Not counting remasters of course.

[Edited 10/12/20 23:42pm]

Personally I would go with Parade. That album is mixed incredibly well, probably his best sounding '80s album and the quality of the music puts it over the top for me. Listen on good cans and the drums on the medley at the start pop like no other, it sounds like Prince is laying down the drum track right next to you

Prince (1979)

I'll 2nd The Rainbow Children.

I'd need to know your parameters for what counts as good sonically. I've heard people praise and criticise the sonics of Parade for the same reason.

I've seen many claim that Diamonds & Pearls is Prince's best sonically sounding album. It's often described as being very 'polished' and 'clean' sounding. I tend to agree with this as well.

The Rainbow Children for me sounds excellent. It's not compressed to hell like a lot of the later pop albums and the mix really lets the jazzy music breathe, especially John Blackwell's phenomenal drums.

Parade. Its timeless and dream like. Perfect combination of organic and electric sounds.

Rainbow Children, Come, The Vault Old Friends For Sale, Dirty Mind, Exodus and Parade

embmmusic said:

The Rainbow Children for me sounds excellent. It's not compressed to hell like a lot of the later pop albums and the mix really lets the jazzy music breathe, especially John Blackwell's phenomenal drums.

Its an amazing album but sound wise are you sure there are not a lot of loudness problems?

This may or may not touch on what you're asking about but a production lecturer of mine at Berklee College of Music back in the mid-90s once said that Let's Go Crazy was one of his favourite songs ever but also that it is a badly produced song sonically. He said it was all over the place - the mix, the EQ, etc. But everytime he heard that song, he couldn't help but dance to it simply because of the way it sounds. I'll never forget it.

I suppose he was saying that there is an intention sometimes as to how a song might sound whether it is produced well or not. I'm also not saying that Prince had an intention with that song production-wise. It was just another point of view.

Oh yeah, I forgot... one of the best sounding Prince releases ever is Deliverance....

Milty2 said:

This may or may not touch on what you're asking about but a production lecturer of mine at Berklee College of Music back in the mid-90s once said that Let's Go Crazy was one of his favourite songs ever but also that it is a badly produced song sonically. He said it was all over the place - the mix, the EQ, etc. But everytime he heard that song, he couldn't help but dance to it simply because of the way it sounds. I'll never forget it.

I suppose he was saying that there is an intention sometimes as to how a song might sound whether it is produced well or not. I'm also not saying that Prince had an intention with that song production-wise. It was just another point of view.

well Lets Go Crazy album version is a lve track recorded with a mobile unit but i think that Purple Rain album have great production

[Edited 10/12/20 13:46pm]

We were told by Femi Jiya himself at the "Xenophobia" prince celebration that Rainbow Children was mixed to have more dynamic range instead of all faders UP.

Does it have more dynamic range than say albums right before and after?

thebanishedone said:

Milty2 said:

This may or may not touch on what you're asking about but a production lecturer of mine at Berklee College of Music back in the mid-90s once said that Let's Go Crazy was one of his favourite songs ever but also that it is a badly produced song sonically. He said it was all over the place - the mix, the EQ, etc. But everytime he heard that song, he couldn't help but dance to it simply because of the way it sounds. I'll never forget it.

I suppose he was saying that there is an intention sometimes as to how a song might sound whether it is produced well or not. I'm also not saying that Prince had an intention with that song production-wise. It was just another point of view.

well Lets Go Crazy album version is a lve track recorded with a mobile unit but i think that Purple Rain album have great production

[Edited 10/12/20 13:46pm]

I agree with you but I also believe it's unpolished in many areas.

4 me the Rainbow Children just stands out way above all of the others.

Milty2 said:

thebanishedone said:

well Lets Go Crazy album version is a lve track recorded with a mobile unit but i think that Purple Rain album have great production

[Edited 10/12/20 13:46pm]

I agree with you but I also believe it's unpolished in many areas.

Dont you think its unpolished on purpose ? remember Prince wanted to do a rock album

.Purple Rain is a rock album.rock needs to be a little unpolished raw and dangerous,

if its perfect than it lacks something extra.

thebanishedone said:

Milty2 said:

I agree with you but I also believe it's unpolished in many areas.

Dont you think its unpolished on purpose ? remember Prince wanted to do a rock album

.Purple Rain is a rock album.rock needs to be a little unpolished raw and dangerous,

if its perfect than it lacks something extra.

I'm not challenging anything. I'm just saying that it's unpolished in many areas. I'm not denigrating the album for that opinion either. I love the album in its entirety. I'm just saying.....it's unpolished in many (or some) places.

I dont agree that rock needs to be a little unpolished, raw and dangerous.

I'd say Parade is snappy, crisp, really balances the baroque elements and the hard-hitting funk percussion.

DnP and could have ben disasters, but the instrumentation is all crystal clear and the bass is deep and resonant.

Come is really clean, with a feeling of space and openness in its production.

Rainbow Children feels close and intimate, like a private live performance.

Parade

The Rainbow Children,

The Vault - Old Friends 4 Sale,

Jill Jones

The bests for me are Diamonds & Pearls, Lovesymbol, Emancipation, OF4S & Rainbow Children.

The worsts : TGE, CB '98, Planet Earth & Lotus Flower...

[Edited 10/13/20 2:15am]

The Rainbow Children

Love Symbol

[Edited 10/13/20 12:18pm]

I'm no audiophile but TRC was the first one that came to mind so glad to see others agreeing with me.

There's something really organic sounding about it that works. Only track on the album that sounds "off" is "She Loves for Me" that seems to get...I dunno..."overloaded" I guess in certain spots (?)

Anyone know what I'm talking about?