs and the layering of different tracks- it is very evident on the 'RL' of II where a track with heavy processing, like 'Whole Lotta Love' seems to suffer from generation loss due to all the gimmicks. There are some web discussions and articles about how the album was made that support this.
I still haven't listened to my new copies yet, but hope to do so soon.

Good point by Whart on Whole Lotta Love. On the guitar switching channels back and forth it's as if someone is playing with the balance control. There's background noise switching back and forth also. That's masked by the usual murky pressings of LZ II. For better or worse I think it is a credit to the pressing that it shows the the mixing so vividly.

Thanks Whart. I listened again yesterday and all things considered the thing sounds pretty damn good. I saw on Music Direct that LZI Deluxe is sold out and awaiting repressing. Waiting for the wife to go shopping later today so I can give III a good LOUD listen :)

Moryoga: I think the 'muddy' sound of LZII (at least on several tracks) is due to the huge amount of crude processing done when the album was originally assembled- you can hear the overdubs and the layering of different tracks- it is very evident on the 'RL' of II where a track with heavy processing, like 'Whole Lotta Love' seems to suffer from generation loss due to all the gimmicks. There are some web discussions and articles about how the album was made that support this.
I still haven't listened to my new copies yet, but hope to do so soon.

hi Bill,

the Classic Records 45rpm pressing of 'Whole Lotta Love' is not muddy sounding, the layering is very clearly heard and not fuzzy sounding. back in 2004 during my room project, i listened to this track in my system with one of the engineers for LZII, Chris Huston (who was my room designer and was staying with me at the time). he did say that they did venture into the 'then' mostly unknown reaches of mixing methodology to unleash the magic of that track. which we all continue to enjoy to this day.

too bad that the Classic 45's were still a couple years away from release when Chris was in-home.....i would have loved to get his take on them.

Mike: I have never heard the Classic (either 33 or 45) of LZ II. At this point in the game, I'd probably just go for the 45 if it was find-able. My comments re the 'RL' really don't lean toward 'fuzzy' but I can understand 'muddy': at least on the RL, there is a loss of immediacy when all that 'tape bouncing' is going on, compared to some of the other tracks where less 'processing' is going on; I hear it as generation loss due to the 'tape to tape' transfers that were apparently used to get the effects on that track. I still haven't listened to the new LZII, but did have a little time to listen and compare a couple tracks on the new LZI. I'll post my comments separately. Nice to see ya, Mike. Winter is over! Back in NY for a little while, and brought a nice big crate of old records back from Texas.