Did you know they recorded that drum track with a single stereo mic at the top of a stairwell with his drums at the bottom in a hallway and it's considered the "holy grail" of drum recordings. Now a-days when you go in to a studio to record drums every piece of the kit is mic'd up and you often have several overhead mic's. -and it still never sounds as good as Bonham did with just one mic at the top of a stairwell. The natural reverb is amazing! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9cpziwfV90&feature=relat...
You might enjoy this article: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/Oct04/articles/classictracks... "Mic number one was a valve U47, and with the other two on gates I made sure that number two, an 87 placed about 15 feet away from him, would go on at a certain level, while the third mic, another 87 that was all the way at the other end of the room, didn't open up until he really sang loud. That reverb on his voice is therefore the room itself, none of it is artificial, and it's his voice triggering the gates. What is really great is that the sound of the opening two verses is really intimate. It doesn't sound like a big room yet, it sounds like somebody just singing about a foot away from your ear. The whole idea worked, and what you hear on the record is probably take three. We wouldn't go beyond that. He was really worked up by then and I can tell you he was feeling it. It was quite an emotional song for him to sing, he deliberated long and hard over these lyrics, and he was ready to go, there was no holding him back. We probably punched in a few things, but it's pretty much a complete take save for a couple of notes that he redid.?