![]() There is a warmth of the analog tape in there even. ![]() The real proof in the pudding for me on this HDTracks download is how the album sounds when played at both quiet and loud volume levels - and I’m happy to report that it sounds great both ways! Particularly as I turn up the volume, I am not getting any sort of ear bleed from overly processed digital sound. One thing that the HD tracks showcases is the subtle dynamics of Jimmy Page’s playing, such as on “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” where you can more readily notice how he is playing softer at certain points on the acoustic intro, playing sympathetically off of Robert Plant’s passionate vocal. I guess its just the way Robert Plant rolls off his “s” sounds and how the microphones picked up that detail. So much so, that even when you turn up the volume on my original LP pressing you get all that room presence too, albeit with a bunch of mid-70s vinyl surface noise.Ĭuriously, some sibilance that I thought was on my LP is actually on the master tape…. There is a great room sound on this recording and you can really feel the tone of his tom toms and kick drum. Here you can really get a great sense of the feel of his drum kit, from the flare of the drum stick hitting the drum heads to the rush of air flying from the kick drum heads (as picked up by the microphones in the studio). However, the unsung heroes that really made Led Zeppelin stand out were arguably the rhythm section of bassist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham.Īnd it is Bonham’s drumming that jumps out at me most in listening to the HDTracks download of the first Led Zeppelin album in 96 kHz, 24-bit fidelity. Part of this sound had to do with Jimmy Page’s rip-snorting blues guitar playing and Robert Plant’s thunderous shout-down-from-the-heavens, angel-on-a-bourbon bender vocalization. Led Zeppelin was arguably the most powerful electric blues sound on record since the debuts of Hendrix and Cream just a couple of years prior. This eponymous album by Led Zeppelin is renown as the birthplace of that remarkable swaggering balls-to-the-wall sound that stepped up the rock and roll power-trio game in a most significant way. Well, lets see how things play out for the purposes of this run of reviews, I will start at the beginning… Perhaps that is a good thing as I suspect a whole lot of you reading this are in the same boat: owners of the bazillion domestic copies sold around the world. Yet, I don’t have any original UK pressings which to compare the the new HDTracks downloads my US pressings are 70s vintage, but not especially remarkable. I own all the albums, many of the solo recordings and side projects, choice live shows and such. Wow… how do I objectively and fairly tackle reviews of these HDTracks downloads of the remastered original run of Led Zeppelin albums? I mean, here I am a fairly decent fan of the band from early on - my older brother got the second album when it first came out, so Zep was part of the fabric of my musical youth / upbringing / landscape. ![]() Twitter Facebook Email Print LinkedIn Pinterest SMS WhatsApp
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