Mofi Gold Cds

[Ronflugelguy]

MOFI GOLD CDS Since most people on this forum agree the DCC Cds are some of the best trabsfers available, how about sharing the MOFIs that are good transfers and why?The only MOFI gold I own is Dark Side of the Moon, and Ithink the Lp, which I don't at this time, is better. Any comments?

[Grant]

Sting-Dream Of The Blue Turtles
Nirvana-In Uetro
Don Henley-Building The Perfect Beast

[Ronflugelguy]

Yes My neighbor has the Nirvana,nice recording .

[PsychFan]

A few that I personally like:

Skylarking and Oranges & Lemons, XTC (light years ahead of the standard Geffen CDs, which are quite thin ... and the music is superb)

Diamonds & Rust, Joan Baez

Murmur and Reckoning, R.E.M.

Tumbleweed Connection, Honky Chateau and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John (haven't heard the Madman :( )

Bookends, Simon & Garfunkel (very rich, just lovely)

Something/Anything?, Todd Rundgren

[Drew]

Both Don Henley titles, End of the Innocence & Building the Perfect Beast are really good, I think.

Simon & Garfunkel Bookends is really good. I have a friend who's a big fan of them and gave it a big thumbs up.

There was a big discussion here a few weeks back back the MFSL RUSH compared to the 20 bit remasters. I give the edge to MFSL on 2112 & Moving Pictures. The 20 bit remasters have the treble and bass boosted a little too much for me. The WHOOSH at the beginning of the 20 bit remaster of 2112 makes my ears hurt so bad I can't even hear the rest of the album. But the MFSL Signals has a verse cut out of The Weapon. And sounds a little muddy to me overall. Maybe the treble & bass boost wasn't as detrimental to me on this one on the 20 bit remaster.

I have Derek and the Dominoes - Layla and its a pretty good transfer of an album that isn't exactly a high tech recording.

Few more: Joe Satriani - Surfing with the Alien, Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever & Damn the Torpedoes (glad Sckott did a comparison of this to the HDCD so I don't have to)

[Matt]

I've never heard the standard CD before, but the first MFSL disc I ever heard was "Strong Persuader" by Robert Cray and I thought it sounded amazing (used to belong to my library, and until it was "lost").

I really like U2's "Joshua Tree" and "War" on MFSL, too, better than the remastered Best Of.

I like John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton on MFSL, too. Really warm, maybe too warm for some people's tastes, but I think it suits Clapton's fat, creamy sounding guitar really well.

Murmur and Reckoning are also great, as mentioned.

People tell me Steve did a better job on the Elton John material, but the MFSL versions are very, very close to the sound of the tapes, better than the MCA, the Polygram/Rockets, etc...I can definitely imagine the stuff sounding even better with Steve's vacuum-tube mastering, though.

[buster193]

I have Elton John GBYBR, Eric clapton live(2cd) don mclean American pie.


I had pink floyd the wall(too mellow)def leppard hysteria,rod steward every picture. dave mason alone together.

Aluminum titles: flying burrito brothers,Dillard/clark,Waylon jennings 2fer.

[John Buchanan]

DISRAELI GEARS!!! :o

[Dave]

Ron,

Try and get Steve's Madman Across The Water as it is better than the MFSL.

Other good MFSL's

Johnny Winter: Second Winter is really good
Steppenwolf: S/T, even Steve's version isn't as good and he's quoted as saying that they in fact did use the originals, MFSL that is
The Band: Music From Big Pink
Blind Faith: S/T UD1
Blood, Sweat & Tears: S/T UD1
Blue Oyster Cult: Agents Of Fortune (smiley face eq. ed but bearable)
The Carpenters: A Song For You UD1
Eric Clapton: Slowhand UD1
Robert Cray: Strong Persuader UD1 or 2
Cream: Disraeli Gears UD1
The Firesign Theatre: any of them
Peter Frampton: Frampton Comes Alive
Ted Hawkins: The Next Hundred Years
Howlin' Wolf: The Real Folk Blues
Jon Michael Jarre': Oxygen (if ya like this sorta thing)
Abert King: Born Under A Bad Sign (master tape damage or just not a very good master recording)
Huey Lewis And The News: Sports UD1
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Second Helping UD1 (To die for!)
John Cougar Mellencamp: Scarecrow
: Lonesome Jubilee
Alan Parsons Project: I Robot (Despite what Humorem says)
Tom Petty: Damn The Torpedos UD1
: Hard Promises UD1
: Full Moon Fever
Pink Floyd: Meddle UD1 ONLY!
: Dark Side Of The Moon UD1 ONLY!
: The Wall
The Police: Syncronicity UD1
Jimmy Reed: At Carnegie Hall UD1
Rush: 2112
: All The World's A Stage
: Moving Pictures ( I originally thought that the 20 bit remasters were close until I achieved proper polarity).
Cat Stevens: Tea For The Tillerman UD1
Supertramp: Crime Of THe Century UD1
: Breakfast In America UD1
Traffic: They're all pretty good
U2: They're all really good
Stevie Ray Vaughan: The Sky Is Cryin' (absolutely GREAT!)
Muddy Waters: Folk Singer
The Who: Who Are You UD1
: Quadraphenia UD1 (despite what Sckott says)
: Tommy UD1

Ron, the UD1 versions are always better, no exceptions so far, of course this is just MHO.

[lukpac]

Originally posted by Matt
I like John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton on MFSL, too. Really warm, maybe too warm for some people's tastes, but I think it suits Clapton's fat, creamy sounding guitar really well.

Eh...the last time I listened to that I thought the high end was lacking - not open enough. In some respects I actually prefer the (gasp) Jon Astley remaster.

[Sckott]

Originally posted by Dave
Ron,

Try and get Steve's Madman Across The Water as it is better than the MFSL.

Other good MFSL's

: Quadraphenia UD1 (despite what Sckott says)

(snip snip snip)


Crap. What did I say? Sheesh I forgot. I do own the UD1 and I wasn't that impressed w/it. If that's what cha mean, yeah, I did say that. (I hope)

Not like I don't pull it out occasionally.... :p I'm guilty of that.

Originally posted by lukpac


Eh...the last time I listened to that I thought the high end was lacking - not open enough. In some respects I actually prefer the (gasp) Jon Astley remaster.

Luke, you mean the STEREO/MONO Deram CD reissue (UK), correct?

[lukpac]

Originally posted by Sckott

Luke, you mean the STEREO/MONO Deram CD reissue (UK), correct?

That's the one.

[Dave]

Sckott,

You said you didn't really like it because of the smiley eq. thing.;)

[Matt]

Luke,

Have you tried the U.S. remaster from last year? I think it's stereo only with two bonus tracks. Haven't heard it myself, but curious to know how it sounds.

[Ronald]

One of my favorites is Joe Satriani "Surfing with the Alien"

[Cousin It]

Gold

Santana - Abraxas
Bobby Short - Live At The Cafe Carlyle
Bing Crosby - Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings
Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
Searchers - Meet The Searchers/Sounds Like Searchers
Willie Nelson - Shotgun Willie/Phases And Stages

Silver

Joe Cocker - Mad Dogs And Englishmen (2CD)
Eddie Hinton - Letters From Mississippi

[mcow1]

Moody Blues - In Search Of The Lost Chord

[Ronald]

How does the aluminum CD of "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" (MFCD 824) compare with the gold disk (UDCD 736)? I think that and Wakeman "Journey to the Center of the Earth" are the only disks stamped by MoFi in both gold and aluminum.

My guess is that any differences would be due to the A to D converters used during their respective eras, but it may be deeper than that.

[Humorem]

Originally posted by Ronflugelguy
MOFI GOLD CDS The only MOFI gold I own is Dark Side of the Moon, and I think the Lp, which I don't [own] at this time, is better.
You got that right!

Ah, but which MOFI Dark Side? There are about 10 of them! And I know the best one. And I'm not telling which one. but here's a hint: it's far from an early one.

[Matt]

Speaking of MFSL releases, anyone have the original Ultradisc (I) release of Innervisions? To my understanding, it uses the original master tape, unlike the recent remaster. Haven't been able to get my hands on one that isn't Ultadisc II.

[Ronald]

Here's some info from John Harp's site in an interview with Gregg Schnitzer. An eye opener about DSOM:

"There are a bunch of Pink Floyd collectors who'd kill me if I didn't ask this - Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon LP?

If I recall correctly, that one went out of production at right around 25,000 pieces. We didn't cut enough lacquers to go much past that and here's a piece of trivia for which I could get shot. Did you know that the Dark Side of the Moon master was ruined? Somebody put it on a recorder instead of a playback only mastering deck and a little piece of Super Tramp got dubbed onto the outro of Breath. Big secret, that. Stan had left the company so a redux wasn't gonna happen. Makes me seriously wonder where MFSL got the source for the Dark Side of the Moon CD. Hmmm. It would have had to have been a second generation safety or the digital master I made for the cassette run.

The cassette run master would've been suitable as it didn't have any gawd awful EQ done for the duplication. It was very close in master prep to what the vinyl sounded like with one significant difference. Want some cool trivia? Back in the early '80's digital was a bit unpredictable and flaky which is why we used a very expensive 1" video deck (BVH 1000) instead of a U-Matic type 3/4". I'd get these random ticks and pops which we affectionately called zits.

One night I sat in the studio listening to the DSOM digital copy and was horrified when I heard lots of low level clicks and zit like sounds. So I called my wife to tell her I'd be working till sunup as the approval copy had to go to Alan Parsons via counter-to-counter air ASAP. I turned the lights off so I wouldn't be distracted and sat there all night long with the first DAE-1100 editor and made a few hundred 1 millisecond edits to get rid of those zits I was hearing. Then I made an approval copy cassette for Alan, sent it on its way and went home to sleep for a day or two.

A couple of days later we got a heated call from Mr. Parsons wanting to know, "What the f**k did you do to the master?" I explained that I had done the best mastering job I could and that it compared very favorably to the vinyl and, in fact, I thought it sounded better than the vinyl. Was there some problem? He said that when he had mixed DSOM the desk (console) drove him nuts because every time he muted or unmuted a track or switched an EQ in or out there would be a resulting click or pop. There was no technology to remove these artifacts so he and the band decided to just live with it. He said, "How the hell did you get rid of those pops. I love it!" He was left with a patient explanation that it was proprietary. Man, I almost soiled my pants only to find out that he was very impressed.

So, if you compare the CD with a vinyl disc and those pops and clicks are gone then there's the answer as to which tape was used. Once you know what to listen for they are easy to spot as they occur when parts go in or out or the EQ changes."

[Humorem]

Originally posted by Dave

Eric Clapton: 461 Ocean Boulivard
Cat Stevens: Tea For The Tillerman UD1
Supertramp: Crime Of THe Century

I have to take strong exception to these three, sorry!

Clapton: mud. No version sounds this dull, record or CD. How can that be right?

Cat Stevens: an unmitigated disaster. New version kills it except for no top end, like all the rest of the Cat remasters, which means LPs or nothing for this artist. The MOFI Teaser is every bit as bad, but this time they went for the murky sound.

Supertramp. A good LP just kills the MOFI CD, which has the boosted top end their records do, only not quite as bad.

IMO? I know the second two albums very well, as well as anybody on the planet. I've heard fifty versions of both of them on LP. MOFI is not the way to go on either one of them, CD or LP, especially LP, as Tea on MOFI UHQR is the single worst sounding half speed mastered record in the history of the world. IMO.:)

[Humorem]

Originally posted by Matt
Speaking of MFSL releases, anyone have the original Ultradisc (I) release of Innervisions? To my understanding, it uses the original master tape, unlike the recent remaster. Haven't been able to get my hands on one that isn't Ultadisc II.

Ultradisc two, ultradisc shmoo. It's one of the best, if not THE best MOFI CDs ever and you should get whatever you can find of it and listen for the creaking chair effects and other nuances that are on that tape, or the guy breathing so heavily as he plays the guitar on Visions.

[Dave]

Humorem,

It's great that you feel so strongly about music. I do to.

I, unlike yourself have never had the experience of listening to high end vinyl on a high end system. My MFSL opinions are only based on cd recordings listening on a high end system over the last 4 years.

My motto is: If you can show me a better cd and prove it, I'll buy it!

You'll notice that my list has been scaled back a little bit and after listening, 461 Ocean Boulevard is not there. Tea For The Tillerman is kind of murkey and it sounds like bottom end added eq., but I don't really mind it that way as opposed to over-kill ear splitting high end.

Do you know of a better cd recording of Supertramp: Crime Of The Century, as I'd love to get it?

[Humorem]

No, but I could make an amazing CDR from my British original LP!

CD is not a good medium for music that has kinda tweaked up upper midrange and no lower midrange. Exacerbates the inherent weaknesses there.

Save your money. Get a cheap table like lots of the people on this forum have. It will still be more musical than any CD version, IMO.

By the way, I consider Crime the greatest concept album of all time. Is that strong enought for ya?

And try the new Tea on CD. You'll have your MOFI on ebay faster than you can say "where do the children play"!

And if you find a good record, you'll be able to hear the tape hiss on the recording, along with all the missing harmonics. Wee!