I think it's hilarious to think his production has declined, he's pushed himself into an arena where he has to now circle and do different styles and it confuses listeners. Musicology is as "badly" produced as Sign o' the Times or Lovesexy in their respective days... in other words, when those albums came out my dj or music friends complained that Prince's production had gone to shit back then.

From what Femi Jeyi said, "High" was a song he spent a lot of time on, while something like "Cinnamon Girl" possibly is not, so I think it depends on the song and how much interest he actually had in it.

I also think it's fascinating that music is so subjective. The title track 3121 is so inventive, focused, and exciting to my ears in production that it overshadows anything pre-1984 production wise.

Lazy drum sounds? What about "Christopher Tracy's Parade", "Computer Blue","It" or "I could Never Take the Place of Your Man", or "Lovesexy"? Those songs could be argued to have lifeless, mechanical, monotone drum programming that saps any life in those tracks.

The sequence of 4 tracks that begin 3121 is one of the most accomplished, genre jumping, freshly-contrasting, sequences he's ever pulled off when listened to in their intended sequence. Not one track sounds like filler to me, and they are each self intact pop-art of a different color.

Rainbow Children is a bit too boring in it's production for me to give each track detailed listens any more. An exception is Digital Garden (which kind of resembles the Police's "Walking in Your Footsteps" at the beginning.) Come to think of it, Rainbow Children also reminds me of Sting's first solo album "Dream of the Blue Turtles" in it's many conservative jazzy live band arrangements.

dang it I need to stop typing...

dont agree, i think the 2nd song on 3121 is rather weak.

Musicology is a stonger album in my opinion, this includes production. Illusion is a masterpeice, but i guess thats my opinon.

vinx98 said:

I love Illusion. So did some people who are non princefans that heard it in my car at the time.

ufoclub said:

i loved it too

no way has prince regressed as a producer.

WTF does that have to do with QUALITY production? Jeez you're a real piece of work.

no way has prince regressed as a producer.

lowercasemumbles said:

what hits has he done since 94 then?

mirrorbestfriend said:

When was the last Hit Quincy Jones had on the Charts??

Does that make Pharrell more of a Producer than him? Hits don't measure the Quality of a Producer. Kanye West has a lot of Hits. I think he is crap...non musician..but has hits.

Prince doesn't aim 4 that stuff. He does what he likes..isn't that what Art should be? I don't think he feels any less of a "Producer" because he ain't on the Charts with Rihanna. Please

mirrorbestfriend said:

I like it too but the vocal mix is horrible; way too upfront and compressed

Funkmeimfamous said:

look up the word produce?

he aint produced if it aint a hit

lowercasemumbles said:

what hits has he done since 94 then?

Is this where Claire Fisher comes in? Doesn't he put the final touches/mastering the work? I don't know very much about the topic but my common sense tells me this based on what I've read. Claire has said that Prince gives him free reign with his music?

instead, we get this washed over cheesy synth version. That aint mastering, that's production.

Jatrig said:

agreed. It's a shame that the production he's coming up with is representative of what's being promoted on format radio now and no longer cutting edge as earlier years.

I totally agree he has regressed....

I wish so bad that "Mr. Happy" and "Big White Mansion" were produced like the Black Album -- now those would be FUNKY tracks...instead, we get this washed over cheesy synth version. That aint mastering, that's production.

I agree but cds sounded way better in the late 80's this is fact.

Funkmeimfamous said:

look up the word produce?

he aint produced if it aint a hit

icke4presidant said:

I guess this is happening more due to the change in ways we listen to music. Lots of people now use the speaker on their mobiles or ipod docking stations that have zilch dynamic range. The only way the mastering can ensure that the sound can be heard on all these different systems is to compress within an inch of its life.

Listening to this stuff on a hifi sounds horrific. If I put on the 'Prince' CD from 1979 it sounds infinitely better than most stuff coming out now. So much for progress!

Pls 4 me, name a few songs/albums or cd's that I listen to...wherein I can identify "the excellence/mastering" of P's producership. Knowledge is a wonderful thing. Thx

A major factor causing the "distortion" you hear is JITTER. Jitter manifests itself at the conversion stage (converting analog to digital or digital back to analog). Today, Prince is using an all digital system used by most studios called Pro Tools. Back in the 80's and early 90's, he still used analog tape to record and mixdown to. This meant, the only digital conversion was happening when the cd master itself was created.

What studios are now finding out is that jitter can be reduced by adding an external clocking device to a Pro Tools or other digital recording system. Jitter, by the way, is caused by inconsistencies in the clock of a digital system. The clock tells the system when to sample that 44.1khz or other sampling rate.

I know this is WAY over the heads of most on the org, but I've explained all this because I'm the Director Of Operations in the US for a company called Antelope Audio, which makes master clocks. This year, in fact next month, we are releasing an Atomic Master clock for use in studios. I have conducted seven different audio tests in various studios in LA and our new Isochrone 10M Atomic Clock provides the most amazing sound quality I've ever heard from a digital system. And this is just playing back music already recorded with bad clock. Just wait until music is recorded, mixed and mastered with the atomic clock. Digital music quality will finally make a giant leap!

The first major artist who will be mixed and mastered on the atomic clock is going to be Brian "Head" Welch (former guitarist for Korn). They weren't able to track it with the atomic clock, but they did use one of our high quality crystal-based clocks to track it with. They even used analog tape, which was also clocked by our master clock using a video signal and a sync box to control the tape machine.

check out www.antelopeaudio.com

By the way, there is an Antelope clock pictured in my photo.
[Edited 6/22/07 8:41am]