Lovesexy, Sign of The Times, Black Album, Parade & Around the World in a Day all need to be remastered so badly. I make compilation CDs and would love to include songs from these albums but the sound difference is so huge.

I don't want these albums to sound "hot" but the bass should be bumpin on Housequake or Ballad of Dorothy Parker without having to specially adjust the volume or the equalizer only for songs off these albums (in the case of using them on a compilation CD).

Any way we could petition NPGMC for this or is this totally off limits because WB owns the master recordings?

I'll sign a petition in my blood for this one . . . . . definitely must have remastered albums . . .

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Go into Sounforge XP (A great program and if you don't have it I highly reccomend picking it up) and Normalize the RMS (Root Mean Square; which basically is the average loudness) to -12 db and you won't have any problems making a mixed cd where all songs are at the same volume. This works better then just using the typical peak level normalization that most systems give you the ability to use.


When I'm making a mixed cd I always go in and check the RMS of all the songs I'm including so that the cd sounds uniform and this works beautifully.
[This message was edited Wed Jul 10 18:13:33 PDT 2002 by lovemachine]

I think the only way we get remasters is if Prince re-records the albums. Warner Bros have the originals.

Although re-releases in the 90s like The Hits and spin off singles have given you certain tracks with a little tweaking.

Also there's last years "Very Best of".

Why should Prince remaster his best albums? The masters are owned by Warner Bros. If he owned them himself, I would support a remastering.

If and when these albums are remastered, the lion's share of the money from the sales should go to Prince. WB is entitled to a cut, but not the largest cut 20 years after an album was first recorded.

Batdance said:

That means that we WOULD have a remastered versions of his albums up to "1999" by now ?!? ... Don't think so

Batdance said:

Wow this kind of quote scares me. People have really let Prince brainwash them.

When you go and buy the new (fill in an artist of your choice) disc do you stop and say, "Wait a minute the lion's share of this money is going to go to Sony"?

Of course you don't, but with Prince everybody acts like Warner Brothers did something wrong. That somehow Prince deserves every penny because he is the allmighty Prince.

Prince SIGNED a contract and he has to live with the terms of the deal. It wasn't like Prince was just starting out in the music business when he signed his last contract with Warner Brothers in 1992; he had been around for 14 years and he knew exactly what he was getting into. He knew that he wasn't going to own his masters, but he signed the contract anyway. Why? Because he wanted "a hundred million dollar deal".

He could have pushed and gotten a deal like he got for "Rave", but Prince was more interested in the money upfront. This is something that he will have to live with. Just the same as any contract that you or me may sign be it with the cell phone company or our car loan.

If you wish that they would remaster his music your opinion should not be swayed one way or the other by the fact that Warners would get a piece of the pie.

Where in my post did I say that the Prince or any artist deserves every penny from sales of their music? I clearly wrote that WB should get their cut, but they should not continue to get the biggest cut for years and years *after* the music was recorded. They have already received the lion's share of the money from For You, Prince, Lovesexy, SOTT, etc.

Why should Prince cooperate with remastering his work when WB will again get the lion's share of his work? That doesn't happen to Motley Crue, David Bowie, or the Rolling Stones.

lovemachine said:

it almost made me sick to my stomach when I dropped nearly $200 on a limited edition, ten disc box set by the Monkees and knew that almost all proceeds would go to Rhino Records. disgusting! if anyone deserves every cent from sales it definitely is that spunky group, Prince never had his own TV show.

Batdance said:

Okay I take back the "every penny" remark, but you still feel that a deal should be allowed to be changed after it has been signed if it does not favor the artist. The only time I could see this is with new artists and Prince had been around for 14 years when he signed his least deal.

Prince knew the terms of the deal and Prince should have negotiated a better deal if he didn't want Warner Brothers colelcting the "lion's share" years and years after the music was recorded.. He knew what he was getting into and I don't feel sorry in the least.

I guess what you are saying is that the boys in Motley Crue are smarter then our Prince (at least when it comes to signing contracts).
[This message was edited Wed Jul 10 18:52:28 PDT 2002 by lovemachine]

dumbass said:

it almost made me sick to my stomach when I dropped nearly $200 on a limited edition, ten disc box set by the Monkees and knew that almost all proceeds would go to Rhino Records. disgusting! if anyone deserves every cent from sales it definitely is that spunky group, Prince never had his own TV show.[/quote]

Now this is funny

Warner have the master tapes...but prince has the original tapes of each recording he has done. the sad thing is, he does not have the rights 2 released remastered albums. if he did warner would rip his ass off in courts. Next year prince will be getting back FOR YOU master and every year after next year he will get one by one from warner. so i guess we have 2 wait a few years b4 prince releases those remastered albums...hope it's not re-recorded albums? Y'all remember 1999 The New Master? yeah it sucked. the black album sound is fine...SOTT on LP is awesome but the CD is poor and it does need remastering.

aCTUALLY, THE THOUGHT OF DROPPING $200 FOR A MONKEES BOX SET MAKES me SICK TO my STOMACH!


THE ONLY WAY I WOULD BUY REMASTERED PRINCE CD'S IS IF THEY CAME PACKAGED LIKE MARVIN GAYE'S LIMITED EDITION "WHATS GOING ON" AND "LETS GET IT ON", WITH NEW LINER NOTES, PACKAGING,STUDIO OUTTAKES,AND LIVE TRACKS.

EXAMPLES: "PARADE" SPECIAL EDITION, WITH "LITTLE GIRL WENDY'S PARADE", "ALL MY DREAMS", AND A LIVE "ANOTHERLOVERHOLEINYOHEAD", AND OTHERS. THIS WOULD BE COOL. OTHERWISE,REMASTERED PRINCE? PASS.

PRINCE WOULD NEVER GENEROUSLY HAND OVER HISTORICAL VAULT TRACKS TO WARNER ANYWAYS, SO IT IS A PIPE DREAM.


GOOD PICTURE,"DUMBASS"!

lovemachine said:

The way I hear it is that WB was not happy with Motley Crue and wanted to end their contract. The Crue said "give us our masters and we'll leave" so WB gave them their masters.

Batdance said:

Well if that is the case I'm sure Motley Crue boycotted a lot of money that was due to them if they had completed the contract. So essentially they bought back their masters.

P Diddy and his Bad Boy Entertainment company just left Arista Records and bought the rights to all the masters from Arista. He is in a position to remaster his old albums. Hopefully, Prince and Warner Bros can make an similar agreement that will be benificial to both sides and the consumers.

JLo said:

now that I can't wait for. just another way for a hack like P Diddy to make more money of The Notorious B.I.G.

"I don't know what they want from, it's like the mo Biggy remasters I do the mo money for me!"

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Forget just a few albums, his entire first decade of output (at least) needs to be remastered.

JLo said:

remaster, or re-sample his samples?

I COMPLETELY AGREE!

Remasters are sooo needed of all of his early albums.

And, has been mentioned, I'm saying remasters of the original, please, please, PLEASE no more "new masters." If the year 1999 didn't get me to start hating that song, P's "new masters" definately did the trick...

Where can we sign a petition?...lol...it's a shame that Prince's albums have STILL not been re-mastered after all this time! At the very least,every album from 'For You' to 'Lovesexy' should be re-mastered.I'm sure that Warners is interested in remastering these albums,but Prince is the one who is holding back.He's waiting until he has full ownership of his masters,but that's gonna take years!

But you know what? I just got a new turntable,so at least I can listen to all the old albums on vinyl.In many cases,the sound quality is better than the CD versions!

OK, so it's settled. DavidEye will rip the audio from his turntable, convert to mp3 at high bitrate, and distribute the remastered edition to all members of the group interested in hearing remasters :p

That should tide us over until P gets his masters back and does his own remastering. Deal?

IMO-The only problem in waiting for Prince to get the masters back year by year and then releasing remastered CD's is getting them censored.
-He's very likely going to add some kind of brainwashing ca ca to each CD.
-Let's just say for arguments sake he were to add Bsides to every re-release: Purple Rain would have 'God' added to it, but not 'Erotic City'-or at least not the uncensored version.
-Hate to say it, but I'd rather have a Warner-Prince remaster, than an Larry-Prince remaster.
[This message was edited Thu Jul 11 12:36:32 PDT 2002 by nightwing]

Damn, I didnt' even THINK about the fact that Prince would more than likely fuck with the lyrics from all these classic albums. I don't wanna spin housequake and hear Shut up already Please!

yeh, I never gave it any thought either. All of a sudden I'm worried about what Prince will do to his work when he gets it back...gah.

How sad would it be to have censored versions.

nightwing said:

Betra said:

yeh, I never gave it any thought either. All of a sudden I'm worried about what Prince will do to his work when he gets it back...gah.

How sad would it be to have censored versions.
___

It would be so damn sad. This is exactly why I hate Prince's conversion. He's so full of guilt to the point of changing his brilliant art. It would be one thing if he was like one of these rappers who's CD cover has them drenched in blood and he sang of bitches and hos, but that is not the case. Prince should not be ashamed cuz he said the words Damn, Bitch or Fuck.

Forum > Music - Non-Prince ???
Anyway...

Warners can't release any remasters.
They'd need Prince's permission to make any changes to his existing back catalogue (that also includes adding bonus tracks etc.)

Prince can't release any remasters.
Warners own Prince's masters for all the songs released through WB records. Prince would be in serious breach of contract if he released those recordings on his own.

Prince can re-record all those songs from scratch and release them himself though (like 1999 - the new master). Prince has already confirmed that he's re-recorded his entire back catalogue (including some previously unreleased songs as well). He originally intended to release his own 'new' versions of all his albums through NPG Records, in direct competition with WB, but has since decided against it. Instead he's assembled a 2CD 'best of' culled from these sessions, which will probably be released through NPGMC sometime in the near future.

The ideal solution (as far as I'm concerned) would be for Prince to make a deal with WB to allow them to remaster and repackage his back catalogue. If Prince remastered them himself, he's more than likely to alter them in ways we wouldn't like (taking out swear words etc.)

Honestly, let's get a little sense here about putting threads in the proper forums.