Why do some people have issues with Steve Hoffman's mastering?

[ar surround]

I realize that Steve Hoffman is not a multi-channel aficianado, but besides that matter, I am curious as to why certain members have issues with Steve Hoffman's mastering of SACD's and Gold CD's. I have yet to hear a Steve Hoffman mastered album with which I have a problem. To me, they usually have a sweet "analog" sound to them. I can't say the same for the work of a few other mastering engineers. So what is it that bugs some of you folks?

Thanks for your comments.

 

[Quad Linda]

I'm not sure what discs these folks are speaking of. I've generally been impressed with SH's masterings. Even some of his projects that predated SACD's impress me. His DCC CD mastering of Nilsson's 1969 album Harry is superb. I had a cassette, LP and Japan CD, and RCA Albums Collection box. Comparing Harry to the RCA Collection CD, which i got last year, SH's mastering has a smoother, fuller sound than the Vic Anesini mastering on the box. Still, the Anesini mastering sounds far from bad. BTW: if you dig Nilsson, this box is a MUST. It has nearly 100 alternate takes, demos and rarities, PLUS Nilsson's first two in BOTH 2ch and mono.

It's wonderful to see that SH is seemingly taking a different attitude about Surround. Perhaps Marshall has had some influence.

 

[winopener]

Personally i think SH is doing a great work... have several of his cd and they are indeed a sound reference. If after mono and stereo can go further beyond and do quad stuff it's ok, just think how could sound a quad+stereo sacd of Simon & Garfunkel BOTW both mastered by SH, especially knowing how good and totally unused has been the quad master for 45 years!

 

[Quad Linda]

Sadly, that wonderful scenario probably won't happen until Simon is deceased. Rumor has it that he HATES surround. The unreleased Bookends and Graceland surround mixes, as well as Bridge, Paul Simon, Rhymin' Simon and Still Crazy are among my favorite Quads.

Since much of Simon's stuff is once again on Columbia, I'd guess they want to make him happy, and won't release them in surround while he's still alive.

... just think how could sound a quad+stereo sacd of Simon & Garfunkel BOTW both mastered by SH, especially knowing how good and totally unused has been the quad master for 45 years!

 

[cupboy]

Yea, Paul doesn't need the money. Or the other Paul either. No SACDs from either one, surround or otherwise.

 

[JonUrban]

I don't think that anyone has an issue with Steve's work. Heck, I bought enough CDs and Gold Discs back in the day to notice that a lot of the good ones (non-MFSL's) had this guy Steve Hoffman's name on the back. When I found his forum back in the early 2000's and was able to interface with him directly, that was cool.

Over the years there have been incidents in that forum that have alienated people, but those have no reflection, to me, on the guys work. It's great. Check out the Doors Quad SACD to hear for yourself.

 

[Franklin]

I had a Donovan DCC and I thought the harmonica was quite unpleasant. There have been negative comments about stuff on his site, but it would get deleted. It is his attitude, that of some of followers, and the way his forum has been run that has done him no favours.

 

[wavelength]

This may be the perfect example of how "some things" can affect people's feelings about "other things". Interesting how the mind works.

 

[Franklin]

Yeah, quite possibly. Though there do seem to be people who aren't keen on his sound, but I didn't see much tolerance of that on his site (it is a vanity/self promotion site after all.) I've not heard much (none of the DCC 'classics') but I can't say I *love* his stuff that I have heard. I was definitely put off by the cult like attitude displayed there by some. I *do* like it that he can't resist to leave the odd count in at the beginning, but he is hugely guilty of revisionist history which sometimes gets a big bashing on that site when it applies to other people. The attitude on that site when someone has a less than wondrous opinion can be quite nasty, and it doesn't seem that much negative opinion on his work stayed on there when I was about. I actually caught a thread being invisibly moderated, and my attitude towards that got me a ban or suspension - no one told me. I help out a bit in a second hand record shop, and highlighting the cutting engineer seems to help sell a record. We have the Love 2CD in recently that he had credit for for a bunch of tracks on the bonus disc. I couldn't bring myself to promote him. I'm glad that these multi-channel releases are coming out, but I am not particularly keen to see his name on them, it certainly doesn't sell the disc to me.

 

[César]

Sadly, that wonderful scenario probably won't happen until Simon is deceased. Rumor has it that he HATES surround. The unreleased Bookends and Graceland surround mixes, as well as Bridge, Paul Simon, Rhymin' Simon and Still Crazy are among my favorite Quads.

Since much of Simon's stuff is once again on Columbia, I'd guess they want to make him happy, and won't release them in surround while he's still alive.

Hi Linda and apologies for my ignorance: Is there an unreleased quad for Graceland that you've been able to listen to? It's one of my favourite records so I'd be thrilled to listen to it!

 

[winopener]

Not quad, 5.1. Was scheduled for releases at the start of the dvd-a era.

 

[César]

Not quad, 5.1. Was scheduled for releases at the start of the dvd-a era.

Did it ever leak or is it just getting rust on somebody's vaults? Thanks!

 

[rtbluray]

Did it ever leak or is it just getting rust on somebody's vaults? Thanks!

It never leaked AFAIK, but there's definitely articles on it out there.
Mixing was done by Frank Filipetti, a great surround proponent and extremely competent mixing engineer for sure!

 

[Franklin]

Mixing was done by Frank Filipetti...

I've really liked some of his surround mixes. A shame it was shelved.

 

[kap'n krunch]

Personally, first, kudos to him for FINALLY releasing stuff in Quad in (sorta) Hi - Rez... (SACD don't cut it for me all the way..only DVDA AND BD do it....)..
AFAIK , he tends to be quite conservative in his masterings, which I like...but I preferred Stan Ricker's(RIP) most of the time....

 

[milt]

A couple of things:
First Steve Hoffman doesn't release anything. He does work for the companies that release content.
It's really AF that is doing the Quad releases here. There are more people than Hoffman who could remaster the Quad tracks if AF wanted to pay them.

Around here I've only read one person who's critical of certain remasterings by Hoffman.
Obviously there may be more but I really don't care. I have never, ever seen a re-mix\remaster that was a unanimous hit, even SW.
Never going to happen. Some honestly won't like it or a certain segment must be contrarian in order to try to portray some sort of superiority over the minions.

I will say that of the Hoffman work I've purchased there's never been one I disliked but there have been a few that, to me, sounded no better than other versions I own.

As far as his forum, there have been some arbitrary bans and deletions for sure.
Is it that uncommon?
That forum is fairly unique in that the person directly involved in released content owns the site.

 

[bmoura]

A couple of things:
First Steve Hoffman doesn't release anything. He does work for the companies that release content.
It's really AF that is doing the Quad releases here. There are more people than Hoffman who could remaster the Quad tracks if AF wanted to pay them.

To be clear, other than Best of the Doors, the DSD transfers and remastering on the Audio Fidelity SACD Multichannel tracks were done by Gus Skinas at the Super Audio Center, not Steve Hoffman or Kevin Gray.
Hoffman and Gray work on the Stereo tracks with that one exception.

 

[Franklin]

I did post on the forum that I was disappointed by it. No idea if the comment is still there. I didn't mention the harmonica specifically. It may be quite hard to find anything but positive comments about his work on his forum. There was a bit of a scandal about The Pretenders disc - it took a while before H*ffman responded, and as far as I'm aware that thread was removed from sight. There are definitely criticisms of his work out there, but his site isn't the place to find them.

 

[Quad Linda]

All discussions of prerecorded stereo & mono tapes posted in this thread have been broken out into their own thread:
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/showthread.php?20963-Stereo-(prerecorded)-Reels-mono-too

Quad Linda
Quad Goddess
Friendly Moderator

 

[ssully]

Hoffman is an ignorant Luddite who won't use digital editing even when it's required to replicate an original analog edit . Claims that it will somehow audibly reduce SQ.