HW: Heard on Space Ritual

[Mark Edmonds]

In article <199712221541.HAA15971 at f131.hotmail.com>, Horse Whisperer
<beautiful_foot at HOTMAIL.COM> writes
>It's funny y'awl should be talkin' about this, 'cos I've noticed this on
>cassette versions of ZZ Top's Rio Grande Mud (Best Album Ever?) and
>Zep's "Led Zeppelin".
>I had assumed it was just magnetic cross-talk occurring on really old
>cassettes, but Vinyl and CD???
>
>Have we a professional on the list?  Enquiring minds need to know!!
>

Well I ain't no professional but this effect you are refering to is
called (I think) "print-through" or perhaps "pre-echo". It is not
something which was deliberately engineered in the studio but more a
function of some sort of interference in the tape spools (again, I
think).

Heartbreaker on Led Zep II is good example of this but the apparent pre-
echo vocal pyrotechnics in Whole Lotta Love were deliberate so I
believe. Generally, the problem exists on a lot of old analogue rock
albums and was still a problem in the 80s. Probably the worse example I
have ever heard of this is in Tangerine Dream's Hyperborea (1982/3?)
during the opening of the title track. It is not a problem limited to
rock albums either as I have plenty of classical vinyl which exhibits
the same problem.

There is some point in one of the UA period HW albums where a similar
effect appears midway through a song - probably the one you mention -
but I would think it unlikely that you could pick this up given the
amount of background noise going on.

Anyway, I hope this is reasonably accurate.

Mark