hi everyone...not posted here much lately...hope you are all doing ok...just wanted to put a post up in the little hope i have left that someone has news that prince and warners are going to sort out a deal to get his classic 80s albums remastered , some love and respect that those recordings deserve...i dont believe it will ever happen now...i believe warners would jump at the chance so its obviously prince that is holding it up and its now over 25 years since "sign o the times" was released and we got nothing....and nothing for all the previous albums....

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its just a shame that he seems soo stubborn...i noticed there was vinyl remasters issued recently so maybe its the digital thing he has a problem with and as much as i like vinyl...i still want the deluxe cd treatment ...prince's 80s albums are crying out for the deluxe treatment with all those amazing outakes floating around that time...

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maybe it will happen one day but i cant see it while prince still has the veto...

Prince......I have given up. I truely hate this guy now. Thank goodness for this site so I can keep up with the associated artist but Prince....whatever.

Good to see you again, blackbob

I'm going to repeat my prediction from another one of these remaster threads:

I've given up on Prince remasters.I just don't care anymore.I have alot of other favorite artists who have remastered their old albums,and I'm just gonna enjoy those.Life goes on

Why wait! You're much better off remastering the old catalog yourself, using clean vinyl and using the 12" and 7"singles (that sound amazing BTW), and creating high resolution digtal files.

I've done it and I'm very happy with the results. I don't notice it until someone here mentions they need re-masters.

The deluxe treatment would be nice, but how much more are you going to get that you can't already find on the internet.

SuperSoulFighter said:

Why are you guys getting so obsessed with remasters??? I really don't get it. If I want to hear Purple Raim again, I just put on the LP. And I don't want to bonus trax either! The album is supposed to end after Purple Rain and not have G- Spot and 3 versions of Compuer Blue behind it. No matter how much I love those. Now if Prince were to officially release his previously bootlegged stuff, that would be a different story. I'd buy that! But I have no need for a new version of an album I already own.

What if he were to release a 2-CD Deluxe Edition of Purple Rain...the first disc would be the original album and the second disc would be all the outtakes from that era? Are you telling us that you wouldn't like a project like that?

if I want to hear Purple Rain again I can hear next door's house having the radio on and the owner of the house turning the stereo up so he can sing along whilst doing the hoovering.

Maybe turning the Hoover off as well. I wonder why they named a motorised suction device after a President?

Also, what with the Internet and everything, you could probably operate the kill switch manouevre that is downloading the software and remastering it yourself. But then you'd probably have to share it with somebody else in order to validate your opinion on the amount of bass that did not already come out of a Linn Drum on tape.

I give up i really do. By which i mean i don't. Al Gore is a cunt.

Cx

It's the only thing that matters.

SuperSoulFighter said:

Why are you guys getting so obsessed with remasters???

Yeah it doesn't seem like it's coming, until at least Prince is alive...

I for one am glad that there have been no remasters up to this point, particularly if Prince has control over them. Over the last 15+ years his albums have been so heavily limited and compressed that I find some completely unlistenable.

I couldn't think of anything worse than hearing all the dynamics disappear from his early recordings.

If and when this obsession with loudness ends, then I'll welcome some remasters.

^ Yeah, honestly if Prince was in control of doing them, I'd be worried about the outcome (in terms of sound and product).

They'll come sooner or later, but don't expect them to be the holy grail - you can bet the first time they do they, it will not be some big expansive mind-blowing set full of single edits, 12" mixes, out-takes, live shows yadda, yadda.

Although I would buy all the remastered albums I am not complaining. The old CDs have a good quality and I think most of us wait for the remastered music, because we hope to listen some rare material that usually comes with remasters.

So he can do what he wants, my money is waiting! Sooner or later Warner or Prince himself will find a way to do it. He is not living in past, although he is playing more and more older material. He is taking his time

One last thought about this...

It's well known that when Prince went into the studio, he was never into setting up microphones correctly, or tuning his instruments properly or anything that would be sonically amazing, (compared to Bruce Swedien and Quincy Jones, for the MJJ sessions and other recording artists that relied on the studio and the recording engineer).

Prince was more about the vibe and the energy of the session, not how well it sounds. Sheila E. alluded to that in a 1988 documentary. So with that thought, are the master recordings incapable of re-mastering for better sound quality?

He engineered most of his own sessions, layering voices and instruments on the same multi-track for certain effect, etc. Peggy McCreary often said he would record very fast and he wasn't happy when the recording team could not set up fast enough for him to lay down what was in his head at the time, hence some sacrifices had to be made in the studio. He would often send them out of room, so he could record his parts. His way of recording the early albums was very untraditional and recorded between his home and Sunset Sound in L.A. A lot of Purple Rain was recorded on a "Sound Truck" outside First Ave.

I'm sure there are a few folks that know what kind of shape and condition those early tapes are

in?

Maybe re-mastering is out of the question for now, until the technolgy is developed to properly enhance those tapes?

Just my theory and thoughts on the subject.

Prints said:

Although I would buy all the remastered albums I am not complaining. The old CDs have a good quality and I think most of us wait for the remastered music, because we hope to listen some rare material that usually comes with remasters.

So he can do what he wants, my money is waiting! Sooner or later Warner or Prince himself will find a way to do it. He is not living in past, although he is playing more and more older material. He is taking his time

Huh? You think Sign 'o' the times and Lovesexy sound good on cd??

G3000 said:

One last thought about this...

It's well known that when Prince went into the studio, he was never into setting up microphones correctly, or tuning his instruments properly or anything that would be sonically amazing, (compared to Bruce Swedien and Quincy Jones, for the MJJ sessions and other recording artists that relied on the studio and the recording engineer).

Prince was more about the vibe and the energy of the session, not how well it sounds. Sheila E. alluded to that in a 1988 documentary. So with that thought, are the master recordings incapable of re-mastering for better sound quality?

He engineered most of his own sessions, layering voices and instruments on the same multi-track for certain effect, etc. Peggy McCreary often said he would record very fast and he wasn't happy when the recording team could not set up fast enough for him to lay down what was in his head at the time, hence some sacrifices had to be made in the studio. He would often send them out of room, so he could record his parts. His way of recording the early albums was very untraditional and recorded between his home and Sunset Sound in L.A. A lot of Purple Rain was recorded on a "Sound Truck" outside First Ave.

I'm sure there are a few folks that know what kind of shape and condition those early tapes are

in?

Maybe re-mastering is out of the question for now, until the technolgy is developed to properly enhance those tapes?

Just my theory and thoughts on the subject.

If you want to know how the master tapes of the albums sound, buy the recent vinyl reissues of Dirty Mind, Controversy, and 1999. They sound awesome and were mastered from the original tapes as stated by Bernie Grundman Mastering.

If you're talking about whether the original multitrack tapes are in a condition usable for a remix, I don't know. I'm not really interested in remixes of the classic albums.

electricberet said:

G3000 said:

One last thought about this...

It's well known that when Prince went into the studio, he was never into setting up microphones correctly, or tuning his instruments properly or anything that would be sonically amazing, (compared to Bruce Swedien and Quincy Jones, for the MJJ sessions and other recording artists that relied on the studio and the recording engineer).

Prince was more about the vibe and the energy of the session, not how well it sounds. Sheila E. alluded to that in a 1988 documentary. So with that thought, are the master recordings incapable of re-mastering for better sound quality?

He engineered most of his own sessions, layering voices and instruments on the same multi-track for certain effect, etc. Peggy McCreary often said he would record very fast and he wasn't happy when the recording team could not set up fast enough for him to lay down what was in his head at the time, hence some sacrifices had to be made in the studio. He would often send them out of room, so he could record his parts. His way of recording the early albums was very untraditional and recorded between his home and Sunset Sound in L.A. A lot of Purple Rain was recorded on a "Sound Truck" outside First Ave.

I'm sure there are a few folks that know what kind of shape and condition those early tapes are

in?

Maybe re-mastering is out of the question for now, until the technolgy is developed to properly enhance those tapes?

Just my theory and thoughts on the subject.

If you want to know how the master tapes of the albums sound, buy the recent vinyl reissues of Dirty Mind, Controversy, and 1999. They sound awesome and were mastered from the original tapes as stated by Bernie Grundman Mastering.

If you're talking about whether the original multitrack tapes are in a condition usable for a remix, I don't know. I'm not really interested in remixes of the classic albums.

Look at earlier post..

When was Prince legally first able to make a remaster of any of his material?

NouveauDance said:

^ Yeah, honestly if Prince was in control of doing them, I'd be worried about the outcome (in terms of sound and product).

They'll come sooner or later, but don't expect them to be the holy grail - you can bet the first time they do they, it will not be some big expansive mind-blowing set full of single edits, 12" mixes, out-takes, live shows yadda, yadda.

I agree.Prince doesn't seem like the type of person who would give us 2-CD "deluxe editions" filled with outtakes,demos,12" versions,rare photos,extensive liner notes and other goodies If we ever get remasters,it'll be very basic and cheaply packaged.

TyphoonTip said:

I for one am glad that there have been no remasters up to this point, particularly if Prince has control over them. Over the last 15+ years his albums have been so heavily limited and compressed that I find some completely unlistenable.

I couldn't think of anything worse than hearing all the dynamics disappear from his early recordings.

If and when this obsession with loudness ends, then I'll welcome some remasters.

I highly agree with this. I am willing to bet that the master tapes of some of those albums aren't in the best condition. A great deal of the old CDs have great sound dynamics and if some sound engineer and producer were to screw things up, things would be way worse. Remember these?

Remastered sound, but loud and overbarring.

[Edited 9/3/12 18:05pm]

SoulAlive said:

I've given up on Prince remasters.I just don't care anymore.I have alot of other favorite artists who have remastered their old albums,and I'm just gonna enjoy those.Life goes on

^^

I still care, I would love to have SOTT and Lovesexy and the rest remastered, but like BlackBob I have given up. My hopes to see/ hear Prince remasters one day are really at a low point. Shame..

thedance said:

Speaking of these remasters, you all need to invest in those SHM-CDs, do your own tweaking, and call it a day!