DCC Archive The Best of MoFi

Hi,

MoFi sure has taken a beaten on this board. Most of the posts reference a hit or miss scenario. Maybe we could take the high road for a minute and speak of the good. What do ya consider MoFi's best 3 LP & CD releases?

If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind,
Jeffrey (well Hunter, actually)

 

Lps - Most anything Stan Ricker cut. Favorites are Pink Floyd DSOTM, Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers and Beatles Abbey Road.

CDs: Pink Floyd DSOTM, S&G's "Bookends" and Joe Walsh's "Barnstorm" (God. what a great album!) (silver).

Honerable Mention: Bob Marley's "Exodus", Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother" on lp & cd, Traffic's Low Spark & Fantasy Factory (CD) and Cat Steven's "Teaser & Firecat" both LP and CD.

 

Procol Harum-Salty Dog
Jethro Tull-Living in the Past
Nirvana-In Utero

 

Hi all,
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Second Helping UD1
Pink Floyd: The Wall
The Police: Syncronicity UD1 (UD2 sucks)

Honorable mention: Al Stewart: The Year Of The Cat (stunning recording), Alan Parsons: I Robot and the 4-cd set of Woodstock

There are others that are stellar but hey gotta leave room for other members

[ November 06, 2001: Message edited by: Dave ]

 

Yeah, mofi has (unfairly, I might add) taken a beating on this board. I believe all the negative comments when it comes to their gold cd's. For the most part, in comparison to the regular lp's and mofi vinyl, the cd's sucked! But if you talk to me about the vinyl, well, I only have praise for the most part. The Beatles releases, in my opinion, are pretty damn good. Yes, I'm sure if you compare them to original yellow and black label uk pressings, they will not be sonically superior. But when I was buying my mofi pressings for $18 (when they first were sold), it was very difficult to obtain these uk pressings. Remember, there was no ebay back then. And aside from the japanese red mono series, who else was thinking of the audiophile when it came to the Beatles? No one. So mofi should be thanked rather than condemed. With all due respect to Steve Hoffman, I don't see DCC, for whatever reason, releasing any Beatle titles. Or classic records, etc. I know, I know, a lot of red tape and little profit due to all the lawyers. Well, mofi at least got it done. Maybe it was easier in the 80's to do it, I don't know.

Are mofi titles eq'ed???? YES, they are. And I agree sometimes a tad too hot on some titles. But people, don't forget that DCC does some playing with the sound too. That "breath of life" doesn't get there on its own you know. Aside from the 10khz boost to the Beatles box set (some say not done to the regular releases---I don't know) many mofi vinyl releases are a sonic treat.

I have heard some boards put down DCC vinyl for being too "tube" sounding. Some have said it's dull and lifeless. I disagree with that also. It IS DIFFERENT than mofi. It has, shall we say, the sonic signature of Steve Hoffman. DCC DOES have some tube sound to it, just as Stan Ricker's work had some fiddling with frequencies.

For the most part, mofi opened my ears to what was possible with care in the mastering process. Capital Beatles lp's sure as hell did not do that.

Mofi vinyl is gone, and for that I am sad. I hope to see more vinyl from DCC. Steve, they are all very good, and I treasure each one. And so far, I'm very happy with Classic Records. Now if you want to bitch about vinyl reissues, let's talk about simply vinyl.

 

"Ella & Louis Again" is great. I also like "Trafalgar". "Full Moon Fever" is a lot better than the standard CD. There are others I like but I can't think of them at the moment. "Abbey Road" is kind of too bass heavy and cut very low in volume (I really need to crank it up compaired to other MFSL releases).

Todd

 

The issue isn't that EQ was used - it's obvious that EQ is often necessary. It's *how* it was used. Jacking up the bass and treble on those LPs wasn't a good thing.

 

My LP picks are:

Beatles -- "White Album" (my favorite of the Beatle MoFi's I've heard)

Donald Fagen -- "The Nightfly" (yeah, I know, it's a digital recording, but the MoFi LP is the best version I've heard)

Steely Dan -- "Aja"

My CD picks:

Squeeze -- "East Side Story"

John Hiatt -- "Bring the Family"

Simon & Garfunkel -- "Bookends"

 

Nice post, SAM.

I don't like the MoFi bashing either. It seems limited to a handful of titles (thus far) and as I said at least two other times, they still did a lot of good stuff.

The Beatles box may have 'bad' EQ on it, but it's still an important release. It's stereo (if that's your thing) and the quality of the vinyl and pressing are great. I'd take it over the CDs we have now any time. Could it be better? Sure. But as others have said, at least MoFi got the job done.

Then there's the Stones box. Lots of stereo, and the basis for those London CDs that, for the most part, destroy the current batch of ABKCOs. WHY, oh why, hasn't anyone mentioned this? Gold star for MoFi.

Other releases that are generally considered good (I don't own all these, so some of this is hearsay):

FOLK SINGER!
Double Fantasy
Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs
Traffic (I think)
John Hiatt titles
U2 titles
Pink Floyd titles
Elton John releases (at least GYBR, not sure of the others)
Allman Bros (SH mentioned the treble boost bugging him, but the ones I've heard don't bother me)

 

Hi gang,

Best of MoFi, eh? Well, I'll give it my best "off the top of my head" shot.

Vinyl: "Beatles For Sale"
"Imagine"

CD: "Aja"
"John Coltrane And Johnny Hartman"
"Bookends"
"Murmur"
"Innervisions"
"Layla"
"Blow By Blow"
"Disraeli Gears"
and, yes, "Tommy"

Hey they did some pretty good stuff, huh? Let's stop talking badly about the "dead"...

 

That's not really fair... it's not like DCC hasn't tried to go after something/anything by the Beatles. It was definitely easier for MoFi, back in the 70s/early 80s before the Beatles won that lawsuit that gave them complete control over their catalog. I would guess back then MoFi simply had to get approval from EMI for their Beatles LPs, whereas now you would have to get approval from the vast, contentious bureacracy of Apple.

I don't think any MoFi bashers are denying they did some excellent work. It's just that they were hit/miss with their gold CDs, and a lot of us feel that when you are charging premium prices and claiming to make audiophile releases then there is no ethicial reason for ANY "misses" to have occurred.

But to end on a positive, my favorite Mofi CDs are:
*The Band's "Music from Big Pink" (the recent Capitol remaster sounds harsch by comparison)
*the Dillard and Clark two-fer
*S&G Bookends

 

The three MFSl titles I cherish the most are "Damn The Torpedoes" by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, "Murmur" by REM, and "Joshua Tree" by U2. I also like "Scarecrow" by John Mellencamp a lot. The album has some pretty bad filler, but the MFSL edition is the best sounding one I've heard. They even snip out the "Cougar" on the cover and list the artist as just John Mellencamp (almost makes up for shrinking the album cover even more than necessary).

 

In that case, your anger may be better directed at Simply Vinyl.

 

That's right, they are NOT an audiophile company, but they do CHARGE audiophile prices.

Michael Fremer went on an absolute tear with this company a while back. He and several other people are highly ticked about the prices they charge vs. the quality they put out. I don't own any SV personally, but I understand they're very hit and miss and it's never clear what tapes they are using, etc. Sometimes they may be using digital masters, and of course that gets everyone's panties in a prophetical wad.

 

Beatles aren't on Simply Vinyl, if I'm reading you right.

They *could* be an audiophile LP company if they wanted to, but they're intent on putting LP reissues on the shelf at the audiophile price. All it takes from them is some careful slecting and strict quality control.

I really like a few of the titles SV has put out, but most of them are just horrible. If you're gonna pay that kinda money for a Dire Straits LP, it might as well be amazing.

People are better off slugging it on in the used bin than the SV stuff. Yes, they said they're not audiophile at all, which is fine, but there's a lot of retailers I go to that have tons of their stuff, and it's all $29.99 or $34.99, etc. They're not flying of the shelves, that's for damn sure.

Sundazed on the other hand, is doing some great work, highly audiophile, very sweet sounding LPs and CDs at half the price and even lower.

That's why people are ticked at SV. I mean, the 2nd ever SV I ever bought was the Boston LP and it was cut 5% too slow. Sounded like Alvin & the chipmonks when it hit the Rega. They did replace it with another title though.

Unless it's cheaper and I REALLY want it, I stay away from SV. Anyone could master better than what they've done. They're admittingly just spewing as much product as they can. I don't think demand is that high for them though, and I don't think there ever will be.

 

My top 3 MOFI Picks:

1. Layla
2. Procol Harum-Broken Barricades
3. Cream-Disraeli Gears

-ED

 

MOFI-me, baby!

LP's:
1. Dark Side of the Moon
2. Katy Lied
3. Fleetwood Mac

CD's:
1. Barnstorm
2. The Wall
3. Bridge of Sighs

And, yes Dave - I have seen the light...Ultradisc I's only please....

Best to the Board,

Ben

 

I agree that the MoFi bashing is overblown, at least with the stuff I've heard. Here's some of my favorites:


Pink Floyd-DSOTM
Supertramp-Crime of the Century
Bob Seger-Night Moves
Alan Parsons- I, Robot
Rush-Moving Pictures & 2112
BOC-S/T & Tyranny and Mutation double set
Elton John -GBYR
Queen-Night at the Opera
The Who-Tommy & Quadrophenia
Moody Blues- Long Distance Voyager

All the above I consider much better than the original USA issues, and most of the ones I've compared have beaten the current "remasters", too. As always, YMMV...

 

Mo-Fi May have gotten to do THE Beatles catalogue on vinyl in the late 70's / early 80's. But they got the "thumbs down from Apple about 7 years later when they wanted to do them on gold CD's. My Top 3 picks from Mo-fi are: 1. Donald Fagen - The Nightfly (vinyl) 2. Alan Parsons - Tales of Mystery & Imagination (CD) 3. The Beatles White Album (vinyl of course)

 

I always thought the Abarxas CD sounded pretty good. Maybe just because it was such an improvement over the original Columbia release. Can anyone tell me how the MFSL stacks up against the Sony remaster?

 

I don't think the MFSL "Abraxas" beats the new Sony remaster at all. While the MFSL sounds very good, so did the original stock copy, to be honest. The first CD I thought was strong and natural, not many complaints. I was able to aquire a very early pressing on LP and it sounded pale and dry, no dynamics at all. Just get it for the poster

Someone said they hated the DTS version. I have to agree about 1/2 way. It IS very wacky and surreal, but so different, it's hard to listen to sometimes.

[ November 06, 2001: Message edited by: Sckott ]

 

Sckott,


It's a shame but Simply Vinyl is simply everywhere in NYC (Tower/Virgin). A few years ago MFSL, DCC, and other cool titles (Pink Floyd, Hendrix, etc.) used to glow from the shelves. Now it's tons of Simply Vinyl, a few scattered Sundazed (great label) and a lot of stuff geared towards DJ's, etc. Them days is gone for now. Hopefully, it'll change.

Todd

 

Rush/ Signals and Moving Pictures
Moody Blues/ Days Of Future Past

I'll put in another vote for Low Spark and Exodus.

Consolation goes to Nilsson Schmilsson.