I just read on the WB Prince website: "Purple Rain Deluxe boasts the official 2015 Paisley Park Remaster of the original tapes overseen by Prince himself." Does anyone know which engineer did the remastering job? Joshua Welton? Or someone more established?

funkaholic1972 said:

mikeyaddict said:

funkaholic1972 said:

I just read on the WB Prince website: "Purple Rain Deluxe boasts the official 2015 Paisley Park Remaster of the original tapes overseen by Prince himself." Does anyone know which engineer did the remastering job? Joshua Welton? Or someone more established?

I always just assumed it would be Prince doing it. But if the wording is 'overseen' does raise an eyebrow. Bollocks. Unless it says otherwise in my mind it was him.

That's cute, but he's always used an engineer for these things, and worked with them. I hope it wasn't Joshua Welton. Bernie Grundman did those other four records, including the 2011 release of Purple Rain on 180gram vinyl. I've not listened to that one (but I am going to put it on my list of to-gets). I would think in the credits, as with the NPG re-masters on vinyl, the person doing that would be listed.

jjam said:

Bernie Grundman remastered it, who also mastered the initial release.

Where do you have evidence of that?

We know he remastered the 2011 remaster (along with Dirty Mind, Controversy, and 1999) from the original tapes, and released through Rhino Records. But this set specifically says "Paisley Park Remaster". Was Bernie part of this again? Or did Prince and whoever tweak Bernie's 2011 remaster?

jjam said:

Bernie Grundman remastered it, who also mastered the initial release.

YAY!!

[Edited 5/15/17 14:38pm]

TrivialPursuit said:

jjam said:

Bernie Grundman remastered it, who also mastered the initial release.

Where do you have evidence of that?

We know he remastered the 2011 remaster (along with Dirty Mind, Controversy, and 1999) from the original tapes, and released through Rhino Records. But this set specifically says "Paisley Park Remaster". Was Bernie part of this again? Or did Prince and whoever tweak Bernie's 2011 remaster?

It was Bernie Grundman, according to The Current:

http://blog.thecurrent.or...cordings/

The tracks have been carefully transferred from the stereo masters at Paisley Park, and mastered by Bernie Grundman — the mastering engineer who worked on the original album.

Same information from Dr Funkenberry:

http://www.drfunkenberry....pre-order/

The same language is in every story you'll find if you google "Bernie Grundman Purple Rain Deluxe," so it must have been part of a news release from WB.

Doozer said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Where do you have evidence of that?

We know he remastered the 2011 remaster (along with Dirty Mind, Controversy, and 1999) from the original tapes, and released through Rhino Records. But this set specifically says "Paisley Park Remaster". Was Bernie part of this again? Or did Prince and whoever tweak Bernie's 2011 remaster?

It was Bernie Grundman, according to The Current:

http://blog.thecurrent.or...cordings/

The tracks have been carefully transferred from the stereo masters at Paisley Park, and mastered by Bernie Grundman — the mastering engineer who worked on the original album.

Same information from Dr Funkenberry:

http://www.drfunkenberry....pre-order/

The same language is in every story you'll find if you google "Bernie Grundman Purple Rain Deluxe," so it must have been part of a news release from WB.

Sounds awesome!

Bernie's the man.
Check his video about compression techniques on Youtube, it's great.

TrivialPursuit said:

jjam said:

Bernie Grundman remastered it, who also mastered the initial release.

Where do you have evidence of that?

We know he remastered the 2011 remaster (along with Dirty Mind, Controversy, and 1999) from the original tapes, and released through Rhino Records. But this set specifically says "Paisley Park Remaster". Was Bernie part of this again? Or did Prince and whoever tweak Bernie's 2011 remaster?

I did not know that! So does that mean the new vinyls from the past few years (and more recent NPG re-issues) of these albums are remasters?

Why was this not advertised? I am more inclined to buy them now - as I was waiting for a full remaster series (may never happen/long time waiting)...

Daveoooo said:

I did not know that! So does that mean the new vinyls from the past few years (and more recent NPG re-issues) of these albums are remasters?

Why was this not advertised? I am more inclined to buy them now - as I was waiting for a full remaster series (may never happen/long time waiting)...

Those four 2011 releases are a separate project from everything else, and released on Rhino Records, and remastered by Bernie from the original tapes. The NPG releases were remastered, and (at least) For You was noted as Kevin Gray being the person who did the remaster.

Even "Kiss", "Raspberry Beret" and "New Power Generation" 12" singles were remastered and put out again (I saw them at B&N the other day). Most of those vinyl remasters are on Amazon and in some record stores. You can tell which is which because the back bottom will say "NPG Records, under exclusive license to Warner Bros Records". The NPG logo is before the WB logo. For You, Prince, Dirty Mind, Purple Rain, ATWIAD, Parade, SOTT, Lovesexy have all had remastering. I remember at one point COME had a release date, too on Amazon. So if you're waiting on a full remaster series - it's already done. It was part of the 2014 WB deal.

Doozer said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Where do you have evidence of that?

We know he remastered the 2011 remaster (along with Dirty Mind, Controversy, and 1999) from the original tapes, and released through Rhino Records. But this set specifically says "Paisley Park Remaster". Was Bernie part of this again? Or did Prince and whoever tweak Bernie's 2011 remaster?

It was Bernie Grundman, according to The Current:

http://blog.thecurrent.or...cordings/

The tracks have been carefully transferred from the stereo masters at Paisley Park, and mastered by Bernie Grundman — the mastering engineer who worked on the original album.

Same information from Dr Funkenberry:

http://www.drfunkenberry....pre-order/

The same language is in every story you'll find if you google "Bernie Grundman Purple Rain Deluxe," so it must have been part of a news release from WB.

Thansk Doozer, this is great news to me!

A friend picked up the new Record Store Day release of What Time Is It? on limited edition green vinyl and asked me to do a needle drop and make him a digital copy. Of course I agreed as it gave me the opportunity to compare it to my original pressing and for me to keep a digital copy for myself...

My opinion is the original release sounds FAR better than the new release. I won't put that down to the colored vinyl either as the record itself actually sounded very clean, none of the pops that sometimes come with colored vinyl. Rather, it sounded to my ears more "digital" while the original was much warmer and more "analog" in sound. I'm betting the new one is a digital master ported to vinyl.

All that said, the green record is BEAUTIFUL and although it does not sound as good as the 1st pressings I wouldn't mind having a copy in my collection just for the "cool" factor...

djThunderfunk said:

A friend picked up the new Record Store Day release of What Time Is It? on limited edition green vinyl and asked me to do a needle drop and make him a digital copy. Of course I agreed as it gave me the opportunity to compare it to my original pressing and for me to keep a digital copy for myself...

My opinion is the original release sounds FAR better than the new release. I won't put that down to the colored vinyl either as the record itself actually sounded very clean, none of the pops that sometimes come with colored vinyl. Rather, it sounded to my ears more "digital" while the original was much warmer and more "analog" in sound. I'm betting the new one is a digital master ported to vinyl.

All that said, the green record is BEAUTIFUL and although it does not sound as good as the 1st pressings I wouldn't mind having a copy in my collection just for the "cool" factor...

So that would suggest the new master is closer to the original master tapes? Because the warmth is an artefact of vinyl (which can be personal preference, but is further away from what was recorded than a digital copy, such as a CD).

leecaldon said:

djThunderfunk said:

A friend picked up the new Record Store Day release of What Time Is It? on limited edition green vinyl and asked me to do a needle drop and make him a digital copy. Of course I agreed as it gave me the opportunity to compare it to my original pressing and for me to keep a digital copy for myself...

My opinion is the original release sounds FAR better than the new release. I won't put that down to the colored vinyl either as the record itself actually sounded very clean, none of the pops that sometimes come with colored vinyl. Rather, it sounded to my ears more "digital" while the original was much warmer and more "analog" in sound. I'm betting the new one is a digital master ported to vinyl.

All that said, the green record is BEAUTIFUL and although it does not sound as good as the 1st pressings I wouldn't mind having a copy in my collection just for the "cool" factor...

So that would suggest the new master is closer to the original master tapes? Because the warmth is an artefact of vinyl (which can be personal preference, but is further away from what was recorded than a digital copy, such as a CD).

If you say so.

Analog is more pleasing to my ears than digital and it definitely had that digital sound to me. I would say instead the new one is closer to the new digital master but farther from the actual master "tape". To me the original CD sounds better than the new vinyl. That should not be the case. I have yet to listen to the recent Japanese remaster CD so I don't know how that one compares.

I'll just say this, I would NEVER choose to listen the new vinyl when the original vinyl was an option.

How old is Bernie Grundman these days? I've heard his name since the 80s. I'd be amazed if he was still overseeing everything himself. Maybe he is I don't know. Maybe it's more a corporate/company name thing like 'Lucasfilm' in front of the new Star Wars films. Nothing to do with George Lucas.

Marrk said:

If it went from the vault to mastering that means they didn't mess with the mix

Marrk said:

How old is Bernie Grundman these days? I've heard his name since the 80s. I'd be amazed if he was still overseeing everything himself. Maybe he is I don't know. Maybe it's more a corporate/company name thing like 'Lucasfilm' in front of the new Star Wars films. Nothing to do with George Lucas.

Don't worry. Even if it was so, Bernie had plenty of time to recruit.
Click on the various sound engineers to get a grasp of Bernie Grundman Mastering.

Bet yo can bet yo ass he's gonna oversee one of the world's best selling albums, especially this one.
Are implying the man is deaf by now?

Even if so (but the more you train your ears, the less they age, like orchestra conductors) a specialist like Bernie knows all about the loudness curve getting deformed over the years. We all get progressively deaf. I bet even Bruce Swedien has an earing aid, perfectly calibrated to flatten his loudness curve. Speaking of which, was Prince's moon earrings defintely established as not being earing aids?

rdhull said:

According to Dr Funkenberry in his latest podcast (just 2 minutes in), Joshua Welton engineered the mastering.

sk1 said:

rogifan said:

sk1 said:

According to Dr Funkenberry in his latest podcast (just 2 minutes in), Joshua Welton engineered the mastering.

Yes it's actually in the liner notes. For disc 1 it says remastered by Prince and remastering engineer is listed as Joshua A.M. Welton.

Damn that explains a lot, especially considering how AOA was mastered

ForceofNature said:

rogifan said:

ForceofNature said:

Damn that explains a lot, especially considering how AOA was mastered

Guess I'm not enough of an audiophile as I just downloaded it and it sounds damn good to me.

I mean maybe I am being a bit dramatic, I don't think that this newest remaster is horrid or anything - actually I do hear improved low end overall which is nice to hear. But comparing is to the HDTracks version, to me the HDTracks mastering wins out because I hear a more dynamic and moving thing whereas this new remaster sounds a bit too trigger-happy on the compression for my liking

If PR vs SGP were a thing... its pretty difficult to say I'm happy. I AM happy to have the PR songs, but, im immediately looking forward to a proper remix. Given the 50th anni of Sgt. Pep remix released just a few weeks ago, there is no comparison to the kind of care and quality of sound between the two. (I do hold the albums as giants and equally deserving of care and appropriate updating) Maybe Giles Martin could be brought in for the 35th or 40th version of Purple Rain. I was concerned when this PR release was plastered with the "Paisley Park Remaster" moniker- its as if WB are saying - here is the Prince Remaster.... just you wait for ours. However, only some of the WB vault songs sound like they have potentiel either. ...hey dont think I'm hating, I'll take it. It sounds ok. I just have hopes for something better someday. For today, no matter how erattic the sounds, its ok. Seriously, much love to those that did this set but... whats the saying? Leave the people wanting more? So, IMHO, if it were a fight, this round goes to the Beatles.

tyme said:

If PR vs SGP were a thing... its pretty difficult to say I'm happy. I AM happy to have the PR songs, but, im immediately looking forward to a proper remix. Given the 50th anni of Sgt. Pep remix released just a few weeks ago, there is no comparison to the kind of care and quality of sound between the two.

I know Steven Wilson is a huge Prince fan and his remixes of the Jethro Tull and Yes catalogue have been stunning. He would be my choice to remix PR, he would remain faithful to the magic of the original but still giving a fantastic result

I made a joke about a month ago saying "let's hope he didn't just get Josh to do it". Having said that, it sounds okay.

embmmusic said:

I made a joke about a month ago saying "let's hope he didn't just get Josh to do it". Having said that, it sounds okay.

I find it hilarious.

Old cranky Prince strikes from beyond the grave!

The remaster isn't terrible, but it doesn't sound that good either. It's just compression, basically. The songs on the third CD sound better to my ears. I'll still have to do some comparisons using the previously released versions (from the original album, "The B-Sides", "Ultimate Prince" etc).