BartVanHemelen said:

ufoclub said:

That's a movie soundtrack mixed to enhance the environment you see on the screen. I'm pretty sure all the music is still the stereo mixes slightly altered.

A warning: DVD-audio which can only be heard if you have a DVD-A player or decoder and 5 discrete analog hookups to your receiver if you're disc player is the decoder (yes most people who think they are hearing their dvd-a tracks are actually only hearing their dolby 5.1 tracks, and there is a huge difference!) Most salesmen in a store like Best Buy don't even know this. i even met one audiophile rich guy who had his setup for a year and didn't know this. DVD-A cannot be transmitted through an HDMI or digital audio cable.

I seriously don't get why you lot are still discussing DVD-A. It's dead. It was never that alive to begin with.

If you want superior audio, put it on Blu-ray.

http://www.soundadviceblo...explained/

http://www.bigpicturebigs...1652.shtml

I've had everything ready and hooked up for Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA... but "where's the beef"?

the selections described here don't seem to hit 24bit 96hz yet ( I checked two Bruce Springsteen concerts since I know a great fan) and they are both concert videos that don't go all the way with the audio quality. I don't see albums listed yet.

Cinnie said:

The Beatles remaster box is a good model. Served in one shot (or each album sold separately).

sounds good to me. I think the absolute most important aspect has to be the quality of the product on offer - I guess that with the Hits/B-Sides project it went someway to showing him that a collaborative effort could work i.e. the notes were good [not great!], the marketing + big WB push was great and the chosen tracks just about did the job. Let's hope that this will happen and over the next 5 years we have a big old set of quality remasters.

re Bart's point about P only playing his old tracks in concert for many years. I wonder if there is a method to P's maddness!! - is he just keeping these tracks fresh in everyones mind in anticipation of the remasters perhaps.....or is his newer stuff just crap!!!!. You decide!! lol.

funkyhead said:

re Bart's point about P only playing his old tracks in concert for many years. I wonder if there is a method to P's maddness!! - is he just keeping these tracks fresh in everyones mind in anticipation of the remasters perhaps.....or is his newer stuff just crap!!!!. You decide!! lol.

or he knows that his new songs are lacking relevance?

RodeoSchro said:

Why would I want remasters?

Seriously, I don't understand. Because they sound better? I have all the early, "bad" stuff on vinyl and it sounds just fine.

Will the songs be arranged differently? Or will they be longer? Or will there be outtakes included on a remastered album? If so, then I might could get with it.

But just buying a 35-year-old album because it's been remastered, I just don't see me doing that.

Am I missing something?

Well, you're not missing anything if you can't hear the difference!

However, there is a world of difference between something that sounds "just fine" and something that sounds incredible. If you have both the ears and the system capable of delivering it, remastered audio, done properly, sounds incredible and will stomp all over the original vinyl releases.

ufoclub said:

squirrelgrease said:

Prince supposedly mixed Lovesexy for a 5.1 release at some point.

???

I think properly mixed 5.1 can be the bomb. It doesn't have to be about a co0ncert setting. It can be mixed exactly like stereo (certain instruments panned around to certain spaces, with a vocal centered) but the beauty of it is that a vocal could be mixed to be in the middle of the space or a harmony vocal from speaker left rear... it opens up a so much creative space!

Both true and not true at the same time

You're right - properly mixed 5.1 can be "the bomb". 2 favourite 5.1 albums of mine that are quite brilliantly done are Frank Zappa's "Halloween" (DTS) (Vinnie's drum solo on that with the fills whirling around all the speakers is breathtaking!) and Steely Dan's Gaucho (also DTS 5.1). Both incredible fidelity and sensible placing of music and effects.

That said, good old stereo is just fine and with a proper set-up and speakers, you should be able to achieve all of that openness in the soundstage and "surround effects" with just the 2 speakers. Stereo is capable of all of that (your 2 ears are perfectly designed for it!) - 5.1 was really brought in to enhance special effects and heighten the placement of those effects.

Mindflux said:

ufoclub said:

???

I think properly mixed 5.1 can be the bomb. It doesn't have to be about a co0ncert setting. It can be mixed exactly like stereo (certain instruments panned around to certain spaces, with a vocal centered) but the beauty of it is that a vocal could be mixed to be in the middle of the space or a harmony vocal from speaker left rear... it opens up a so much creative space!

Both true and not true at the same time

You're right - properly mixed 5.1 can be "the bomb". 2 favourite 5.1 albums of mine that are quite brilliantly done are Frank Zappa's "Halloween" (DTS) (Vinnie's drum solo on that with the fills whirling around all the speakers is breathtaking!) and Steely Dan's Gaucho (also DTS 5.1). Both incredible fidelity and sensible placing of music and effects.

That said, good old stereo is just fine and with a proper set-up and speakers, you should be able to achieve all of that openness in the soundstage and "surround effects" with just the 2 speakers. Stereo is capable of all of that (your 2 ears are perfectly designed for it!) - 5.1 was really brought in to enhance special effects and heighten the placement of those effects.

What I'm saying is that 5.1 can be used (and will be used!) for more than it's original surround panning functions from yesterday. Surround speaker systems are so cheap and common place now, that it will catch on. And yes, we do only have two ears as reference points, but having a 5.1 system allows the field to be around you, so theoretically for a song the entire drumset could be behind you, but just as loud, literally driving the music. As soon as music breaks away from the current Proscenium conservatism, it will open a whole new mode of creativity.

Kind of like when movies first came out, they rarely had close ups and cuts because they were trying to re-create the theater stage space (proscenium) and felt that was all audiences could understand.

Jump forward to a movie now that jumps back and forth in time and vantage point, and everyone still gets it, and it enhances the experience!

my view on a once upon a time audiophile:

remastering has many variations from very basic use of filters or leveling to full blow highly detailed work done by true craftsmen.

Take "Ultimate" to me it sounds like it was very basic. some sound leveling (so that all the songs were at the same level) and some minor filtering of some sort. Sounds better than the original CDs but not a true remastering. Now those basic techniques can have some good results (remember T's sets which he personalty cleaned up and improved the sound quality of many songs) but they are just not as good as what can be done with a full blown remaster.

Many do not consider the basic methods to be a remaster. I am not that picky. Just know some methods are better than others and some people are better at it than others.

I suspect the work prince did (By his saying something about using a computer) was a very basic digital copy that was filtered and sound leveled. So I am not all that excited.

Now why remaster? for a few reasons. 1) and the most important is to preserve the work. 2) to keep up with newer an more accurate systems of reproduction. 3) to improve the quality of the sound as to better match what it would have sounded like if you were in the room at the time it was recorded (think of a full band recording as opposed to prince doing 30 secessions and mixing them all together for a final band sound)

But even a state of the art remaster is only as good as the state of the art. A few years down the road new methods will be developed making a new remaster more and more necessary. (led zeppelin for example has had at least 2 full catalog (granted it is only about 80 songs) remastering secessions. *and still that damn bass drum peddle is squeaking away! (but I like the things like that, such as the squeaking chair or what ever it is in "sometimes it snows in april" it adds something to the music and should be left in)

and the main reason why they need to be done is evident in playing a 180 gram vinyl LP side by side with the same album on CD.

[Edited 11/8/10 9:16am]

i totally agree.

the prince homespun way of doing things will be awful.

im thinking of the cheap videos, the terrible album art (musicology, nps, 2010).

this needs to be his way of putting his stuff out there and establishing his legacy.

it needs to be very polished.

this needs to be done by the pro's.

prince just needs to let go and let the fans have what they want.

and put the brilliant unreleased tracks out there, let people know how many great songs he has.

and we need lots of great pictures, stuff we have never seen before.

i mean, i want to go in and buy ALL of these albums all over again.

we are talking 14 or 15 albums here, that is like $300!

that is a lot of $$!

i dont want to be sitting there afterwards regretting it!

i want to relish it and remember why i love his music so much.

and for crying out loud, put out lovesexy live already!!!!!

NouveauDance said:

I want them done right, first and foremost, because god knows how long it will be till they're done again.

I know not every track, even for each project, could be released, but if all the albums (at least between 1999 and SOTT) is not double CD, I would be disappointed. The thing that worries me is Prince's "in house" way of doing things - I just don't see him doing it right - Not so worried about censoring/editing like some people are (I don't even think he is that ignorant), but the method/time taken to master, the extras, the packaging etc.

Quality Remastering - Check.

Non-Album tracks/mixes/b-sides - Check

Out-takes/Unreleased tracks from project/period - Check

Detailed liner notes - Check

^ My confidence in Prince delivering that is very low.

.

[Edited 11/2/10 16:05pm]

ufoclub said:

Mindflux said:

Both true and not true at the same time

You're right - properly mixed 5.1 can be "the bomb". 2 favourite 5.1 albums of mine that are quite brilliantly done are Frank Zappa's "Halloween" (DTS) (Vinnie's drum solo on that with the fills whirling around all the speakers is breathtaking!) and Steely Dan's Gaucho (also DTS 5.1). Both incredible fidelity and sensible placing of music and effects.

That said, good old stereo is just fine and with a proper set-up and speakers, you should be able to achieve all of that openness in the soundstage and "surround effects" with just the 2 speakers. Stereo is capable of all of that (your 2 ears are perfectly designed for it!) - 5.1 was really brought in to enhance special effects and heighten the placement of those effects.

What I'm saying is that 5.1 can be used (and will be used!) for more than it's original surround panning functions from yesterday. Surround speaker systems are so cheap and common place now, that it will catch on. And yes, we do only have two ears as reference points, but having a 5.1 system allows the field to be around you, so theoretically for a song the entire drumset could be behind you, but just as loud, literally driving the music. As soon as music breaks away from the current Proscenium conservatism, it will open a whole new mode of creativity.

Kind of like when movies first came out, they rarely had close ups and cuts because they were trying to re-create the theater stage space (proscenium) and felt that was all audiences could understand.

Jump forward to a movie now that jumps back and forth in time and vantage point, and everyone still gets it, and it enhances the experience!

Oh, I quite agree and I'm all for it.

Steely Dan's Gaucho is a perfect example of this. Backing vocals tend to be in the back. Some of the horn solos are just in the back. And it works!

I was just pointing out that a decent stereo system should envelope you in a sound-field just the same. But, for sure, it won't give you the creative possibilities that 5.1 will give you (drum kit entirely behind, to use your example).

OnlyNDaUsa said:

I do not want him doing it because he doesn't know how to do it. Now someone wants to say "how do you know?"

well i do not. but I he needs to hire a company that dose it and has the special equipment to do it correctly.

this talk of letting a computer do it makes me nervous. Each song needs to be done with care and precession.

Yes! And please, no brickwalled, heavily compressed remasters w/ too much noise reduction... I'm afraid that, if Prince is left to his own devices, he will put out remasters that sound worse than the original CDs. His CD releases have rarely been up to an "audiophile" standard, even in recent years.

squirrelgrease said:

Of course, Prince could have been throwing a bullshit party at the expense of our podcast friends, but what had he to gain by doing that? Would he really want to come here and see more threads about what a tool he is?

I think that's just what this will end up being. Don't get me wrong, I have ZERO insider info on this, it just seems like the type of thing that always falls apart in Prince world. I think right at this moment Prince really thinks he's going to release the remasters, but he'll 50% get distracted by a new project and 50% get bogged down with lawyers arguing over compensation with WB, and the whole thing just won't happen.

Here's a number of things that were in the bag that fell apart

Camille (shit had a album number and everything)

Crystal Ball (original)

The Black Albums 88' release

Roadhouse Garden (ask Wendy and Lisa)

Crystal Ball #2

Prince rerecording all his albums one at a time

The Giant Dj sampler pack thingy

LotusFlow3r website

a lot of things fall apart for this guy. Not to cast a black cloud over this, but I'll believe it when I see it. BTW, if it does happen I'll be the first on in line to buy them

I'm not interested if they don't contain remastered b-sides and extended versions. Unreleased material from the period would be nice, but it wouldn't not required. IF remastered albums are ever released, if they contain the remastered b-sides and extended versions, I'll buy them, regardless of the frequency of release (one a year, bunches or all at once). If they don't I just don't have any interest in rebuying all the albums I already own (usually on CD and vinyl).

has anyone checked the upcomming packages for George Michaels 'faith' cd, wow - it looks fab. Not too sure if there's any unreleased trax but a great package nontheless.

funkyhead said:

has anyone checked the upcomming packages for George Michaels 'faith' cd, wow - it looks fab. Not too sure if there's any unreleased trax but a great package nontheless.

you just said George Michael has a 'nice package'!

Mindflux said:

ufoclub said:

What I'm saying is that 5.1 can be used (and will be used!) for more than it's original surround panning functions from yesterday. Surround speaker systems are so cheap and common place now, that it will catch on. And yes, we do only have two ears as reference points, but having a 5.1 system allows the field to be around you, so theoretically for a song the entire drumset could be behind you, but just as loud, literally driving the music. As soon as music breaks away from the current Proscenium conservatism, it will open a whole new mode of creativity.

Kind of like when movies first came out, they rarely had close ups and cuts because they were trying to re-create the theater stage space (proscenium) and felt that was all audiences could understand.

Jump forward to a movie now that jumps back and forth in time and vantage point, and everyone still gets it, and it enhances the experience!

Oh, I quite agree and I'm all for it.

Steely Dan's Gaucho is a perfect example of this. Backing vocals tend to be in the back. Some of the horn solos are just in the back. And it works!

I was just pointing out that a decent stereo system should envelope you in a sound-field just the same. But, for sure, it won't give you the creative possibilities that 5.1 will give you (drum kit entirely behind, to use your example).

Steely Dan wanted to put "Aja" in 5.1 but they were missing 2 multitrack tapes, and there's a $500 dollar reward for whoever finds it. The "making of" is great.

funkyhead said:

has anyone checked the upcomming packages for George Michaels 'faith' cd, wow - it looks fab. Not too sure if there's any unreleased trax but a great package nontheless.

It said they're reissuing the 12" mixes and b-sides on a second disc, plus a DVD, vinyl, & memorabilia. If it's a favorite album, worth getting.

One day the debate of which pop album is the better of the two will be discussed: Faith vs Thriller.