"School's Out" - Limited Edition Audio Fidelity Gold CD!

[kosciuskouk]

Re-Masters are not for me..........always prefer the music to sound as old as it is, not an up-to-date-version ........if you know what i mean.

Bit like alot of albums sound far superior on Vinyl rather than Cd's (not just Alice). IMHO

[Shoesalesman]

Re-Masters are not for me..........always prefer the music to sound as old as it is, not an up-to-date-version ........if you know what i mean.

I do know what you mean... and I agree.

[RemarkablyInsincere]

Re-Masters are not for me..........always prefer the music to sound as old as it is, not an up-to-date-version ........if you know what i mean.

Bit like alot of albums sound far superior on Vinyl rather than Cd's (not just Alice). IMHO

I understand what you're saying... in fact I feel the same way.... and because you feel that way, this SCHOOL'S OUT release is something you SHOULD pick up because it's exactly what you want.

If you read the Stevehoffman.tv forums you'd find that the utmost priority is being faithful to the original material along with sound quality. I appreciate good sound more than the average person but these people over on his forums are hardcore. Steve has achieved almost deity status over there for his work, it's that good. Of course, the better your equipment, the more you'll appreciate his work.

Steve does a lot of vinyl stuff too... and he goes to extraordinary lengths in research along to to deliver great product. Among his recent releases is a vinyl Fleetwood Mac RUMOURS release where Steve listened to pretty much every pressing ever released of the album. Read that thread to see just how far he'll go to deliver stuff faithful to the original material or even surpassing original pressings (http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showt ... p?t=112214)

Here's a couple interviews from Steve that are quite informative about his mastering philosophies and techniques.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/dhinterviews/HoffFAQ1.htm
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/dhinterviews ... gazine.htm
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/dhinterviews ... imes07.htm

Sadly, most of the CDs that are released nowadays are compressed (loud with no dynamic range) and "bright" (lots of treble) to the point of hurting your ears..... go listen to the deluxe edition of BDB and WTMN. Not horrible but hardly great... a bit too bright for my tastes. Some of this isn't noticeable on cheap equipment but if you have even mid-level stuff it becomes apparent.

You won't find that sort of thing on this gold CD... this will be an audiophile calibre release.

I'd be beside myself if he did the rest the ACG era material and/or some early Alice solo stuff. If this sells well enough, perhaps he'll get that chance.

[Evan442]

lookin forward to it. the ACG stuff on CD sounds horrible...listen to abolut 1:30 into EIGHTEEN on LOVE IT TO DEATH...the audio actually drops out!!!

[ThePainAddict]

If he would access to all of the studio tapes, there should be extra stuff included. Clearly, Grand Finale was an Ezrin patchwork of a few different jams, so there should be some extended stuff from that alone. Also, a few remixes wouldn't hurt sales.

[daytripper63]

I like the old scrachy sounds I get from my turntable. Which I still play a couple of times a week. It has so many memories tied to it. Along with 400 albums. Im really fond of all the diffrent ways we can enjoy our music. I think I would have died a couple of times without Rock and Roll. But it is nice to hear a clear sound to somethings.
This will be a very nice addition to a collection.

[A_MichaelUK]

>there should be extra stuff included.

That might be rather optmistic as reportedly, there isn't much unreleased stuff lying around.

>Clearly, Grand Finale was an Ezrin patchwork of a few different jams,

It's possible and wouldn't be surprised if that were the case, but I'm not so sure you can establish that by merely listening to that track.

[Malchik]

listen to abolut 1:30 into EIGHTEEN on LOVE IT TO DEATH...the audio actually drops out!!!

I don't notice it.

[RemarkablyInsincere]

If he would access to all of the studio tapes, there should be extra stuff included. Clearly, Grand Finale was an Ezrin patchwork of a few different jams, so there should be some extended stuff from that alone. Also, a few remixes wouldn't hurt sales.

I doubt he's going to have access to anything other than the masters so that's unlikely.

The only type of stuff I've ever seen included on Hoffman Gold releases are alternate versions of singles or an extra track that might have been omitted from a previously released compliation release (i.e. Greatest Hits).

[Dannorama]

I bought the Hoffman DCC Gold disc of Wings "Venus and Mars" years ago, and it is to this day one of the best sounding discs in my collection. It has great dynamics and a cinematically layered sound. My old "Venus and Mars" standard issue got donated to the library - I knew I'd never listen to it again!

Also, the packaging was very nice on this disc - It came with a mini poster and all the original artwork, including a photo of the LP label. Not sure if this is the motif he still follows, but this is GREAT news regardless. Thanks for the heads up!

[RemarkablyInsincere]

This is now listed as being released on February 10, 2009!

Available for pre-order on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Schools-Out-Alice ... 363&sr=8-1

Si, get your links up for pre-order!

Also, Steve Hoffman said they *might* include panties in the first 250 copies ordered directly from the Audio Fidelity website, but they're still hashing out the details on that.

I'll update whenever I hear anything more.

[RemarkablyInsincere]

A picture and details are now listed on the Audio Fidelity website:

http://www.audiofidelity.net/upcoming_releases.html

Looks like if you order there it will be a "numbered edition"... and may or may not include panties as I said above.

[Evan442]

cant wait for this!! wish it had a cooler cover though...does anyone know if any of the other albums with that kind of default cover had cool liner notes??

[Malchik]

cant wait for this!! wish it had a cooler cover though...does anyone know if any of the other albums with that kind of default cover had cool liner notes??

It's the same cover they have been issuing these CD's since the eighties. Let's not mess with them. All the art used for the album is exactly replicated within the package.

[RemarkablyInsincere]

Si, is this ever gonna make the news section on the site? I haven't seen any mention of this release there.

This is big news... if these sell there always a chance they could do more of the catalog.

[Gorehound]

I'll be ordering a couple. This might be a blonde question but is there anyway to order from audio fidelity online? All I could see was an order form. I'm assuming they ship to other countries, I sure hope so.

[RemarkablyInsincere]

From the the order form itself, it looks like you can either fax or e-mail the order form to them.

Would be nicer if they had true online ordering, but I guess that's better than nothing.

I'll definitely be ordering a few copies...

[Malchik]

I'll be doing the same also and hopefully all of you. These only have a limited pressing before they are gone. These Gold disks have a large fan base as well so it will be more then Alice fans eating these up.

I can't wait.

[Dannorama]

Count me in!

I will gladly put myself on the list as soon as Si makes it available on this site.

I am highly anticipating this disc. I hope that it negates all of the original midrange focus and increases the dynamic mobility of the album.

If you stop to think about it, it is only natural that the original album had such a limited audible range... We are talking about the days when AM radio was king, and high fidelity stereo at home was a big-ticket item. It is no wonder that "School's Out" was produced with such a cardboard sound.

I hope that this remastered gold disc brings out all of the nuances that were buried in the original mix.

[Si]

The reason I haven`t made a big deal about it is mainly that I didn`t see it as a big deal. It's a reissue of an album we already have. Granted it's remastered [no new material?], but not being an audiophile myself that alone doesn`t make me that excited, sorry. Now there is an actual release date I'll add a link etc to the news page shortly.