Vinyl reissues are all available now.

I was in Richmond, VA today and picked up Dirty Mind, Coontroversy and 1999 vinyl reissues on 180g vinyl. Controversy also comes with the shower poster. I was surprised to see all 3. They look and sound fantastic.

does this mean it's remastered?

I didn't know these were out until 2day. I picked up Controversy. I will be picking up the other 2 soon (hopefully).

802 said:

does this mean it's remastered?

No. They don't need to be remastered for vinyl because they were recorded for vinyl to begin with.

jpnyc said:

802 said:

does this mean it's remastered?

No. They don't need to be remastered for vinyl because they were recorded for vinyl to begin with.

First, there is already a thread on this topic:

http://prince.org/msg/7/357631

Second, although I am no audio engineer, I don't think you understand what mastering is or how records are made. See here:

http://www.aardvarkmaster...roceed.htm

And here:

http://www.hometheaterhif...ffman.html

Unless WMG still has the original stampers, the albums have to be remastered to create new stampers before new vinyl copies can be pressed. As I pointed out in the other thread, the reissues have different writing in the deadwax.

If it were true that albums once mastered for vinyl never needed to be remastered, then audiophiles would not be shelling out big bucks for Steve Hoffman's vinyl remasters of Joni Mitchell's Blue and Fleetwood Mac's Rumours.

Now, if your point is that the original vinyl pressings sound good enough, and these reissues aren't worth the money, that is a different argument. But the fact that they were issued once on vinyl doesn't mean they can't be remastered for vinyl. Bernie Grundman might have been dissatisfied with his original mastering job for one reason or another.

finky said:

Vinyl reissues are all available now.

I was in Richmond, VA today and picked up Dirty Mind, Coontroversy and 1999 vinyl reissues on 180g vinyl. Controversy also comes with the shower poster. I was surprised to see all 3. They look and sound fantastic.

where did you get them,plan 9?

khemseraph said:

finky said:

Vinyl reissues are all available now.

I was in Richmond, VA today and picked up Dirty Mind, Coontroversy and 1999 vinyl reissues on 180g vinyl. Controversy also comes with the shower poster. I was surprised to see all 3. They look and sound fantastic.

where did you get them,plan 9?

Yes, got them at plan 9. I think they might be able to order them for you. Not sure if they have any more in stock.

finky said:

khemseraph said:

where did you get them,plan 9?

Yes, got them at plan 9. I think they might be able to order them for you. Not sure if they have any more in stock.

thanks man.i live up in fredericksburg.the one record store we HAD here shut down 10 years ago.i get to plan 9 as often as i can.i got all my 12 inches of prince(that i didnt have from years ago)from there

jpnyc said:

802 said:

does this mean it's remastered?

No. They don't need to be remastered for vinyl because they were recorded for vinyl to begin with.

But if it wasn't remastered, it wouldn't sound amazing.

802 said:

jpnyc said:

No. They don't need to be remastered for vinyl because they were recorded for vinyl to begin with.

But if it wasn't remastered, it wouldn't sound amazing.

Maybe because it's a brand new copy pressed on quality heavyweight vinyl. I normally would listen to the CD versions of these albums. I guess there would be a difference in the sound between the CD and vinyl versions anyway. It sounds "richer"...hard to explain.

802 said:

jpnyc said:

No. They don't need to be remastered for vinyl because they were recorded for vinyl to begin with.

But if it wasn't remastered, it wouldn't sound amazing.

The reissues are not the same as the original vinyl pressings. I checked the deadwax for my original pressings of all three reissued albums, and the writing is different on the reissues. Now, these albums continued to be pressed on vinyl for years after they were released, and I don't know whether the last vinyl pressings from before they went out of print had different writing in the deadwax. It's theoretically possible that WMG saved the stampers from the last vinyl pressings and reused them for these reissues. If someone wants to contact Bernie Grundman Mastering, they could tell us for sure. My bet is that these have been remastered. But that means nothing in terms of sound quality. The original vinyl pressings sounded great too.

802 said:

jpnyc said:

No. They don't need to be remastered for vinyl because they were recorded for vinyl to begin with.

But if it wasn't remastered, it wouldn't sound amazing.

The reissues do sound amazing. But I never heard any complaints about the original vinyl pressings of these albums.

[Edited 5/14/11 6:00am]

khemseraph said:

finky said:

Yes, got them at plan 9. I think they might be able to order them for you. Not sure if they have any more in stock.

thanks man.i live up in fredericksburg.the one record store we HAD here shut down 10 years ago.i get to plan 9 as often as i can.i got all my 12 inches of prince(that i didnt have from years ago)from there

No problem. I live down here in Spotsy. Small world

Why release the remasters on vinyl then? It's only going to wear out.

802 said:

Why release the remasters on vinyl then? It's only going to wear out.

I think (I may be wrong) that these reissues are aimed at the collectors market. They probobly know that collectors are not going to play these to the point where they wear out.

802 said:

Why release the remasters on vinyl then? It's only going to wear out.

Good question. My guess would be that WMG and Prince recognize that there is a niche market for vinyl reissues right now that may not exist in a few years, and they want to exploit that before releasing CD remasters. If they had already put out good-sounding CD remasters, I wouldn't have bought these vinyl reissues, because I already have original vinyl pressings. But by putting the vinyl reissues out first, they can get me to pay twice, first for these vinyl reissues and then later when the CD remasters are issued. (Yes, I realize that makes me a sucker.)

Is the Black Album re-issued?

ufoclub said:

Is the Black Album re-issued?

Not yet (unless you count the 1994 reissue). So far the only vinyl reissues are Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999, and Purple Rain.

1999 looks very tempting, i'm buying a turntable soon.

One good reason to buy the Dirty Mind and 1999 reissues is if you want (and don't have) pristine copies of the inner paper sleeves that hold the discs. It would be rare to find those in perfect condition, unless the previous owner stored the sleeves separately from the discs, which most record owners don't do. Even sealed original pressings are likely to have damaged paper sleeves.

When I bought the original pressings from various sources a few months ago, I ended up paying more for Controversy than any of the others, and the copy I got didn't even come with the poster. I think the problem is that not too many copies of Controversy were pressed originally compared to the later albums, and most of the people who bought it played it to death because it is so damn good. It's much easier to find mint condition copies of the albums from 1999 onward because they pressed so many of those.

dupe thread.

See http://prince.org/msg/7/357631