The question appeared in this thread: https://prince.org/msg/7/464437 but i'm creating a new thread because this should be easy to figure out if everyone sees it.

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Long story short, glamlife2 seems to remember that the original 12'' had a slightly different, cleaner ending, than the LP version. Lika a matter of a slit second but still different.

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The versions on streaming platforms and the RDS 12'' appear to be the album version, with a split second of the segue into PITS at the end.

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Could a good soul who owns an original SOTT 12'' help us get to the bottom of it?

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Thx

I've just had a listen to both my original 12" and the single on Apple Music and it really is a split second difference. That tiny bit of the start of Play on the streaming version is not on the original 12", which has a clean cut.

embmmusic said:

I've just had a listen to both my original 12" and the single on Apple Music and it really is a split second difference. That tiny bit of the start of Play on the streaming version is not on the original 12", which has a clean cut.

I am really annoyed with the label for making such a schoolboy error.

I mean who is listening to the master before it goes to test pressing, etc?
Yes it's a fraction of a second. But it's an awkward listen having that weird sound at the end of the song if you're just playing the 12" single. And could have been easily avoided.

As I mentioned in the other thread, there have been some problems with the reissues of Prince 12" singles. Erotic City is the most notable - there is a very weird sound/distortion at the start of the song which is clearly an error (on the last reissue of Let's Go Crazy 12").

Bugs me that quality control isn't better on these collectable releases!

embmmusic said:

I've just had a listen to both my original 12" and the single on Apple Music and it really is a split second difference. That tiny bit of the start of Play on the streaming version is not on the original 12", which has a clean cut.

Thanks, but I'm still not sure I understand. There are 2 possibilities:

- A tracking error, i.e. you get the beginning of the next track at the end of the track. Annoying as it is, it was common in the early days of CD transfers and does not constitute a specific edit/mix by itself.

- A different edit/mix, for example the split second echo at the end of the IWD4U 7'', that isn't at the end of the PR album version.

The thing is for me, SOTT does not segue into PITS on the album, at least not that I can hear, which is whi I'm concerned about whether the ending is somehow different on the 12'' or not.

glamlife2 said:

embmmusic said:

I've just had a listen to both my original 12" and the single on Apple Music and it really is a split second difference. That tiny bit of the start of Play on the streaming version is not on the original 12", which has a clean cut.

I am really annoyed with the label for making such a schoolboy error.

I mean who is listening to the master before it goes to test pressing, etc?
Yes it's a fraction of a second. But it's an awkward listen having that weird sound at the end of the song if you're just playing the 12" single. And could have been easily avoided.

As I mentioned in the other thread, there have been some problems with the reissues of Prince 12" singles. Erotic City is the most notable - there is a very weird sound/distortion at the start of the song which is clearly an error (on the last reissue of Let's Go Crazy 12").

Bugs me that quality control isn't better on these collectable releases!

This sound at the beginning of Erotic City on streaming platforms, which has been there since 2007, I always suspected it came from a compilation where if crossfaded with another, non-Prince track, but i could never find where this could come from.

databank said:

embmmusic said:

I've just had a listen to both my original 12" and the single on Apple Music and it really is a split second difference. That tiny bit of the start of Play on the streaming version is not on the original 12", which has a clean cut.

Thanks, but I'm still not sure I understand. There are 2 possibilities:

- A tracking error, i.e. you get the beginning of the next track at the end of the track. Annoying as it is, it was common in the early days of CD transfers and does not constitute a specific edit/mix by itself.

- A different edit/mix, for example the split second echo at the end of the IWD4U 7'', that isn't at the end of the PR album version.

The thing is for me, SOTT does not segue into PITS on the album, at least not that I can hear, which is whi I'm concerned about whether the ending is somehow different on the 12'' or not.

The ending is the same, it's just as you said a minor tracking error where you get the tiniest start of the next track included. The only difference on the original 12" is that it doesn't have that error.

Databank I've sent you a PM

embmmusic said:

databank said:

Thanks, but I'm still not sure I understand. There are 2 possibilities:

- A tracking error, i.e. you get the beginning of the next track at the end of the track. Annoying as it is, it was common in the early days of CD transfers and does not constitute a specific edit/mix by itself.

- A different edit/mix, for example the split second echo at the end of the IWD4U 7'', that isn't at the end of the PR album version.

The thing is for me, SOTT does not segue into PITS on the album, at least not that I can hear, which is whi I'm concerned about whether the ending is somehow different on the 12'' or not.

The ending is the same, it's just as you said a minor tracking error where you get the tiniest start of the next track included. The only difference on the original 12" is that it doesn't have that error.

Yes! Thanks a lot for helping me sort that out. Indeed the exact same ending. Case closed

On the Japanese SMH CD it's messed up in a different way: SOTT is cut off too early and PITS starts with the final beat from SOTT.

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BartVanHemelen said:

On the Japanese SMH CD it's messed up in a different way: SOTT is cut off too early and PITS starts with the final beat from SOTT.

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It's tracked like that on the original us cd, too.

BTW there is a discrepancy WRT the "edit" of Housequake on the third disc of the SOTT SDE vs the one used in the 7" singles limited edition box set: one uses a censored version, the other doesn't (look for the "bullshit").

BartVanHemelen said:

BTW there is a discrepancy WRT the "edit" of Housequake on the third disc of the SOTT SDE vs the one used in the 7" singles limited edition box set: one uses a censored version, the other doesn't (look for the "bullshit").

That's interesting. The original 7" version on the U Got the Look single is indeed censored so I wonder if the edit for the SDE was recreated from the original song.

embmmusic said:

BartVanHemelen said:

BTW there is a discrepancy WRT the "edit" of Housequake on the third disc of the SOTT SDE vs the one used in the 7" singles limited edition box set: one uses a censored version, the other doesn't (look for the "bullshit").

That's interesting. The original 7" version on the U Got the Look single is indeed censored so I wonder if the edit for the SDE was recreated from the original song.

Shit guys, that's another entry for my sitte if the new edit is different. I must admit I didn't catch this. God I'm so fed-up and so late with all these corrections on the site. Thx for catching it though .

As for original edit vs recreated, it could have been recreated if they lost the master (it's common practice for labels, see the Bowie box-sets) or it could be an unused master from that time, I guess we'll never know

Though the Singles box set has the censored version so if that set has been remastered then they must have access to it.

databank said:

embmmusic said:

That's interesting. The original 7" version on the U Got the Look single is indeed censored so I wonder if the edit for the SDE was recreated from the original song.

Shit guys, that's another entry for my sitte if the new edit is different. I must admit I didn't catch this. God I'm so fed-up and so late with all these corrections on the site. Thx for catching it though .

As for original edit vs recreated, it could have been recreated if they lost the master (it's common practice for labels, see the Bowie box-sets) or it could be an unused master from that time, I guess we'll never know

How frustrating it is that we never can get full disclosure about these things. Would be nice to know when single masters have been lost... and so many times these re-creations for SDE's are not exactly the same as original single versions.

embmmusic said:

Though the Singles box set has the censored version so if that set has been remastered then they must have access to it.

True

glamlife2 said:

embmmusic said:

I've just had a listen to both my original 12" and the single on Apple Music and it really is a split second difference. That tiny bit of the start of Play on the streaming version is not on the original 12", which has a clean cut.

I am really annoyed with the label for making such a schoolboy error.

I mean who is listening to the master before it goes to test pressing, etc?
Yes it's a fraction of a second. But it's an awkward listen having that weird sound at the end of the song if you're just playing the 12" single. And could have been easily avoided.

As I mentioned in the other thread, there have been some problems with the reissues of Prince 12" singles. Erotic City is the most notable - there is a very weird sound/distortion at the start of the song which is clearly an error (on the last reissue of Let's Go Crazy 12").

Bugs me that quality control isn't better on these collectable releases!

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The lack of quality control in this set is disturbing.

This yields also true for vinyl, as it appears.

I will not go into the other issues with the 1999 and PR SDE releases.