udo said:

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.

You have to tweak the EQ constantly.
There's no other way.

One thing is the compensation of your ageing or not frequencies response.
So you have to turn on a constant frequency correction, which can be almost flat.
In my case, I only have to punch the 16k (20k to 11 is best), and the infra basses a tad (30 to 60 Hz).

The best to set this permanent compensation (and you have to set one for your laptop and your smartphone,
and headphones greatly differ as well in their response: get away from anything that flatters the ear! Turn on Google Translate and witness how a serious product review gets done).

The permanent compensation is achieved with system-wide EQ on laptops,
and EQ apps on your smartphone (or music player device). Sometimes it's integrated,
but damn Apple and their EQ presets, they're all useless.

But you'll have to tweak a little bit everyday: you're not in the same conditions day by day.
Do not go for drastic corrections: if you do, that means the audio source sucks, not your equipment.
Take this test :

http://newt.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/hearing.html
(visible from a desktop only I guess... you'll have to authorize Flash Player)

Turn off any EQ or loudness or megabass shit on your system,
do it in silence when on speakers, or headphones.
But you need silence.


When you're done with it, you obtain the EQ curve you have to apply constantly
in order to fix your ageing ear.
Take what you think being the baddest sounding songs,
and do an A/B test with your compensation EQ on and off, and hear the difference.
Oh, hello ride! Hi Tamborine! Say, Splash, how you been?

This obviously doesn't apply to young Purple Padawans, their compensation curve may be so
insignificant that they don't need all the fuss.
The first loss of frequencies, starting with the upper high, usually appears around the mid-thirties,
and it vastly depends on each individual: But take the test, you may be surprised and realize you have to wear
audio glasses, which is what a permanent EQ settings is for ageing audiophiles.
That is why there is market for single audio components.
You need a super neutral EQ that can be inserted at any point of the audio chain
without adding any "parasite" (flattering) response to some frequencies. It costs an arm, as the french say.

Of course, the same compensation EQ curve you just got won't work for any other combination of hardware.
You compensate your phone failures, your headphones failures, and your ear's.
The minute you change headphones, or speakers, or amp, or computer, you have to start again.
I have different curves for my laptop, my desktop and my phone. They're all similar
because I use the same headphones, but I also have one when I turn on my desktop speakers.


(Good) engineers are well aware of this phenomenon.
Passing 50, you may have to compensate a lot.
And then volume will go.

In my experience, musicians lose their sensibilities later on in life, but again
the head next to a Marshall cabinet every night won't do any good.
But everything can be trained, the more you concentrate on the
crystaline quality of a splash, the more you can bend your ear (or your brain)
to the original feeling of your teen ears.

Put yo glasses on.




...and then there's fixing a mix to your liking.
But that should be done with a second EQ,
that comes on top of your compensation EQ.

[Edited 8/4/18 4:24am]

More to the point, udo: IThere is yet another mastering made specifically for TV broadcast,
and those were the eighties, so the YT videos suffer, for the most, of the ears
the mastering guy had that day. Or back in the day. And the broadcast specifications (there are almost standards for compression and shit before going on air).

But I agree, from album to album, there are no even levels,
there's not enough infra-bass on Lovesexy on CD, a myriad of stuff like that.
Some engineers over-compressed, others flatter the high-ends, it's an imperfect world.

Keep in mind Prince recorded in 3-4 different studios before PPS,
and the variety of genres and sounds Prince tried in his career.

You can't just come with a trademark guitar FX preset, like "Jimi Haze", or "B. May,'s Opera".
Prince had several guitar sounds, and I'm sure each one brought new problematics, like, say,
"Shortberry Strawcake"’s Troutman horny pastiche.

One Night Alone, It Ain't Over! If an intimacy and "being right there" is a good definition, the One Night Alone, It Ain't Over! CD is the one. That CD makes me feel like I am right there. Everytime. Everything sounds so vibrant and full and just like another day at the coolest job on earth.

pdiddy2011 said:

One Night Alone, It Ain't Over! If an intimacy and "being right there" is a good definition, the One Night Alone, It Ain't Over! CD is the one. That CD makes me feel like I am right there. Everytime. Everything sounds so vibrant and full and just like another day at the coolest job on earth.

It does? Wow..this is the first Ive ever read someone raving about the production values of that set.

I was listening to "Big City" the other day and right at the 4:00 minute mark there was what sounded like panning on the horn part. But I played it a little louder and realized it was two different trumpets (I think they were trumpets but I'm no horn expert). Bam bam bam, just like that.

He was the greatest, right until the very end.

As with a related topic, far too many people here are misunderstanding what "audiophile" means. It pertains to high fidelity audio. Very few of Prince's albums fall into this category. This is NOT a criticism of his music. I've stated before that it doesn't bother me at all, and that many albums I love haven't been really well engineered.

But from my recollection, Parade is probably the closest to being an audiophile experience.

jjam said:

As with a related topic, far too many people here are misunderstanding what "audiophile" means. It pertains to high fidelity audio. Very few of Prince's albums fall into this category. This is NOT a criticism of his music. I've stated before that it doesn't bother me at all, and that many albums I love haven't been really well engineered.

But from my recollection, Parade is probably the closest to being an audiophile experience.

I disagree. You may like or not the Loudness Wars,
but sonically, everything is flawless since the Love Symbol album.

If you play LotusFlow3r on a high end system, or "Gold", they really reveal themselves.
And that's a problem: Emancipation reveals a very specific choice of sounds, very radical mixes,
but it's very well recorded. Disc 2 shows he uses very small artificial compression on his voice.
Maybe just a limiter. In ideal conditions, Emancipation really surprises you.
It's an audiophile experience because of the clarity on all overdubs, it's very detailed.
But again, with the proper gear.

Most system don't handle TGE very well, the needles are already in the red on the source.
You couldn't play "Dolphin" or "Gold" on the radio because it was already compressed like it's coming out of a nineties radio.
It's always been "Radio Prince" at some point in his head, but maybe he could have paid
more attention to details like this. Specific masterings for broadcasting are mandatory here.
I'm sure station playlist programmers liked TGE,
but when "Gold" pumps too much (the radio or tv is compressing what's already compressed)
and you get all audio-seasick, you give up.

TGE sounds fantastic, but only on an audio chain that won't break. So does TRC.
Otherwise you 'll get distortion over distortion, and you don't want that.
Every gear we have "colors" stuff, and so the problem is that we don't have a standard
set that would allow for fair comparison.
Many people thought AOA was poorly mixed, but it's the same: you need a high end system (but there's plenty
of very good and affordable stuff out there, easy to Google)
that can handle very fast transients.

Now the problem with über-compressed albums, no matter how good the compressor is,
your ear gets tired. I can't listen to more than a post 1994 album in a row,
and then I'm done for a few days. At some point Prince got so obsessed with uploading himself
into our brains, we got sonic extravaganzas like this one (audiophiles beware).
I need this shit in HD. But Come, despite the compression, it's an album very well recorded,
technically speaking. You can tell SKipper was a gear slutz.
He just forgot we ain't got Crown Amps and Genelecs at home.

There are bad frequencies responses
in every average audio consumer products: it's a real shame.
The heavy, single-components of the seventies, they are the shit,
no matter who built it: Sony, JVC, Akai, Pioneer, under their big shiny metal blocks,
they have horsepower, still function after all these years, and they despise all the megabass shitty trend that runied
the whole pop industry starting the Loudness Wars.
The engineers who built them had Thriller as a tester.

Electricity, Purple or not, needs resistance.
You can't get that from miniaturized components, I'm talking resistance.
Big fat ball of yarn except the yarn is a single, looooooooong spaghetti made of copper.
It needs vents. It gets hot. I'm getting hot just speakin' about it.

If the gear sounds flat at first, it's a good sign.
Like albums, sounds matter. We're not only hear impaired,
Hollywood shapes our grain responses to sound, everything we hear is compressed (Most Of The Time).

Now M'am, for less than a videogame console or fancy TV set,
you can own a home appliance that will age gracefully with you AND save the planet:
you'll just have to boost those high ends in the end.
You can't miss an offer like that, M'am.
Get It While You Can.

[Edited 8/7/18 1:36am]

You can have a very well recorded album that's very compressed or even brickwalled. That doesn't make it an audiophile experience.

the question is subjective