DCC Archive Elton John Gus Dudgeon

BMG music club has the Polydor discs? I just went to their web site and only saw the Island/Rocket releases. Sure would like to pick up a couple more Polydors since the releases I have sound the best.

 

Just checked the BMG club site, and in the "Clearance" section they do list four EJ titles as being on the Polydor label.

 

For what it's worth I've picked up some of the Polydor titles myself and like them. They are kind of bright, but so are the current remasters.

 

I started collecting CD's in the early 1980's, when you snapped up the best of the twelve or CD's you could find that might remotely interest you. This was back in the days when all the discs were pressed in Germany or Japan, the booklets even printed overseas, and no barcode on them. The jewel boxes would even have "patent pending" embossed upon them. I agree with the "Superior Sound" disc not being true to the mixes. But, besides poor graphics, the original MCA CD issues sound smooth yet bright at the same time. This may seem ironic, but my "Don't Shoot Me..." copy literally jumps out of the speakers. I am also proudly possessive of the original two-disc GYBR and I prefer it out of all the later versions (I own all of them). This goes back to the subjective nature of the mastering engineer and his or her influence over the sound we hear. I am inclined to believe that if the house mastering engineer took the unequalized master and simply transferred it to CD, as was done often in the 1980's, perhaps we are hearing a version truer to the original producer's vision. When you add EQ and "shape" the sound through noise gates, noise reduction, and other means to "modernize" the sound, you tamper with artistic integrity. Any thoughts?

 

Are you including the MoFi and the tracks on the DCC GH (LP or gold CD)?

 

I am not an Elton John expert. However, I have the DCC LP version of "Greatest Hits" and to my ears, sounds fantastic. The purity of the piano on Elton's early stuff is fantastic. I also have the "Simply Vinyl" LP of his first album (Elton John -- the one with "Your Song" on it). It is also superb and captures the acoustic elements of the recordings very accurately. Apparently, Elton John's early stuff at least was very well recorded.

 

Eh, in the 80s they usually used EQ'd tapes. Sometimes they actually tried to undo or "fix" the EQ. These days, engineers know better than to use EQ'd tapes, but they are STILL trying to play god with tapes, including boosting the levels to the stratosphere. It's a part of the mastering process, though. Steve Hoffman even uses EQ. The difference is probably that Steve only does corrective EQ to translate what he hears to the CD format. Most modern engineers seem to do creative engineering. And, most of the British guys seem to love NR.

Doing transfers of the master tapes in high bit depths like 20, 22, and 24-bit usually means the engineer is going to use some kind of noise shaping when dithering to 16-bit for CD. Noise shaping changes the sound character, or tone of the recording. That's one of the reasons why Mr. Hoffman works in analog up to the final stage. He goes directly to 16-bit so no dithering is required. Most work nowadays is done in 96k. That also must be sampled back to 44.1 for the CD. Downsampling can also degrade the sound even worse than dithering with noise shaping. In this case, 96 doesn't even divide evenly into 44.1. 88.2 makes more sense for CD production. But, I guess DVD-A and SACD is on everyone's mind these days, as digital was on people's mind in the late 70s.

Then there is HDCD. Gee, i'd love to get a player with it. I have soooo many CDs encoded with it. Why don't more CD players have it? Don't know. There are soooo many Cds out there with it, and more titles pop up every day! Just bought new Bee Gees greatest hits with it...HDCD sounds very good without the encoding but, gee, i'd love to find a player with it...oh well...maybe I can find a good, good priced SACD player to play all of those new SACD reissues poping up at the local best Buy...

Is it the record companies killing these new formats or the equipment manufacturers? is there colusion? Hmmmm, wonder what HDSA, DCHA, HDDCC...what was that again?

[ December 27, 2001: Message edited by: Grant T. ]

 

Paul Jones, you should have started a new thread with your new question. Good thread idea.

People who are not interested in Elton John or Gus Dugeon, or who are finished with the thread will not respond.

repost this.

 

Thanks, Grant T. I will repost this tomorrow. The great thing about the DCC forum is that we have intelligent, concerned music lovers who want to make sure that the music legacies of the past and present are represented properly. That is where persons such as Steve Hoffman come in. He views music as much more than "product" which has to meet a strict release schedule. Steve will do everything possible to ensure that the music has all of the elements in place so that the true lovers of the music will have the ultimate listening experience. I started writing Steve when he was a mastering engineer for MCA and he graciously responded. After moving to DCC, he even sent me a booklet for a used DCC gold release I purchased that was missing one. And sent me DCC promo CD's with sticky notes hoping that I would enjoy them! But what I like most is that I know that when I purchase a Steve Hoffman release, I will be listening to nothing less than the best possible sound that anyone on this planet can hope to obtain. Just think of the countless hours that he spends, after securing the absolute master, scrutinizing every nuance of detail, so that we can have the "ultimate listening experience". Thanks, Steve!

 

Um, I changed my mind after hearing the MCA CDs. Grant, you were right. The MCAs trounce the Polydors.