Led Zeppelin Recording Techniques

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Mike's Alright

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Can anyone refer me to any websites or share any info on Zep's recording techniques, specifically the miking of Bonham's drums, and if lining f the bass drum with tin foil actually helps or hurts? Thanks!

Mike
 
Sorry I don't have a source, but purely from old memories, I think I remember reading that much of IV was done with the drums in a hallway and mics at the far end of the hall, in addition to close mics I presume. You're also going to need large drums, no getting around that, two floor toms, big snare, big kick, etc. Also use those fatass drum sticks backwards and beat the (*&# out of 'em.
 
Their producer used various techniques for all songs. He also doesn't remember what mics he used, although he did say he wouldn't tell even if he did know.

I know the hallway recording was When The Levee Breaks specifically. I know he changed it up, but generally had a few room mics and miced up the drums in wide open spaces.
 
I imagine a big part of the recording technique was to have Bonham play the drums...

...That's gonna' be kind of tricky to reproduce. :D
 
1. When the Levee Breaks was the song that used the hallway trick...not all of them...that sound would get old quick

2. big drums...hard hitting player...big sticks...big natural sounding room (try a castle)

3. Three Mics...one in front of the kick about 5 feet away...one pointing at the kit from the floor tom side 5-10 feet away...one up high looking over the drummer's head and pointed at the snare. I read that somewhere.
 
first take a song written by a poor black man. record it. then write "Page/Plant" next to it.

collect royalties.
 
According to engineer Andy Johns, the drums for "When the Levee Breaks" were done in a large circular stairwall, and he used two Beyer M160 ribbon mics - one hung about 10 feet above the kit, the other from 20 feet. That's it.

Yeah, and having Bonham playing kinda helps. :D He paid a lot of attention to tuning, too. Page and Bonham were really bucking the 70's trend of drum recording: dead rooms, close miking on everything, and lots of muting on the drums. Zep did just the opposite. Of course if you want to do this your kit has to be great, the drummer has to be able to "mix himself" properly, and the room has to sound good.

With a lot of today's very mobile rigs, you could find a great sounding room such as a church, take your stuff there and record drums, then do the rest at home.
 
Definately Need Good Drums!!!

His kit was always in tune. But he was very unconventional for the time and did his own thing, not listening to the normal advice of the day.

Read the book "John Bonham, A Thunder Of Drums" by Chris Welch & Geoff Nicholls. www.backbeatbooks.com for an interesting read.

I mic my kit in stereo. Nothin fancy. But no need to add effects in the mix. The key is to get the drums to sound great first. I turned a dead sounding snare into a booming Bonham sounding snare by putting an Evans Hydraulic head on top. A cheap fix. Great on the bass drum too....

MegaDrummers Website....
 
eeldip said:
first take a song written by a poor black man. record it. then write "Page/Plant" next to it.

collect royalties.
Click to expand...


And then pay the black man next to nothing for his creation. This went on all through the 40s, 50s and 60s
 
With all due respect, unless I misread the data on the site, there is only pure speculation as to what Led Zepplin did. Bill Oneill was not present at any of the recordings, he just speculates what he thinks was done on the recordings. Not a very reliable source of data, unless your into creating myths or misinformation.

And last of all, who appointed you the thread monitor? This thread can be anything it wants to be. :cool:

Now here is a bit of Zepplin trivia right from Andy Johns the guy who recorded "When The Levee Breaks"...

"Another thing we used (for delay) was the old Binson Echorec. Listen to "When The Levee Breaks." That was me putting two M160s on the second floor with no other microphones at all because I wanted to get John Bonham the way he actually sounded. And it worked! Page would say that he made me do it , but he was down at the pub. He did bring me his Binson Echorec for the track through."

Andy John links of note:

http://blam-soft.nextpage.com.au/zeppelin/lz3.htm

http://pyzeppelin.free.fr/interview_johns.html (You will need bable to convert from French to English)

Lots of other stuff just do a search with his name.
 
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I just have to ask this question...

If Led Zeppelin never recorded "When The Levee Breaks", how many people alive today would even know that the song ever existed?
 
I was creating myths , Plant was big into mythology.
"This thread can be anything it wants to be."
 
Geez... I was just wondering about this. I've re-visited Zoso this week, meditating on the whole sound in the truck on my work commute. Besides the drums, the guitar solos sound amazing.
How did page get the sound on his solos like "Stairway to Heaven" and "Rock and Roll"??
That bluesy, warm Fender amp tone sounds doubled, with a really fuzzed out, harmonic frequency to trip you out. I can't put my finger on the technique there...
 
When I saw Page/Plant in 1998 at the MCI Center in the heart of downtown DC, I was blown away. This tour was without the Indian Orchestra used on the Unleaded tour, and may as well have been called Led Zeppelin. Over two and a half hours of Zepp tunes. I had seen Page with The Firm twice and Plant solo three times, but never Zeppelin. I had tickets to the "In Through The Out Door" tour, but it was canceled when Bonham died. I never thought I'd ever see Zeppelin. But in 98 I came closer than I had ever dreamed. The performance destroyed "The Song Remains The Same" film.

And here's the best, fantasy fulfilled part. I won FRONT ROW/CENTER seats from DC101 the rock radio station. We were close enough to see the nose hairs of Robert Plant! They did songs they said they would never do live again like Whole Lotta Love. Page brought the bow out, and that feed back thing with the big chrome antenna he uses. Page really sounded better than ever.

He used a Les Paul, the double necked (Gibson?) 12 & 6 string and a Paul Reed Smith guitar. My nephew PHILTONE was at the show with me and was working for PRS at the time. He says Paul said... "Oh yeah, we've made a bunch for Page. He comes here all the time." speaking of the Kent Island, MD. factory at that time.

Here's the set list they played, in order...

Wanton Song
Bring It On Home
Heartbreaker
Ramble On
Walking Into Clarksdale
No Quarter
When I Was A Child
California
Tangerine
Gallows Pole
Burning Up
Babe I'm Gonna Leave
How Many More Times
Most High
Whole Lotta Love

****

(Encore)
Thank You
Rock & Roll


I was high for months. Zeppelin is a natural antidepressant!

Next Tuesday the 27th the new Live Led Zeppelin DVD will be released. I'm getting mine!

And of course, the rumors are running rampant again that if the DVD sales are good, a Led Zeppelin tour with Page, Plant, Jones and (Jason) Bonham will launch. I may actually take a month off work to follow that tour a while. Fingers crossed. :D

:cool: MegaDrummer :cool:
 
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specifically the miking of Bonham's drums, and if lining f the bass drum with tin foil actually helps or hurts?

In the famous Zep book "Hammer of the Gods" Bohman talks about using ripped newspaper in the bass drum. He would take a great amount of time using headphones to listen to the placemant of the mics. Once set no one would dare touch them. Also I have a number of Zep bootlegs of studio takes. A lot of the drum sound was great mastering.
 
royharper3220 said:
http://www.led-zeppelin.org/reference/assortedinfo.html
there is some studio stuff here, i dont know if any of it has to do with drums or if its just page.

BTW ,this post is about recording techniques, not your views on led zepplin ripping off old blues artist. Besides they all ripped each other off all the time.
Click to expand...

yea, sorry. but i cant seem to control myself in the face of this led zeppelin worship. i'll stop.
 
eeldip said:
first take a song written by a poor black man. record it. then write "Page/Plant" next to it.

collect royalties.
Click to expand...

You forgot the second half... get sued by the family of the song's writer and fork over what has been rumored to be between 40-50 million dollars...

As for 'Led Zeppelin drum sounds'... the only constant was Bonham. If anyone has plans to be at the "Tape Op Conference" in Portland, OR next weekend [May 30-June 1] part of the little dog and pony show on the 'Let It Bleed' panel I'm on will include some raw "L-Z" drum tracks... the first from 'Whole Lotta Love', the second from "Ramble On"... the purpose is to illustrate how I arrived at a specific drum sound on a specific recording...
 
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