Dire Straits on Super Audio cd Part II

 After a four year gap we return to this topic with a new entry.

Dire Straits bowed out in style when they released On Every Street in 1991 some 6 years on from the massive selling Brothers In Arms which was both the first big selling compact disc being used to promote that format and the first in this series of Dire Straits albums issued on sacd in 2013.

They'd taken their time since the knockout success of Brothers In Arms, waiting six years to deliver a follow-up which would satisfy fans of their inimitable sound. 

Mark Knopfler's dusky tones weave many a tale, and there's that pervading sentimental mood hanging over the record like a Dire Straits album should have, but there's also some of those Southern boogie rhythm sections to lock onto, not least on the drawn out splendour of 'Calling Elvis'. 

Remastered by Rob Lo Verde at Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs, this has a much better sound stage and dynamics than the stock Vertigo/Warner Bros issue this released a few days ago joins the remainder of the collection.

Dire Straits on Super Audio CD

The Great Mofi Records Scandal

After the last few weeks of serious politics on here we go back to one of the old mainstays of this blog from the very beginning, music, and specialty record labels.

Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs otherwise known as Mofi was first established in 1977 in the US as the premier company for issuing high quality reissues of titles because while many of the major labels such as Columbia, Capitol, MCA and RCA had re-issue labels, quite often they used copies of tapes in varying conditions, in the case of Capitol, hacked songs off to save royalties and used shoddy recycled vinyl to press from.

It wasn't unknown for those pressings to be very noisy too more so than discs pressed in the UK or Germany for instance.

The original company ran until around 1998 making mainly lp records although the late 1980's and 90's saw some 24 karat gold cds including a pioneering series of two on one titles and they were first off the mark to issue Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road on a single cd.

After a hiatus brought on through it folding, the label was bought by Music Direct, an Illinois, U.S.A. hifi distributor and shop continuing with heavy weight "audiophile" lps and a mixture of gold cds that were phased out around 2012 and Super Audio cds which what the current cd offering is with both regular and sacd layers.

Historically all lp issues were mastered and cut from tape provided by the majors under licence that would restrict quantity and sales period to minimize impact their own sales and the cd product mastered and pressed for that.

It appears after a major ruckus in the hifi community to have been revealed this month that from around 2008 a high proportion of records were cut with the tapes copied to a high quality digital system (DSD) on location at the major labels facility and that was used to master and cut lps even though the packaging made no reference to it, just droning on about their all analogue mastering chain.

This did not just include their regular lp series but very limited "One Step" releases that have  simpler process for making stampers to press the discs, cut at 45 rpm and presented in big boxes currently selling around $125 (£175) often selling out quickly.

The second hand prices of them are often quite high so Santana's Abraxas from 2016 often goes for around $2,000 or more and more or less everyone thinks it's the best ever copy.

Thing is people who pony up over $100 for a record tend to be hifi nerds who love the romance of an all analogue product believing it to be the most truest form and they are avid collectors.

That digital step doesn't matter to someone paying around $25 and many new releases from groups like Music on Vinyl often are as for instance are the current Beatles, Stones and Abba  vinyl editions.

I'm not opposed to digital sources on vinyl remembering buying "digital" classical lps on Decca and EMI Angel amongst others and having some of the DSD sourced Rolling Stones titles but to me the issue was with them you know it was from digital.

Mofi flat out lied about it in the promotional material and on the jackets plus their is footage even from 2017 showing staff claiming discs to be analogue when only this week under pressure they have published their sources for an increasing by the day number of titles and the one mentioned WAS digitally sourced.

Yesterday as the anger mounted over ten days the following was issued on Twitter and a in modified form on their website:

Abraxas, that super rare and raved over One Step IS from a digital transfer so whatever the all analogue protagonists think digital does sound very good enabling great care to be taken to get things like exact tape azimuth and dolby noise reduction alignment spot on song by song, reel by reel which certainly wasn't the case in vinyls heyday on that digital transfer and be mastered back at their own facility in California on to the lacquer to press the record from.

Sony Music who own the Abraxas tapes seldom allows their tapes to be sent to any other label supplying dsd files or offering access to tapes only at their facilities and this is a growing trend.

The issue was honesty and trust, put very simply and in the future (can we ditch "going forward" for the tried and trusted older expression please?) new releases will have more information so at least you'll know how it has been mastered and cut from.

Other labels like Analogue Productions will still continue mainly doing tape based mastering for the purists although for me its always been about the best sound but this explosion of anger is leading to greater transparency from specialty reisse labels and that frankly is well overdue.

We have the right to know how our favourite records we spend top dollar on are sourced, mastered and cut from.

 

Aretha Franklin

After last weeks stormy weather, at last we have some sunshine this week so before I take a break, here's this weeks entry.
The 50's thru the 70's were for many the heyday of Soul - no not that  R&B as in Rap and [insert word] stuff they try to pass off as "Black Music" today but rootsy soul delivered with conviction (rather than having one!) from folks straight out of Gospel singing.
One of the finest examples you can ever hope to hear of that is the recordings of Aretha Franklin during her long period  at Atlantic.

A few weeks ago Mobile Fidelity Inc of Illinois re-issued this stereo compilation of hers from 1969 with a good number of her early hits from when she left Columbia who didn't really know how to use her abilities.
Because of that, it does miss a few gems of hers from the early 70's however in the opinion of many this Super Audio cd that is also playable on regular cd players, has the best ever sounding stereo versions of these early recordings such as Respect, Chain Of Fools and I say A Little Prayer that simply as a soul fan I have to say you really need to hear.
Strongly recommended. Also note the Rhino "Queen Of Soul" 4 cd box set can be had cheaply featuring many mono versions and much of her output to 1976.

Head Games

Well the term "Head Games" sometimes covers the kind of games some folk play  it has been and may  even apply given just how long from announcement to issuing these discs have been.
You might recall the first two albums had been re-issued by the specialty label Mobile Fidelity in the form of super audio cds that also play on regular players from the 'original master tapes'.
Originally issued in 1979 on lp, cassette and 8 track (still have mine!) it was Foreigner's reaction to the criticism of their rock being too smooth and commercial and an answer to the English new wave being somewhat more edgier something hinted at in the cover that remains at least with me just a little disturbing

The album features the singles Head Games, Dirty White Boy which did produce some allegations of racism (misguided imho) and Love On The Telephone. One criticism of it is the sound where producer Roy Thomas Baker had a sound that involved getting a dirty feel featuring distorted drums so while this version is less harsh in part because digital mastering has improved over the years, it remains rough round the edges.

After a lineup change, in 1981 the band issued 4 which is a play on the fact it was their fourth album and it was one of several top selling hard rock albums of 1981/2 sitting aside Reo Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity, Journey's Escape and AC/DC's For Those About To Rock
It also sold extremely well in the UK aided by the popularity of  the 45 "Waiting For  A Girl Like You" although Juke Box Hero also was a big worldwide seller.
1981 also was a format transition year so while it was issued on lp and cassette it was briefly issued on 8 track and also in Europe the original cassette was re-issued with a higher quality Chrome dioxide issue as people started to buy more tapes for car and walkman usage.
It also was one of the first cds I bought in 1986 with a period green 'target' crosshair pattern on the top layer.
This new super audio cd is a bit better sounding although a friend of mine informed me the High Resolution files from HDTracks recently put out sound better.
Both discs come in a gatefold mini lp style presentation with full insert featuring lyrics with the disc held in a lint free pouch

Candy-O

It's been a long time in the making near enough 22 months since I ordered this cd when it's release was announced but on September 13th it finally comes out on gold mini lp style cd and 180 gram vinyl. I first remember buying this in 1979 being mightily impressed with the debut album released June 1978 and it's clutch of singles that charted well in the UK. The lead off single on this album was Let's Go a perky little 'new wave' number with It's all I Can Do being the second going from memory. I really like Mobile Fidelity, the Chicago based re-issue labels work which frequently sounds much better than the regular cd or lp issues and am really looking forward to hearing this remastered. In case any doesn't know the model in the body stocking is Candy Moore.The new issue to me has judged the sound of the percussion about right as one of the signature sounds of producer Roy Thomas Baker's work is the forward highly miked drum sound that is hard to pull off without sounding harsh .
The original cd a red coloured top one from the early 80's was generally a very pleasant sounding one easily one the best Cars cds of the time but suffered from quite a lot of hiss and also has a haze over the upper treble suggesting to me this was a few generations removed from the original master tape. In 1999 Joe Gaswirt remastered the first three albums using HDCD encoding in the United States and these were not made available in Europe.I like Joe's work a lot but while it's plain he had better tapes, his version of Candy-O sounds harsh with a funny splashiness effecting the percussion a lot so wasn't as enjoyable as it should of been even though the 'attack' was better.
I'd say this new version marries the better tapes and attack of the HDCD issue with the better rendering of the drums as well as that general listenable nature and certainly is the best cd version I've ever heard.
Strongly recommended.

The Yes Album

This could be titled "The pitchfolks come out for Mofi" for the sheer drama a specialist cd reissue caused on one website and some of it's followers who believe only one Steve Hoffman alone can master a cd correctly and by sheer bad luck this was one he was scheduled to do but apparently Warner's messed up and Mofi got the license issuing it in May 2010.
To these folk this meant it HAD to be wrong and so off we went to find some proof to damn it even if it was like saying the pear wasn't up to scratch because it didn't resemble a much loved peach cos they're all fruit!
So the case for the prosecution submitted a Plum coloured label UK lp saying it had better dynamics as evidenced by waveforms that when you looked at them had mistakes in the axis scaling and forgetting that this cd issue has bass - loads of it - and obviously this would of itself make the lp which for those who heard was deficient of this important property look hotter.
The piece d'resistance was that this tape was a early Dolby A recording (a professional four banded noise reduction system) had no tones at the start which you use to calibrate the processor with and this is critical for getting the sound balance right as well as ensuring the noise reduction circuits aren't adding a pumping sound.
Mofi Engineer Rob LoVerde went to great pains to find out from the person who assembled the tapes what level he used to set this up so he'd get an exact match. Now this lp when you heard it had very obvious pumping and Rob's cd was well - faultless - in that department.
Several of us tried in vain to get this through but the sheep wouldn't listen, the site owner kept deleting favourable posts, nuking twice the thread and in the end it was padlocked!
What a flaming carry on, eh?

Anyway back to the music and my mini review published elsewhere as by the time I got mine the thread was locked!Tonality: Spot on with good low frequency extension and vocals projecting clearly out of the mix.Certainly better than my WG lp and the Gastwirt remastered tracks from Classic Yes. Subjectively it was like hearing Starship Trooper for the first time.
Dynamics. Pretty good overall with only part I've seen All Good People part (b) 'all good people' sounding slightly louder but maybe that's what it needed. No Dolby(tm) pumping, period - something I'm mighty glad about - and given no tones on the tape an A* to Rob for getting it right.
Packaging: Very good as a Mini lp fan.
Conclusion: Recommended.

Personally I feel if you dig a particular version of a recording that's dandy as everyone has their own ideas on what makes a good version - it's rare to have on e totally perfect in all respects - but just howling down stuff in a debate is disrespectful.

I also picked up this reissue from 2006 also on Mofi.

This one contains Heart of the Sunrise and Roundabout.  I love the sound quality on it.

The Doobie Bros on Mofi

Recently one of Americas greatest rock bands from the 70's The Doobie Brothers had a couple of their albums re-issued as a hybrid SACD and regular cd layered disc by Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs (Mofi) in Chicago USA.They are playable on all machines.

This title first released in 1972 features the tracks Jesus Is Just Alright, Rockin' Down Highway and Listen To The Music perhaps the best example ever of FM rock from the 70's with smooth vocals and first class musicianship this side of Steely Dan.

This album issued March 1973 is a long term favourite of mine having gone through 8 track tape, record (West German pressing) and the regular CD issued in the 90's.
It's an eclectic mix of hard rock, folk and soul that somehow just gels together seamlessly.Some even say it's their best studio album ever.
Amongst the eleven tracks it contains, Without You, China Grove and Long Train Running are the stand outs.

Presentation wise Mofi have gone for a mini lp style replicating much of the look of the original lp sleeves, put in a soft cd sleeve to keep it clean and the card sleeve is very tactile.
As for sound frankly I haven't heard these albums sound better in decades thanks to Rob LeVerde's work on carefully transferring the original analogue tapes to digital with very little noise and no digital glare or harshness creeping in.Strongly recommended.

Taking It To The Streets was originally issued in 1976 and this version came out in May 2010 on Mofi sounding bolder than ever although unlike the 2006 JPN edition it only has monochrome pictures for the gatefold.

In 2013 Stampede originally issued in 1975 was released by Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs and interestingly the original CD4 discrete quadraphonic mixes issues for all four albums have never had a commercial release not withstanding HD media such as sacd and dvd/blu-ray Audio have the capability and the capacity for it.