DCC Archive Fantasy Creedance Clearwater Greatest Hits Gold CDs

Does anyone have opinions on the sonics of the Creedance Clearwater Greatest Hits gold CDs from Fantasty. I believe these are out of print now. How do the sonics compare to the DCC versions. Did Steve Hoffman have a hand in mastering the Fantasy versions.

 

They're okay, but nowhere near the quality of the corresponding DCC cuts. I wouldn't spend more than the aluminum CD price for them. Perhaps the newer remasters sound better.

 

There's been lots of talk on this on the old boards, and if I remember correctly, Steve Hoffman and a few others said that:

1) The K2's are mastered a bit hot, with (possibly) treble boost

2) the CCR tapes were really problematic due to the engineering of the time. Steve said he always wanted to remaster the set because people at the time (early 90's) only knew CCR through the Chronicle CD, and he always thought it made Fogerty sound screechy. Unfortunately, the tapes were engineered/mixed/? in a way that made the band sound a bit dull and Fogerty's voice sound shrill. If he added treble to make the band sound better, Fogerty would sound worse. Try to take away some treble, the band would sound even more dull. So some middle ground was aimed for, and according to Steve's words, he always can tell how good someone's stereo system is by how they react to his mastering of CCR. I know one guy was initially bothered by how the cymbals sounded, thinking they were comparatively dull, but when he focused on the vocals, he really learned to enjoy them.

3) At the same time, I think there was a really old post where Steve said he mastered "Green River" flat. Maybe I'm taking the post too literally, or maybe I'm wrong, but that's what I recall.

4) Just some future news, Fantasy will soon release a 6 CD box set of CCR, presumably with the K2 mastering throughout. It's all their complete recordings plus a disc of pre-CCR material, I think. Anyway, if you prefer the K2's, this may be the way to go, but I think there's a general consensus among CCR fans of this board that DCC is the best.

 

Oh yeah, I also remember an old post where Steve said he offered to hand over his masterings of the CCR material to Fantasy, but they declined. Can you believe it?

 

Funny...I've got most of the K2 remasters, and they never bothered me that much, but in listening to "Born On The Bayou" right now, it does seem overly "toppy". Not bad, but not as smooth as it could be...

I as of yet haven't heard any of the DCC versions. If I could find a copy of Cosmo's Factory I'd probably pick it up, but I haven't.

I'd *still* like to know why tracks like Bad Moon Rising are so narrow stereo - most of Fogerty's other productions are nice and wide. Why just those 4 (or so)?

 

Yeah, I know what you mean, Luke. I haven't picked up the DCC's yet myself (have pretty much given up on trying through ebay), but I have the K2's and Fantasy's "Chronicle." The K2's sound much better, but the treble boost doesn't bother me too much either, possibly because I have a mid-fi system. I can definitely imagine a bit of improvement in Fogerty's vocals, though; I'm guessing the mastering engineer was more concerned with how the band sounds.

As for the stereo separation, I remember Steve mentioning something like that about Proud Mary. Maybe he can shed some light on this when he has the time.

I think Fogerty's favorite music is the rock, esp. the rockabilly, cut in the 50's. I sometimes wonder if the unfortunate qualities of the CCR engineering was somehow a result of some attempt to emulate those records. Hard to hear why, but just something that's crossed my mind.

 

Guys,
I own all the CCR on DCC and the Chronicles and we are talking so night and day I can't even imagine the K-2's coming even relatively close to Steves versions. All I can say is if you like CCR as much as I do you owe it to yourselves to hear the DCC versions. Even "the breath of life" can't accurately describe how real they sound!

 

I think I have all 3 DCC CCR discs (?) and still am shocked at the realism the master tapes reveal that, respectfully, Fantasy could't do.

Yes, night and day.

I have Cosmos, Pendulum and Bayou. I'm foggy if that were the only ones DCC released.

 

Sckott,
The other 2 are Willy and The Poorboys and Green River. I sure hope that Steve is able to do 1 or 2 more albums to complete the CCR sessions

 

Just FYI I was able to get all the CCR DCC discs off of half.com for about $30 each. This was over the course of this summer, so I don't know what kind of deals you'll find now. Most of them, if not all, were sealed copies...

 

Pendulum is still available at musicforasong.com at 14.99. Look for the gold disc button on the home page.

 

I have the gold Chronicle disc - no comparison to the DCC's - just not as natural sounding; the Willy K2 remaster I picked up is B-R-I-G-H-T and I don't like listening to more than a couple songs from it at one sitting. I'll be looking for the DCC's I don't have - they'll not sound better in the cd format if you ax me...

 

David Greene of California posted this review about Green River on Amazon. Kind of thought it would be nice to hear someone who had the DCC version and K2 version of the same album (and just an additional note, I also remember Steve saying that original pressings aren't hard to find at a good price due to the huge popularity of these albums):

"Green River" is a great album, not doubt, but I bought this version (and the new remasters of "Bayou," "Willy," and "Cosmos'") because it was reputed to blow away the sound quality of all others. On a scale of 10, the original LP is a 10, the DCC "Gold" version is a 9.5, this one is 8.5, and the basic CD that's been out for years is a 2 or 3. This one gets the high-frequencies just right, but is nowhere near as warm as the original LP or the DCC version. What DCC gets right and this
one doesn't is the mid-range sounds that keep the vocals from sounding unnaturally shrill. The DCC version, on the other hand, doesn't have quite the resolution of this one. But comparing them both to the original LP, the DCC version is much closer to the original tonality. I do have a choice, and I'm going to keep the DCC versions of all four of these LPs and recycle the latest ones. If you don't have a choice, of course, there's no doubt that thse latest remasters are a great, great improvement
over what Fantasy has released in the past. Happy listening!

 

You might also want to have a look at amusicdirect.com for some more new DCC Creedence