HiRez Poll Led Zeppelin - THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME [Blu-Ray Audio]

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Rate the BDA of Led Zeppelin - THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME

  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1: Poor Content, Surround Mix, and Fidelity

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    11

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Please post your thoughts and comments on this 2018 reissue of the classic Led Zeppelin soundtrack "The Song Remains The Same".
This 2018 reissue is the first time that the soundtrack has been released on Blu-Ray Audio.
The Blu-Ray also contains 4 bonus videos of songs that were cut from the original motion picture film.

(y):)(n)

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Content: 9 - Hey, It’s live Zep from their peak period. Deducting a point for the bad editing of No Quarter and Whole Lotta Love, and for not adding previously unavailable bonus tracks.

Sound quality: 8 - sounds noticeably better than the 2007 version, nice and punchy but I would have liked a little more instrument separation and definition, particularly with the bass guitar.

Surround mix: 6 - As I say below, nothing to write home about. Plus Robert Plant’s vocals seem a little bit buried in the mix. Some may address this by boosting the center channel but I prefer not to have to this.

Overall: 8

Copying my thoughts from the other thread here:

Just had my first complete run through of this on blu Ray. This is from the same mix as the 2007 movie edition but with the track listing from the 2007 CD edition, so we are getting the DTS-MA 5.1 mix in an audio only format uninterrupted for the first time.

The mastering is much improved from the 2007 edition. I recall that version being a bit harsh on the ears. This one presents a much more crankable version - punchy and without the harsh highs.

The mix is what it is. It’s pretty much what you’d expect for a live concert. The surrounds are relegated to the audience noise and ambience for the most part. That being said, there are a few nice discrete elements to the mix, most notably the vocal echoes in No Quarter (the winds of Thor are blowing cold cold cold...), the violin bow section of Dazed and Confused, some phasey drum effects in Moby Dick, and the theremin section of Whole Lotta Love.

Also the 4 bonus videos from the 2007 movie edition are included here as a bonus, with the DTS-MA 5.1 mix.

All in all, it’s worth getting for the improved sound quality and the bonus videos. Just don’t expect miracles from the surround mix.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Jimmy Page HATES surround sound. I'm convinced. The 'kind of' anticipated Original Soundtrack Recording from the Madison Square Garden performance scattered throughout the film is finally being released sans all the home video and IMO, it's MORE OF THE SAME.

Ambience and applause in the rear and the concert spread across the front three channels.

Was there even an attempt made to locate the 'fabled' QUAD recordings.......Nay.

If you have How the West Was Won and Celebration Day, adding this new BD~V 5.1 to your collection won't make up for the fact that Page and Company have NO intentions of remixing their classic core albums into 5.1 or it's the best kept secret around.

Just keep Page AWAY FROM THE MIXING BOARDS.

I voted a 7 and that's being generous.

Give US the CORE albums in discrete surround and stop F**king around, Jimmy!


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If you have How the West Was Won and Celebration Day, adding this new BD~V 5.1 to your collection won't make up for the fact that Page and Company have NO intentions of remixing their classic core albums into 5.1 or it's the best kept secret around.
Actually, there is a recent interview where it sounded like he may be open to it. Nothing definitive but at least the possibility exists. I will try and find the link.
 
Actually, there is a recent interview where it sounded like he may be open to it. Nothing definitive but at least the possibility exists. I will try and find the link.

I suppose we should celebrate each new surround release as a GIFT rather than as an 'entitlement' as only a scant few years ago the format was all but extinct. And now we're being presented [bombarded?] with an embarrassment of riches. I consider the Led Zeppelin catalogue important enough that it be done right as we've all learned in this hobby of ours that they most likely will not be granted a second [or third] chance.

Let's hope Page and Plant do consider remixing their core albums in 5.1 and get it right the first time.
 
Just listened to the first track on this Blu-ray last night and was quite underwhelmed. I will withhold my vote/rating until I hear the whole thing, but my initial impression isn't good. Nothing exciting in the rears and the vocals are buried. I'll admit that I hadn't heard this live album before, but if this is as good as it is gonna get, well that is a shame.
 
Jimmy Page has been planning Led Zeppelin's fiftieth anniversary for 18 months - Led Zeppelin News

Page also said that he has plans to continue releasing Led Zeppelin material over the next 10 years. “There’s a lot of stuff to come out, a number of releases,” Page said. “I’d like to say that they’ll be coming out over the next 10 years. There’s more to come for sure.”

Page also raised the idea of releasing Led Zeppelin material in 5.1 surround sound. “I started thinking about doing surround-sound mixes around the Led Zeppelin ‘DVD’,” Page said, “but it is about thinking ahead, so things really do link up. There’s more to come, for sure.”
 
Jimmy Page has been planning Led Zeppelin's fiftieth anniversary for 18 months - Led Zeppelin News

Page also said that he has plans to continue releasing Led Zeppelin material over the next 10 years. “There’s a lot of stuff to come out, a number of releases,” Page said. “I’d like to say that they’ll be coming out over the next 10 years. There’s more to come for sure.”

Page also raised the idea of releasing Led Zeppelin material in 5.1 surround sound. “I started thinking about doing surround-sound mixes around the Led Zeppelin ‘DVD’,” Page said, “but it is about thinking ahead, so things really do link up. There’s more to come, for sure.”

All well and good, but Jimmy's 74 and will be pushing 84 'over the next 10 years' so he better get hoppin' if these 5.1 remixes of the core Led Zep catalogue will ever become a reality.
 
Just listened to the first track on this Blu-ray last night and was quite underwhelmed. I will withhold my vote/rating until I hear the whole thing, but my initial impression isn't good. Nothing exciting in the rears and the vocals are buried. I'll admit that I hadn't heard this live album before, but if this is as good as it is gonna get, well that is a shame.

The vocals do get better as the album progresses [Track 1 is not really representative of the entire set] but as far as any discreteness.......only audience and ambience in the rears. Whatever happened to that 'fabled' DISCRETE QUAD mix done for the movie when it first premiered?
 
I am sensing a "Fripp" on this one.. a 180 .. RF was NOT keen on MCH UNTIL SW took care of it.. maybe Jimminy Page will follow!!

One COULD ONLY HOPE, Kap. The Steve Wilson KC remasters are among my VERY favorite 5.1 remixes and Page, who has been impervious [obstinate?] to 'outside influences' would be wise to seek Wilson's remixing prowess to ever consider touching those Led Zep multitracks.
 
One COULD ONLY HOPE, Kap. The Steve Wilson KC remasters are among my VERY favorite 5.1 remixes and Page, who has been impervious [obstinate?] to 'outside influences' would be wise to seek Wilson's remixing prowess to ever consider touching those Led Zep multitracks.
Ohhh .. and we ALL KNOW that this would be one of SW .. wet dreams??? ..well, not only SW's.. but OURS.. KASHMIR in MCH ANYONE???
 
Ohhh .. and we ALL KNOW that this would be one of SW .. wet dreams??? ..well, not only SW's.. but OURS.. KASHMIR in MCH ANYONE???

Now if Mr. Page can only be convinced to relinquish his iron clad control over the Led Zep catalogue and defer remixing chores to Steve Wilson. At a certain age, Kap, 74 year old Page is 'set in his ways' like a certain occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
 
I settled in and voted 9. I had to remind myself the poll is primarily for the surround experience rather than the total experience. Great packaging with little tid bits, nice to not have to buy a big box set with LP's. Onscreen menu is very easy to navigate and easy to read, videos are great.
I would not consider this a discrete mix, however it is VERY powerful and the ambient crowd noise is not so pumped up that you feel that is all you are getting in surround. Page's and Bonham's solos are riveting, like drop what you are doing, sit, listen and enjoy. I have been recently training my self to listen to the actual music rather than listen to my rig and this disc was a very pleasurable experience. The surround, fidelity (clarity), really pulled me in and the flow of the concert peaked at a very high level.
Having been to a million rock concerts, fact is, you are now able to hear this concert WAY better than if you where there.
 
I think this was better than i had hoped for.
The audio is better compared to the bluray version of the film which i think is quite good.
Dazed and confused is maybe the only song where you really hear the surround and it is even better than on the "How the west was won"-BD.
I got this one to an "normal" prize through Wowhd but i really hate the high price it has in Europe.
Yesterday i saw people in a store checking the disc but putting it back when they saw the price.
Myself i would not have bought it for the prize it is offered.
It is a shame because people will miss this great disc because of this.
 
Another one of those concert video releases where someone apparently says "Nah, the audio doesn't need to be hi-fi or anything." This practice still goes on then. The front channels have a volume war'd stereo mix and there's a little wiggle of ambience and maybe a couple awkward pans to the other channels. It sounds both muffled and the cymbals sound thin and shitty. Stepped on in every way vs. the original. So this is apparently a low budget quality reissue even though the format was bluray. Avoid!

FYI, that How The West Was Won on the original DVDA release wipes the floor with this one in fidelity and it's a genuine surround mix (not as ambitious or discrete as people might want but a genuine surround mix at least). If the bluray reissue of that sounds like this one... then avoid that too!
 
The real comparison here should be between this and the Bluray of the movie which it seems the consensus says was an upmix. If that is the playing field then this was a welcome upgrade. The movie soundtrack has always sounded painfully compressed and tinny. If you put the spurs to the volume knob it would drive you out of the room. Zep has always deserved better.

This mix actually lets us hear Bonzo's toms and JPJ's bass as instruments not just faintly discernible parts of an unimpressive patch of sound. It is not much of a surround mix and for live records that's just something I accept. I'm at a show and the band is in front of me. My question in a live surround mix is, did they get good separation of the players and give me a big three channel soundstage. I think in this case they did as much as possible with the source material.

It's hard to imagine that Led Zep didn't get a brilliant recording for a planned movie, but it doesn't seem to be one of the best. That said, the new mix let me turn it up to something approximating a rock concert and hear one of the greatest bands play an amazing show. I'll take that any day.

Now can we please get Steven Wilson & Jimmy Page in a room to talk about the real treasures. I can't think of any catalog more deserving of his wizardry than this one. If I could hear just one 30 sec clip I'd ask for the earth-pounding drum intro to When the Levee Breaks. The recording at that semi-decrepit chateau has been discussed for decades with tales of putting the drums in hallway and a mic well above them in an open stairway. Sure, whatever.

All I know is that is the most poundingly perfect drum sounded yet achieved on this planet. Gimme.

There is so much else worthy of a true mix into the modern age that I hope this can happen. We'll pay whatever you want to charge. Heck I'll even throw a couple sheets of plywood and a case of 5.56 ammo in the mix if we really need to sweeten the pot.
 
The real comparison here should be between this and the Bluray of the movie which it seems the consensus says was an upmix. If that is the playing field then this was a welcome upgrade. The movie soundtrack has always sounded painfully compressed and tinny. If you put the spurs to the volume knob it would drive you out of the room. Zep has always deserved better.

This mix actually lets us hear Bonzo's toms and JPJ's bass as instruments not just faintly discernible parts of an unimpressive patch of sound. It is not much of a surround mix and for live records that's just something I accept. I'm at a show and the band is in front of me. My question in a live surround mix is, did they get good separation of the players and give me a big three channel soundstage. I think in this case they did as much as possible with the source material.

It's hard to imagine that Led Zep didn't get a brilliant recording for a planned movie, but it doesn't seem to be one of the best. That said, the new mix let me turn it up to something approximating a rock concert and hear one of the greatest bands play an amazing show. I'll take that any day.

Now can we please get Steven Wilson & Jimmy Page in a room to talk about the real treasures. I can't think of any catalog more deserving of his wizardry than this one. If I could hear just one 30 sec clip I'd ask for the earth-pounding drum intro to When the Levee Breaks. The recording at that semi-decrepit chateau has been discussed for decades with tales of putting the drums in hallway and a mic well above them in an open stairway. Sure, whatever.

All I know is that is the most poundingly perfect drum sounded yet achieved on this planet. Gimme.

There is so much else worthy of a true mix into the modern age that I hope this can happen. We'll pay whatever you want to charge. Heck I'll even throw a couple sheets of plywood and a case of 5.56 ammo in the mix if we really need to sweeten the pot.
Amen to that. We know SW wants to do it. JP has mentioned possibilities of a 5.1 of the fourth album in the past, but as it goes with all things LZ, things never seem to materialize. Or else they do many many years later.

The one thing I should mention is, I believe the Bluray movie 5.1 mix and this mix were done at the same time and by the same mixer (Kevin Shirley) and are the same mix, and not an upmix. This version (the BD-A) is a remastered version of that mix (remastered by John Davis). In any case, I like this one a lot, for the same reasons you mention.
 
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