I looked on the packaging for the ultimate prince cd but it did not say the songs were remastered. I would think this would be a real selling point to tell buyers the cd set was with remastered songs. To those of you calling this a remastered cd set....where did you see this that this set was remastered?

A remasterbator.

I listened to it and it didn't really sound remastered. Maybe a little louder, but that's it.

I have listened to some bootleg files of it, and it sounded exactly the same in tone, depth, and clarity. Maybe just louder, like someone hit "normalize". But I have not done a wave display comparison in a sound editing program. That would tell you immediately.

I fear it might not have been remastered.

What I've heard doesn't sound that much different. Just louder and a little cleaner.

But still great nontheless.

nah, from what i've heard its not remastered.

The only chance I've had to hear it is some downloaded mp3s, in good quality though.

Personally, there's nothing I can't hear in these that I couldn't hear in the originals. Except occasionally the voice sounds a bit echoey - is that what remastering is, making the voice echoey?!

You have to ask yourself, what were you expecting? Personally, I was thinking the vocals might be a bit sharper on some of the older tracks, but they don't sound much different.

At least vinyl only releases like Raspberry and She's Always are now available in a completely non-staticky version.

IT HAS BEEN REMASTERED. Full stop.

...For christ's sake, Tangerine who has been working on it for ages has explained to us all how it had been remastered and all !!!

2freaky4church1 said:

sarkozy2007 said:

Yeah, huh. It's funny how these "rumors" get started..

Rogue588 said:

Tangerine has given the evidence he has worked on this stuff. With the attitude of some poeple here real insiders who are constantly laughed at here will not bother anymore to give their info on the org.
Tangerine has been far too kind to share his info with us. Next time he should keep'em for himself.

Tangerine also said that once the tracklisting was finalised, it would only take a half-day to do the remastering.

To me, that sounded like nothing more than putting the original tracks through come computer filters, rather than getting the dozens of original tapes out and re-digitising and working to get the sound clearer and balance better. But what do I know, I just thought the process would take longer and require more care.

metalorange said:

NouveauDance said:

It usually does...

They are remastering the Genesis first albums right now, and its taken forever, due to Peter Gabriel wants some of the sounds to be uplifted... I know it takes more than a half day to do..

true remastering at least

All the songs on Ultimate certainly sound better than they used to (for the most part), but I do think it was a quick "no frills" job.

Some have hinted at legal issues that limit how much they can tweak the sound.
But that may or may not be true.

There are two types of remastering efforts... The simple kind takes a day and boost volume, possibly reduces some noise, perhaps widens the stereo some, etc.

Then there is the type that takes sometimes months... theres always the crazy "we had to bake the tapes and then only had one shot to transfer them before they disintigrated!!" Artists are sometimes more involved with these efforts. There can be EQ changes all around, and it can turn into something much better than it ever could have been 20 years ago. (Or it could be complete crap that fans dissaprove of).

Its obvious that Ultimate Prince is closer to the former. I think some of the better sound quality is due to better studio technology. I think Tangerine confirmed that the masters (and some saftey masters) were used. Transfering songs off of a master tape for a CD release will obviously sound signifigantly better than it did in 1989. I suspect it's the better transfer + volume + little tweaks for Ultimate Prince.

If T17 happens to stop by this thread I would love to know exactly what went into the process, the filter types (if any), why some things were/were not done, etc.

I suspect there are quite a few audiophiles on the org who would enjoy a breakdown of the whole thing.

Yeah, I'm a nerd, and I love it.
[Edited 3/27/06 5:48am]

To be a proper remaster it would require Prince’s input and his permission.

Somehow I don’t think Prince would just hand over the 8 separate trax (or however many it may be) which make up Purple Rain or Raspberry Beret to some WB producer/engineer. That would be asking said producer/engineer to bring his own artistic taste to the final remastered mix! And its highly unlikely Prince would entertain WB with his time and effort to do it himself.

WB have probably taken the songs in their entirety and had them normalised and tweaked. But it would have been done on the whole song and not individual elements of the songs.

is there a link to Tangerine's posts?

sarkozy2007 said:

You are assuming everyone agrees with the information that is given out. Do you believe in Santa too?

Tangerine gave some good info on the artwork. But much of the rest was hearsay and guesswork.

It is very strange that the cover or sticker make no reference to remastering. I don't think there has ever been a remastered cut which doesn't advertise so.

Besides, do you really believe Prince decided to let WB remaster some tracks, but not others, then block the project anyway?

I'm not saying it is or it isn't. Some stores were certainly advertising it as remastered. Whichever way we look at it, its either badly remastered, or not remastered at all.

We should be careful with rumour as people end up believing it.

SquirrelMeat said:

For fuck's sake there are not rumours. he was aware of every fucking detail day after day. he has explained who he has worked with throughout the years with amazing details.
But no, there are still people like you to put the descredit on people like him who are too kind to share their info with us.
Next time i advise tangerine to keep his mouth shut as orgers like you are so ungraceful.
It has been remastered but there are several ways of doing it. You can spend 10 months in the studio to work every fucking single sound like on some Bowie's stuff or Gabriel's stuff or you can remaster by cleaning and clearing the sound (that's what has been done for Ultimate) and it takes half a day per tune.

It's just louder.

sarkozy2007 said:

Sorry, but the half day thing sounds half-arsed. When you hear the phrase 'remaster' you expect the 10 month thing, and that's what is really needed on Prince's 70s/80s albums. Anything else is just a cop-out for Warners to earn some easy money.

I wouldn't know as I haven't heard it yet..

This thing has NOT been remastered.. I dont care what tangerine or even prince said it...


Its just louder.. thats it folks.

Actually it HAS been remastered.

I think a lot of people misunderstand the term 'remastered' and confuse it with
'remixing'. Mastering is the final stage where the final stereo mix is
transfered to CD/Vinyl/cassette/whatever. This is where the already mixed 2 track
master is tweaked to give the optimum balance and quality. The source material
for 'mastering' and 'remastering' is the final 2 track stereo mix.

If you go back to the original 24 track masters and 'reamaster' it from there,
this is actually technically a 'remixing' not a 'remastering'.

So after all this time it's just an unimpressive remaster. nice

BorisFishpaw said:

So did Led Zeppelin and all those other 'remasters' get the full job or just a volume tweak like this? I think in the average joe's mind a 'remaster' is when the music has been rebuilt from scratch, otherwise it's practically just a re-release.

metalorange said:

There is a dramatic difference in the Led Zepplin stuff, that is what I would have hoped for with the Prince stuff. Micheal Jackson's also sounds good (Thriller, Off The Wall...)

SquirrelMeat said:

You have no idea what you are talking about... Tangerine has given us the full scoop on this every step of the way.

Puh-leeze!

It's advertised as being remastered:
Ultimate Prince [Remaster] [TBA]-CD-Prince SKU: 7696451