Given that I had the outtakes, I've only listened to OD/RG a couple of times on Spotify when they were made available, and didn't download them at that time.

So I think it's just me tripping, but I have the strong impression that the transition between both songs was a complete mess back then, while now it sounds alright to me.

I just wanted to make sure: can anyone who downloaded it at the time confirm that the transition is exactly the same on the final release as it was then?

Sorry about this, I know it's ridiculous. But I have to be sure.

It's exactly the same. It sounds fine to me; the transition doesn't bother me at all. Of course, we may never know for sure whether or not it's what Prince intended.

Yep, exactly the same, very much doubted they would have bothered to change it before the release but I just checked by comparing my iTunes download and the Spotify version, so you can rest easy. TBH I felt people were exaggerating originally about how bad the transition was between the two tracks, sure it's not the most elegant one I've ever heard but it's functional and doesn't feel jarring to my ears. Maybe you were taken in by the heightened rhetoric about it when it was first released

thanks for the reminder. Now that I have the lossless music from the CD, I can start my edit to get the songs as I feel they should be, standing on their own. Excellent timing by Jill Jones as well to release her version with longer intro and outro.

The distortion on the first part of the song was much worse on the original release. It seems fine now but it was a big sticking point for me when iTunes first debuted the track.

Thx for clearing this, I thought it probably was me. Embmmusic however you say they have changed the file since original release?

I don't know if the file has been changed as I bought the CD but the streaming version on Apple Music had the distortion before launch and doesn't now (at least to a much lesser extent). So Apple may have pushed the wrong file by mistake, or their compression algorithms messed up or something.

Sounds the same to me, and it's not nearly as bad as everyone made it out to be. Sure, it MIGHT have flowed a bit better if done like the live version with the bass segue, but given that the studio version of Roadhouse Garden sounds drastically different, it could have also sounded awkward. People just like to bitch about anything and everything though

databank said:

Given that I had the outtakes, I've only listened to OD/RG a couple of times on Spotify when they were made available, and didn't download them at that time.

So I think it's just me tripping, but I have the strong impression that the transition between both songs was a complete mess back then, while now it sounds alright to me.

I just wanted to make sure: can anyone who downloaded it at the time confirm that the transition is exactly the same on the final release as it was then?

Sorry about this, I know it's ridiculous. But I have to be sure.

What bothers me most about this track is that it seems spliced together from 2 separate tracks (the ones leaked last year), as the leaked Jill Jones version has the exact backing track, including horns, strings, and intro later used on "The Ladder". Jill's version is MUCH clearer. I'm more inclined to think that the version on PRD might have been sourced from a boot, because Jill's version (if the backing track was indeed recorded live at First Avenue) is superior in quality, even as a bootleg. The released versions of OD/RG sound identical to the versions leaked last year, albeit in stereo rather than mono.

Jills version has a few overdubs missing. Also, her voice is a bit louder. Seems like a tape to check her vocals, so as possibly to go back in the next day and improve on parts. I do not feel that the quality is much higher than the released track with Lisa on vocals though, after listening to them both a number of times.

mediumdry said:

Jills version has a few overdubs missing. Also, her voice is a bit louder. Seems like a tape to check her vocals, so as possibly to go back in the next day and improve on parts. I do not feel that the quality is much higher than the released track with Lisa on vocals though, after listening to them both a number of times.

Yes, overdubs are missing - arpeggio in the beginning is missing, along with background vox and keys. I'm not sure which version you have, but the version I have with Jill's vox is much clearer with more bottom, mids, and if the backing track was recorded live, this is definitely soundboard quality and would have been a better release if this track had Lisa's vox on it. As the track fades out on the kick drum, you can hear "Roadhouse" kick in. Sounds like it would have been overdubbed and released a la "Purple Rain/ BIAS". But the quality is near-perfect. Not spliced, muddy or noise reduced like the released version.

[Edited 6/25/17 15:23pm]

TrcikyChristopher said:

databank said:

Given that I had the outtakes, I've only listened to OD/RG a couple of times on Spotify when they were made available, and didn't download them at that time.

So I think it's just me tripping, but I have the strong impression that the transition between both songs was a complete mess back then, while now it sounds alright to me.

I just wanted to make sure: can anyone who downloaded it at the time confirm that the transition is exactly the same on the final release as it was then?

Sorry about this, I know it's ridiculous. But I have to be sure.

What bothers me most about this track is that it seems spliced together from 2 separate tracks (the ones leaked last year), as the leaked Jill Jones version has the exact backing track, including horns, strings, and intro later used on "The Ladder". Jill's version is MUCH clearer. I'm more inclined to think that the version on PRD might have been sourced from a boot, because Jill's version (if the backing track was indeed recorded live at First Avenue) is superior in quality, even as a bootleg. The released versions of OD/RG sound identical to the versions leaked last year, albeit in stereo rather than mono.

They can't have been spliced from the circulating boots because the circulating RG had only one mono channel, and the missing channel is clearly present there. Of course, the stereo version was in the hands of a few happy collectors, but nothing WB could have gathered from bootlegs. Despite the fact that I find the crossfade somewhat amateurish, I think it really would make no sense for WB to have done that: there was simply nothing to gain from putting the tracks together instead of publishing them separately. But even if they did slice them together, it couldn't have been from the bootlegs.