This may be a weird topic, but let me start off by saying that The Rainbow Children has grown to become one of my definite favorite Prince albums of all time. The musicianship is infectious. blah, blah, blah...

Anyway, does anyone else have this sort of problem: When I play Rainbow Children in my car, I always HAVE to turn the bass down (especially on track 1 & 11)? Was this CD recording specifically designed to be bass-heavy? I had this same problem with the downloaded version of "Daisy Chain".

Also, the album titled "" (symbol album) always seemed like it was mastered a little bit too loud for most stereos.

Do you think this is done on purpose? Do you think ALL copies of the CDs are mastered the same, or is it possible I have a copy that came from a batch that was accidentally mastered too bass-heavy?

On the flip side, when I listen to my Controversy CD, I have to turn the bass UP higher than normal...

Just pondering...

Tim Kaye
www.timkaye.com
[This message was edited Fri May 3 6:51:51 PDT 2002 by oneradyear]

Prince even said himself that he's a horible mixer.

Your right though, It is a little bass heavy.

I think Prince needs to have a cheap stereo to test his music out on before final mastering.

In my own studio, that's the final test for me, putting it in the car stereo.

yup

sign of the times' volume is very low too...
Crystal ball is just too high...lol
and Emancipation is very, very badly mixed for a 1996 album that was aimed for cd...
but i love how on Rainbow u can listen to all the instruments very clearly especially on headphones...
u gotta listen to Born to run by Bruce Springsteen...after almost two years of night and day of recording with the E st band, Himself and his team were just sleepin while tryin to mix the record, they couldnt stand workin anymore...and they forgot a lot of things and details on the final mix...like on thunder road, a sax is playin along the song for 5 minutes...even if the result is beautiful, Bruce said they just forget it....and on Backstreets, u got like 10 guitars playin the same thing makin a dissonant wall of sound...Great stuff

YAMOMMA,

You're right. If you can make it sound good in a crappy boombox, then it will sound fantastic on a good stereo system!

Don't get me wrong, the Rainbow Children sounds great and is mixed great, it just practically blows out my car speakers... I think that's the mastering, not the mixing, but I could be wrong...



Tim Kaye
www.timkaye.com

If you notice in the credits, Brian Gardner did the final mastering on the disc, and this guy's nickname is "Big Bass" over at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood. So he's already known for filling his projects with as much bass as possible. Add that to Prince never listening to music in a cheap system, there ya go.

It's impossible to have one out of the batch that would have a defect such as bass heavy problems. All our CD's were pressed off the same glass masters, unlike conventional LP's, CD audio is digital so you can't screw up the sounds on a disc by a bad pressing.

I think the CD is mastered well however. Although Stephen Marcussen is not known as the best mastering engineer in the world, that disc sounds great.

All the old Prince stuff (prior to D&P) is mastered for CD old-school. Engineers didn't realize how much headroom they had in creating the CD format in the past, so often times, little attention was paid to the overall volume and push, and little was used in compression techniques to maximize output. I really wish they'd remaster his whole back catalog to get it sounding like today's commercial releases.

Personally, I think The Gold Experience is the best final sounding recording mastering wise, Prince has. It's got so much push to it and everything seems balanced well. (Again another Brian Gardner project).

Just a thought,

Sub-low frequencies are the first to go in one's hearing. As much shows as Prince has done through the years, he may have lost some of that. So if he does most of the mixing himself, well... there ya go.

Take for example, most of the kids you see riding around with their bass-happy car systems. You know they've lost most of their sub-low hearing. That's why it always sounds like crap when you pull up next to them at a stop light.

Just watch a baby's reaction to a surround sound system, and watch it freak out.

yes, difinately. I thought my speakers were blown

from what I remember being told, none of the prince cd's before "diamonds & pearls" were mastered for cd. They used the lp masters to make the cd's.

"Rainbow children" seems to make my subwoofer go into overdrive.

thetruth said:

Very nice run-down...I have to tell you, I am NOT a sound engineer...but I did notice just how crisp and beautiful the CD is...I love to listen to it - for that reason alone...

Enjoyed reading your post!

Not as weird a topid as you may think! Yeah i think its acutally a more of a mid bass type thing goin on and i totally noticed it. also listen to NPG AHDIO 10 it also has that same type over bass. I think maybe P is trying to get a more emtional connection with the audience with the added bass.

I noticed that too a first, thought it was just cheap car stereo speakers, but it does the same thing at home, I have to watch the levels so I don't blow up something...good to hear that I am not the only one....

oneradyear said:

It's definitely more bass heavy than most of his other albums. I never noticed which specific tracks, it just seemed that way all through it to me (except Wedding Feast and Sensual Everafter - for obvious instrumental reasons). But it's not the most bass heavy album on cd I've ever heard.


All copies of a specific album are mastered from the same source, but we have to remember that Prince's career spans almost 25 years. So the recording/mixing/mastering technological process has evolved a great deal since 1978. Most of his older cd's tend to sound worse than the ones from the last decade.

A very interesting thread indeed!

oneradyear said:

That is ironic, Tim

I have had a japanese Controversy CD for years and I noticed that there was no bass on it so I decided to get a US release just yesterday! It isounds the same way. I have found that with other Prince CDs, the japanese CDs have higher fidelity all the way around - especially Chaos and Disorder, Come, and The Gold Experience. I end up having 2 copies of many of the official Prince albums that way.

Rainbow Children is heavy on the bass. I feel it most in my car system as they tend to bottom out with too much bass. I feel you cant have too much tohugh so I simply turn it down and keep funkin!

,,,cause FACE said so!!!

about losing his hearing ability....I think that's the first thing I would be afraid of if I was making music for so long.

I think there are alot of cheap ass stereos out there that people are playing CDs on. Then they speak on the sound like they know when they dont.

For the best sound, however, get the japanese Gold Experieince. I thought it was a HDCD when I put it in my player. Sonics will peel your cap back!

I have noticed "bass heavy" since I have upgraded my surround system. I have to lower my sub woofer volme almost to "0" I also have to lower the center channel to the same level and then I turn up the treble -- system wide.