A recap Tech Tip #576 – Premiering February 2025, Becoming Led-Zeppelin is a documentary depicting the band’s formation and formative years. It traces the four members through the 1960s British music scene and their meteoric ascendancy.
Led Zeppelin, like The Who and the Rolling Stones, have been loyal users of our microphones for over five decades. The photos and poster below illustrate the Led Zeppelin – Shure connection.
Because PA equipment was so limited, we tried to get as much sound coming from the stage as possible and just hope it went further. Robert had to sing over that, but he was a young lad with strong vocal cords.
From Led-Zeppelin by Led Zeppelin, page 202, copyright 2018
During September 1980 rehearsals for an upcoming tour, drummer John Bonham died at age 32. A press release from the band read: We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend and the deep respect we have for his family together with the sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were. Led Zeppelin.
Jimmy Page said, “Led Zeppelin wasn’t a corporate entity. Led Zeppelin was an affair of the heart. Each of the members was important to the sum total of what we were. I like to think that if it had been me that wasn’t here anymore, the others would have made the same decision. What were we going to do? Create a role for somebody new, then say, ‘You have to do play this way.’ That wouldn’t be honest.”
The three remaining members of Led Zeppelin performed together a final time December 2007 at the Ahmet Ertegun tribute show in London, with John Bonham’s son, Jason, on drums.
Related information: Led Zeppelin website
Kashmir (Live at Knebworth 1979 with the SM58)
Arcana – mysterious or specialized knowledge
The images above are found in an extraordinary book published in 2018: Led-Zeppelin by Led Zeppelin, ISBN 978-1-909526-50-1. It is a “must-have” for Zeppelin fans.
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John Bonham’s drum sound on Led Zeppelin albums is often described as distant and roomy because he insisted on recording in stereo, with only two or three mics, in order to capture the sound of the drums as he heard them. Recording engineers typically use many more mics, positioned close to each drumhead to pick up the full kit sound and to make the drums sound more dramatic. Bonham eschewed that style of drum miking.
Additionally, on some Zeppelin tracks, Bonham’s drums and cymbals were sonically altered using an Eventide Instant Phaser signal processor as seen below.
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This Tech Tip is #577, so let’s recall the Shure Model 577 noise-canceling dynamic microphone. Debuting in 1977 with a U.S. retail price of $52 [$280 in 2025 currency], the moving coil Model 577 would shut out background noise and permit clear transmission even where the noise level is so great that the operator cannot hear himself talking. Available in high impedance [577A], low impedance [577B], or with an internal preamp so it could replace a carbon mic [577C], this microphone had a long life of over forty years, eventually discontinued in 2019.
