Parade

Parade, followed closely by 1999 and Purple Rain.

I'd actually go with Sign 'O' The Times.

Purple Rain, easily.

Me too, so many great albums, but most are cluttered (Lovesexy etc) or just too sparse, tinny sounding (The budget and basic squeak keyboards of DM and Controversy, sound sad next to the later ones). Parade is crisp and clear and free of larded up overdubbing. 2nd is 1999, its great Linn Drum sounds and pure clear rock vocals with their in yo face beat and raw guitarwork.

I say the worst mastered album (that's not Prince's job!) is the best produced, most cohesive, and strongest flavor, and that's the Black Album.

i don't reaaallly like the production on any of those albums...

Dirty Mind and Controversy are thin and tinny, but I dunno, I don't mind too much. I think I consider the weak production to be 'part of the experience' or something.

1999 sounds uneven. On my CD version (the only version I have), there's a huge drop in quality between 1999 and LRC. The vocals on LRC are distorted pretty badly. And the jump from DMSR to Automatic shows how bad Automatic sounds.

Purple Rain sounds ok, I guess. I don't like the way Let's Go Crazy sounds.

ATWIAD is a bit worse than PR.

Parade sounds REALLY weird to me, and usually not in a way I like. Those drum sounds don't do it for me. I find it hard to pick out the guitars, etc. My friend described it as sounding 'like the special effects are louder than the music.'

SOTT is my favourite.

Lovesexy is pretty bad. Everything is too loud and it's cluttered.

LiveToTell86 said:

I'd actually go with Sign 'O' The Times.

Mmhmm

define best

1999/PR are pure MPLS gold

the semi-organic approach of SOTT is fantastic

Parade has an unique sound

the punky/funky/trashy sound of DM gets the job done

fusk said:

i don't reaaallly like the production on any of those albums...

Dirty Mind and Controversy are thin and tinny, but I dunno, I don't mind too much. I think I consider the weak production to be 'part of the experience' or something.

1999 sounds uneven. On my CD version (the only version I have), there's a huge drop in quality between 1999 and LRC. The vocals on LRC are distorted pretty badly. And the jump from DMSR to Automatic shows how bad Automatic sounds.

Purple Rain sounds ok, I guess. I don't like the way Let's Go Crazy sounds.

ATWIAD is a bit worse than PR.

Parade sounds REALLY weird to me, and usually not in a way I like. Those drum sounds don't do it for me. I find it hard to pick out the guitars, etc. My friend described it as sounding 'like the special effects are louder than the music.'

SOTT is my favourite.

Lovesexy is pretty bad. Everything is too loud and it's cluttered.

From what i understood LRC was recorded at princes home studio as opposed to the other songs that were recorded at a more professional studio

fusk said:

i don't reaaallly like the production on any of those albums...

Dirty Mind and Controversy are thin and tinny, but I dunno, I don't mind too much. I think I consider the weak production to be 'part of the experience' or something.

1999 sounds uneven. On my CD version (the only version I have), there's a huge drop in quality between 1999 and LRC. The vocals on LRC are distorted pretty badly. And the jump from DMSR to Automatic shows how bad Automatic sounds.

Purple Rain sounds ok, I guess. I don't like the way Let's Go Crazy sounds.

ATWIAD is a bit worse than PR.

Parade sounds REALLY weird to me, and usually not in a way I like. Those drum sounds don't do it for me. I find it hard to pick out the guitars, etc. My friend described it as sounding 'like the special effects are louder than the music.'

SOTT is my favourite.

Lovesexy is pretty bad. Everything is too loud and it's cluttered.

The distortion on the vocals on LRC is used as an effect, on purpose. This was back in the day when you could be in the red while recording and use real clipping as a proper effect.

Hm. I thought that might have been the case because maaan, the distortion is plain as day, it's hard to believe they just overlooked it. What are some other examples of people using clipping to good effect? Would you count If I Was Your Girlfriend as an example? I really like the vocals on IIWYG, but intentional or not, i think the distortion on LRC sounds pretty bad.

Parade-Listen 2 it.

Parade, probably. Purple Rain is a good example of getting the 80s sound right though.

Really can't agree with Lovesexy having bad production. It's a great successor to SOTT and sounds way better in most contemporary soundsystems than SOTT. That's not just due to its mastering, but it also sounds better due to the arrangements used on it covering the frequency range more effectively. Yes, you can actually improve such matters by putting some thought into the arrangements, it's not just up to EQ'ing, compression and things like that.

fusk said:

Hm. I thought that might have been the case because maaan, the distortion is plain as day, it's hard to believe they just overlooked it. What are some other examples of people using clipping to good effect? Would you count If I Was Your Girlfriend as an example? I really like the vocals on IIWYG, but intentional or not, i think the distortion on LRC sounds pretty bad.

I agree about LRC being distorted in a bad way. It bothers me only on headphones though. It doesn't really fit the track and sounds like a mistake and nothing else.

thebanishedone said:

By the time Prince recorded Little Red Corvette his home studio was not what you call a regular home studio.he had real studio with expensive gadgets . Little Red Corvette is brilliant piece of music and production.

Not really.

According to Jesse, at the time he used a mixing board that was supposed to be used for live music and crappy speakers.

As far as the Prince album with the best production I have to go with 1999. Folks are still ripping off the sound from that album 30 years later.

Parade is the next best.

Parade still sounds the least affected by time. 1999 sounded so cutting edge back then, but it's got rough and uneven production.

Controversy has pretty good production, as does PR

Paris9748430 said:

According to Jesse, at the time he used a mixing board that was supposed to be used for live music and crappy speakers.

Hah, this wouldn't surprise me at all. Yeah, that could explain why he didn't even notice all the distortion when working on tracks like LRC.