Remember when the person responsible for the packaging was bragging about their work on this project?

calhounlovejoy said:

It was my understanding that Prince was the one who remastered the album? Questlove said it was the last thing he worked on.

The ALBUM. Not any additional content.

Neversin said:

35 year old Ampex tapes

Good thread. I don't want to knock the overall brilliance of what we have got, but it could have been so much better.

Overall, there is a lack of quality control. From the recordings to the package. From Erotic City to the cheap paper and print quality of the booklet.

I for one (like man others) have sync issues with the DVD. The booklet is blurred...and cardboard sleeve? Prince deserved more.

FUNKNROLL said:

laurarichardson said:

LOVESYMBOLNUMBER2 said:

laurarichardson said:

Remember when the person responsible for the packaging was bragging about their work on this project?

Yes, He should try quick copy at Walmart next time, it would elevate his end product...graphic design and quality control not his strong suite

Didn't like how they didn't really include any new photos, just the same ones over and over from the WDC video shoot...

TheEnglishGent said:

bluegangsta said:

- Erotic City 12" has a bad drop-out at the begning. Why did no one think "Hey, why don't we take the intro of the 7" version, and put that in place of the drop-out?"

Someone with too much time on their hands would have spotted it and then there would be complaints that it's clearly been patched together from different sources.

Probably someone would have noticed, eventually--but they could also just mention that such corrective efforts had been made in the liner notes. It's a sentence. Better than sending out something with the drop-out on a previously released track.

airth said:

mothyham said:

i thought he had a great point.

why does everything have to perfect?

I mean, who gives a shit?

It's a goddamn pop song ffs.

"It's a goddamn pop song ffs." Fuck. I can't believe you wrote that. We should have told Prince back in 76 not to bother going in the studio as his life's work would amount to nothing more than goddamn pop.

Hmmm... okay, it's a "whatever genre name you think fits better" song.

He's pop to me--but then, I think of great pop as a pretty positive thing.

Now, it's pop that should be taken care of and presented properly, and that's a fact.

[Edited 6/23/17 21:05pm]

jumptheysaid said:

his music is known to have droputs. there is a big one in Hello and IIWYG

Why are people never happy?

justalongtimefan said:

Why are people never happy?

We're always happy.
We're not dumb sheeps, that's all.
My milk has to be earned.

Oh, sorry, you meant in general?

Just to clarify, as I've said earlier, technically, it's NOT a dropout on Erotic City. It's a glitch that probably happened at the authoring or mastering stage (more likely the first). I've flagged these before on proof listening to test CD-Rs of releases before they're pressed.

[Edited 6/24/17 0:29am]

justalongtimefan said:

Why are people never happy?

Because the loudness war sucks big time

SchlomoThaHomo said:

Neversin said:

A couple of years ago Prince held a carrot in front of us of a "Purple Rain" remaster with "Love And Sex" and other outtakes on it... So who knows what lies in his vaults... Neversin.

Hmm. I don't remember that. Only the press release announcing previously unheard material. But it didn't mention specifics.

This was in 2004; when asked why he didn't participate in the 20th anniversary release of "Purple Rain" on DVD and after receiving a treatment by archivers for an outlandish 19 disc "Purple Rain" Anniversary set, he commented on NPGMC about how he could do a 30th Anniversary set with "Love And Sex" and other stuff on it...

Neversin.

Neversin said:

SchlomoThaHomo said:

Neversin said: Hmm. I don't remember that. Only the press release announcing previously unheard material. But it didn't mention specifics.

This was in 2004; when asked why he didn't participate in the 20th anniversary release of "Purple Rain" on DVD and after receiving a treatment by archivers for an outlandish 19 disc "Purple Rain" Anniversary set, he commented on NPGMC about how he could do a 30th Anniversary set with "Love And Sex" and other stuff on it...

Neversin.

Ohhhh, I want to know more about that 19 disk set!

EddieC said:

airth said:

"It's a goddamn pop song ffs." Fuck. I can't believe you wrote that. We should have told Prince back in 76 not to bother going in the studio as his life's work would amount to nothing more than goddamn pop.

Hmmm... okay, it's a "whatever genre name you think fits better" song.

He's pop to me--but then, I think of great pop as a pretty positive thing.

Now, it's pop that should be taken care of and presented properly, and that's a fact.

Then we're in agreement. I really couldn't care less how Prince's, or in fact anyone's, music is classified. I objected to the way his music was apparently dismissed as being unimportant with the use of "Who gives a shit?", "goddamn" and "ffs".

To clarify, i love the packaging, the outside, the photos (there could have been more) but not the design of the text inside the booklet, the font, the font size, and spacing are bad to me. And I don't mean the reproduction of the original album inner sleeves and stuff.

I agree with you, it's mostly good. To add, I feel that the labels of the different CDs are a missed chance..

.

One cd with the old LP label, one with the 7" label, one with the special Purple Rain falling down label and then the DVD with the face as we have it now. Would have made the different discs stand out more and feel much more special to me.

ufoclub said:

To clarify, i love the packaging, the outside, the photos (there could have been more) but not the design of the text inside the booklet, the font, the font size, and spacing are bad to me. And I don't mean the reproduction of the original album inner sleeves and stuff.

My problem with the package is I really don't like having to pinch the discs between my fingers to get them out. They should have used thin plastic sleeves to hold the discs, like in the current Bowie boxed sets...

Neversin said:

SchlomoThaHomo said:

Neversin said: Hmm. I don't remember that. Only the press release announcing previously unheard material. But it didn't mention specifics.

This was in 2004; when asked why he didn't participate in the 20th anniversary release of "Purple Rain" on DVD and after receiving a treatment by archivers for an outlandish 19 disc "Purple Rain" Anniversary set, he commented on NPGMC about how he could do a 30th Anniversary set with "Love And Sex" and other stuff on it...

Neversin.

Do you remember any other titles he mentioned? Or did he mention only "Love and Sex" and just vaguely referred to "other tracks" without bringing up the titles specifically.

It's interesting to me, because "Love and Sex" on the new WB release appears to be the only outtake that after several listens I could see myself believing "comes from the master tapes" because of the sound quality it has. There are other "candidates" ("Electric Intercourse", "Possessed", "We Can Fuck"...) in that regard, but "Love and Sex" stands out due to the "three-dimensionality" of its overall sound.

I won't claim to know how the different outtakes on the release were cobbled together, but if Prince indeed has delivered the company some tapes of the tracks for "a deluxe release" at some point, I could see "Love and Sex" being one of the tracks. Not that it all simply coming from bootlegged sources would be hard to believe either, as just too much of what's included sounds so crappy. WB certainly hasn't had high standards for the way they've put it all together.

[Edited 6/25/17 2:30am]

novabrkr said:

Neversin said:

This was in 2004; when asked why he didn't participate in the 20th anniversary release of "Purple Rain" on DVD and after receiving a treatment by archivers for an outlandish 19 disc "Purple Rain" Anniversary set, he commented on NPGMC about how he could do a 30th Anniversary set with "Love And Sex" and other stuff on it...

Neversin.

Do you remember any other titles he mentioned? Or did he mention only "Love and Sex" and just vaguely referred to "other tracks" without bringing up the titles specifically.

It's interesting to me, because "Love and Sex" on the new WB release appears to be the only outtake that after several listens I could see myself believing "comes from the master tapes" because of the sound quality it has. There are other "candidates" ("Electric Intercourse", "Possessed" and "We Can Fuck") in that regard, but "Love and Sex" stands out due to the "three-dimensionality" of its overall sound.

I won't claim to know how the different outtakes on the release were cobbled together, but in the case Prince has delivered the company some tapes of the tracks for "a deluxe release" at some point, I could see "Love and Sex" being one of the tracks.

Love and sex has a certain amount of hiss on it hich would make it unlikely commming from a master tape.

Also, We can Fuck has quite a bit of noise reduction on it - done very well, I might add.

bluegangsta said:

novabrkr said:

Do you remember any other titles he mentioned? Or did he mention only "Love and Sex" and just vaguely referred to "other tracks" without bringing up the titles specifically.

It's interesting to me, because "Love and Sex" on the new WB release appears to be the only outtake that after several listens I could see myself believing "comes from the master tapes" because of the sound quality it has. There are other "candidates" ("Electric Intercourse", "Possessed" and "We Can Fuck") in that regard, but "Love and Sex" stands out due to the "three-dimensionality" of its overall sound.

I won't claim to know how the different outtakes on the release were cobbled together, but in the case Prince has delivered the company some tapes of the tracks for "a deluxe release" at some point, I could see "Love and Sex" being one of the tracks.

Love and sex has a certain amount of hiss on it hich would make it unlikely commming from a master tape.

Also, We can Fuck has quite a bit of noise reduction on it - done very well, I might add.

There's plenty of hiss present on the albums from that time period too (on "Free", for example). I don't think that proves anything as such.

I'll have to take a closer listening on "We Can Fuck". I take your word on the noise reduction being applied on it though.

novabrkr said:

bluegangsta said:

Love and sex has a certain amount of hiss on it hich would make it unlikely commming from a master tape.

Also, We can Fuck has quite a bit of noise reduction on it - done very well, I might add.

There's plenty of hiss present on the albums from that time period too (on "Free", for example). I don't think that proves anything as such.

That would be because those transfers were done in the late 80's, more than anything. And no copy of Free that I has has as much . density in the his as Love & Sex.

I think what we can take from all this... and lessons from the past... is that Prince never cared much for quality recording. It was all done quickly, and to a "good enough" standard.

.

Also, I do wonder now how ill he was when he started letting Josh master albums, including this. Creatively he was producing great songs, but was he really paying attention to the details at that point?? Scary, but maybe true!

bluegangsta said:

novabrkr said:

There's plenty of hiss present on the albums from that time period too (on "Free", for example). I don't think that proves anything as such.

That would be because those transfers were done in the late 80's, more than anything. And no copy of Free that I has has as much . density in the his as Love & Sex.

The hiss present on the older recordings isn't necessarily just the result of tape transfers. Every amplification stage on an analog signal chain will introduce hiss (preamps on the console, compressors, pedals and so on). As the case was with Prince often working alone and very quickly in the studio, he didn't have an engineer ensuring that the least amount of hiss ended up on the recordings. I have used a lot of gear from that time period myself and it's just silly how much, say, those older analog chorus, flanger and phaser effects add hiss (don't even get me started on the synths...).

The unappealing characteristics of hiss get easily intensified when tinkering on the source material with modern digital equipment. I think I might be hearing the noise reduction done on "Love and Sex" and "We Can Funk" though. On the latter, it's evident on the treblish effect tail on the snare, right?

Btw, I'm not trying to "debunk" your views on these issues, just thought I'd bring up some additional factors that might have influenced the way things sound on the recordings.

Being that PR is Prince's best selling album, I'm kinda scared to see what they do to the rest of his catalog. WB definitely dropped the ball on this collection as a whole, imo. Some of the errors in this collection show a lack of care. I love disc 2, but certain audio errors shouldn't pop up on such a big album like this.

I feel as though they should have delayed this album, until everything was in better shape with his estate. I have a feeling that if the vault situation was taken care of properly, this could have been so much better. Hopefully, this doesn't keep happening.


Also: WB....spend the fucking money to get the right people for these remasters!!

Soooo... Where can I get a digital copy of the Rhino remaster? Assuming that sounds better than the original WB CD ??