LOL the main issue with the Purple Rain Deluxe is that Prince did have a hand in the mastering, you have it backwards there. Blame Josh or blame Prince, it's up to you, but WB were trying to be true to their agreement with him by releasing what he gave them.

I'm not too pushed about remastering myself although most people think Sign O the Times needs a remastering and have made good cases for it. Maybe WB could just push the volume up on Spotify and the like to bring it in line with everything else on there, the rest of us still have our original cd's and vinyl.

[Edited 11/3/17 4:32am]

Remastering isn't necessary. Most modern day remastering is dreadful, with the compression applied often ruining the dynamic character of the original track or album (for example, quiet parts of a track being made louder).

Most remasters are too loud, suffering from distortion/clipping in places (the 2017 issue of Purple Rain is certainly guilty of this). It's actually pointless making your master as loud as possible these days, as streaming services such as Spotify and YouTube have reduced the output level at their end. Who would have thought the streaming services would be leading the battle against the loudness wars?

[Edited 11/3/17 5:16am]

the sound on the old Prince cd's from the 1980s, is....... TERRIBLE

Silly question, I am in need, a huge need to have the Prince cd's 1978 to 1988 remastered.

Those Prince albums aren't audiophile experiences, you know. Not much can be done if the engineering wasn't great.

jjam said:

Those Prince albums aren't audiophile experiences, you know. Not much can be done if the engineering wasn't great.

Mastering is absolutely required, especially Sign O The Times, Around the World In A Day and The Black Album.

Many 80s CD transfers are terrible and i have read this b/c the technology was new to many doing those transfers. So, if a complete remaster is not possible, a better transfer is...not like what they did to Purple Rain. That was just much louder...nothing more.

To me, the sound on the Purple Rain Deluxe is actualy disc 3 for the edits. I am positive I have never heard Erotic city sound that good before...I am not clear who did that mastering job but that was good.

tx

jaawwnn said:

LOL the main issue with the Purple Rain Deluxe is that Prince did have a hand in the mastering, y

.

LOL te main issue is that WB was apparently unable (for fear or other reaons) to convince Prince to do a 'proper' remaster instead.

Yeah, remastering is seriously needed for some of those older albums. SOTT especially.

Of course, it can go wrong, like the PR remaster. What do the people in charge have against dynamic range??

udo said:

jaawwnn said:

LOL the main issue with the Purple Rain Deluxe is that Prince did have a hand in the mastering, y

.

LOL te main issue is that WB was apparently unable (for fear or other reaons) to convince Prince to do a 'proper' remaster instead.

Fair point, I wouldn't have wished that job on anyone.

jaawwnn said:

udo said:

.

LOL te main issue is that WB was apparently unable (for fear or other reaons) to convince Prince to do a 'proper' remaster instead.

Fair point, I wouldn't have wished that job on anyone.

It will have no impact on sales at all so therefore, it is not important. The average person could care less about it.

JoeyCococo said:

jjam said:

Those Prince albums aren't audiophile experiences, you know. Not much can be done if the engineering wasn't great.

Mastering is absolutely required, especially Sign O The Times, Around the World In A Day and The Black Album.

Many 80s CD transfers are terrible and i have read this b/c the technology was new to many doing those transfers. So, if a complete remaster is not possible, a better transfer is...not like what they did to Purple Rain. That was just much louder...nothing more.

To me, the sound on the Purple Rain Deluxe is actualy disc 3 for the edits. I am positive I have never heard Erotic city sound that good before...I am not clear who did that mastering job but that was good.

tx

I think it's worth bearing in mind that many 80s albums weren't exactly low end heavy, especially Prince's. This is pretty much the audio aesthetic of the 80s rearing its head, much in the same way that the last decade or so is defined by WAY too much compression.

Many 80s CD transfers are much better than their latter day reissue counterparts, owing to them being flat transfers. Once you start unnecessarily tinkering with EQ and limiting, you are compromising what the artist intended.

You know, there's always tone controls on whatever you're using to listen to music.

rossamoran said:

Listening to albums like 1999 and Sign O’ the Times, the quality sounds fresh af. I just don’t reslly feel that they need improvement.

SECURITY!!!!!!!!!!

rdhull said:

rossamoran said:

Listening to albums like 1999 and Sign O’ the Times, the quality sounds fresh af. I just don’t reslly feel that they need improvement.

SECURITY!!!!!!!!!!

Joke all you want the average person could less. It is just going to cause more expense and time.

Catalogue and repair what can be repaired and put the music out.

laurarichardson said:

rdhull said:

SECURITY!!!!!!!!!!

Joke all you want

You still around Laura?

For the WB years, I say just leave it alone. Preserve it, don't fuck with it, leave it the hell alone.

We've all been listening to those records long enough now, we'd never be happy with anyone else tinkering with that music.

For the post-WB era though, TGE onwards, I'd love to hear some of that stuff mastered properly.

The Black Album most definately needs remastered. Get rid of the 'hiss' that's on it!

JoeyCococo said:

jjam said:

Those Prince albums aren't audiophile experiences, you know. Not much can be done if the engineering wasn't great.

Mastering is absolutely required, especially Sign O The Times, Around the World In A Day and The Black Album.

Many 80s CD transfers are terrible and i have read this b/c the technology was new to many doing those transfers. So, if a complete remaster is not possible, a better transfer is...not like what they did to Purple Rain. That was just much louder...nothing more.

To me, the sound on the Purple Rain Deluxe is actualy disc 3 for the edits. I am positive I have never heard Erotic city sound that good before...I am not clear who did that mastering job but that was good.

tx

rdhull said:

laurarichardson said:

The average person could care less about it.

.

Thus a person with some knowledge should be involved in these mastering decisions.

That could be the added value of a record company.

rdhull said:

If remastering is done right then there is absolutely a major benefit to it. I picked up the 20th anniversary edition of OK Computer earlier this year and whilst the original album sounded great, the new remaster of it sounds phenomenal. It largely depends on who is doing the remaster and the quality of the original tapes.

thedance said:

Remastering isn't necessairy. Buying vinyl is.

TheFman said:

rossamoran said:

TheFman said:

Remastering isn't necessairy. Buying vinyl is.

Amen.

.

If 'they' can't even come up with an acceptable CD-alternative with higher resolution and higher capacity why should we accept the shorcomings of this analogue medium?

If you seek extra `warmth` then you are already deviating from what the musician intended compared to the 'color' of the audio on the CD.

Streams etc are not the answer.

My Prince library has always been a mix of CDs and vinyl, so I can't comment on ATWAID on CD, for example, but I thought it was common knowledge that SOTT on CD used the wrong tapes, and has always needed a new CD master. Unfortunately, this should have happened years ago, and any forthcoming new remaster of SOTT is likely to be brickwalled, which defeats the purpose. Maybe someday Prince's catalogue will get the same amount of love as the Beatles and Zappa - the most recent masterings of their catalogues are FANTASTIC and prime examples of Remasters Done Right.

That's the first I've heard of the wrong tapes being used for Sign O The Times.

smokeverbs said:

...and any forthcoming new remaster of SOTT is likely to be brickwalled, which defeats the purpose.

Well, as I mentioned earlier, I would like to think that Spotify imposing a limit on the output level from their end is likely to have an effect on remasters being brickwalled. But then a lot of mastering for reissues is done by amateurs who are doing it on the cheap (reissue labels often don't have much of a budget and a typical reissue won't sell anywhere near as much you'd think).

udo said:

laurarichardson said:

The average person could care less about it.

.

Thus a person with some knowledge should be involved in these mastering decisions.

That could be the added value of a record company.

It is not going to add any value because most consumers could care less and who ever works on Prince's catalogue is looking to maximize profit. Look how cheap the PR remaster was done and I am not just discussing the sound. The entire package was cheaply thrown together.

Landmark album just tossed out like it was the greatest hits of the Monkees.

With an entire change at the top at WB who knows what is going to happen with future WB invovement. I do not think coporate America has any idea of how vaule Prince's catalogue is and know nothing about his fanbase.

Asfin said he had a hard time getting a deal for his book and the book makes it into the top 15 on the New York Times Book list the first week out.

Total cluelessness.

The mastering on The Black Album is so bad it's almost like it was never really intended for release..................

.

james said: