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Post by Potsie Hoofman on Nov 5, 2021 19:59:08 GMT
The only Hoofy mastering I believe I've ever heard was a Razor & Tie comp of 80s butt rock my mom had in the early 00s.
Hard to make that sound good no matter what.
Certainly no difference to my ears. Of course, I don't HAVE the ears, bucko.
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Post by hoffa_nagila on Nov 5, 2021 21:18:38 GMT
Pictures of a McCartney album mastertape (Wings At The Speed Of Sound I believe) were included in a deluxe box set. It shows all the times they were pulled. They weren't pulled for the DCC issue.
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Post by Boozin' Susan on Nov 5, 2021 21:22:55 GMT
Hasn’t STeVE’s Heartbeat City debacle been thoroughly documented?
If any of you are well-versed in the whole sorry mess, please poat the details here.
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Post by Mind The Gap on Nov 5, 2021 21:35:32 GMT
He remixed a few tracks on the Elvis DCC comp and inserted studio talk on their Elvis Is Back release (ruining the flow of that one). Depending on the day of the week this goes firmly against his diatribes on not messing with the original intent of things.
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Post by respiratoryproblems on Nov 5, 2021 21:51:30 GMT
There’s a Simon & Garfunkel mastering mess that ended in legal action too (against the poater who called it out, IIRC).
I thought my Creedence box set (shut upppp!) was one of his, but apparently not. All I have is his sub-par alternate Forever Changes mix from a cassette (where are the masters for that album, one wonders?) and Kevin Gray’s vinyl cut of Morph The Cat which also credit Steve.
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Post by ledzeppelin2rl on Nov 5, 2021 22:15:15 GMT
Didn’t he fuck up The Pretenders debut by missing the telephone sound on The Phone Call? And putting a gap after it? The missing telephone sound was omitted on the AF. There is no excuse for a label that claims it's "audiophile." Complete incompetence by Hoffman. He also is on record there that he is to be buried with his Target Pretenders CD, so he can't say he was not aware of it. Also it was brickwalled and he said someone else did it after he finished it.
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Post by sₚⲁᵣₖydₒg on Nov 5, 2021 22:43:39 GMT
I sold most of my Hoofy CDs long ago. I still like the DCC Court and Spark and The Original Soundtrack. I think they are great. Are they the best versions? I don't know. Then there's this: A message from Audio Fidelity President Marshall BlonsteinFriends,
Marshall Blonstein of Audio Fidelity cabled this letter over to me for publication on the Forum: -------------------------------------- March 1, 2005
Dear Steve Hoffman Forum members,
When Steve first sent me over the thread regarding the typos on the artwork on the new 24kt+ Gold Faces CD, I read four or five of the posts and didn▯t think it was any more than comments about a few errors that we were aware of and already addressing▮ I▯ve since re-read the same thread and after reading through many of the newer posts, I▯ve decided I need to set the record straight▮
If you, on Steve▯s forum, want to make comments, suggestions and criticisms, of course it▯s your choice▮ Do you not think that it would have been better to inform Audio Fidelity of your concerns first? That way when you posted on Steve▯s Forum you would have had a response from me already thereby saving the need for countless posts attacking my company and our graphic artist, Bob Wynne with a mob mentality▮ Like most mobs, many of you reacted for the sake of reacting, sight unseen, because some of you didn▯t even have the disc in front of you▮
Many of your complaints were really petty and not really constructive or helpful to us▮
One of you has actually taken back a Faces disc to a Tower store complaining that they wanted their money back because the printing and misspelling makes the disc flawed▮▮▮ This does damage in our retail markets and hurts Audio Fidelity▯s business▮
I find it interesting that somehow you find misspelling and proofing not up to the standards of DCC, when in fact two of the three people that proofed the Faces booklet, including Steve Hoffman, were the same people that did the proofing for DCC▮ Also the Warner Bros▮ people proofed these as well▮
Some of the comments such as the “boxes” after “Ms▮ Judy▯s Farm” and “You▯re So Rude”, are valid▮ They were not there when we proofed the final artwork▮ The glitch occurred with the printer▮ Other issues such as the spacing in “l a w s”, which can be found in the legal lines, well, oops you got us – but is that worth having most of an entire thread attacking the credibility of art director, Bob Wynne? As I mentioned, pure and simple, mob mentality▮ It▯s, “Let▯s get out the pitch forks and the torches and attack Dr▮ Frankenstein, his monster proofreaders and his art director"▮ There were some suggestions on the thread here that I should be contacted and made aware of the errors▮ Well, the only person who contacted me was MC1▮ No one else has made the effort▮ It is much easier to sit on the forum and whine about the perceived problems as opposed to contacting us with ways to improve our collections▮
As far as scanning covers as some kind of a sin, here is a revelation for you: Every single cover we did at DCC which was from a major label was scanned▮ We are never given, then or now, original artwork; most all of it was destroyed many years ago▮ We▯ve had to track down the best quality albums we can find and then use that to scan▮ DCC was not perfect; I know--- I created it▮ The difference then and now is that there were errors in the proofing – go check – there just was no Steve Hoffman Forum to vent on and create a controversy over nothing▮
What some of you are doing is looking at the cost of $19▮98 and saying “Well it▯s not $30, so it▯s cheaper and there are spelling errors, so AF doesn▯t have the same standards as DCC▮” We can easily charge $24▮95 or $29▮95 if that will make you happy and give you the perception that the artwork is now living up to DCC standards▮ I had final approval on every piece of artwork and all designs then and now, not Steve H▮▮▮ We no longer use the glossy paper, because I don▯t like it▮ It always left fingerprints▮ We don▯t use the lift cases, because they break too easily, we stopped using those in the last few years at DCC as well▮ We still only use the original master tape, that▯s why we are still waiting for the Bad Company original▮ We could have easily put out a disc from the second generation dub but we didn▯t▮ We do care about quality AND your pocketbook▮ That is why I priced the AF 24K+ Gold CD□s at $19▮98 instead of $29▮98, not because we wanted to cut corners▮
I▯ll put our Audio Fidelity SACD album designs of Bob James, Peter Green, Reggae in HiFi, Deep Purple, and Searchers up against any other re-issue label covers▮ If we truly chose to cut back on costs, we certainly wouldn▯t have added a customized slip case to our 24K Gold releases▮ All of you mavens who claim to be printers know what a custom die-cut slip case adds to the cost of a run less than 5000 units▮ As far as the upside down outer case goes, that was my choice▮ No, I didn▯t do it to differentiate from DCC; I just liked the idea and wanted to add some uniqueness to our 24K+ series▮ On our first releases on Audio Fidelity, The Zombies, Buddy Rich, etc▮, the complaints about our artwork were constructive and valid▮ After giving it a great deal of thought, on the next set of releases we changed the artwork▮ Some of the comments were doom and gloom that nobody would buy the Zombies because of the “horrible artwork”▮ Meanwhile, The Zombies is one of our biggest sellers and continues to sell day in and day out▮
We are about to celebrate our third anniversary▮ We▯ve just sent out fliers, giving a 20% discount as a “thank-you” to all of you who have supported Audio Fidelity over these past few years, even some of you complainers▮ So if you would like, you can go on our website to request a catalog that contains fantastic artists, sounding better than ever▮
Sincerely yours,
Marshall Blonstein, President
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Post by spicer on Nov 5, 2021 22:47:25 GMT
I was listening to a comp few months back that featured some of Steve's DCC remasterings of Gary McFarlands Skye recordings. The Cal Tjader songs were shockingly distorted and had some sort of filtering that made them sound utterly shit. Steve's name was proudly featured on the cd's back cover. I've got the original LP's and the recordings sound fine, he really fucked this one up.
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daved
Better than Steve
Posts: 10,616
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Post by daved on Nov 5, 2021 23:42:23 GMT
This “no compression” bullshit those idiots push is ridiculous. Imagine their beloved RL Zep II without compression!
I stupidly bought 3 CCR discs and sold them as they sounded anemic. I think I downloaded a Heart greatest hits he did and it was neutered.
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UDII
Cynthia
Posts: 1,330
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Post by UDII on Nov 6, 2021 0:08:27 GMT
Didn’t he fuck up The Pretenders debut by missing the telephone sound on The Phone Call? And putting a gap after it? The missing telephone sound was omitted on the AF. There is no excuse for a label that claims it's "audiophile." Complete incompetence by Hoffman. He also is on record there that he is to be buried with his Target Pretenders CD, so he can't say he was not aware of it. Also it was brickwalled and he said someone else did it after he finished it. I believe he threw Robert Vosgien (credited along with Hoffman) under the bus for that one.
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CarnivalOfLightFan050167
Sir Ringo
"I just want an ergonomic method of shoving beef in my mouth." - Dave-O aka Dilly Dipshit
Posts: 614
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Post by CarnivalOfLightFan050167 on Nov 6, 2021 0:23:28 GMT
His supposed Steely Dan ones are the worst Dan CDs you can get. Katy Lied is a flawed recording, but the Hoffman adds an extra thick blanket over your speakers. His Who's Next is "okay", but has clipping that would be a hard no for ShItes from any other engineer. His Meaty Beaty...is a mess. Who's Missing is decent. What happened with the Meaty, Beaty….? IIRC he didn't rely on the album master or use it for reference. Or decided to do his own thing. I think there were some alternate edits? What I do distinctly remember is "My Generation" sounding like shit on there, and on top of that some random bass plinking that becomes more obvious if you render the thing out of phase. I assume it was bleed from a tape that was improperly erased before that track was dubbed onto it. Which would beg the question of what the hell he was using for sources.
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CarnivalOfLightFan050167
Sir Ringo
"I just want an ergonomic method of shoving beef in my mouth." - Dave-O aka Dilly Dipshit
Posts: 614
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Post by CarnivalOfLightFan050167 on Nov 6, 2021 0:35:12 GMT
Recently I ran across some compilation CDs of old ancient bluegrass music that came out on the Rural Rhythm label. Considering the sources they had to use, they sounded 'okay'. Guess who their primary mastering engineer was? Turns out Hoofy's old MCA buddy Sam Passamano got involved with the label after MCA canned his ass. Rural Rhythm appears to have kept Steve busy with remasterbating those dime-a-dozen recordings that labels like Gusto would clog the truck stop tape racks with. What a legacy. Heh. Yikes.
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Post by System Tweak on Nov 6, 2021 1:07:28 GMT
Mastering's normally a solo gig. If STeVE had been a competent mastering engineer, much less a brilliant one, the fly-by-night reissue label headquartered in a PO Box at Mailboxes, Etc. that gave him his only real employment wouldn't have needed to constantly hire a second engineer to babysit him in the studio. I assume that any successful Hoffman-credited mastering jobs (the only one in my collection is the DCC Highway 61 Revisited) were the product of unlisted collaborators who actually did the work.
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Post by Brick Wall on Nov 6, 2021 3:17:58 GMT
The collaborators were never unlisted. Kevin Gray baby-sat the motherfucker for years, beginning way back at MCA and continuing throughout the life of DCC. Gray provided the actual studio and the know-how. But it appears that at some point, Gray finally had enough of Hoffman and threw his ass out of what I believe was Gray's Coherant Sound studio.
The revelatory result of this was Hoffman actually poating a sticky at his cesspool asking his flock of goobers for information on a new studio in the El Lay area for his (Hoffman's) susequent work. Sadly, the significance of this was lost on the mentally challenged mob of morons populating his forum. Anyone with even a minimum IQ should have - at that point - asked himself the $64,000 question: if Steve Hoffman is, in fact, the mover and shaker in the biz that he has groomed himself to be, WHY WEREN'T THE STUDIOS BEATING A PATH TO CASA HOFFMAN TO SNAP UP THE SAVIOUR? Why didn't they?
Of course we know the answer. Hoffman's self- styled "career" has been - from the beginning - nothing but self aggrandizement, full of smoke and mirrors and with a good amount of strategically placed outright lies. He is one sick motherfucker.
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Post by System Tweak on Nov 6, 2021 18:53:38 GMT
The collaborators were never unlisted. Kevin Gray baby-sat the motherfucker for years, beginning way back at MCA and continuing throughout the life of DCC. Gray provided the actual studio and the know-how. But it appears that at some point, Gray finally had enough of Hoffman and threw his ass out of what I believe was Gray's Coherant Sound studio. The revelatory result of this was Hoffman actually poating a sticky at his cesspool asking his flock of goobers for information on a new studio in the El Lay area for his (Hoffman's) susequent work. Sadly, the significance of this was lost on the mentally challenged mob of morons populating his forum. Anyone with even a minimum IQ should have - at that point - asked himself the $64,000 question: if Steve Hoffman is, in fact, the mover and shaker in the biz that he has groomed himself to be, WHY WEREN'T THE STUDIOS BEATING A PATH TO CASA HOFFMAN TO SNAP UP THE SAVIOUR? Why didn't they? Of course we know the answer. Hoffman's self- styled "career" has been - from the beginning - nothing but self aggrandizement, full of smoke and mirrors and with a good amount of strategically placed outright lies. He is one sick motherfucker. I can't speak to any other album, but the DCC Highway 61 doesn't list Gray in the credits...just "Remastered by Steve Hoffman, June 1992."
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