thanks to my friends

Bad Company - 2006 Bad Company
Audio Fidelity Gold HDCD AFZ024
Steve Hoffman's Remaster



Review by Gautam Baksi
Bad Company's 1974 self-titled release stands as one of the most important and accomplished debut hard rock albums from the '70s. Though hardly visionary, it was one of the most successful steps in the continuing evolution of rock & roll, riding on the coattails of achievement from artists like the Eagles and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. From the simple electric guitar lick on "Can't Get Enough" to the haunting bassline in "Bad Company" and the fast beats of "Movin' On," Bad Company exemplified raw rock & roll at its best. Erupting out of an experimental period created by the likes of Pink Floyd, Bad Company signified a return to more primal, stripped-down rock & roll. Even while labelmates Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy and IV featured highly acclaimed, colorful album artwork, Bad Company's austere black and white record cover stood out in stark contrast. Six years later, AC/DC used the same idea on their smash Back in Black. Throughout the 35-minute album, Paul Rodgers' mesmerizing and gritty vocals hardly vary in tonal quality, offering a perfect complement to Mick Ralphs' blues-based guitar work. Several songs include three-chord verses offset by unembellished, distorted choruses, filled rich with Rodgers' cries. Bad Company is an essential addition to the rock & roll library; clearly influential to '70s and '80s hard rock bands like Tom Petty, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Boston.

stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=72876
Steve Hoffman:
The Bad Company album was recorded 16 track Dolby A and mixed (mostly at Olympic Sound, Barnes) to NON-DOLBY 15 ips 1/4" inch tape. The engineers at Olympic disliked Dolby A for mixing and instead chose to "slam" their mixes to +10 above 0 VU level, using natural tape saturation as a "limiter" and leaving the actual tape hiss well below. They did the same for WHO'S NEXT and many other albums of that era with pretty good result. However, the actual "sound" of the mixes for Bad Company is quite soft and laid back. This was taken care of in the vinyl days by adding a lot of midrange EQ during record cutting to give the music some slam. Now, the way that the current CD remaster handled that was to digitally compress the songs and add a lot of EQ to gain some punch that was actually not on the mixes but people expected over the years after wearing out their LP's.
My way to handle this was different. I like to do a little polishing but leave the inherent warmth of the original mixes intact, even though you lose some of the (digitally enhanced) punch of the current CD remaster.



This is why the Audio Fidelity Gold CD sounds like it is at a lower level on the first song. It's not really lower, it just has a much wider dynamic range. Actually, it hits digital zero several times on each song. The way I work it is this:
I play the song through and find the loudest "peak" in the song. I adjust the knobs so that this peak is at zero and then all the rest of the song falls in to place. It just so happens that a few guitar peaks on the first song are louder than most of the rest of the song. Most mastering engineers would just shave off those peaks and boost the level of the song up so it sounds "louder", like they do on TV commercials. The level doesn't really go past digital zero in either case but the ear is fooled by the compressed version into thinking it's somehow "better" because it's louder.



The bottom line is: I chose to leave the dynamic range intact on all of the songs. It took so long to get these tapes, why screw it up cutting off all of the dynamics of the original mixes digitally?
So, turn your stereo up a bit louder and all will be well. Remember, watch your level on the song "Bad Company". The low level beginning could fool you.
If you have any other questions, ask them here while I'm in the mood. In a few weeks the answers will get hazy like the math problems you studied for on your school final..

уже качаю, спасибо!
jwrai - это ты? все никак не могу тебя в друзья занести

нет это не он - тебе показалось!

понимаю, конспирация

jwrai - это не он. Но обязан быть в друзьях.

понял
kokiku, DP нормально пришло?

Юр, а вот для прикола - взять качнуть обычный ремастер и в графическом виде сравнить с этим вариантом от Хоффмана! И дать проанализировать тому, кто не слышал ни один из них - то есть дать ощущения исключительно от картинок!

runo ещё инфы нашел

stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=72876&page=4
Because of their association with (Led Zeppelin Manager) Peter Grant, a unique opportunity arose for them when it came time to record that classic first album in November 1973. "We were bursting at the seams to get into the recording studio," says Rodgers. "Led Zeppelin had a mobile studio together at Headley Grange all ready to go, but they were delayed for two weeks. Peter Grant told us that if we were quick, we could probably use the studio to lay a couple of tracks down. We steamed in and put the entire album down. Headley Grange was very atmospheric. We had the drums set up in the hallway and the guitars in the living room. We did interesting things like placing the vocal microphone way out in the fields for the song 'Bad Company.' We recorded that track late at night underneath a fall moon."

Ну теперь вы понимаете - как мог бы звучать Physical Graffiti если бы его дали в руке мистера Хоффмана?!

Thank you

Послушал. Спасибо. Но я бы назвал группу "Sad Company".