More of the Music of Led Zeppelin
I expect that pretty much everyone knows the famous story by now.
Robert Ludwig’s “Hot Mix” (a complete misnomer, mostly propagated by those with a poor understanding of what is involved in making records – the mix never changed, only the mastering) of Zep II was causing the needle to jump the groove when Ahmet Ertegun’s daughter tried to play it on her cheap turntable, so they recut the record with more compression and cut the bass. (The recut, if you have never heard one, may take the cake for the worst sounding pressing of the album ever made.)
Our Triplanar Mark 6 / Dynavector 17dx combination seems to play the original just fine. Amazingly well in fact.
Here’s a challenge for all the Heavy Vinyl fans in the world:
Name all the Heavy Vinyl records that sound as good or better than RL’s cutting of Zep II.
Modern engineers tell us they can cut records better now than ever before, with all the bass and dynamics that previous engineers were supposedly forced to limit for the cheap tables and carts of the past.
So where are these so-called “new and improved” records, the ones with better bass and dynamics?
I have yet to hear one. Perhaps someone can point me in the right direction.
Send your list — even if your list only has one entry! — to tom@better-records.com