Ive bought sign o the times a few times,and i know others that think the same,sign o'the times recording qaulity SUCKS,it seems 2 be recorded with the mic turned down real low...did i hear someone say digital recording needs 2 be done!!!

all his late 70's and 80's stuff on WB needs remastering.Can't see it happening anytime soon though.




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[This message was edited Tue Dec 10 15:16:17 PST 2002 by Thecherryloon]

its not that bothering, it is very low eye will agree...

its not my favorite set, so eye guess it doesnt matter..

Since I listen to the majority of my music on my computer, I upped the levels on the output when I ripped the audio. This made it very very loud. Did the same thing with Lovesexy, but i think I went too high with that one as it seems to distort a little in certain spots.

I did this with WinAmp and the Chou Yun Fat or whomever's audio ripper. Nothing professional at all, but enough to make me happy while I'm cleaning my house

Just put them in2 ur computer and twitch the sound up.

I do mine in "Creative Wave Studio". Just turn it in2 a WAV file, Normalize it about 2 - 3 times, It will be all good.

Although the books 4 the old CD's really really suck still.

Yes I care about inlays

Yes, I agree the sound quality is not that loud especially
when I listen to it on my computer with my headphones.Though
in my car I turn it up real loud and it sounds fine,go
figure.

I find that the SOTT vinyl is better than the CD's... The volume is normal, anyway.

But in general, I agree that SOTT's recording quality is the poorest of all his albums. Maybe he did that intentionally because WB wouldn't let him release a triple album (Crystal Ball). Just a guess...

It has been said before that some of the distorted, rough sounding production on SOTT was due to new recording equipment in the studio that had not been properly tested out and was "humming". However, Prince thought that the distortion had some atmosphere to it, most notably on If I Was Your Girlfriend, so left the anomalies on the recording.

Overall, SOTT sounds ok, you just need a really good bit of hi-fi to dig out all the wonderful detail.

Agree for the remasterign of those albums... but I think Lovesxy is crystal clear for a 80's release... Of course don't compare it with his digitally mastered CD (24 bit I suppose!) but I kinda like it when the sound is not that loud!

Here's my theory:

Since...

x Prince is a big Sly Stone fan
x he recorded and played most of SOTT by himself
x The title song is about the state of the world
x the recording sounds a bit lo-fi

could SOTT be Prince's 'answer album' to There's a Riot Going On? (worst audio quality ever! probably greatest album ever!)

Whaddaya think?

hmmm...

I always felt Prince rushed his production in the 80s, because he was throwing out so many songs.

I agree about SOTT.

There is a notable change in Princes production from Batman on.

There is another leap forward on Emancipation.

Listen to Chaos back to back with Emancipation, they sound a decade apart, even though there is only a year or three between the tracks.

Rave is the exception, which seems to go backwards on some tracks.

However, I feel the "demo" edge to SOTT works, much like Dirty Mind did in its time.

SquirrelMeat said:

THANK U,SQUIRRELMEAT!!!

Yes, strangely, on Rave and TRC there are a couple of tracks where the usually exquisitely recorded vocal harmonies of Prince are quite distorted. On Rave it is most notable on Man'O'War, and on TRC in M2TP you first hear it when the line "The helix he might get between" is sung. It is as though the recording level was too high.

I've never noticed lapses in production like this on albums he has recorded post '88, so it's odd that it is starting now, especially when (as already stated above) the rest of the production quality has improved so dramatically over the years.