Led Zeppelin: 1975-02-12 New York, NY (FLAC_AUD Master, SB Master, & SB/AUD Matyrix_9 CD)

I've been browsing this new EVSD release of the show a million and one copies already exist of today.  These releases this time are named after the previously named sets already released not too long ago by EVSD and they're called Flying Circus - 40th Anniversary Edition.

The recording actually sounds excellent-to-superb but so did the previous releases too.  This biggest issue I have with the 9 CD set is the first three discs which are the matrix discs of the audience and soundboard.  When doing a matrix, most people have either learned or know not to press the envelope on volume because when you combine the tracks and then mix then into one track the waveform is going to grow larger.  And I presume this is what EVSD did to this show.  The waveform for the first three, matrix CD's is clipped very badly and the audio in pretty much brickwalled and in the red.  It is exactly the opposite of the way it should have been done and looked.

We can be glad that the last 6 CD's, or the audience recording and soundboard recording discs, are not clipped horribly.  The waveform looks nice and the audio sounds excellent-to-superb.  I'm listening to the stereo audience recording now and it sounds really nice.  In fact, they may be my favorite 3 CD's out of this whole 9 CD set.  Page's guitar and the mix sound superb!

Thanks goes to "ghostface" for sharing this on G101.  I realized after I got it that he got the three separate downloads from Dime posted by "jesusmahdi".  So a big thanks goes to him for the initial share and artwork scans as well.

LINEAGE:
EVSD silver CD's > 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: February 12th, 1975
Location: New York, New York
Venue: Madison Square Garden
Title: Flying Circus - 40th Anniversary Edition
Label: EVSD
Sources: (1) SB/AUD Masters Matrix, (2) AUD Master, (3) SB Master
Format: FLAC
CD's: 9
Artwork: Yes (full artwork scans in download)
Size: 3.27  GB
Length:
(a) 514:53:03 (All 9 CD's)
(b) 167:38:05 (CD's 1-3 Matrix)
(c) 175:19:10 (CD's 4-6 AUD Master)
(d) 171:55:63 (CD's 7-9 SB Master)

SETLIST:
CD's 1 - 3 SB/AUD Matrix
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
305. Heartbreaker

CD's 4 - 6 AUD Master
CD 4:
401. Rock And Roll
402. Sick Again
403. Over The Hills And Far Away
404. In My Time Of Dying
405. The Song Remains The Same
406. The Rain Song
407. Kashmir

CD 5:
501. No Quarter
502. Trampled Underfoot
503. Moby Dick

CD 6:
601. Dazed And Confused
602. Stairway To Heaven
603. Whole Lotta Love
604. Black Dog
605. Heartbreaker

CD's 7 - 9 SB Master
CD 7:
701. Rock And Roll
702. Sick Again
703. Over The Hills And Far Away
704. In My Time Of Dying
705. The Song Remains The Same
706. The Rain Song
707. Kashmir

CD 8:
801. No Quarter
802. Trampled Underfoot
803. Moby Dick

CD 9:
901. Dazed And Confused
902. Stairway To Heaven
903. Whole Lotta Love
904. Black Dog
905. Heartbreaker

LINK:
(1) 1975-02-12 New York, NY (Matrix, AUD, & SB/EVSD)
(2) 1975-02-12 New York, NY (Matrix, AUD, & SB/EVSD)
(3) 1975-02-12 New York, NY (Matrix, AUD, & SB/EVSD)
(4) 1975-02-12 New York, NY (Matrix, AUD, & SB/EVSD)
(5) 1975-02-12 New York, NY (Matrix, AUD, & SB/EVSD)
(6) 1975-02-12 New York, NY (Matrix, AUD, & SB/EVSD)

I'm a little confused why the length of the matrix recording is 4 to 8 minutes shorter than the audience and soundboard recordings of the show.  It seems it would be longer or at least as long as either the audience or soundboard (whichever was longer) recording.

The more I listen to the show tonight I realize the audio really is superb on the recordings.  Even the clipped matrix recording on CD's 1 - 3 really sound excellent and even superb.  They still should not have messed the audio up like that but the sound is not bad and I like the mix.  So we got kind of lucky on this one because I expected the audio to sound a lot worse.  And there are parts that are obviously messed up and it can be heard.  But overall, it is very nice. 

I'm not comparing this recording to any of the others I have for 1975-02-12 tonight and I am solely going off of how the sound I am listening to and critiquing it.

I'm not sure who the W.T.H. Twins are but they produced this 9 CD set according to the artwork.  They also produced the recent Fort Worth 1975-03-03 show as well.  I like the audio on the audience master recording, or CD's 4-6, and the mix on those discs.  It really is an excellent stereo recording and mix.  Page's guitar, Plant's vocals, and the rest of the bands instruments are all easily heard and evenly mixed for the show.  The audience recording really sounds a lot like a great soundboard much of the time.

I still think it will be near impossible to ever beat the Definitive Flying Circus DVD-A (real DVD-A) copy of this show when it comes to sound.  It is solely the soundboard recording I believe.  I'd have to listen again to say positively this is the case.  But even if it is patched with a little audience recording, the audio is spectacular.  It's easy to listen to a show like this and say the same thing as you listen.  But I know from my own comparisons in the last year that the DVD-A beats all other copies in my opinion.  I've uploaded the 1975-02-12 DVD-A here in the past so it is available if you want to check it out and compare it yourself.

Even with the clipped audio in the first three disc, this is a very easy to enjoy set of discs and a great show to listen to.  This was when Led Zeppelin was really picking up their steam and starting to play much better shows after a little bit of a rocky start in January of 1975.  Maybe it was being at New York's Madison Square Garden, a venue and city they loved almost as much as the west coast in the earlier years, or maybe it was any number of reasons?  But whatever the reason(s) were, they were on fire and burning through the United States and North America over the next month and a half on this tour for their upcoming LP Physical Graffiti.  And we have the shows to prove it too!  What great shows these were in 1975 in an era we'll never see again but we can relive again and again through shows like this one.

I just learned something as I let the show upload overnight and I went to bed.  Today, I learned that the audience tracks 501 - 503 are lossy.  I wouldn't just claim this without proof normally but the friend that found this out I trust and he wouldn't have messaged me about it if he wasn't sure.  So EVSD put at least the first three tracks on CD 5 on in aq lossy MPEG format it sounds like.

I hope you enjoy the show...
 
Bootradr

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