Part of the appeal for some people of LP's and other physical media is that audibly different mastering do exist and some have historically interesting stories behind them like the RL LZ2 pressings. From what I have read it sounds like everyone was unhappy with how the first pressing / recall / reissue was handled so I doubt it was a "stunt" but then again Robert Ludwig got to do "Houses of the Holy" so apparently no hard feelings? See below from the SH forums a letter purported to be from Robert Ludwig explaining at least his side of the story. I do have an RL version of LZ2 and it is way louder than the "replacement" version, unfortunately it is not in the best condition. My "go to" version is a NM copy of a "George Prios" cut from the early 1970's. It sounds very similar to the "hot" original but much cheaper and is nice and quiet and clean sounding. Any of these "good" early pressings sound at least as good as any digital copy that followed and to me much better than the later remasters.
In any case I think history like this is fun and interesting and is something different than what streaming offers.
I wrote Robert Ludwig in the last week and he wrote me back. All the versions from sterling are the same hot mix. The subtle variances between them are all simply from the slight differences in making a hand-made analog lacquer disc, at least one of which was sent to all the pressing plants at the time. The CTH plant got a lacquer that was half RL and half LH (Lee Hulko, his partner) but was of the SAME MIX AND MASTER, based on RL's notes. THEY ARE ALL THE SAME, aside from subtle variances and should be valued the SAME no matter who's initials are in the dead wax. They are all the same master from STERLING SOUND! Here is my reply from Robert Ludwig. Let this be the final word in this debate. Thanks!
Hi Jim,
I'm surprised about Lee Hulko's initials being on some of the parts. In all these years I had never come across any copies with his initials before.
When there were big orders of certain titles and there wasn't physically enough time for one person to crank out the lacquers as fast as the record company wanted, sometimes we would help each other out.
For instance, my initials might appear on a Beatles record that Lee mastered.
In every case, compared to now, those titles were relatively easy to master. Once one of us mastered an album and it was approved, we made careful notes, either one of us could cut it and it should come out the same. Back then, Lee and I shared the one room and worked different hours so it is possible one of the plants blew a part and needed a replacement right then with no delay.
So after I mastered the album (which Eddie Kramer & Atlantic approved) it was shipped to all the radio stations and the initial pressing was all from me and Sterling Sound.
Amhet Ertegun at Atlantic heard the album (which Eddie demanded be as hot as possible) and apparently it skipped on his daughters little turntable. Instead of calling us at Sterling and asking us to lower the level a little and telling us where it skipped, they had the disk cutters at Atlantic use my EQ'd cassette file copy and they cut it WAY lower than my original cut plus, in my opinion, it sounded dull and generally not very good sounding in comparison.
So all the disks that were played at the radio stations and all the initial pressings world wide came from me (and apparently Lee cut a part or two) and that was what "sold" the record and made it a hit. A year later, whenever I visited someone I would look at their Zeppelin II album to see if it was my cut or Atlantic's cut. It was easy to see by eye, the Atlantic cut ended much farther from the label and the grooves to the naked eye looked very conservative.
I still got to Master "Houses of the Holy" later on, no skipping problems with that as far as I know!
I hope this clears this up for you.
All my best,
Bob Ludwig
Gateway Mastering Studios Inc
428 Cumberland Ave
Portland Maine 04101
207 828 9400
[email protected]
