Floating around the net....anyone heard it?

It's like a whole new CD.

how can you remaster a cd? dont you need the original master tape to do that?

Coolaid said:

I guess they did a bit of playing around in a music editing program like Sound Forge.

There's a 1999 one too - I think I remember seeing a Lovesexy as well, but I'm not sure about that one

NouveauDance said:

Hadn't heard about that one.

GangstaFam said:

I've heard the new programs are enabling people to do pretty amazing things, and now I'm convinced. The songs really pop out of the speakers, especially drums. I never noticed the panning cymbals in the Cross before (or maybe the person added them?). Really sounds great.

the cymbals are like that originally!

MendesCity said:

MendesCity said:

You should never fucking "remaster" anything from anything else than the original tapes. And "Sign "O" The Times" is not meant to pop out of the speakers, anyway.

Novabreaker said:

Why not? Until we get an official remaster, this is what I'll be playing. Tell me, in your tightly defined "rules" of art consumption, do you have a problem with equalizers as well?
[Edited 9/7/05 10:38am]

i had the whole remamstered album.

on my old computer.

MendesCity said:

Yeah, I'm sure they would have used the original tapes if they could have. Sign & 1999 really could use it. Lovesexy, too.

In fact, I think most remastered albums should be remixed, as well. Not like I want to destroy the originals, but it would be nice to actually hear bass & drums in Beatles recordings, or have the weird stereo (vocals all on one side, drums on the other) made more conventional. They seem to have gotten it right by The White Album.
[Edited 9/7/05 13:25pm]

there's nutting wrong wit those beatles albums! Except they need to be remastered in dvd audio.

andyman91 said:

based on Prince's mixing style, I think he does want his sound to pop out... like he has it on his new cd's. The vinyl of sott sounds more popping.

Novabreaker said:

ufoclub said:

Exactly. I think the CD version of SotT was just not a good transfer or whatever.

I know from my personal experience that you can get fantastic results by processing the CDs through various pieces of studio equipment. Ask Banana Cologne if you don't believe me!

I have remastered all of the Prince albums from For You to o-}-> as well as the associated artists work up to 1991. I have achieved some great results and now enjoy listening to that body of work again. As a previous vinyl addict, I used the LP sources as a comparison when processing the CDs to ensure the sound stayed as faithful as possible to the original mixes.

I admit that you should be able to achieve better results by processing the original master tapes but we don't know when that is going to happen and is also extremely unlikely to happen in the case of albums by Madhouse, The Time and Jesse Johnson, etc.

Even waiting for official remasters may prove disappointing. I have heard some very poor official remasters of David Bowie & Parliament's work for instance.

BlurredEye said:

That's true. The anniversary edition of Ziggy Stardust was appalling. Dull sounding, to start with, but also major fuck-ups like swapped channels, missing spoken intros and they'd actually faded in the first note of one track that used to begin with great attack. Very poor.
[Edited 9/8/05 3:00am]

BlurredEye said:

It depends on how remastering is defined. If you only want to add some compression, do some equalizing and adjust frequency curves to the whole song to make it sound 'fatter' or 'wider' or 'brighter', the only thing you need is a ripped song from a cd and some music software.
When you want do some panning, adjust volumes, adjust frequency curves, brighten up the stereo image of the different tracks in a song, you'll need the master recording/tapes and some state of the art equipment.
There is also another problem regarding remastering. The original recordings were meant for vinyl. There is a huge difference between vinyl and CD. Some frequencies can not be heard on CD but on vinyl, you can hear them. These frequencies have a great influence on how the music is percepted. (some DJ's prefer vinyl because it sounds 'fatter')
To remaster a song for CD, the whole song and different tracks of the have to be analyzed. This is a tedious work, and again, you'll need the master recordings.

MendesCity said:

Because I use my equalizers and maximizers all the time there really is no need for remasters on my part. SOTT sounds dull as fuck as it is currently, but I really don't want some kids just putting it through some presets on a cracked copy of C4 and call it a "remaster".

I have always hoped for better sounding copies of Prince's older albums, and I hope that the day they officially become available that they are remastered, or aat least overseen, by the right people. Until then, though, I just want to have them sounding the best I possibly can.
The results of what BlurredEye has done with all the albums up to 1992 are excellent. Just because he isn't someone who worked on the albums originally and didn't have access to the masters, won't stop me denying myself what really are better sounding copies of my favourite albums.

My ears tell me that the music sounds significantly better; surely that's the most important thing.

remastered? what did they do, made sure all the overall levels were the same? overly expand the stereo image so the instruments sound as far apart as possible?

Hell if this is remastering, I could create a 5.1 version of every single Prince album!

To remaster properly, original tapes are paramount. I don't think any1 could remaster the "Graffiti Bridge" album and get rid of that piece of flatulence in "Tick Tick Bang"!

I'm with Novabreaker on this one.

'dre

asideorderofham said:

Wow, thanks for the support!
[Edited 9/9/05 8:37am]

actually, if you played your cd through a prologic II receiver, then took all the speakers outputs and stuck them into 6 tracks of input into a digital recorder, recorded in 24 bit 96 hertz (for the purpose of the next step) then put the tracks through multi band compressor, maximizer, then encode it to dvd-audio.... you would have a nice homemade 5.1 version.

and I really like Tick TIck Bang. I don't care for... Graffiti Bridge. Or the arrangement of Shake.

DreZone said:

[Edited 9/9/05 13:36pm]

Novabreaker said:

the hell it aint.

You people should put some frog mating call samples through a 24-band compressor with three tube stages and platinum soldering, bounce it through a sonic maximizer, apply +12db boosts at wherever you wish, convert it into 24-bit audio so that the only way to hear it properly would be to wear 3D glasses and then call it a remastered Prince album. Should sound like a bunch of whales.

don't sail past the edge, you'll fall off into space... plus it's heresy!

Novabreaker said:

[Edited 9/11/05 11:36am]

You guys need to hear what Blurred Eye has done to the old skool Minneapolis releases. Every single one of the albums and 12"s he's 'remastered' sound a whole lot better to my ears and everyone else's that I've played 'em to. C'mon people, who on earth wants to play the original 1999 or SOTT cds - they are simply appalling sound quality....!

Sure, they'll (probably) not be as good as officially remastered stuff, but at this rate i'll be in heaven or hell before these arrive! Come to that, no-one ever is going to remaster Andre or Madhouse or Jill etc.

If you don't believe me then check 'em out - I know that it was a labour of love by Blurred Eye - I guarantee you won't be disappointed!

All I did was turn up the sound on Creativ Wave Studio
[/quote]

There is a SOTT remastered in Sony studios with excellent sound (not done from the master tape), but it sure ain't done with no home stuff.


If you can find it get it.

limewood said:

Uhm, what?

I know when you turn a CD into mp3 files with the media player and then burn it on CD-R it's always alot louder and more clear then the original cd. I did this with for you.
But I don't think it's possible to really re-master something if you don't have the master tapes
[Edited 9/11/05 4:27am]

thedog said:

'dre