Recommend a more obsure Steve Hoffman mastered disc you love

My choice has got to be this one, Remember When - All Original Recordings. Perfect.

 

Roy DuNann said '"We just tried to balance the instruments, to keep separation so people would think it was stereo."

 

Thank you.

5-6 years ago Half Price Books must make bought a liquidation because several of their locations around the DFW area had many of these PL cds plus the vinyl.

I picked up a few, BewitchingLEE also.


What is the story on the recall?

 

There were two issues of LATIN’ ALA LEE by SH. I do not know if they are different mastering wise.

 

If I remember correctly, Lee’s management didn’t like the dry sound of Steve’s master and had them pulled and reverb added. I may be getting confused with the Greatest Hits though.

 

3 DCC of Freddie King

Getting Ready
Texas Cannonball
The Best of Freddie King

Steve took these records to a whole another level

Buddy Holly - For The First Time Anywhere...every bit as good as better known FTOMT

Dave Mason - Alone Together...if you don't want to drop $$ on the gold disc this the next best thing

 

I just recently purchased a sealed copy , very low end cash wise...

One of my top 3 SH CDs..indeed !

 

Pee Wee Russell - Portrait of Pee Wee DCC Jazz

$1.54 on Amazon right now. 1/2 the price of a slice of pizza.

 

The Vintage Music Collector's Series has some great tracks and is worth getting as each track sounds better than you will hear it elsewhere.

Steve Hoffman mastered only Vols.1-10. Note that he didn't master Vols.11-20 as he left MCA at this point, although I believe that a few tracks have his hand; and these volumes still sound good to me so I would like to think that his mastering philosophy was continued after he left.

I'm not excited by the diversity of tracks compiled on each disk, I would have preferred each disk to have a more cohesive theme (eg. early rock+roll/r+b, 50's pop, 60's pop, soul/r+b, etc).

The original albums were reissued as "twofer's" on CD, however, some were also released as a single volume CD. I've never warmed to the cover design, which changes colour for each release.

But these are minor complaints in comparison to the great sound and tracks presented.

 

Probably the most obscure Steve mastered CD I've ever known is this pop/rock album on JT Records Mastered by Nimbus. It states "Digitally Mastered By Steve Hoffman" in the booklet. In fact, I've never seen another copy for sale at any time. As rare as Hen's teeth.

 

Your avatar says it all...

 

Donovan Catch The Wind

 

Since I became a member here was curious of Mr. Hoffman's mastering work. I didn't know which one would be a good example so I bought this Ray Charles Genius+Soul=Jazz CD which is mostly instrumental work making it IMO a rarity seeing Ray is a singer. "Moanin' " is a very good demonstration of our host's ability to make brass instruments sound right at the same time preserve room ambience. Got it at a pretty good price on Amazon. Wonder if warmth was an issue back when it was mastered for CD. I think it sounds perfect especially the hammond B3 organ.

As it says in the posted back label I'm curious why Ray Charles had to digitally rebalance this album. What needed rebalancing?

 

Love this one, the 1971 debut album by The Grease Band (Joe Cocker’s backing band)

 

1963-1969 Vintage Collectibles Volume 2 - MCA Records MCAD 22131.

Various - Vintage Collectibles Volume 2

With alternate mix (longer fadeout) of Born To Be Wild!

 

Razor & Tie RE 2059


DCC DZS-194


S&P SPR-705

 

Love that Jim Croce 50th Anniversary collection!

 

Razor & Tie RE 2060


Shout Factory - 826663-13311
This is actually a two disc set with both Live and In Performance.

It seems I have more "Hoffman" discs than I thought.

 

Wow, even though I own several hundred discs mastered by Steve, there are many discs in this thread that I was unaware of.

 

Click here for further exploration.

 

The one disc that brought me here.

 

Steve did a nice job on the Merle Haggard albums he mastered. All In The Game (DCC cd), Thats The Way Love Goes/ Going Where The Lonely Go (Sony BMG twofer) and the compilation I'm A Lonesome Fugitive on Razor & Tie.

 

To be honest I never paid any attention but I recently bought a copy of this and it sounds sublime

 

V/A, Reggae Classics, Del Rack, 1989.