Prince's records really don't sound that great from a technical stand point. It's well known that he never let the techincal side of recording get in the way of his creative process and speedy workflow. On that note what record do you think sounds the best on a purely sonic front? My vote goes for Prince (1979)

Rainbow Children had some extra care taken in mixing. More than Prince even knew accoding to Femi.

I know some will disagree and I certainly ain't no audiophile but CB sounds exceptionally good to me, always have

Parade sounds very nice in my opinion. It's a fantasic sounding record, probably his best as far as the mix is concerned.

[Edited 12/14/16 21:37pm]

Clear and crisp is Controversy, my choice

symbol album for me

Emancipation

From the technical point of view - TRC, although some parts of it clip due to the record being a bit too loud. Lotusflow3r is rather similar in sound and approach, I think.

However, that type of detailed, "three-dimensional" sound sometimes works against the "drive" of the music. I think one of the reasons why Prince liked his funk tracks with very narrow stereo images was that it just sounds tighter. Most contemporary music sounds completely different in that regard.

I really prefer the overall sound of Purple Rain over the later "more expensive sounding stuff". Something about the mix of it just translates well over just about any decent speakers.

Prince (1979)

Very interesting how many different replies we get here

The Hit N Run albums both sound great

My vinyl copy of Dirty Mind Sounds Amazing, the Symbol album and Diamonds and Pears sound pretty good on vinyl as well. It would be nice to here high quaility MP3 or wave files of his releases but most are not.

TheGloved1 said:

donnyenglish said:

Purely sound would be Plectrum Electrum.

That album is horribly mixed and mastered in my opinion! Squashed dynamics, smashed by compression, too loud, distorted.

1st place is 4 sure that smashing minneapolis sound of 1999 album.

2nd is tasty Symbol album.

& 3rd goes to The Rainbow Children.

purpleemotions said:

Emancipation

uuh, that snares are...

Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999 and Purple Rain - the 4 that made me a life long Prince fan in the first place.

Crystal Ball sounds the clearest and loudest

It's got to be Around The World In A Day. Like yawning after a really dark dream.

Prince (second best snares in his discography)

Dirty Mind (best sounding snares in his discography)

Purple Rain era stuff recorded at Sunset (WDC, 17 Days, etc)

Parade

Lovesexy

Come

The Rainbow Children

Worst: Emancipation, most of the songs sound like someone found half of the track recordings and had to fill in the missing pieces on a deadline.

Honorable mention: Gold Experience, not the most pleasing sound or anything, but definitely the last one for a while where a lot of care is audible.

[Edited 2/1/17 19:37pm]

3121

crisp and clean with no caffeine

Iamtheorg said:

crisp and clean with no caffeine

I used to say that all the time!

Wow this is a tough one for me. It's interesting that many say TRC is one of the best. For me it's not the worst but I felt as soon as the drums kicked in on the opening track they sounded muddy and overcompressed and too loud. The rest of the album was ok though. I've noticed that not every songs sound is consistant with his whole albums. Like the example I gave with TRC. Lady Cab Driver on 1999 sounds way better than the rest of the album to me as well.

Anyways here's my overall picks (no paticular order)

Controversy

Both HitNRun albums

Crystal Ball

Prince

3121

Nod to Lovesexy (volume is so low but on my best system turned up it sounds great to me.)

Worst to me would be

1999

The Gold Experience (sounds ok at low volume but not an album that sounds good loud to me)

Non album tracks

Cybersingle

LOL-Live Out Loud (Has to be the worst of the worst)

best sounding is of course, far from best record. Also, it is very subjective. In my opinion, most of his records do not sound very good, but he has some extraordinary songs and keep things interesting (although after lovesexy, he tried often to "stay with the times" to the detriment of his records, imo)

As far as best sounding:

-The Rainbow Children

-For You

-Dirty Mind