More digital remastering malarkey...

Im not sure going for the most recent version would always be the best solution considering the 'loudness war' that seems to be going on. Even a well mastered album, which some 'remasters' certainly aren't, suffers when it has its dynamic range crushed.

Maybe the Japanese do things differently? If they do, then great! I've never heard a Japanese CD so can't comment.

I've been looking at the Amazon LedZep CD's on offer and I've noticed that there are comments against the Japanese-sourced ones as to their sonic superiority over the original 1997 remasters... I'll wait for the LZep2 to arrive so I can compare it first, though.

Best digital version of LZII (or any other Zep album for that matter) is the Barry Diament mastered version IMHO.

Barry's mastering was the first time Zep was released on CD, so these versions are out-of-print. They were replaced in the 90s by the George Marino/Jimmy Page mastered versions which are the versions available today.

Barry Diament mastered all the Zep albums apart from IV/untitled and I consider them to be better than any later mastering, Jimmy Page or no Jimmy Page!

They can be picked up quite cheaply used on ebay etc

Years ago some chap by the name of Barry was on one of the olde audio forums (?rec.audio.highend or the like) looking for a set of original MIT 330 interconnects as they had been discontinued for some time. I had such a pair that I considered pretty toxic sounding so I mailed them to him FOC. The wrote me back thanking me telling me they made it easier for him to assess the results of his mastering on his home system (based around Maggies ISTR). Turns out he was Barry Diament. Hey, maybe LZ2 was remastered aided by my set of gratis interconnects!

Cool Ron!

From my experience, generally, the older the CD version, the better. It's because of the "Loudness War" crazyness already mentioned in this thread.

A recent experience was a couple of early James Taylor that I bought from Amazon. Done in the 1980's and with real, unhindered dynamics!

JohanR

I agree with you, JohanR. Despite inferior technology and often not working from the original master tape, older CDs are often considerably better than the remastered versions.

quote:

Originally posted by Zepfan:
Best digital version of LZII (or any other Zep album for that matter) is the Barry Diament mastered version IMHO.

Barry's mastering was the first time Zep was released on CD,

They can be picked up quite cheaply used on ebay etc

Yep, found them (Praise be to Google). Also, a list of available album titles also from Mr Diament. I will keep the collective informed...

Hope you like 'em!

This is interesting. I have already commented on a number of occasions about poor remasters, sometimes not being as good as the non-remastered versions. Worst of all is when it appears to change the mix or balance of a recording, particularly when that recording is one of those 'life-defining' pieces of music. You know the sort - the ones you grew up with, that you played endlessly (much to the chagrin of your parents, no doubt) such that they became embedded in your DNA. In such cases the remastering is like having someone mess with your soul.

That said, some remasters are so good that they manage to recreate the buzz you felt when you first got through the barrier to realise that you were listening to what would later turn out to be one such life-defining piece.

Somehow, LZII never quite did it for me, despite being a massive fan in my youth, but 'Close to the Edge' - now that's a very different story. And luckily the recent Rhino Yes remasters are immaculate!

Regards,
CB

Can anyone explain to me what exactly 're-mastering' means?

Is this going back to the original 'tapes' and somehow re-recording them to digital media?

My own experience of remasters has been variable, a fair few sound ever-dynamic. Quieter music seems to gain most geuine listening improvement.

Bruce

I'll have a bash

The mixer gets all the bits and puts together a song, its done over a period of time with input from the artist and the producer etc until they are happy with the product

Mastering takes the mixes and creates the a version of the mix for CD or for Vinyl or SACD or whatever - each to suit the final medium. The mastering process is often done in an afternoon and without much consultation - or so I have read from various posts by those in the business.

To remaster you go back to the original tapes (hopefully)and create a new master. it is the mastering engineer that has often compressed the hell out of recordings but according to some the pressure is even on the mixer to create a super compresed original so that the song is stuffed before the mastering guy even gets his hands on it. A good matering engineer will only do what is necessary to make the song sound best on a given medium,

quote:

Originally posted by Clive Blackman:

Somehow, LZII never quite did it for me, despite being a massive fan in my youth, but 'Close to the Edge' - now that's a very different story. And luckily the recent Rhino Yes remasters are immaculate!

Regards,
CB

Rhino did a superb job across the catalogue, although some are better than others. The HDCDs are now fetching stupid money but are IMO the definitive items for sound quality. The Zep back catalogue was released in SHM-CD format last year. I thought it was worth a punt from Japan because other SHM-CDs have been excellent without exception. I was very disappointed. Ditto Close To The Edge on SHM-CD which was released about three months back. After a strong start (at least for the ones I brought) this “high quality” format has got distinctly so so. This hasn’t stopped me from pre ordering Moon Madness – it’s just too tempting to pass. Will I ever learn?