Listening.

You first

"The Rainbow Children" - all of it.

Rainbow Children might be mixed up more to audiophile standards. Also, I believe the Rave remix album was not maxmimized in volume the way most pop music was post 1991.

There's also the few Prince albums that were re-issued in 24bit 96 hz audio files. I don't even know if they are still available.

But seriously if you have $10K+ worth of audio system, any of Prince's CD's or records are going to sound interesting, even with everything turned up to 11 in the mixing.

Nightcrawler said:

"The Rainbow Children" - all of it.

often aided by herbal libation, i can (and have) spend an afternoon seated between my speakers (sometimes headphoned) unravelling and reweaving the likes of 'lovesexy', 'the rainbow children', 'friend, lover sister, mother/wife', 'parade' and 'pink cashmere' between my ears.

NouveauDance said:

You first

"The Exodus Has Begun".
On headphones, there's so much going on
in its neverending ad lib.

Audiophile experience because there is compressor ducking on every sub-bus,
It's a mix of sub-mixes, yet it never lacks its power or clarity. It builds and it builds,
but there's no filler. It's all this gargantuesque hard gospel soup boiling.
It's kind of scary at some point, if you letitgo. It cuts like laser, and thunders like Kingdom Come.

And of course it's childish near the very end, you can hear it's knobs-turning in real time,
and that's rock'n'roll right there, something that "audiophile" Pink Floyd has long forgotten,
if you take your time twisting for sound, it means the take wasn't that good, or the song isn't.
Capturing the right colors is important. If you alter them afterwards, it's going to show.

It's better to record with the effects on. That way, you can't go back.
You have to mix around a very strong artistic choice, because a flanger on the hi-hat,
it's awfully distinctive and it's going to fill all the audio range, or rather give the impression of it
(it rises and it falls, see "She's Always In My Hair" intro, or "A Love Bizarre").


Lo-Fi is very difficult to achieve. SOTT is a very difficult album today,
you have to spend a week before you can readjust your ear to the somewhat dull dynamics.

What is not an audiophile experience is Prince's AAA (analog-analog-analog, that's a lot of anal) records
butchered on CD. We lost tons of potential groovy fans because of it, over the years.
That's a thing they have to work on, restore the original dirt of Prince.
There's such a gap bewteen Controversy's original WEA vinyl pressing and the CD, it's baffling.
Do an A/B test if you're the type.

I mean, "Shockadelica", it's an audiophile experience. The textures and the depth is so spot on,
and so is "Feel U Up (Long Stroke)". It's a pity I've kinda disgusted myself with "Good Love" by too many listenings,
because I have fond memories of it, I thought it was an incredible aural experience, all this bubbles popping, the choirs yelping,
and Camille soothing and crooning, very draw, very raw.

"Bob George" too. You get used to it, the monotonic hum, the apparent flatness of it,
he layers tracks on tracks and all of sudden it's 3D, you're in a gangsta movie.
Punk's not dead. But it's not easy recording something like this, really.
This too is an audiophile experience, every distortion and noise on it.

I take the occasion to politely despise the ones pretending he didn't really care about sound.
Prince's repertoire ages so well because, in many, many cases, there's an indisputable truth in the process,
and it jumps out of the speakers. Can you remember taming, day by day, the fury of TBO at 11, back in the day?

It's almost like I don't want to hear a pristine "Do Yourself A Favour".
A light hiss and a murky bass, there are an integral part of the spirit.
Maybe to some engineers they're audio sketches. But that's the point.
You can almost feel the cassette tape rolling. The poetic warmth of the worned out tape.

He's the only artist that allowed (whatever we may think of it) his public
to hear, and so-to-speak read, his journal. It has to be a quick take on a 4-track.
Prince made a point to record so fast because he knew the first attempts to it
always carry the error, the blue note, like on "Like A Rolling Stone".
Put the guy beyond the organ, and see what he can do.
The sound "reduced" to its first vision of it, no sculpting, no trimming,
the essence. By putting himself in the position "I only have one day to do it",
there's an urge, there's a fear: we'd be stupid not to think that Prince didn't experience panic.
That's why his music is so alive, and his interpretations age so well:
they are audio pictures taken on the fly, not long, accurate, painstakinlgy photographed poses.
Polaroids: what other artist gave us polaroids?
They're all lazy sipping margaritas in St Barth
checking their royalties on their phones, these slackers.

Now a pop artist starts so broke that polaroids is all he can afford.
A laptop is not a good recorder. The current aural landscape is atrocious, for the most part.
No ones engineers any more, or it's all FX. Impressive, but special effects nonetheless.

A lot of masterpieces were recorded in a week or so,
so it's a bad trial for Prince: we're pissed because he worked so fast,
but I'm pretty certain the pace was a big component in the energy of the recordings.
It's not that his engineers were not capable. Au contraire! They had to get the mood fast,
and go to what's indispensable. It's auto-inflicted minimalism.

Now I understand better his relationship with Clare Fisher.
He could not wait for arrangements, because they require a very good understanding of the piece,
which takes time. Then transcription. Then voicing, then recording over.
Maybe he thought if they met, there was a risk for Prince to dive into territories that would have divert him from
the core, the simplicity, the pulse.

Over a good sketch, you can draw or paint a thousand different ways.
But in order to make good sketches, you have to do just that.
It seems I'm on the verge to acknowledge Prince didn't take enough time on the recording aspect,
but again, that's the point: it would have killed the process, because ask Bruce Swedien, mike placement takes time.
"Nebraska" is audophile because Bruce's howling could not sound like this.
It's an intentional approach, as is Dirty Mind, the fact that it's unpolished
is integral to the sonic experience.

OK, Bad the album is funky. But it's not photography. That's photoshopped (pardon me, airbrushed)
as much as the portrait on the sleeve. It's an album that says they used a special 3D technology for 2 seconds of a motorbike
that just sounds as a lawnmower. Obviously Michael never heard a Harley Davidson shaking concrete at 2 a.m.
But "Bad" the song is an aural experience that shows its age.

While this sounds better and better with each year passing.
It's really audiophile to me.
Every nuance of the guitar and the voice are present, the dynamic range is there, in front of you.
Notice the difference in volume between the verses and the chorus. If there's a compressor, it's set very low.
It's Prince using with the microphone distance, and his diaphragm.
The subtle managing of the hall reverb on the voice. The short delays.

Another loggorhea in the name of sound.

[Edited 8/3/18 9:25am]

[Edited 8/3/18 10:20am]

[Edited 8/3/18 10:24am]

[Edited 8/3/18 10:26am]

Nightcrawler said:

"The Rainbow Children" - all of it.

yes ...first thing i thought first time i heard it

Nightcrawler said:

"The Rainbow Children" - all of it.

As much as I hate that record, I would agree on the level of having an audiophile experience. Musically there is a uniquely warm and organic nature to it that we never heard before or after.

But harkening back to "Irresistible Bitch", when I found other vocals wrapped around the percussion - that was a basic pop song but it ended up being an audiophile experience. But with broader strokes, TRC stands out as one.

I would add SOTT & Lovesexy to that. They are polar opposites in production. SOTT is muddy, dark, layered, one-man-band. Lovesexy is bright, almost too crisp, peaking at 10 thru-out, band-oriented recordings. But both still have elements and overdubs that should be explored and realized.

Some might suggest ATWIAD, but I would lean more to the first four tracks on Parade.

TrivialPursuit said:

Nightcrawler said:

"The Rainbow Children" - all of it.

As much as I hate that record, I would agree on the level of having an audiophile experience. Musically there is a uniquely warm and organic nature to it that we never heard before or after.

But harkening back to "Irresistible Bitch", when I found other vocals wrapped around the percussion - that was a basic pop song but it ended up being an audiophile experience. But with broader strokes, TRC stands out as one.

I would add SOTT & Lovesexy to that. They are polar opposites in production. SOTT is muddy, dark, layered, one-man-band. Lovesexy is bright, almost too crisp, peaking at 10 thru-out, band-oriented recordings. But both still have elements and overdubs that should be explored and realized.

Some might suggest ATWIAD, but I would lean more to the first four tracks on Parade.

Well, yeah. I don't know which bears the most sonic surprises, ATWIAD or Parade.
There's a lot going on in ATWIAD as well, I mean just the delay on "Pop Life"’s lead vocal,
but of course the main suspects are "Paisley Park", "Condition Of The Heart", "Tamborine" and "Temptation".
Especially the second part of "Temptation", it sounds fantastic. You may like it or not, it's a study in low contrasts.
And what about "Condition Of The Heart"? Fantastic dynamic range.

And so do all ATWIAD B-sides. Nowadays, you just gotta pump that bass, though.
Again, the analog source is best. It may lessen the dynamic range, but Prince's tunes need a kind of thickness.
"Kiss" is very macho sounding, despite the apparent frailty of it. It's that infra-bass rumble.
Oh, the extended versions of the Parade singles, they're something as well.

"Dear Michaelangelo" is impressive in its final form.
Very detailed textures, contrary the original hissing demo.
But there's always an organic quality, that was lost in the nineties.
Starting with Diamonds and Pearls, suddenly Prince had to sound boombastic.

I hope someday someone is going to try a remix of the nineties albums.
Just to ease the compressors. When you climb all the time to eleven,
what higher floor remains to punch?

[Edited 8/3/18 10:14am]

[Edited 8/3/18 10:15am]

bonatoc said:

Well, yeah. I don't know which bears the most sonic surprises, ATWIAD or Parade.
There's a lot going on in ATWIAD as well, I mean just the delay on "Pop Life"’s lead vocal,

To be clear, that is not an actual delay effect. It's actually two lead vocal takes Prince recorded, and both are used in the mix, one slightly behind the other creating the illusion of a delay. It certainly makes one go back and listen to it in a new way all over again once you realize that.

I hate the tag ending on "Temptation". It's garbage. The dirty greasy first half is way more desirable.

NorthC said:

The original LPs. I don't have the original pressings of every album, but dammit, 1999 or Parade on vinyl... That's it. I don't like headphones. The sound should spread around the room, move around, it should fill the whole room.

And remember: we all age. You gotta compensate for what you're inevitably losing.
Careful with 11. It's best to start at high volume, then gradually lower it to the point
where Prince is singing at reasonable range from you.

To some ol'purple farts as myself, it's been like going back to your fourteen years ears.
EQ correction is mandatory.
Hear, hear!

This goes to 11:

[Edited 8/3/18 10:45am]

The source is far from perfect, still...
All harmonic distortions are intentional on my part.

But the tamborine is there, the shaker, and SKipper's anguish more in your face.

NouveauDance said:

You first

OK Sue Ellen, I'm done.
Your turn.

bonatoc said:

ufoclub said:

bonatoc said:

OK Sue Ellen, I'm done.
Your turn.

Wait you have a separate EQ for each song, or each album? I could understand each album.

Nope, it was just to show it's not that hard to compensate for flat masterings.
There are a lot of crappy free EQs on smartphones,
it's better to put the price on a good one.

I must say these EQs I posted suppose
you already have a good response in infrabasses.
I have a good pair of intra-auricular headphones.
These feel like having a subwoofer, minus the punch in the chest and the walls vibrating, but eh.
Close enough.

12 bands on your EQ is a minimum.

[Edited 8/3/18 11:42am]

peedub said:

often aided by herbal libation, i can (and have) spend an afternoon seated between my speakers (sometimes headphoned) unravelling and reweaving the likes of 'lovesexy', 'the rainbow children', 'friend, lover sister, mother/wife', 'parade' and 'pink cashmere' between my ears.

THIS.

Indeed The Rainbow Children is a very good sounding album, although levels are a bit hot in some places. For me his best sounding album is Parade, it is such an interesting and well sounding album!

To me 'audiophile experience' means an intimacy between the listener and recorded instruments, human and otherwise, a feeling you are "right there." This experience is not always important, and sometimes is beside the point.

I'd never call this his "best recorded" track, but "Father's Song" comes to mind. Because the way the piano, the bass are mic'd, mixed...it feels as if you're seated on the floor and several Princes are all around you, bringing it all to life.

[Edited 8/3/18 20:36pm]

"Audiophiles are an exceptional breed of people who are fascinated by pure audio, motivated by sound quality and addicted to audio gadgets."

peedub said:

often aided by herbal libation, i can (and have) spend an afternoon seated between my speakers (sometimes headphoned) unravelling and reweaving the likes of 'lovesexy', 'the rainbow children', 'friend, lover sister, mother/wife', 'parade' and 'pink cashmere' between my ears.

Bhang? And yes lord, to everything you said. I'm inclined to add the "Dream Factory" album to your list, I think the entire album as sequenced is a headphone masterpiece to me because of the whimsical & intricate details in the production (whether they were intentional or otherwise, I don't know). A higher state of consciousness also adds to the enjoyment is it an audiophile experience in the traditional sense? Probably not, the sound quality is not in the same prestine quality as Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly" or MJ's "Thriller", but it was an audiophile experience to me in the sense that its one of the first albums that made me develop a concious and active listening approach to music where I pay attention to every single detail, whether subtle or obious.

paraded said:

To me 'audiophile experience' means an intimacy between the listener and recorded instruments, human and otherwise, a feeling you are "right there." This experience is not always important, and sometimes is beside the point.

I'd never call this his "best recorded" track, but "Father's Song" comes to mind. Because the way the piano, the bass are mic'd, mixed...it feels as if you're seated on the floor and several Princes are all around you, bringing it all to life.

[Edited 8/3/18 20:36pm]

Yes I identify with that definition moreso than the general/popular one this one is more realistic to me.

bonatoc said:

NouveauDance said:

You first

"The Exodus Has Begun".
On headphones, there's so much going on
in its neverending ad lib.

Audiophile experience because there is compressor ducking on every sub-bus,
It's a mix of sub-mixes, yet it never lacks its power or clarity. It builds and it builds,
but there's no filler. It's all this gargantuesque hard gospel soup boiling.
It's kind of scary at some point, if you letitgo. It cuts like laser, and thunders like Kingdom Come.

And of course it's childish near the very end, you can hear it's knobs-turning in real time,
and that's rock'n'roll right there, something that "audiophile" Pink Floyd has long forgotten,
if you take your time twisting for sound, it means the take wasn't that good, or the song isn't.
Capturing the right colors is important. If you alter them afterwards, it's going to show.

It's better to record with the effects on. That way, you can't go back.
You have to mix around a very strong artistic choice, because a flanger on the hi-hat,
it's awfully distinctive and it's going to fill all the audio range, or rather give the impression of it
(it rises and it falls, see "She's Always In My Hair" intro, or "A Love Bizarre").


Lo-Fi is very difficult to achieve. SOTT is a very difficult album today,
you have to spend a week before you can readjust your ear to the somewhat dull dynamics.

What is not an audiophile experience is Prince's AAA (analog-analog-analog, that's a lot of anal) records
butchered on CD. We lost tons of potential groovy fans because of it, over the years.
That's a thing they have to work on, restore the original dirt of Prince.
There's such a gap bewteen Controversy's original WEA vinyl pressing and the CD, it's baffling.
Do an A/B test if you're the type.

I mean, "Shockadelica", it's an audiophile experience. The textures and the depth is so spot on,
and so is "Feel U Up (Long Stroke)". It's a pity I've kinda disgusted myself with "Good Love" by too many listenings,
because I have fond memories of it, I thought it was an incredible aural experience, all this bubbles popping, the choirs yelping,
and Camille soothing and crooning, very draw, very raw.

"Bob George" too. You get used to it, the monotonic hum, the apparent flatness of it,
he layers tracks on tracks and all of sudden it's 3D, you're in a gangsta movie.
Punk's not dead. But it's not easy recording something like this, really.
This too is an audiophile experience, every distortion and noise on it.

I take the occasion to politely despise the ones pretending he didn't really care about sound.
Prince's repertoire ages so well because, in many, many cases, there's an indisputable truth in the process,
and it jumps out of the speakers. Can you remember taming, day by day, the fury of TBO at 11, back in the day?

It's almost like I don't want to hear a pristine "Do Yourself A Favour".
A light hiss and a murky bass, there are an integral part of the spirit.
Maybe to some engineers they're audio sketches. But that's the point.
You can almost feel the cassette tape rolling. The poetic warmth of the worned out tape.

He's the only artist that allowed (whatever we may think of it) his public
to hear, and so-to-speak read, his journal. It has to be a quick take on a 4-track.
Prince made a point to record so fast because he knew the first attempts to it
always carry the error, the blue note, like on "Like A Rolling Stone".
Put the guy beyond the organ, and see what he can do.
The sound "reduced" to its first vision of it, no sculpting, no trimming,
the essence. By putting himself in the position "I only have one day to do it",
there's an urge, there's a fear: we'd be stupid not to think that Prince didn't experience panic.
That's why his music is so alive, and his interpretations age so well:
they are audio pictures taken on the fly, not long, accurate, painstakinlgy photographed poses.
Polaroids: what other artist gave us polaroids?
They're all lazy sipping margaritas in St Barth
checking their royalties on their phones, these slackers.

Now a pop artist starts so broke that polaroids is all he can afford.
A laptop is not a good recorder. The current aural landscape is atrocious, for the most part.
No ones engineers any more, or it's all FX. Impressive, but special effects nonetheless.

A lot of masterpieces were recorded in a week or so,
so it's a bad trial for Prince: we're pissed because he worked so fast,
but I'm pretty certain the pace was a big component in the energy of the recordings.
It's not that his engineers were not capable. Au contraire! They had to get the mood fast,
and go to what's indispensable. It's auto-inflicted minimalism.

Now I understand better his relationship with Clare Fisher.
He could not wait for arrangements, because they require a very good understanding of the piece,
which takes time. Then transcription. Then voicing, then recording over.
Maybe he thought if they met, there was a risk for Prince to dive into territories that would have divert him from
the core, the simplicity, the pulse.

Over a good sketch, you can draw or paint a thousand different ways.
But in order to make good sketches, you have to do just that.
It seems I'm on the verge to acknowledge Prince didn't take enough time on the recording aspect,
but again, that's the point: it would have killed the process, because ask Bruce Swedien, mike placement takes time.
"Nebraska" is audophile because Bruce's howling could not sound like this.
It's an intentional approach, as is Dirty Mind, the fact that it's unpolished
is integral to the sonic experience.

OK, Bad the album is funky. But it's not photography. That's photoshopped (pardon me, airbrushed)
as much as the portrait on the sleeve. It's an album that says they used a special 3D technology for 2 seconds of a motorbike
that just sounds as a lawnmower. Obviously Michael never heard a Harley Davidson shaking concrete at 2 a.m.
But "Bad" the song is an aural experience that shows its age.

While this sounds better and better with each year passing.
It's really audiophile to me.
Every nuance of the guitar and the voice are present, the dynamic range is there, in front of you.
Notice the difference in volume between the verses and the chorus. If there's a compressor, it's set very low.
It's Prince using with the microphone distance, and his diaphragm.
The subtle managing of the hall reverb on the voice. The short delays.

Another loggorhea in the name of sound.

[Edited 8/3/18 9:25am]

[Edited 8/3/18 10:20am]

[Edited 8/3/18 10:24am]

[Edited 8/3/18 10:26am]

Lets get married

Is it me or are y'all a litle deaf?

These 'official' videos sound a bit hyped in the trebble.

This is on simple computer speakers that I know welle nough and on which material normally does not sound hyped.

And yes, we run on non-Windoze OS so we have a little more control over what happens.

.

So if this is a sign, please let them remasters, if they ever appear in my sweaty palms, not sound like this.