coltrane3 said:

rogifan said:

Bishop31 said:

I responded to his Tweet with my thoughts on the ReMaster lacking dynamics. It's important he hears it, and is not lied to with this "Oh, it sounds awesome" fandom. Louder does not equal better. "Let's Go Crazy" was almost 10db over the AES standards for Loudness levels. Thats awful.

It's good that he gets honest feedback but if someone is enjoying it what's the lie?

I dont have an issue with it at all, its more about expectations. Lets paint a scene...

You walk into a diner and look at the milkshakes, you fancy a strawberry milkshake advertised as being made from real strawberries.

The waiter brings you your strawberry milkshake, you drink it all up and say "YUMMY thats the best strawberry milkshake I have had !!"

Later on during the day you discover it didn't contain real strawberries, instead it was strawberry flavoured.

You enjoyed it right? whats the issue?....problem is you paid a premium for a real strawberry milkshake.

The next day you go to a more trustworthy diner, and this time to get a milkshake thats truely made from real strawberries....and you know what? It tastes even better than fake one you had yesterday.

[Edited 6/24/17 12:24pm]

james said:

On first listen I noticed a few annoying things, like the end of Let's Go Crazy. But need a few more listens and to compare it to the original again!! Odd that the version of Computer Blue on Disk 2 sounds Soooo much better than the Remastered album version!!

Thats because Joshua Welton remastered Disc 1. Bernie Grundman (who is very experienced sound engineer) remastered disc 2 and 3.


Joshua is facing a lot of criticism from audophiles as it seems he made the songs too loud and cut out a some of the frequencies as a result of his 'remastering' work.

[Edited 6/24/17 13:12pm]

Well, on the bright side, at least they'll be no more "Paisley Park Masters". WB will have all future releases done by real mastering engineers. Unfortunaltey for Purple Rain, we'll probably have to wait til 2024 for another one.

[Edited 6/24/17 13:29pm]

maceoparker007 said:

KingSausage said:

rogifan said:

KingSausage said:

Bose sucks.

See what I mean? Btw, I do have a Bose Soundlink Mini and it definitely doesn't suck.

Bose Mini is ok for a small speaker and definetly good enough for playing back average standard mp3 music

Music is all about emotion and half of it you create mind in your mind.....so if you are getting emotionally excited from playing Prince tracks through your Bose mini you go girl

[Edited 6/24/17 14:29pm]

Adorecream said:

Bishop31 said:

I wanted to see exactly what Joshua did with the "Remaster". So, I uploaded this into my Ableton Software that I use to Mix/Master my own music. If you look at my screenshot above, you will see the difference in the dynamics on the New (Top) and Original (Bottom). You will notice how the New Master is on some parts totally dark, which means it literally has no dynamics. He CRANKED TF out of this album. All he did was RAISE THE VOLUME. So, don't confuse louder with better. The AES Standard, which suggests the Loudness Level Standards for music, their standard is -16. "Lets Go Crazy" was -6.6. That's -10db higher than the AES Standard. That's absolute garbage, and frankly unprofessional.

Apple Music standard is -16 and Spotify is -14. Both streaming sites will have to lower the levels of this album. Which means it will sound like a Squashed Turd.

No disrespect, but seriously what is the point of these types of posts. I mean we are not audio technicians and boffins and most are music fans wanting to join the music, who cares if a commercially rereleased copy of a 33 year old album does not meet your scientific standards.

.

This type of audile snobbery makes those of us with budget and basic musical systems along with basic knowledge of musical waves or whatever the fuck you call this shit, look like clueless morons. What is the point of this shit?

.

Do you guys actually enjoy music or just analyse with 5000 waves of subamicrons and xugalotles or something. This is like reading medieval cyrillic to someone like me.

Bishop's knowledgable addition to this thread is appreciated more than complaints from people who don't get it.

I mean really, do we need separate threads for audiphiles? No, we have a thread for opinions on the disc, some are good, some are bad, some are mixed. Maybe focusing on the posts from people who have the same perspective as you do is better than complaining about posts from people who don't.

Just sayin'...

[Edited 6/24/17 16:01pm]

maceoparker007 said:

james said:

On first listen I noticed a few annoying things, like the end of Let's Go Crazy. But need a few more listens and to compare it to the original again!! Odd that the version of Computer Blue on Disk 2 sounds Soooo much better than the Remastered album version!!

Thats because Joshua Welton remastered Disc 1. Bernie Grundman (who is very experienced sound engineer) remastered disc 2 and 3.


Joshua is facing a lot of criticism from audophiles as it seems he made the songs too loud and cut out a some of the frequencies as a result of his 'remastering' work.

[Edited 6/24/17 13:12pm]

Benrie Grundman is a 73 year old man with dito ears.. and mastered most of P back catalogue in the past.. ughhh

SquirrelMeat said:

You can label the changes all you want, all I hear is a volume and base increase. I did that myself years ago.

please send me youre results

Although I'm loving disc 2 and definitely feel I got my money's worth for the set (4 discs for $25.99), I won't be listening to disc 1 again. Too loud, too harsh, no dynamic range... the original CD (EQ'd to my preferences) sounds better than this, and the vinyl & HD tracks versions sound much better, so, count me among those that are glad Josh will have no part in future "remasters".

All that said, I'm not disappointed or surprised. Disc 1 turned out EXACTLY as I expected.

boozoo2 said:

djThunderfunk said:

maceoparker007 said:

airth said:

After normalizing the tracks, I'm not really hearing much - if any - difference. There's nothing to make me think I need to delete my existing tracks. In fact, the slightly harsher sounding end to Let's Go Crazy makes me think I should delete the "remaster".

Actually, I've never really thought Purple Rain needed to be remastered, but I'll spend a bit more time comparing the two.

i downloaded them both side by side, the remaster is definitely louder and fuller, the toms are definitely more defined. I probably wouldn't have noticed had i not listened to them side by side, the songs are the same after all. It wasn't really that disk i wanted, i'm loving the extras. still haven't made my way through, i wished prince had a version of the purple rain piano part in the movie as he does fathers song. I wonder if he composed and changed fathers song substantially.

ozone14 said:

IMO the 2015 Remaster isn't an improvement. It just sounds louder. The 2nd and 3rd disc sound better. Listen to "Love And Sex", those Linn drums sound great! "God", "Lonely Christmas", "Erotic City", "Possessed" sound great! (only mentioning the 2nd and 3rd disc as a comparison to the 1st in terms of sound quality)

[Edited 6/23/17 7:31am]

it is an improvement, as much as i hate to admit, i still don't think it would have made one iota of difference to the me that first heard it on cassette in 84.

it's not just louder, i listened to the new and the old side by side, i cranked up the old to imitate the new, it still sounded less detailed in the drums and in the bass, but particularly the toms. if you can't hear the difference in the opening tom fills on take me with you, then you really don't have any ears.

Bishop31 said:

I wanted to see exactly what Joshua did with the "Remaster". So, I uploaded this into my Ableton Software that I use to Mix/Master my own music. If you look at my screenshot above, you will see the difference in the dynamics on the New (Top) and Original (Bottom). You will notice how the New Master is on some parts totally dark, which means it literally has no dynamics. He CRANKED TF out of this album. All he did was RAISE THE VOLUME. So, don't confuse louder with better. The AES Standard, which suggests the Loudness Level Standards for music, their standard is -16. "Lets Go Crazy" was -6.6. That's -10db higher than the AES Standard. That's absolute garbage, and frankly unprofessional.

Apple Music standard is -16 and Spotify is -14. Both streaming sites will have to lower the levels of this album. Which means it will sound like a Squashed Turd.

Neversin said:

My 1984 cassette sounds better than this shit...
This shit makes me believe a midget with a Linn Drum lives inside of my left ear...

Neversin.

haha

Bishop31 said:

SLP said:

I don't even have a degree in anything, but I have ears, which I assume people who master records also have. The hard ending on Let's Go Crazy sounded AWESOME on the original master (hell, even on my old cassette copy), but this version sounds like someone recorded a tornado ripping through a basement. There's just nothing there but noise. Why does this happen? Do people just not care anymore?

I would assume Prince has great ears. Which leads me to believe he didn't care at all about this project. Because, if he heard it, he wouldn't think it sounded very pleasant. That leads me to believe he didn't listen to this at all. He wanted to give this to WB, so he could get his music and be done with them.

how can we know, i'm sure his ears were great at one time but who knows whether he had hearing damage or not. I recall the great Bernie Worrell being hard of hearing when I went to see him. He had to ask several times what someone was saying and whether they were talking to him. just the price of rock and roll.

If it wasn't compressed as much as it is it would have been a proper remaster. Not a brilliant one, but nevertheless better than the original. Shame they always need to brickwall releases nowadays with L3 or whatever compressing. But saying it's 'just louder' is simply not true and people saying they 'only' added bass and made it a bit brighter really should explain me what (re)mastering is all about.

So would be nice if there is a copy around before compressing the lot and make this available as HD download. Only talking about CD1 here, the other 2 are just a laugh and need a remaster straight away. Dance Electric (in 24/96KHZ LOL) -mastered at the wrong speed- reminds me of my first AKAI deck playing TDK-D tapes minus tape hiss, although that is probably a bad Vault-master to begin with. Bootleg version i have sounds better even with a few tape dropouts, but that's a slighty different mix.. Wonderfull Ass has on overkill in 2-6KHZ range and Possessed sounds very 1 dimensional. But thank god we can do whatever we prefer nowadays in the digital age.

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

rogifan said:

coltrane3 said:

One of my biggest takeaways from this deluxe edition is how great the original album is. Obviously, most of the focus is on Disc 2, which has all of the previously unreleased tracks. But, getting this deluxe set made me listen to Purple Rain from front to back in one listening again; hadn't done that in a while. Wow, what a great album.

I don't have many albums where I listen to the whole thing because every track is amazing. This album would be one of them. Second maybe would be Fleetwood Mac's Rumors.

Same feelings here, Wowed by the hole thing again!

.

@Rogifan I agree, for myself.... I can add Stevie Wonder to that, Songs in The Key of Life.

Crap... deleted my old digital files of PR when I digitised the remaster... now can't find the old CD to reinstall it!! I might actually have to by PR again! Haha

In this or one of the other threads about this remaster, someone mentionned there was a 2008 rerelease that already had some sort of clean up. If so, is there a way to recognise this version in the store as often it just states the original ©date.

Thanks a million

m

Man, you really notice that compression on Darling Nikki - when the band kicks in between each of the verses, it should punch you in the FACE... instead, it's the same level as the verses themselves. And then, adding insult to injury the "ah ah ah" epilogue portion is just as loud as the song itself! It's a damn travesty.

One wonders if WB's trumpeting of "remaster overseen by Prince himself!" was their way of slyly saying, "this is not how we would have done it, but a contract's a contract."