MoFi controversy

The latest in this debacle is that an unnamed (but well known) Mofi executive called a Youtuber to try and get him on Mofi’s side, but ended up blasting Michael Fremer and made implications that it was the buyers fault for misinterpreting!

The original video was quite long and rambling, but I edited down the revelatory bits to a couple of minutes and put a comic spin on it, in case anyone is interested.

Fremer saw it and emailed me and seemed pretty shocked at what Mofi said about him. (there is a link to original Youtuber’s video where talks about the call in full.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17qVmjz_ZkY

Some background - I own about 6 one steps and bought into the hype even though the file of the Paul Simon one step that Fremer posted sounded far inferior to playing the SACD rip, so needless to say I’m no longer an MFSL buyer, and cancelled 4 upcoming pre orders, since I prefer to play digital sources as files/DSD files rather than LP.

 

Tonight I brought out my copy of ’Monk’s Dream’ on the ’One Step’. I wanted to hear how the sound of the piano came through, as this instrument has always sounded a little off when sourced from a digital file, at least to my ears. The SQ of the piano was still exceptional, and in no way did i hear what I usually hear with a digital re-creation! This is either not a DSD file transfer of this piece, or MoFi have somehow managed to do something that really no others have managed in this regard. Doesn’t excuse their lack of transparency when it comes to the digital aspect of some (all?) of these releases, but it is interesting nonetheless!

To minimize confusion the compression that I am addressing and is a bigger issue than if MoFi is using digital or not.

 

The album is done since decades and in some cases the artist is also at this point dead and gone.

Someone (in my book the record labels) is taking those ready and finished songs especially when digital we went to CD (and computers) "The issue garnered renewed attention starting in the 1990s with the introduction of digital signal processing capable of producing further loudness increases."

It is easy to just run over a set of songs in a computer and adding "loudness" at a disired and set level:

Super Trouper diffrent compression levels

 

So in the above example we see the exactly the same song with different compression levels on different releases.

That is EXACTLY the problem!

We are mislead to think "that is the same mix and THEREFORE the same version that I am comparing between two different formats." (I am guilty of the same mistake in the past.)

Yes, it is true that it is the "closest" we can get but it doesn’t mean it is the same "version" when the song probably is more compressed on one of the formats and we do not know. Only the record labels that has supplied the files to the pressing plants (LP/CD for example).

 

Now if we understand that.

Then we can proceed with in this example MoFi. When they digitize the master band they are in the computer.

If they offer us THAT copy to us then that would be the best and the closest we would get to the original master tapes EVER.

That is the ultimate version for consumers.

BUT..

Consumers think that they just take that 4xDSD and convert it to DSD (SACD) or CD (PCM). If they would so then we would be happy.

That is NOT happening and that is not what we get when we buy the MoFi SACD. (Besides that they has cleaned up artifacts and other issues from the tape (Ex. tape hiss))

They of course add dynamic range compression (loudness) as we see above to their choosing degree.

That is a bigger issue that record labels DO NOT TELL US LEVEL OF DYNAMIC RANGE COMPRESSION. That they treated/used on the files that they supply/giving the files to the pressing plants (LP/CD).

 

So it is a far smaller issue if MoFi use digital or not.

This issue has brought down superior formats by the record labels and they indirectly steered and manipulated us towards inferior formats in my humble opinion.

And NOBODY talks about it like nobody talked about about that MoFi used digital in 2015/16 when they started for example one steps.

 

Maybe it is to complex topic and it is not helping that people talk about normal compression and compressors in the recording studio while creating the mix. That just clouding the water.

When it is after that the song is completely done and sent of to a data storage under labels control.

If that is deliberately or any agenda behind to do that I don’t know. But as we all can see in the link above, it is proof in the pudding that when we can clearly hear AND measure AND see that this is the case. Someone (read labels) add variation degree of compression on different releases and most likely labels don’t want us to focusing on that. That would result in a bigger debacle for all music lovers and not just for them that has bought MoFi pressings.

 

One-Steps suddenly seem drastically overpriced. I don't own any of them. Though if they were fully analog I would have no problem with their charging that amount. My small collection, 10-ish, MoFi albums are absolutely fabulous values to me. Transparency is key, they need to do drastically better in that regard, and then the market set the new prices. Regardless of their source the "regular" ones I've bought were well worth the $40-45, on average, that I paid. They are all phenomenal sounding. 

I wonder if we will see a lot of mofi UDS1 vynil for sale less than $100 album. I will still buy Bill Evans Sunday at Village vanguard UDS1 for $125 used in good condition, digital or not. I heard this album it’s phenomenal.