OK. I've been reading reviews of the HD tracks material that has been made available previously of Prince's older records.

I'm completel confused by some of the things posted by audiophiles on various websites.

Can someobdy break it down for me?




1. Are these remasters?

2. Some claim these are remasters of Warner's copy of the tapes. What does that mean, and why is this significant.

3. Some say this is really just an exact sound what you'd hear on vynl. Some say though this would make it sound great, it would lack the dynamic range it could have otherwise.

4. Some say that they'll wait for the "official remasters". Why? If these are indeed remastered, what is the difference?

Are these worth purchasing?

No one really knows, but there is things on there that they have "Upscaled" from vinyl for some artists, where others may well be remastered from the original tapes.

If upscaled its basically remastered/eq'ed from the Vinyl or best avaliable copy.

But Im not sure about Prince's albums on there, I have them and they do sound better but im not so sure if they have been done from the original tapes. They was taken down not long ago though at the request of NPG.

Are they back on there now?

[Edited 10/22/14 0:53am]

Blixical said:

OK. I've been reading reviews of the HD tracks material that has been made available previously of Prince's older records.

I'm completel confused by some of the things posted by audiophiles on various websites.

Can someobdy break it down for me?




1. Are these remasters?

2. Some claim these are remasters of Warner's copy of the tapes. What does that mean, and why is this significant.

3. Some say this is really just an exact sound what you'd hear on vynl. Some say though this would make it sound great, it would lack the dynamic range it could have otherwise.

4. Some say that they'll wait for the "official remasters". Why? If these are indeed remastered, what is the difference?

Are these worth purchasing?

I purchased 1999, ATWIAD and PR from HD Tracks. I don't think they were remastered (especially the ATWIAD). However, they all sounded better than the original cds.

It's a tad too late to purchase them. When Prince acquired his masters, HDTracks removed those files. The only P albums on their site now are AOA and Plectum.

Don't know if this means anything to anyone. This is from the 'Read me' in my HDTracks PR.

foobar2000 1.2.5 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2013-05-26 19:34:03

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: Prince / Purple Rain
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR11 -2.21 dB -16.66 dB 4:38 01-Let's Go Crazy
DR12 -2.82 dB -17.79 dB 3:53 02-Take Me With U
DR12 -2.01 dB -18.74 dB 5:13 03-The Beautiful Ones
DR13 -2.74 dB -19.05 dB 3:59 04-Computer Blue
DR11 -1.74 dB -16.85 dB 4:14 05-Darling Nikki
DR14 -2.39 dB -18.47 dB 5:53 06-When Doves Cry
DR16 -1.10 dB -19.26 dB 2:49 07-I Would Die 4 U
DR13 -0.09 dB -15.47 dB 4:24 08-Baby I'm A Star
DR13 -2.21 dB -18.93 dB 8:42 09-Purple Rain
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of tracks: 9
Official DR value: DR13

Samplerate: 192000 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 24
Bitrate: 4812 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

I just listenned to the HD Tracks version of PARADE.

Fofur's remaster sounds better---the layers are clearer and more dynamic on his remaster than the HD Tracks version. Fofur's version is a bit "bright", but sounds better overall.

So, I guess these aren't really remasters at all.