Bob Ludwig is one of the most respected audio engineers in the music industry, having engineered albums ranging from Sly & The Family Stone through to Jimi Hendrix, to Springsteen and Nirvana - all in all an amazing and respected member of the music industry.

In a recent Q&A with music site MusicTAP (http://www.thedigitalbits...udwig.html); Bob was asked what projects would he love to re-master in he which replied "Sly & The Family Stone and Prince's early albums". Pretty cool considering this guy has engineered about every major album to come out from the last 3 decades!!

Just an FYI for people out there like me that are audiophiles and also Prince fans and would love to see some Prince releases on DVD-A or SACD, or in this case actually re-mastered.

Re-mastering is good but it too often fails to render the autenthicity of a musical piece...

derek said:

[This message was edited Sat May 10 4:10:53 PDT 2003 by CAMILLE4U]

thanks for the thread: master, re-master, package re-package, any Prince album is worth it, imho

klaatu said:

But you have to admit that albums like Dirty Mind, 1999 & Purple Rain could do with a little tweaking!

A good re-master should only bring out more of the original recording - not change it or make it something it isn't (if that makes sense).

I'm not saying i want DIRTY MIND to sound like D&P, i just want the sonics turned up on all levels so we can actually hear Prince's vocals in all their re-mastered glory.

If this ever gets done, Id like to see high quality Vynl Reissues also. One can dream...

1999 was mastered to CD so badly, and so long ago using antiquated methods. This is the one disc that lost much of the vinyl's subtlties, and needs to be remastered NOW.

But not by Prince.

I would love to see that happen though remastering does conflict with the originals authenticity i would love to hear those tracks tweaked...looking at some of princes recording methods though it seems that he purposely wanted to have that sound which seems to make the songs sound warmer...sing of the times for instance was recorded with analog equipment then mastered digital digitally...can u imagine 1999 or sign of the times remastered??? ...i wish someone would tell bob to remaster princes movies and live concerts in dvd format that would truly be a beautiful thing!!!

We need SOTT to be remastered, maybe tweeked with more sounds, more power. Damn, strange relationship was off the hook on the ONA...live album.

derek said:

You make a point. The art of re-mastering is very difficult. It is hard not to lose the authenticity of the recording.

squirrelgrease said:

1999 on CD is so badly mastered that if you have a high end stereo system and turn it up to any decent volume, it damages the speakers. i have first hand experience of this sadly.

Anyone who is concerned that remastering ruins the original vibe of a recording need only listen to the Stevie Wonder reissues to feel better.

When I played the remaster of Innervisions for the first time, it felt like I had never truly heard the genius of this album before. Prince's recordings need the same loving treatment.

Peace, David

If this distortion sound on LRC (before one of the refrains) was caused by the CD mastering, then... yes, it IS bad! Even I can hear it.

livewire said: