For those that already have it, is everything remastered? Do they 12" extended versions sound like they were touched? Do the previously unreleased tracks sound good?

Main question - can someone tell me how the Purple Rain album sounds? Any opinions on the actual remaster job? Did they just turn everything to 10 or did they take time to make subtleties more clear and crisp? I don't expect to hear any remixing (like the WDC opening guitar solo suddenly high in the mix) but would like to hear the tinny/flat sound of the original sound alive and with depth...

opinions pls!!

Repost from other thread (Played with Sennheiser 598 headphones):

Just as I unfortunately predicted, the Paisley Park Remaster sounds HORRIBLE. Very compressed and horribly brickwalled to the point that you can hear the audio clip in some parts (ending of Let's Go Crazy for example). Here's a sample of the waveform of LGC. Top is the 2015 Remaster, bottom is the from the 2011 Reissue mastered by Kevin Gray (ripped from my personal vinyl copy).

As you can see, there's a night and day difference. Then again, i'm not surprised considering how compressed and brickwalled Prince's music has been since the mid 90's that the remaster he supervised would sound this bad. But I hoped it wouldn't. Oh well.

As for the vault disc, it doesn't suffer as much from the compression and brickwalling was it sounds quite nice. Maybe this is due to the fact that Bernie Grudman mastered this disc...

I haven't listened to the B-Side disc yet...

PurpleMedley122 said:

Repost from other thread (Played with Sennheiser 598 headphones):

Just as I unfortunately predicted, the Paisley Park Remaster sounds HORRIBLE. Very compressed and horribly brickwalled to the point that you can hear the audio clip in some parts (ending of Let's Go Crazy for example). Here's a sample of the waveform of LGC. Top is the 2015 Remaster, bottom is the from the 2011 Reissue mastered by Kevin Gray (ripped from my personal vinyl copy).

As you can see, there's a night and day difference. Then again, i'm not surprised considering how compressed and brickwalled Prince's music has been since the mid 90's that the remaster he supervised would sound this bad. But I hoped it wouldn't. Oh well.

As for the vault disc, it doesn't suffer as much from the compression and brickwalling was it sounds quite nice. Maybe this is due to the fact that Bernie Grudman mastered this disc...

I haven't listened to the B-Side disc yet...

Ouch! Nooooooooo!

PurpleMedley122 said:

As for the vault disc, it doesn't suffer as much from the compression and brickwalling was it sounds quite nice. Maybe this is due to the fact that Bernie Grudman mastered this disc...

I haven't listened to the B-Side disc yet...

I trust in Bernie Grudman his mastering skills are not to be doubted. CD is the way to go

maceoparker007 said:

PurpleMedley122 said:

As for the vault disc, it doesn't suffer as much from the compression and brickwalling was it sounds quite nice. Maybe this is due to the fact that Bernie Grudman mastered this disc...

I haven't listened to the B-Side disc yet...

I trust in Bernie Grudman his mastering skills are not to be doubted. CD is the way to go

I was worried about that.

maceoparker007 said:

PurpleMedley122 said:

As for the vault disc, it doesn't suffer as much from the compression and brickwalling was it sounds quite nice. Maybe this is due to the fact that Bernie Grudman mastered this disc...

I haven't listened to the B-Side disc yet...

I trust in Bernie Grudman his mastering skills are not to be doubted. CD is the way to go

Totally agree! His work is awesome, but people do like to complain and find fault.

I guarantee a week after release you won't hear anything about this release. By then people will have moved on to complaining about the next release.

Sadly this is the lifecycle of some Prince fans!

darkroman said:

maceoparker007 said:

I trust in Bernie Grudman his mastering skills are not to be doubted. CD is the way to go

Totally agree! His work is awesome, but people do like to complain and find fault.

I guarantee a week after release you won't hear anything about this release. By then people will have moved on to complaining about the next release.

Sadly this is the lifecycle of some Prince fans!

people who do not appreciate great sound just will not understand how important dynamic range is. If you ever listen to Pink Floyd's stuff or Miles Davis classic stuff...you will see what i'm talking about.

darkroman said:

maceoparker007 said:

I trust in Bernie Grudman his mastering skills are not to be doubted. CD is the way to go

Totally agree! His work is awesome, but people do like to complain and find fault.

I guarantee a week after release you won't hear anything about this release. By then people will have moved on to complaining about the next release.

Sadly this is the lifecycle of some Prince fans!

not me baby, i'm overjoyed and looking forward to it.

JoeyCococo said:

maceoparker007 said:

I trust in Bernie Grudman his mastering skills are not to be doubted. CD is the way to go

I was worried about that.

What are you talking about? Bernie probably knows more about dynamic range than you. He started off his career in mastering jazz and classical music which requires a lot of skill on dynamic range.

He moved onto pop and rock later on. Go onto youtube and you will see videos of him talking about:

Emotional experience
Dangers of over processin...ital music
Compression techniques, l...distortion

Types of compression

maceoparker007 said:

JoeyCococo said:

I was worried about that.

What are you talking about? Bernie probably knows more about dynamic range than you. He started off his career in mastering jazz and classical music which requires a lot of skill on dynamic range.

He moved onto pop and rock later on. Go onto youtube and you will see videos of him talking about:

Emotional experience
Dangers of over processin...ital music
Compression techniques, l...distortion

Types of compression

hell, the dvd alone is probably worth the price, that's never been released on dvd and i've worn the hell out my vhs.

As if it's not possible to be thrilled with what is on this release and happy the quality is at least as good as it is while simultaneously being disappointed at some of the choices both in tracklisting and mastering.

I'm feeling both simultaneously. I will be playing the vault disc and the God Instrumental & extended Another Lonely Christmas a lot, while I'll probably stick with the original CD releases for the album and the rest of the singles....

Except for those occasions where I have a "vinyl" day and treat myself to original pressing vinyl for all the classics.

[Edited 6/21/17 15:28pm]

Bernie is 73 now. So it my dad, and he can't hear a thing these days. Just saying.

<delete>

[Edited 6/21/17 18:23pm]

SanDiegoFunkDaddy said:

I'm listening to it now. they compressed it make it louder. what a shame. oh well the bass is definitely louder

[Edited 6/21/17 18:25pm]

arent initial remastering cd releases "intentionally" created less than stellar so they can be remastered and repackaged AGAIN and AGIAN?????

Disc 2 is incredible. worth way more than the price of the set

SquirrelMeat said:

Bernie is 73 now. So it my dad, and he can't hear a thing these days. Just saying.

yup, that's about the age, hell, i notice my eyes and ears and taste changing and i'm only 48

According to the tracklisting and description on Amazon only the tracks on Disc 1 are remastered

maceoparker007 said:

maceoparker007 said:

Tangerine17 said:

maceoparker007 said:

According to the tracklisting and description on Amazon only the tracks on Disc 1 are remastered

Everything is remastered by Bernie Grundman, Prince's career long remastering engineer.

Can u explain that horrible glitch in the beginning of the Erotic City long version then?

JoeyCococo said:

darkroman said:

Totally agree! His work is awesome, but people do like to complain and find fault.

I guarantee a week after release you won't hear anything about this release. By then people will have moved on to complaining about the next release.

Sadly this is the lifecycle of some Prince fans!

people who do not appreciate great sound just will not understand how important dynamic range is. If you ever listen to Pink Floyd's stuff or Miles Davis classic stuff...you will see what i'm talking about.

Maybe we don't want to or need to see what you're describing. Maybe we just want to enjoy the music without picking apart all the nerdy sound techy crap!!. Is that ok, or do we need to be constantly belittled because we don't "understand" dynamic range? My goodness. Stop.

At 2.08 minutes into Dr Funkenberry’s latest podcast he says that the Paisley Park 2015 remaster is engineered by Josha Welton. Could this mean that Joshua Welton mastered at copy of Bernie Grundman’s already previously mastered version? I looked at the audio file too (in Logic) and it does appear to be extremely compressed and brickwalled, just as PurpleMedley122 shows. Also, Bernie Grundman works from his own heavily customised mastering studio in Hollywood and I wouldn’t imagine that he would travel to master an album at Paisley Park, as opposed to his own familiar setup.

sk1 said:

feeluupp said:

Tangerine17 said:

maceoparker007 said: Everything is remastered by Bernie Grundman, Prince's career long remastering engineer.

Can u explain that horrible glitch in the beginning of the Erotic City long version then?

I can. It's called shit quality control.

feeluupp said:

Tangerine17 said:

maceoparker007 said: Everything is remastered by Bernie Grundman, Prince's career long remastering engineer.

Can u explain that horrible glitch in the beginning of the Erotic City long version then?

Because only CD1 is remastered. All the other discs ARE NOT.

Erotic City long version is on disc 3 and basically and shoved on there by WB with zero editing/mastereing.

sk1 said:

At 2.08 minutes into Dr Funkenberry’s latest podcast he says that the Paisley Park 2015 remaster is engineered by Josha Welton. Could this mean that Joshua Welton mastered at copy of Bernie Grundman’s already previously mastered version? I looked at the audio file too (in Logic) and it does appear to be extremely compressed and brickwalled, just as PurpleMedley122 shows. Also, Bernie Grundman works from his own heavily customised mastering studio in Hollywood and I wouldn’t imagine that he would travel to master an album at Paisley Park, as opposed to his own familiar setup.

This contridicts other sources....here and here...who say its Bernie.

CAN SOMEONE DEFINITIVELY SAY WHO REMASTERED IT??

Isnt it stated anywhere in the booklet that came with album??!?! JESUS CHRIST

PurpleTrollster said:

maceoparker007 said:

According to the tracklisting and description on Amazon only the tracks on Disc 1 are remastered

What in the ass?! Oh well

YES I have highlighted this below in green (taken directly from Amazon)...

[Edited 6/22/17 13:17pm]

the people complaining about sound quality here are a bunch of babies. Some great music was recorded on much more primitive equipement than what we have here. Elvis' early sessions stand with anyone's, ANYONE'S, strongest work and that was done on some really basic stuff. It doesn't take away the power of the art whether you listen to it on a 45 or a cd that's been remastered for the zillionth time.