Led Zeppelin: 1975-03-03 Fort Worth, TX (FLAC_SB_3 CD)

This is the recent (2015-11-14) release of the Led Zeppelin Fort Worth 1975 soundboard I got about two weeks ago.  EVSD released this never before available show and only 150 copies (X3 for each version of the release) were made.

I got my first copy from the R-O share by "smoking pig" on November 18th and then another copy on November 19th on Dime from "fishey".  Both show had the same lineage of silver CD's > EAV > WAV > TLH but it sounds like the second EAC rip, the one shared by "fishey", sounded better. The "fishey" copy is a better sounding recording and a few of us have noticed.  Were not clear as to why this is the case however.  But either way, a huge thanks goes to "smoking pig" and "fishey" both for getting their copies up so fast.

LINEAGE:
EVSD silver CD's > EAC > WAV > FLAC 8 > me > TLH > WAV (to test for lossiness) > Audacity (to view waveform, embed metadata/track titles & info, and then to re-encode) > FLAC 8 > TLH (to check for SBE's and create and verify new ffp & md5 files) > you

DETAILS:
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Date: March 3rd, 1975
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Venue: Tarrant County Convention Center
Title: Rock Super Stars
Label: EVSD
Source: SB
Format: FLAC
CD's: 3
Artwork: Yes (full artwork in download)
Size: 1.04 GB
Length: 173:06:22

SETLIST:
CD 1:
101. Rock And Roll
102. Sick Again
103. Over The Hills And Far Away
104. In My Time Of Dying
105. The Song Remains The Same
106.The rain Song
107. Kashmir

CD 2:
201. No Quarter
202. Trampled Underfoot
203. Moby Dick

CD 3:
301. Dazed And Confused
302. Stairway To Heaven
303. Whole Lotta Love
304. Black Dog

LIN KS:
(1) 1975-03-03 Fort Worth, TX (SB/EVSD)
(2) 1975-03-03 Fort Worth, TX (SB/EVSD)

The show is a superb soundboard recording.  And I am uploading the "fishey" copy even though I had prepared the "smoking pig" copy for upload before realizing the issue I mentioned at the beginning.

I have only listened to the copy "smoking pig" shared all of the way through once.  I've not had a chance to listen to the complete copy "fishey" shared yet and I think I will have some time to do that today.  I really am wondering why the two copies that for all practical purposes went through the same processes to get to FLAC 8 files sound different?

This is the full concert and the band sounds a little off to me this night.  They don't sound bad.  They sound more like they're tired.  But still, there are some awesome and cool pieces played in songs that are unique to this night.  Robert Plant's voice is really having some issues after the whole flu deal.  And this show was still one and two days before the next two Dallas shows that followed.  But Plant's voice, especially in spots like the final "...and she's buying the Stairway..." really isn't going to hit the high note so he doesn't even try.  He can be heard clearing his throat throughout the show as he was still working on getting his voice back.

The bass frequencies are hard and heavy in this show and I like it.  It's not distorted and sounds good.  And the high frequencies are the same in that they are up front and evenly mixed.  As with most recordings never officially released or mastered with overdubbed tracks, there are some errors as well as noises at times sounding like a bad cord or connector that leads to an AC hum type of noise.  It doesn't ruin the show by any stretch but it is there at times and usually noticed in between songs when things are quieter and no music is playing.  It isn't in many of the songs.

One thing I found very strange in the "smoking pig" copy as I listened the first time was the big audio difference in "No Quarter" at the beginning on CD 2.  "Kashmir" ends CD 1, you have "No Quarter" which I had to turn way down starting CD 2, and then there is the sound changing again in "Trampled Underfoot".  I really am confused and have to re examine this and see what is does on "fishey's" copy.

I just realized what the cause of the above paragraph's problem likely was.  Why this hasn't been more obvious to me before now mystifies me.  I may have determined what caused the audio fluctuations in the "smoking pig" copy.  I made two copies I embedded and re-encoded as FLAC 8 of the "smoking pig" shared EAC rip.  On one copy I tried fixing the clipping in the audio that was in almost every song and in the other copy I left it as is from EVSD.  I am thinking I may have mistakenly mixed up the Audacity fixed clipping copy with the unaltered sound copy.  I used Audacity's Clip Fix tool on one copy.  This was experimental on my part and I knew that without all clips being joined as one track it was not the proper way to do this.  And after fooling around a little with it, I just burned the unaltered copy (or so I thought maybe) to disc the next day.  If I had somehow burned the altered copy that would possibly create the issues in sound I am talking about.  I bet it was an error on my part.

But there is another anomaly too between the "smoking pig" and "fishey" copies of the show.  The "smoking pig" copy had much higher spikes in the waveform (definitely the unaltered copy too) and more audio clipping in the initial, unaltered rips of the discs.  But the "fishey" copy I am seeing as I prepare it for uploading has far less clipping in the waveform.  CD 3 looks like it has more clipping on both copies but why there is a big difference in two identical rips makes no sense to me.  In theory, all EVSD Fort Worth 1975 discs ripped with EAC should have the same waveform I would think.  But maybe not?

Any way you look at it, this is a show you will want if you haven't got it.  It's still brand new also and as the Soundboard Revolution continues we can only wonder and hope to see what is next!

Once I listen to the "fishey" copy today, I will also know if I mistakenly burned the wrong copy I had messed with on the "smoking pig" copy.  Even so, I have compared the two copies from the two uploaders with others and it does seems like the "fishey" copy is superior in sound and therefore I am uploading it.

This wasn't the way I had planned on this post going today.  I planned on talking about having had the master Fort Worth 1975-03-03 silent video in my hands before.  It had been recorded by a friend, Andy U., and then it was held for many years by another, John R.  John finally sent it to the Cosmic Energy guy who did wonders on it as he synchronized it with audio from the Dallas show and made a few upgrades on DVD's like the Assemblage releases.

I always knew this Fort Worth show likely existed in a soundboard and it made my day seeing this show finally surface after 40 years and only having seen silent video of it over the last 22 years.  It is great when things come around full circle isn't it!

I hope you enjoy the show...
 
Bootradr

SPECIAL NOTICE TO ALL!!!

THESE DOWNLOADS ARE FOR FREE ONLY!  NEVER BUY OR SELL ANY LEGALLY RECORDED BUT ILLEGAL TO SELL SHOWS LIKE THIS ONE.  THIS IS FOR FANS AND FUTURE FANS WHO WANT TO HEAR THE ARTIST'S MUSIC RAW & LIVE BUT NOT OFFICIALLY AVAILABLE OR RELEASED.

ALWAYS REMEMBER TO SUPPORT THE ARTISTS BY BUYING THEIR OFFICIALLY RELEASED MATERIAL TOO.

KEEP IT FREE, KEEP IT AVAILABLE, AND MOST OF ALL; KEEP IT LEGAL!!!