Black Album Collector's Edition - Remix and Remasters Expanded Album

I know this is not official, but I found it at my local record store yesterday and it sounds sooooo much better than my old french import.

[Edited 1/21/22 8:54am]

Looks good! I'm glad it sounds awesome. My official 1994 CD sounds like crap.

Some of these bootleg/fanmade releases are designed much better than the offical stuff!

Hoping that the Estate puts out a remastered Black Album on their own. It's really the worst-sounding album of his that I own. I would repurchase it just to hear it in all its glory.

I know what you mean about the CD. Its a big difference from my official CD and my old import vinyl for sure. The lows are clean and full, mids and highs are crystal clear. It's like a whole new album.

[Edited 1/21/22 9:06am]

why not the longer alternate version of Superfunky... on this release?

The version is circulating for years....it is a pity !

That's vinyl, right?

Awesome find, I'd love to have that.

Looks mint. Did you pay a lot?

A Black Album deluxe would be fantastic, maybe one day.

wow, there is one of these on ebay for $450....goodness

Nikeze said:

Bleh, why bother? It's still not straight sourced from the originals, so it's just EQ tweaking that any of us could do with a little help and effort.

But hey, to each their own.

Nikeze said:

LoveGalore said:

Nikeze said:

Sweet mate...id happily pay £50 for that.

You'd pay 50 quid to have some mp3s etched into vinyl?

That part.

TrivialPursuit said:

LoveGalore said:

TrivialPursuit said:

That part.

What are we missing here, other than perhaps a chromosome?

I'm agreeing w/ you. Cuz that's basically all it is: mp3s, EQ'd to death, pressed on vinyl and sold for $50? No thanks.

TrivialPursuit said:

LoveGalore said:

RudeNephew said:

LoveGalore said:

I'll say one thing, the Black Album has songs that can sound drastically different depending on the brightness and mids. Le Grind and Cindy C come to mind, they're like listening to alternate takes.

This thread inspired me to remaster the complete Black Album CD yesterday, as I am in quarantaine at the moment I have plenty of time.

Of course, the source material is not optimal as it was already mastered once, but luckily -because the CD is so low in volume- there is plenty of headroom to toy around with this album for your own 'Frankenstein' remasters.

I mastered them comparable to the brilliant official SOTT remasters, so not straying too far from the original: a fuller, clearer, louder sound without making it too bass heavy or overly bright. I had lots of fun doing it and the album sounds heaps better now to me.

My remasters turned out less bass heavy and somewhat more defined/detailed than the Foefur remasters (which I also have in my collection and which I have enjoyed listening to for years, instead of the official release). I am not sure if Foefur used a vinyl or the CD release of the Black Album for his version, but I suspect he might have used the vinyl for his remaster? His remasters have a nice 'chunky' quality, where mine are sounding a bit more 'balanced' perhaps.

Anyway, this is one of Prince's very best albums in my opinion and it was good fun doing these remasters. Now let's hope for the official WB remasters to come sooner than later!

[Edited 1/22/22 7:09am]

I have a copy of this (the vinyl 'Collector's Edition' referenced in the first post)... it's very nicely presented and does sound great. It's basically the closest thing to a proper vinyl reissue of TBA until the Estate gets round to reissuing all those albums like this, D&P, Love Symbol etc that were given one vinyl release back in the early-mid '90s and haven't been seen on that format since (and go for often daft prices on Discogs etc now).

funkaholic1972 said:

This thread inspired me to remaster the complete Black Album CD yesterday, as I am in quarantaine at the moment I have plenty of time.

Of course, the source material is not optimal as it was already mastered once, but luckily -because the CD is so low in volume- there is plenty of headroom to toy around with this album for your own 'Frankenstein' remasters.

I mastered them comparable to the brilliant official SOTT remasters, so not straying too far from the original: a fuller, clearer, louder sound without making it too bass heavy or overly bright. I had lots of fun doing it and the album sounds heaps better now to me.

My remasters turned out less bass heavy and somewhat more defined/detailed than the Foefur remasters (which I also have in my collection and which I have enjoyed listening to for years, instead of the official release). I am not sure if Foefur used a vinyl or the CD release of the Black Album for his version, but I suspect he might have used the vinyl for his remaster? His remasters have a nice 'chunky' quality, where mine are sounding a bit more 'balanced' perhaps.

Anyway, this is one of Prince's very best albums in my opinion and it was good fun doing these remasters. Now let's hope for the official WB remasters to come sooner than later!

[Edited 1/22/22 7:09am]

.

Hi funkaholic,

Could you give some more technical details on how you did the remaster? What software, which types of processing (EQ, compression, ...). And, did you give each track the same editing, or separate settings for each individual track?

.

Thanks!

jazzz said:

Hi funkaholic,

Could you give some more technical details on how you did the remaster? What software, which types of processing (EQ, compression, ...). And, did you give each track the same editing, or separate settings for each individual track?

.

Thanks!

Yeah sure! I did them one by one, with separate settings for each individual track. I uploaded the tracks on an individual basis into Cubase, and used a mastering EQ called Blyss, it has saturation, EQ and glue compression all in one plugin. I used some saturation to taste, then EQ'ed it to taste, and then some mild compression for added weight and some '3D' qualities. Then I used my trusted Sonnox Oxford limiter to raise the volume/loudness of the track. I did them all by ear, not comparing them (yet) with the files that I had already remastered. In the end I gave them a spin and two tracks needed a slight update. After that I called it a day...

[Edited 1/22/22 15:03pm]

jazzz said:

Hi funkaholic,

Could you give some more technical details on how you did the remaster? What software, which types of processing (EQ, compression, ...). And, did you give each track the same editing, or separate settings for each individual track?

.

Thanks!

You planning on giving it a go yourself?

[Edited 1/22/22 15:03pm]

funkaholic1972 said:

Looks like bootleg to me.

And a 'house mix'?

I'd run from such a release...

udo said:

Looks like bootleg to me.

And a 'house mix'?

I'd run from such a release...

I don't think anyone's saying it's an offical release, here.

Maybe I'm wrong but don't you need the masters to re-master?

rapper said:

Maybe I'm wrong but don't you need the masters to re-master?

.

Didn't you check the previous SDE releases?

Some contain cassette sourced stuff.

Not exactly the ideal multitrack to start from.

funkaholic1972 said:

This thread inspired me to remaster the complete Black Album CD yesterday, as I am in quarantaine at the moment I have plenty of time.

Of course, the source material is not optimal as it was already mastered once, but luckily -because the CD is so low in volume- there is plenty of headroom to toy around with this album for your own 'Frankenstein' remasters.

I mastered them comparable to the brilliant official SOTT remasters, so not straying too far from the original: a fuller, clearer, louder sound without making it too bass heavy or overly bright. I had lots of fun doing it and the album sounds heaps better now to me.

My remasters turned out less bass heavy and somewhat more defined/detailed than the Foefur remasters (which I also have in my collection and which I have enjoyed listening to for years, instead of the official release). I am not sure if Foefur used a vinyl or the CD release of the Black Album for his version, but I suspect he might have used the vinyl for his remaster? His remasters have a nice 'chunky' quality, where mine are sounding a bit more 'balanced' perhaps.

Anyway, this is one of Prince's very best albums in my opinion and it was good fun doing these remasters. Now let's hope for the official WB remasters to come sooner than later!

[Edited 1/22/22 7:09am]

I would love to hear what you've done.

Sounds fantastic.

And a great idea, although i wouldn't know how to remaster anything myself.