Microphones used on Zeppelin songs

[soundguy]

I definitely wasnt there.

Im giving everyone on this board permission in 30 years to discount anything I have to say about what I did 30 years ago considering that I cant remember what I did on my sessions two months ago and I stopped doing drugs a long time ago.

Unfotrunately for Led Zeppelin, Eddie Kramer did mix that record, but they learned their lesson.

dave

[Zeppelin4Life]

lol. I love this forum.
but not to answer the question of who mixed the record, but jimmy page is defiently a perfectionist. I have hours of studio outtakes and all I can hear is myself with a british accent 30 years ago. 'No, no no, do it again' 'sorry jonesy, that is not right, come in on the 3rd measure' 'hey bonzo could you give me a kick on beat 2' 'hey, planty, your killin me' 'oh, dammit, that was me, dammit'

the tapes are great. but yeah jimmy is nuts. he may not be the smartest behind the board and know about all the gear, but he definetly had a few 'bring the snare up, guitars too loud, more reverb' type things. he was always in the CR. I remember a video of him recording Since I've Been Loving you, and it was just him behind the board. he was like totally overwhelmed, I think he collapsed in the studio. o well, he was always skinny. have u seen him on that Knebworth show on the DVD? he loks like a skeloton, but hes still Page

[soundguy]

that is just a plain silly statement, jimmy page is most certainly the fuck not approaching anything that "perfectionist" describes. I cant evven count how instances of Plant being out of tune there are on virtually every record that I would have tried to retake. Robert Plant may have had issues later in the band singing, but there are moments on those records which just reek of LZ being the biggest band in the world and them not giving a fuck. I love the squeaky kick pedal and all, but a perfectionist would have shown up with some oil... There is a long list not worth getting into of mistakes and compromises all over those records and when you consider how good the band was, those records do NOT feel like the product of some mad perfectionist trying to make it all perfect. The records are sloppy, they are loose, mick jaggers telephone rings in the foyer which the room mics record on a song, plant is out of tune incessantly, page is sloppy, jones is rushed throughout thhe presence tracking sessions and it all rules, those records all amount to a recording of a righteous band destroying and not giving a shit about fixing themselves to look like the prom queen. Page knew what he wanted and got it and put zero effort to clean it up once he heard his idea coming out of the speakers. That right there is the big difference between LZ and Steely dan.

I would someday like to meet perfectionist junkie.

dave

[KennyLusk]

He's absolutely one of a kind.

He has the ability to excite people in a coliseum to the point where you're looking to see if the roof is going to fucking cave in. He just has "something" that is very amazing to SEE and Experience.

Plant is the same way. I have no idea how he does what he does. He reaches out to each individual in the audience by way of some other dimension and connect with each individual.

Crazy stuff.

Excuse me while I go chant somewhere now.

[kellyd]

Page used all sort of techniques. Many he learned from his days as a session player in the mid 60s. A master of hearing something in his head and making it happen. He had the good fortune to work with the most talented engs in music history and take those experiences to new places. Eddie Kramer was impressed by his savy in the studio. And that's after working with Hendrix. Not sure he was responsible for every technique but he certainly was the catalyst. From the influence Les Paul's ground breaking techinical skills had to the affect the Motown sound had on him, esp the drums. I know for the most part esp in the ealry years for overdubs he liked small amps. Supros and Ampegs. Using both a close mic and usually a distant mic at 6 ft. He also ran some parts direct. For example the git solo in Black Dog I believe is his git direct thru 2 1176s. Andy Johns talks about that on the UA site. Still sounds like Page. I think in the old days people were more creative since they didn't have a box that would do what they were hearing in their head. The middle section of Whole Lot of Love still blows me away. Page used so many different ways to get the sound he was looking for. Hard to list 1 or 2 mics or 1or 2 techniques or 1 particular eng for that matter. I wish we could get all those engs to post their experiences. Think about it. Glyn Johns, Andy Johns, Eddie Kramer, Chris Huston, Ron Nevision and so on. That's reading I'd pay for.

[SKEETER]

No doubt Jimmy Page had access to some of the best gear available, and knew how to use it. The mic he used were probably the pick of the litter. He was an established studio musician long before zeplin. Also, all of Zeplins sound was as much Jimmy Page and his abilities in a studio as it was anything else. Without his studio genius they would have sounded drab and dull, he created a whole new apporach to recording, particularly recording drums. Bonhams drums could have sounded entirely different in the hands of a different engineer.

[numberthirty]

Not trying to be a jerk, just trying to lay out some facts... A perfectionist would not splice in an unaccompanied guitar solo that's out of tune with the rest of the track. Second, Jimmy Page(and for that matter Eddie) need to both get over themselves. I like Zepplin just as much as anyone but Jimmy Page did not come up with every great sound and have every good idea ever in the history of music before everyone else. It's like having to hear him gripe about having a sitar before George Harrison. Okay Jimmy your a genius and obviously all worthwhile ideas that have ever been or ever will be will be your's before anyone else thinks of them. As for Eddie, does anyone seriously think that John Paul Jones could not have done a better job that Eddie did working on most of the records from that period Eddie worked on? All that said, I've seen what appears to be a 57-type mic on John Bohnam's kick in at least a few photos. I've also seen Jimmy Page talk at least a couple of times about using an Altair tube limiter on acoustic guitars starting around Led Zepplin three. However, the thing to take away from Jimmy Page(at least as far as I'm concerned) is he had some specific ideas about sound(room miking) that weren't generally popular but, he thought sounded good to him. Take that as a cue, find your own sorts of sounds, walk into Jabba's place and explain you'll kill everyone if they don't release Solo. Anyhow, this wasn't going to be rant but, it all seemed worth posting. Sorry.

[ubertar]

I guess it depends on your concept of "pefection"... does it mean "every note in its place, everything perfectly in tune, etc", or does it mean "everything has to be just right in terms of satisfying me aesthetically"? If it's the latter, he was a perfectionist. That's the kind of perfectionist to be, IMO-- don't stop 'til you satisfy your own taste. Any other standards of "perfection" are external, and irrelevant.

[Rigsby]

I guess it depends on your concept of "pefection"... does it mean "every note in its place, everything perfectly in tune, etc", or does it mean "everything has to be just right in terms of satisfying me aesthetically"? If it's the latter, he was a perfectionist. That's the kind of perfectionist to be, IMO-- don't stop 'til you satisfy your own taste. Any other standards of "perfection" are external, and irrelevant.

Agreed. So in conclusion, i think it's fair to say that most of jimmy page's haircuts in the early to mid sixties were largely the work of my father.

I'm going to have to stop mentioning this in every led zeppelin thread.

[ubertar]

I guess it depends on your concept of "pefection"... does it mean "every note in its place, everything perfectly in tune, etc", or does it mean "everything has to be just right in terms of satisfying me aesthetically"? If it's the latter, he was a perfectionist. That's the kind of perfectionist to be, IMO-- don't stop 'til you satisfy your own taste. Any other standards of "perfection" are external, and irrelevant.

Agreed. So in conclusion, i think it's fair to say that most of jimmy page's haircuts in the early to mid sixties were largely the work of my father.

I'm going to have to stop mentioning this in every led zeppelin thread.

I saw a picture of him from that time period, and he looked like a pimply-faced geek (with a good haircut). Good thing to see as a teenager.

[SKEETER]

numberthirty
You are obviously not old enough to remember the rock era. When Zeplin came out, NOTHING sounded like that. Noone had ever gotten a heavy bass/guitar/drums sound like that of ZEP II when it first came out. It was a whole new approach to the creative process, and something unique far beyond what anyone else had even considered.
I don't know who "eddie" is, but I can tell you, most of the music being done now relies more on craftsmanship than art. Most of the pop drivel out there now being falsly marketed as "rock " music doesn't get it. The rock era was full of bands that all had an extrememly unique sound, and incorporated music from different styles in different ways, as opposed to most of the stuff of the past 20 years that relies 90% on technology and not even the remaining 10% on creative imagination. You could trade most of the musicians and singers of most of the modern bands all around and they would still all sound the same.
I am not a huge Zeplin fan, but you cannot deny the genius involved in what Jimmy Page did in the studio. He obviously had the attitude that the end justified the means, and the proof is in the pudding. And, because the music industry has become so commercial and stars are being manufactured out of anything that looks like a golden goose, we will never know. You could not go back to the rudimentary (in comparison to todays) technology that Jimmy Page had access to and try to compete with what he did, because if you did, it would not be contrived enough for todays music industry to pay attention to.
Creative genius is no longer neccesary for someone to become successful in the music industry, the desire to conform and the quest for greed is. During the rock there were a lot of people that shunned the money and fame in favor of the art. Now, I fear, most who want to become "stars" have this dream that they will go to their grave one day a household word and be burried in a gold vault. The desire to become rich and a household name is the driving factor, not the love of the music.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

I don't know who "eddie" is

that would be, um, eddie kramer.

unless this has morphed into an iron maiden thread.

[lobstman]

I don't know who "eddie" is

that would be, um, eddie kramer.

unless this has morphed into an iron maiden thread.

Ok, good, 'cause I was wondering how I'd never heard about Eddie Van Halen recording Led Zeppelin.

PS- Zeppelin4Life: you are aware that there have been other bands in the history of rock music, yes? Some of them were even quite good, you may want to check them out sometime.

[JASIII]

PS- Zeppelin4Life: you are aware that there have been other bands in the history of rock music, yes? Some of them were even quite good, you may want to check them out sometime.

What a dick.

[mattallen]

PS- Zeppelin4Life: you are aware that there have been other bands in the histroy of rock music, yes? Some of them were even quite good, you may want to check them out sometime.

Oh come come now. We all go through obsession stages with bands. I really love Zeppelin but I can only handle them so much at a time. I think I listened to them so much at the beginning I burn out easily. They are what inspired me to pick up the guitar and look towards music and Jimmy had alot to do with my love of audio.

I will say I have progressed out of the "Guitar Rock" stage and am more into bands that just had a little more and to me those are The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, Dylan and The Beach Boys. I'm not saying who's better but for me I can always pop in my top 5 so to speak.