So you don't want to mention names here in case of a backlash? Maybe I misunderstood, but when you said hey man and the praising - were you referring to me? Didn't Hoffman bash Ezrin for his work on Destroyer Resurrected. That he could have done a better job. Are you high right now? You mentioned you only write this much when your mind is altered. The post seemed a little off.
Heh, I am not, but nah, you lost me here. "Hey Man and the Praising"? I don't recall saying that, but the next time I get stupid high and attempt a story, there's the title! (PS, fear not, because that will not be happening anytime soon, until it happens by complete fucking accident again, and let's all just hope my PC makes sure it crashes without anything saved again. But the title feels like a religious epic!)
But nah, PlayBack is obviously using a different name here for a reason and while that may be unrelated to SHF altogether, I just try and make sure not to "expose" that but I still always think of his other name and start to type that instead. It can't hurt, the whims of deletions and shit at SHF can change on a dime depending on somebody's mood that day. When you have approximately 438 mods like he does, y'never know.
As for Ezrin, what I remember is that Steve posted something about remastering Alice's
Billion Dollar Babies and Steve posted pics of the tapes. Bob joined up to tell Steve he must not have the actual original master then, because this was some tape he didn't recognize at all and the label notes seemed to indicate some crossfades were missing on this tape for some reason. He tells SH he needs to take this back and grab the EQ'd Vinyl Dub to use for a guide and the tape he knows to be
his true master tape. He even went on to describe exactly what the boxes should look like and some stuff to look for on the label so he could be sure to get the right ones without having to hunt forever. Nothing even remotely negative, just offering help to make Steve's CD sound the best it can and the way it always was supposed to.
Steve seemed to misunderstand Ezrin altogether even though I've never been in a recording studio in my life and I know exactly what he's telling him to do. Plus he even told him *why* he was telling him to get the LP dub. Surprisingly, I don't recall it being a particularly snotty response from Steve, but he responded to tell Ezrin that he refuses to master CDs from any EQ'd Vinyl Dub tape and has for his entire career, so he's going to use these "true masters." I think he made sure to slip in that he's mastered thousands of albums since the earliest days of CD. It came across as not the typical passive-aggressive dick Steve, but more like maybe he thought Ezrin didn't understand CD mastering that well and didn't know using a the vinyl dub tape is never a better option.
Ezrin remains polite in response, but he did seem sort of incredulous that he had to be explaining any of this to a fucking "famous" audiophile engineer in the first place. He tells Steve of course he didn't mean to use the EQ'D Vinyl Dub as the source tape. And kinda points out that, yeah, anyone would know using that for a CD transfer would be when a master is available. He again explained that he meant to listen to it, use it for your guide to correctly represent what the album is supposed to and always has sounded like. That vinyl dub is what it was
intended to sound like and represented the true final version. Steve had probably said something about how he was gonna bring out the intended sound better than ever before earlier in the thread, as he always does. Ezrin says something about if that's what you want to do, you NEED to hear the vinyl dub because it's the only tape that has the mix the way it was meant to be.
He then subtly reminds him that he's never, ever seen the tape Steve is using. (Note Steve didn't even acknowledge that part in his response) If you say you want this to sound the way the creators intended, you don't use this unknown tape, you go to Warner and find the one he explicitly described and then he'll have the right tape. Use THAT tape, you fucking dumbass (I wish he's said), and follow the mix of the vinyl and that's how you're get the correct intended sound with all the enhancement CD can provide.
He then went onto say something about admiring the intent of his "we preserve what the creator wanted" mantra, but just grabbing whatever tape you're given, and apparently not knowing enough to know that this wasn't the tape he should have been using but going ahead anyway is sort of the exact wrong way to do that. He recommended something like, the next time you're not 100% sure of something, you might want to contact the original producer and ask - He implied that Steve ought to know how to find 'em, they're not in hiding, and most of them will be more than happy to assist because they'll want to make sure that this new improved audiophile version actually
is using the tapes they intended at its best quality. You fucking moron.
But no, it didn't come off as mean as that really and he went on to say he's not trying to trash Steve's work at all and appreciated the hard work that it had gone into what he'd already done, but he got concerned when he saw the tape pics and just wanted to let him know they weren't the ones he needed.
And I don't think Ezrin ever posted again, but the thread stayed open long enough for people to start asking questions. Somebody asked something like "So what, you're saying Ezrin's lying?" Steve says of course he isn't. Bob just misunderstood poor ol' Stevie again. It happens so much! He says he talked to Ezrin on the phone and it's all okay that this tape box doesn't match what Ezrin says it should be, because that's just a silly mixup that happens all the time with old tapes. That part I'm sure is very well true, but was it this time?
Someone says Steve's response still leaves several questions hanging (they always do) and Steve asks how so? The guy reiterates that Bob fucking Ezrin keeps telling you this is a later-generation tape, he made the fucker, don't you think you might oughta listen to him?
That sent Stevie over the edge and he went on a tirade about how that guy's post is an insult to him personally and to the people at Warner and how dare you imply that I'm not right even though Ezrin says it ain't his, because I'm Steve Hoffman and you don't understand how hard I worked on this and Bob was wrong that box has the correct copy and the ONLY one so fuck you. Note that earlier Steve said he'd talked to Bob and they'd figured out it just happened to be an incorrect box but the right tape, no biggie. Now he's just told this guy that Ezrin was wrong and this is the right box, dammit, of course it is, I'm Steve Hoffman.
Then those pesky lawyers came back and this thread was just gonna have to be shut down. Man, those lawyers are everywhere! But fortunately it stayed up long enough to attract some posts kissing Steve's ass, one guy mentioning he knew it was gonna be trouble when he saw that troublemaker Ezrin first entered the thread, these people who recorded the albums are just always out to hassle Steve. Someone else insists Bob's obviously just trying to start drama and he has no right to contact Steve about this on a public forum, and downright unprofessional, and he should have emailed him or called him.
I dunno, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't try that first and got no response, or maybe he just figured like a sane person would that it's just an old rock album, it's not top secret info, so he saw the thread and saw the wrong tape and figured pointing it out would be fine, because if you were, y'know, a normal person, you'd go find those tapes he just described in detail and everyone would be happy. But that's for normal, rational people, not Steve Hoffman, mastering god. Hoffman had already done Ezrin's previous Alice records before, too, but with his comments about wondering why he didn't just ask, I'm assuming he didn't bother on any of the others either. I dunno how they sound, but maybe Ezrin had heard them and felt SH was getting them wrong so he'll just pop in to help this time and maybe warn the fans a bit too. I don't think he ever said anything about the previous three while he was there, though, so maybe not. Seems like if they had any complaints about those too he might have mentioned something, but I suppose "Hey, you're fucking this up. BTW, did I ever tell you that all those other ones are wrong too?" might have seemed a bit dickish.
But no, I've never heard anything about Hoffman knocking Ezrin over
Destroyer Resurrected. I'd try to find it, but if he did, he probably deleted it. (Yes, not just your posts will randomly disappear, sometimes Steve will talk smack on someone's work and then realize he probably shouldn't have posted that and poof. Not that I think they disappear because he realizes or cares that insulting the work of your peers on your forum where any criticism against your work is deleted is incredibly hypocritical and sort of just a shitty look anyway...nah, they disappear because he has a hard enough time getting shit now, he can't really afford to piss too many more people off, let's hope they didn't see it!
It would be an interesting comment to find for sure because I've never seen Steve mention KISS at all. There have been threads a'plenty asking for a Hoffman-mastered KISS album or two and plenty of people who all applaud the idea and think it would be one of AF's best-selling titles ever, whatever it was. But Steve's never commented at all in any of them, even though in other such threads where bands/albums are highly requested, he'll usually drop in at least once to say "We're trying" or "We've been looking into this" or "I already did it on an old DCC release." But he stayed silent on KISS, and that's because he couldn't do any of them if he wanted to and it was a guaranteed billion-seller. KISS is on Universal. Steve had that little problem with their MCA division back in the '80s that he pretends didn't happen. He hasn't been allowed near Universal anything for decades. Honestly, he freaks out when the very word "Universal" is mentioned in any context it seems.
When that huge
Halloween Blu-Ray box set came out recently, someone had commented on how it was a shame the TV cut of
Halloween II was SD-only. I mentioned that, yeah, unfortunately the film elements supposedly got lost in the big Universal vault fire a few years back, sucks. A few hours later I have this message sent to me by a mod: "Hey guys, if you want to talk about that, we'd all appreciate it if you did it in IM and not the public forums. It's just out of consideration for Steve and who he has to work with and all and needing to be on good terms with them."
I have no idea what that's even supposed to mean no matter exactly how I try to parse it. It's about a movie that been destroyed, Steve didn't work in film mastering anyway. And the barest mention of the fire itself, a highly reported story, is really just something kinda touchy what with Steve and who he works with and blah blah. The fuck? I don't think Steve has "had to work with" any Universal staff for quite some time now. But maybe he's sort of trying to imply that Steve's trying to get back in their good graces, so let's just be careful right now if it's cool. Well, I don't think that'll ever happen. They fired the guy for stealing Buddy Holly's original master tapes and he hasn't been given a chance to work on a Universal-owned product of any sort since like 1985. Does this sound like a guy they're suddenly keen on rehiring for some reason? Was there a meeting were a grim-faced man stood up and said "Gentlemen, I'm afraid our entire CD division will collapse soon without drastic action. This graph chart, however, shows that our CDs were selling incredible numbers in 1985 and this Hoffman fellow was mastering them. We must have him back!" "Yes, but sir, he..." "We need Hoffman and we need him NOW! You tell him he can have Buddy Holly's goddamn corpse itself this time, I don't care NOW GO!"
So...yeah. Honestly the fact that a mod seems to be vaguely admitting any kind of problem between the two seems like something anyone who wanted to stay a mod would never even attempt to discuss or reference at all. Did he just slip and say too much? I wound up replying to the PM, just saying oh no problem, and telling him that I had been wrong about
Halloween II TV being lost in the Universal Fire after all anyway and it looks like Universal lost 'em a long time before that. Yeah, I dunno, I guess I was thinking specifically mentioning "Universal" might get him to say more, but nah, no response.
The third option is my favorite though. Even if for some reason he was re-establishing contacts with them, why would this fire matter at all? It's way, way after his time at Uni, what would it possibly have to do with working with Steve again? There were some music masters lost in the fire too I think, but again, so? This leads me to what I choose to believe he was trying to say. That's right folks, it was Steve-O who snuck in and burned that fucker down, decades of spite built slowly in exchange for a flame that would rise quickly! "If I can't have those tapes, I'll burn them all! I win, Uni! I WIIIINNN!" This poor mod must have known about it but has been forced to keep silent. But one day seeing my vague passing reference finally broke him, and he could not live with this lie any longer, so a vague message is sent to a random user and he feels some peace. For now.
I dunno, anybody got a take on what that mod message means? I feel like the fire one is actually more plausible than the others happening.
As for these super-long writings of late, this is kind of more how I
really write when a subject interests me at all. It's usually I just wind up abandoning it, because who'll fucking care to read all this shit, or by the time I post I've just trimmed everything down to nothing. All these pills really do is make me actually focus on whatever it is I'm writing and so instead I keep going where normally I'd give up or highly shorten it. But yeah, these recently-appearing touchstones such as, I dunno, the weird little detours into things that don't seem connected to the main topic at first and then wrap back around to it after all; the hunt up and include as much information I can get if it seems like it's a key component of the subject stuff; the raising of a whole bunch of issues, questions, or opinions all in one big go to give anyone interested in responding a whole lot of angles to tackle if they choose; throwing it random bits of pointless-but-interesting trivia bits; whatever else I've been doing in these long posts. That's the shit I normally just won't bother writing, or I'll decide to delete out.
But I'm weird in that I actually
like a lengthy, detailed read on a given subject on forums. Not everybody needs to, not every post deserves it, and fuck knows a bunch of mine get way too out of hand. But often I can make a conscious attempt to keep things short, but then five minutes after you post you remember something you forgot to say, and then later you've got yet more to say or you realize something you said doesn't make sense the way you wrote it. Yeah, you can just reply with that stuff, but if I just start writing without worrying much about the length, you get enough time to think about it and get a lot of that stuff in the first time. I love when I'll run across a long-ass post on SHF or something that's being written by a guy who's clearly fascinated by some aspect of his topic and often that can come through to the reader. Others won't even attempt to read a lengthy piece even if they might already be curious about the subject, they got other shit to do. Me, I've read long threads about artists I don't like or will probably just never even listen to, for instance, if I can get into the writer's head and he can make me understand a bit of why this thing is important or interesting to them. And sometimes I'll have shit to do too, but instead whatever I'm reading is holding me there.
I'm not saying anybody's learning a single damn thing that matters or looking at something in a different light than before from my stupid long articles, but lately it's just been more a matter of me saying "Fuck it, I'm just gonna go with it for a minute." Maybe a quick final checkover to change something that seems confusing or get rid of redundancy and whatnot. Whatever, worth a try.
I'd say it's been doing the Dreamcast stuff that got me back into this, because for some of those I'd just keep finding more and more information that, to me, was interesting enough to include or wouldn't make as much sense to discuss it in a separate post, and I'd get these things that I really just
couldn't trim without losing something I wanted to keep. Other times with the DC stuff I'm struggling all the way through to find
anything interesting to say about a game the reader isn't playing and barely come up with just enough to call it good. (Honestly, that whole DC Project isn't working much and I don't know why exactly. Writing silly reviews for games and hunting down obscure stories or trivia about companies and all that shit used to be my basic function on the Internet and I figured even though it had been 15 years I'd probably figure out some kind of groove to how to handle it fairly quickly, but not yet. Oh well.
As for the...story? Thing... Your guess as good as mine. These pills don't do shit except speed me up and focus in (too much occasionally), so whatever the hell was coming out of there is kinda just always in there. Isn't
that a fucking terrifying thought? I'm gonna say that was mostly the product of a brain running on not enough sleep, an odd sense of humor, and just running loose with something stupid I didn't even remotely understand to see what happens. I really, really wish I hadn't forgotten all of the fucking jokes and gags it had. Sigh.
So there, this is way way too long and I'm not gonna bother with an edit though I know I should, but I think I've covered all multiple bases that I could have and addressed every question or comment in one spot, even if I do know there's certain sections of rambling mess here but fuck it, I'm tired.