Steve Hoffman (audio engineer): Difference between revisions
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==The Picks' overdubs== |
==The Picks' overdubs== |
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In February 1984, Hoffman sent what are known as safety copies of several Buddy Holly master recordings to [[ |
"In February 1984, MCA mastering engineer Steve Hoffman sent what are known as safety copies of several Buddy Holly master recordings to [[John Pickering]] of The Picks who took them to Sound Masters studios in Houston, TX. There, the reunited group overdubbed their new vocal parts onto at least 60 recordings, and sent them back to Hoffman at MCA. The general consensus seems to be that, with Hoffman's influence, MCA would've issued these "new" recordings as an album[22], perhaps to commemorate the 25th year since Holly's passing. This however, was not to be. |
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Not long afterwards, Steve Hoffman was fired by MCA, for, among other things, stealing master tapes of Holly material and attempting to sell them to, among other parties, the Norman Petty estate. A short time later, a raid produced the stolen tapes which were then returned to MCA. With these plans having fallen through, Pickering decided to take matters into his own hands and go the self-release route. |
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These recordings slowly made their way to the public on privately pressed albums like "The Original Chirping Sound" and "Buddy Holly Not Fade Away". In 1992, John Pickering approached Viceroy Records to arrange a deal for major nationwide distribution of these overdubbed recordings, who hit a brick wall when MCA made it clear that Pickering did not have proper legal clearance to release such recordings[22]. Andy McKaie, an executive at MCA, has stated that Pickering has never bothered to ask for licensing on the songs. To this day, budget labels release these recordings despite the fact that they are, depending on how one looks at it, bootlegs or pirates. |
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==References== |
==References== |
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{{Reflist}} |
{{Reflist}} |
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Revision as of 18:54, 23 October 2012
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Steve Hoffman (born John Stephen Oteri on December 3, 1956, in Los Angeles, California) is a mastering engineer who is considered to be one of the pioneers of back catalog reissues in the CD era.[citation needed]
Biography
In his early years Hoffman worked in radio and earned a degree in mass communications from California State University, Northridge. During the late '70s, Hoffman joined MCA Records as catalog research and development coordinator. For the next decade, he was responsible for compiling hundreds of budget cassette releases for MCA's Special Products division. His primary focus was on jazz and big band recordings.
In 1985 he worked on a series of releases aimed at the CD market which bore the title "From the Original Master Tapes." This series included works of artists such as Buddy Holly, Bill Haley and John Coltrane. The following year saw Hoffman dismissed from MCA for reasons which remain the subject of much controversy.[citation needed] To this day, Hoffman has never again worked on any projects involving material owned by MCA, Universal and the family of labels it controls. Since his departure from MCA, he has plied his trade with the Dunhill Compact Classics label (the name of which, ironically enough, was copped from a formerly MCA-associated label) and Audio Fidelity. Both labels owned by Marshall Blonstein, former vice president of Ode Records.
Hoffman has also worked with other labels on occasion, including Analogue Productions, Rural Rhythm, Mullet Records and S&P.
Approach
His approach to remastering varies, but generally his method of transferring the tapes is just that - turning on the DAT tape machines and transferring them with no tweaking whatsoever. However, sometimes he has to make adjustments, dependent on the quality of the tape source and equalization choices of the mixing engineer. He attains this by usually avoiding compression, limiting, and noise reduction; and by adding "colorations" via tube gear (using from one to five layers of distortion)[1], and/or using subtractive equalization.[1] [2][3][4]
The Picks' overdubs
"In February 1984, MCA mastering engineer Steve Hoffman sent what are known as safety copies of several Buddy Holly master recordings to John Pickering of The Picks who took them to Sound Masters studios in Houston, TX. There, the reunited group overdubbed their new vocal parts onto at least 60 recordings, and sent them back to Hoffman at MCA. The general consensus seems to be that, with Hoffman's influence, MCA would've issued these "new" recordings as an album[22], perhaps to commemorate the 25th year since Holly's passing. This however, was not to be.
Not long afterwards, Steve Hoffman was fired by MCA, for, among other things, stealing master tapes of Holly material and attempting to sell them to, among other parties, the Norman Petty estate. A short time later, a raid produced the stolen tapes which were then returned to MCA. With these plans having fallen through, Pickering decided to take matters into his own hands and go the self-release route.
These recordings slowly made their way to the public on privately pressed albums like "The Original Chirping Sound" and "Buddy Holly Not Fade Away". In 1992, John Pickering approached Viceroy Records to arrange a deal for major nationwide distribution of these overdubbed recordings, who hit a brick wall when MCA made it clear that Pickering did not have proper legal clearance to release such recordings[22]. Andy McKaie, an executive at MCA, has stated that Pickering has never bothered to ask for licensing on the songs. To this day, budget labels release these recordings despite the fact that they are, depending on how one looks at it, bootlegs or pirates.
References
External links
- Steve Hoffman Website
- Steve Hoffman Interview Archive
- Video clips of Steve Hoffman from HeadFest 2007
- In Search of the Holy Hi-Fi Grail JazzTimes, March 2007.
- The Mastering Master Metro Times, 4 April 2007