Why is "The Gold Experience" album so much louder than all other Prince albums?

Bit annoying because when I've got my collection on SHUFFLE, it is *so* loud whenever a song from TGE comes on.

It's even louder than 3121 (even though it was produced/made before).

Yes, I agree. It's very loud. The songs are a bit overproduced, but I love it...

Cuz he was MAD!

And he wasn't gonna TAKE IT ANYMORE!

I have more of a problem with this on 3121 than I do Gold. I was actually thinking about this driving into work this morning. 3121 songs are the loudest on my ipod.

Also, when I plug my ipod into my radio, if a 3121 song comes on (i keep it on shuffle) I always have to lower the volume on the ipod and then increase the volume on the radio because I get alot of static. Anyone know why this happens?

This is true, especially compared to his 80s albums, very annoying!

It's actually better to use the full dynamic range of a cd, because the quiet parts will have more resolution to them...

the 80's albums suck at this! They need to be turned up before baing digitized. Not compressed, mind you... not squashed.... just turned up to use the most range.

deliberately wanted The Gold Experience to sound 'different' to his 'Prince'
albums. He also wanted it to be loud and 'in your face' for the same reason
(plus he was in a 'primal scream' kinda place at that time mentally, as you
can proabably tell from the amount of screaming, both vocally and on guitar,
that goes on on that record). I wish he would let rip like that a little more
these days too.

BorisFishpaw said:

agreed!

BorisFishpaw said:

I think they were talking about the general volume of the CD as opposed to others, and I guess that is decided in the mastering state, I don't know why there wasn't some 'normal level' decided on right at the beginning. It plays hell with my compilations when one track is loud and then the next you can hardly hear!

TGE does have a big 'phat' sound to it as well of course, I was actually thinking the albums with Michael B tend to have that big phat sound, it's just his bombastic way of playing. I think in a sense he's been the most influential drummer for Prince because his whole sound had to be built around those drums and it is usually easily recogniseable when it is a Michael B track. Shiela E, Blackwell, etc. were all good drummers but they didn't actually change Prince's sound drastically for the time they were with Prince. Well, it's just an opinion.

metalorange said:

Excellent observation ! I feel the same way about the unique sound of songs with Michael on drums, that guy and Sonny T. had a great chemistry with Prince, I love songs like And God Created Woman, Strays of the World, Shhh, I Hate U etc.
In a way, they were like a band in the band , like in the Wendy & Lisa days. They were the macho 90´s version of Wendy and Lisa


It´s interesting how Betcha By Golly Wow! on Emancipation sounds so drastically different than the rest of that album , you can immediately hear that it´s a song played by the most powerful NPG line-up, Sonny, Micheael, Morris .....and Tommy (?)..

I take it as what he was going through at the time. All the confusion against the name change and the record company drama, that album, once again, reflected how he felt about situations as all his music normally does. He had alot of unbounding passion and for every type of subject: love, sex, life, religion, etc.

metalorange said:

Totally agree. Although I'm not a huge fan of the production methods used to capture Michael B's kick and snare during this period. Bland has much more finesse and subtly than the Prince LPs captured.

I love the way Gold sounds.It's a very full sound.I wish more cd's sounded like this.Excellent cd!For instance,SOTT and Black REALLY need a punch-up.

Simply get a little free program called "MP3 Gain". You can set it to equal out the sound levels on every song on your hard drive.

Its great to get the db increased on some old stuff, and turned down lightly on newer. Set it to db 97 and you'll get it balanced nice and loud without distortion.

The louder,the better, when it cums 2 Prince,anyways...

That's why Replay Gain exists:

http://replaygain.hydrogenaudio.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/w...eplay_Gain