I just bought the 1999 FLACs from Tidal and noticed right away they changed the segue between 1999 and Little Red Corvette. On my LP (2011 remaster), 1999 ends with the usual "Mommy..." line twice, then that percussive 'steam' blast which then fades into Little Red Corvette. That's how I've always remembered it from my old copies as well.

But on the Tidal FLAC version, 1999 quickly fades during the second "mommy..." and there's no steam sound. There's a slight silence gap, then LRC starts right into the song at regular volume, without any fade-in.

Anyone else notice this? The time lengths are 6:19 and 4:56, so they're not the single versions. I don't know why they would do this, other than they perhaps tried to keep the songs separate for the individual flacs? But that's not an acceptable reason.

injuredpinky said:

I just bought the 1999 FLACs from Tidal and noticed right away they changed the segue between 1999 and Little Red Corvette. On my LP (2011 remaster), 1999 ends with the usual "Mommy..." line twice, then that percussive 'steam' blast which then fades into Little Red Corvette. That's how I've always remembered it from my old copies as well.

But on the Tidal FLAC version, 1999 quickly fades during the second "mommy..." and there's no steam sound. There's a slight silence gap, then LRC starts right into the song at regular volume, without any fade-in.

Anyone else notice this? The time lengths are 6:19 and 4:56, so they're not the single versions. I don't know why they would do this, other than they perhaps tried to keep the songs separate for the individual flacs? But that's not an acceptable reason.

I would request a refund for this reason.

The only acceptable edits to his music are: removing Jughead completely from Diamonds and Pearls. Replace it with "Schoolyard." Removing all instances of Tony M from his entire catalog. Removing the raps in "Dig U Better Dead." Replacing Sonny T's lead vox on Exodus with Prince.

Why not just buy the CD or Vinyl? 1999 is remastered on vinyl.

injuredpinky said:

I just bought the 1999 FLACs from Tidal and noticed right away they changed the segue between 1999 and Little Red Corvette. On my LP (2011 remaster), 1999 ends with the usual "Mommy..." line twice, then that percussive 'steam' blast which then fades into Little Red Corvette. That's how I've always remembered it from my old copies as well.

But on the Tidal FLAC version, 1999 quickly fades during the second "mommy..." and there's no steam sound. There's a slight silence gap, then LRC starts right into the song at regular volume, without any fade-in.

Anyone else notice this? The time lengths are 6:19 and 4:56, so they're not the single versions. I don't know why they would do this, other than they perhaps tried to keep the songs separate for the individual flacs? But that's not an acceptable reason.

Fascinating! Erotic City was also different. Whatever happened I need to add those to my discography project!

suomynona said:

injuredpinky said:

I just bought the 1999 FLACs from Tidal and noticed right away they changed the segue between 1999 and Little Red Corvette. On my LP (2011 remaster), 1999 ends with the usual "Mommy..." line twice, then that percussive 'steam' blast which then fades into Little Red Corvette. That's how I've always remembered it from my old copies as well.

But on the Tidal FLAC version, 1999 quickly fades during the second "mommy..." and there's no steam sound. There's a slight silence gap, then LRC starts right into the song at regular volume, without any fade-in.

Anyone else notice this? The time lengths are 6:19 and 4:56, so they're not the single versions. I don't know why they would do this, other than they perhaps tried to keep the songs separate for the individual flacs? But that's not an acceptable reason.

I would request a refund for this reason.

TrivialPursuit said:

Why not just buy the CD or Vinyl? 1999 is remastered on vinyl.

Actually I have the 2011 vinyl remaster, which sounds great.Tidal did a nice job on the other Prince FLACs i bought, so I thought I'd get these as well. This was the first editing difference that I noticed, which made it all the more strange.

suomynona said:

injuredpinky said:

I just bought the 1999 FLACs from Tidal and noticed right away they changed the segue between 1999 and Little Red Corvette. On my LP (2011 remaster), 1999 ends with the usual "Mommy..." line twice, then that percussive 'steam' blast which then fades into Little Red Corvette. That's how I've always remembered it from my old copies as well.

But on the Tidal FLAC version, 1999 quickly fades during the second "mommy..." and there's no steam sound. There's a slight silence gap, then LRC starts right into the song at regular volume, without any fade-in.

Anyone else notice this? The time lengths are 6:19 and 4:56, so they're not the single versions. I don't know why they would do this, other than they perhaps tried to keep the songs separate for the individual flacs? But that's not an acceptable reason.

I would request a refund for this reason.

The only acceptable edits to his music are: removing Jughead completely from Diamonds and Pearls. Replace it with "Schoolyard." Removing all instances of Tony M from his entire catalog. Removing the raps in "Dig U Better Dead." Replacing Sonny T's lead vox on Exodus with Prince.

Hmmm, I just might do that. I ripped my 2011 vinyl remaster of 1999 a while ago, so I have those. But they have a small bit of sibilance (most likely due to my meh turntable AT-LP2D USB), thus the reason for buying the Tidal flacs. For fun I may try to use small snippets from the vinyl rips and blend the missing components back in to the Tidal FLACs.

RiotPaisley said:

ugh... I noticed that too and wondered if I just didn't hear it. Damn. Can we please get these remastered on CD WITH THEIR ORIGINAL tracks, PLEASE!!! This is so irritating. I especially find it irritating to listen to music where some tracks are super quiet and you have to turn them up only for the next song to come blaring on.

Lol, absolutely true and absolutely frustrating. The songs within the 1999 and ATWIAD flacs varied greatly in volume. They sound very crisp and clear, so they did remaster them for sure, but the volumes are all over the place. As soon as i buy the flacs from Tidal, the first thing I do is import them into Audacity and normalize all the track volumes. A pain in the ass.

RiotPaisley said:

ugh... I noticed that too and wondered if I just didn't hear it. Damn. Can we please get these remastered on CD WITH THEIR ORIGINAL tracks, PLEASE!!! This is so irritating. I especially find it irritating to listen to music where some tracks are super quiet and you have to turn them up only for the next song to come blaring on.

With McMillan becoming involved, we may never see another release other than the rumored Piano & Mic tour set. That includes remasters. If anyone knew how Prince felt about his music -- and would respect Prince's wishes on those matters -- it's McMillan.

With that said, I hope folks realize that the lossless files on Tidal aren't remastered.

What I'm trying to say is that you can buy 1999 (or any other album he released) on CD, and rip it lossless in iTunes for a LOT cheaper than what Tidal sells it for. And you'd have a physical disc that you could bury in a closet and bring out later when your hard drive fails.

Wait until the estate announces what it is going to do before spending anything significant on what is currently available. That's why the only thing I have bought since 4/21 are the Tidal exclusives (exclusives ONLY available on Tidal) on flac.

suomynona said:

With McMillan becoming involved, we may never see another release other than the rumored Piano & Mic tour set. That includes remasters. If anyone knew how Prince felt about his music -- and would respect Prince's wishes on those matters -- it's McMillan.

Prince did say someone would release his stuff one day, so I can't imagine he was against it being done....just not by himself. If anything, I would think McM would just make sure the estate got top dollar for all this.

suomynona said:

I hope folks realize that the lossless files on Tidal aren't remastered.

That certainly surprises me. The tidal flacs sound wonderful. Prince (s/t), 1999, Controversy and ATWIAD all sound much brighter and clearer than their CD counterparts I have.

injuredpinky said:

suomynona said:

With McMillan becoming involved, we may never see another release other than the rumored Piano & Mic tour set. That includes remasters. If anyone knew how Prince felt about his music -- and would respect Prince's wishes on those matters -- it's McMillan.

Prince did say someone would release his stuff one day, so I can't imagine he was against it being done....just not by himself. If anything, I would think McM would just make sure the estate got top dollar for all this.

Yeah, I don't think he was against eventual release of some of the vault stuff after his death. (He didn't want what I want, which is the release of all of it.) I think he just didn't want to do it himself, either because he just didn't want to do the actual work of putting it together and didn't really have any interest in spending the time on that instead of a new project, or because he didn't want to hear the inevitable commentary, which could include "well, I guess there wasn't anything worthwhile in the vault" or (worse for him) "Wow, he hasn't done anything this good in 30 years." After he was dead, though, those concerns would kind of go away. So I think if he had actually anticipated his death, he would have gone ahead and set up some plan for much of it to be released and named some responsible person or people for that project. But he didn't.

injuredpinky said:

suomynona said: