New Prince Vault Release Announced w/ 5.1/Atmos Blu Ray of a 2011 Show

[RustyStatic]

My copy just arrived! Had to throw in the Blu Ray first to see what was the surround sitch... perhaps unsurprisingly, it's the same deal as the Peter Green tribute concert—no music in the rears at all except faint ambience, and then audience/applause... but some nice 3-channel separation up front with Prince vox/guitar nicely isolated in the center channel, etc.

But also just like the Peter Green show, the content is awesome (not sure if "worth the price of admission" is the right way to put it based it only being available in the big box... but that would be true for me); I love live Prince from this period... I think his live show from Montreux 2009 is pretty much as good as it gets.

This one is very much a party/cabaret vibe throughout and a lot of fun, similar to the Aladdin show on DVD if you've seen that one. Plenty to look at, interesting set list, and fantastic musicianship of course. The video quality ranges from pretty decent to iffy depending on the camera being used, but it is more than passable and it's great to have a nicely choreographed multi-camera shoot of a show from this era.

 

[SomethingAnything]

My copy just arrived! Had to throw in the Blu Ray first to see what was the surround sitch... perhaps unsurprisingly, it's the same deal as the Peter Green tribute concert—no music in the rears at all except faint ambience, and then audience/applause... but some nice 3-channel separation up front with Prince vox/guitar nicely isolated in the center channel, etc.

But also just like the Peter Green show, the content is awesome (not sure if "worth the price of admission" is the right way to put it based it only being available in the big box... but that would be true for me); I love live Prince from this period... I think his live show from Montreux 2009 is pretty much as good as it gets.

This one is very much a party/cabaret vibe throughout and a lot of fun, similar to the Aladdin show on DVD if you've seen that one. Plenty to look at, interesting set list, and fantastic musicianship of course. The video quality ranges from pretty decent to iffy depending on the camera being used, but it is more than passable and it's great to have a nicely choreographed multi-camera shoot of a show from this era.

I wonder if this stubbornly conservative attitude to mixing would still be there if there had also been an atmos mix?

While I personally don't have atmos, perhaps the increasing use of it (if that happens) for concerts and studio recording remixes will help shift the narrow attitude many mixing engineers have towards mixing and/or the record company's requirement that an engineer mix in this limited way?

My Cambridge player automatically downmixes to 5.1, (because I have set it that way), so I would still benefit (e.g. I like the Abbey Road atmos mix through my 5.1 system). In the meantime, I am very grateful for reviews such as yours. I can now stop wondering if I should buy this. I would be disappointed. Thank you.!

 

[marpow]

I ordered the Deluxe Box, arriving today. Noticed Amazon dropped the price $10.00 from my original April order. I look forward to it, I don't have high hopes to the BD Atmos mix but I did specifically purchase it for the Atmos mix, and good music.
The show is presented in stereo, 5.1 surround and Dolby Atmos

 

[Sonik Wiz]

I ordered the Deluxe Box, arriving today. Noticed Amazon dropped the price $10.00 from my original April order. I look forward to it, I don't have high hopes to the BD Atmos mix but I did specifically purchase it for the Atmos mix, and good music.
The show is presented in stereo, 5.1 surround and Dolby Atmos
View attachment 69577

Wow that is just so much Prince stuff. My little mind is boggled. Congrats.

 

[SomethingAnything]

Oh, this set does have an atmos mix? And yet, even in that mode, it's still mostly ambience in the rears? If so, forget what I just said above regarding getting braver mixes for all of us, given atmos. Too much to hope for, I guess!

 

[marpow]

Listening/watching the new Live Blu Ray in Dolby Atmos, those with Atmos won't be disappointed from opening Thunder and Rain audio to great video with superb musical talent.
I love the fact Prince is such a great entertainer and he plays that guitar like nobody's business but his.

 

[sperezmore]

Awesome, Awesome concert in Dolby Atmos. Buy with confidence

Regards,

 

[SomethingAnything]

Awesome, Awesome concert in Dolby Atmos. Buy with confidence

Regards,

That's good news! And so therefore back to the original point I was hoping to make ... maybe this is also something to buy with confidence even if you only have a 5.1 set up? Because atmos mixes are appearing to be more consistently adventurous? But maybe what I'm saying is completely wrong and downmixing from atmos doesn't work that way - I'm no audiophile. Though I'd be interested to know what someone more in the know thinks.

 

[DuncanS]

That's good news! And so therefore back to the original point I was hoping to make ... maybe this is also something to buy with confidence even if you only have a 5.1 set up? Because atmos mixes are appearing to be more consistently adventurous? But maybe what I'm saying is completely wrong and downmixing from atmos doesn't work that way - I'm no audiophile. Though I'd be interested to know what someone more in the know thinks.

I may be wrong (I don't have Atmos either), but the 5.1 isn't a downmix as such. The 5.1 contains all the surround info. Atmos uses a matrix style method to extract the extra channels (so also removes them from the standard 5.1) which it then positions on your system using the object metadata embedded. So if something in Atmos moved from left back to left back height those of us without Atmos wouldn't hear any change.

 

[marpow]

That's good news! And so therefore back to the original point I was hoping to make ... maybe this is also something to buy with confidence even if you only have a 5.1 set up? Because atmos mixes are appearing to be more consistently adventurous? But maybe what I'm saying is completely wrong and downmixing from atmos doesn't work that way - I'm no audiophile. Though I'd be interested to know what someone more in the know thinks.

I think that sometimes we tend to over think our purchases, should we or shouldn't we?
My experience is that I have never not bought a disc because it was Atmos before I had Atmos system. Even with an Atmos system the foundation (5.1 TruHD) is going to be what you hear the most. The Atmos artifacts that come from above are never stronger then the below foundation. Some releases have absolutely great stuff coming from the heights and other releases, not so great. Same as some 5.1 releases are weak in the rears, ambient rears, immersive with rears, or what we all want is discrete with the rears. Those same adjectives can be used for Atmos recordings. Live concert discs are typically the weakest in surround in general and same for Atmos effects.
My room is 12' x 14' so from stereo to Atmos I am usually quite pleased.
My main criteria for purchasing any new release or old ones, is "Do I like the music?"
What I try to do is when a new release comes out that I am unfamiliar with is to listen to on Tidal. Some releases that QQ members where hot on I listened and said, not for me, other releases that QQ members suggested, where "Wow, how come I never heard this before, it is great".
Regarding this Prince live from The LA Greek, 2011 concert: First and foremost you will love the band, singers and Prince himself, massive talent that you will no longer get a chance to see due to his passing.
Second, the 5.1 surround is great, very immersive with a small amount of discreteness.
Third, the Atmos mix is quite good, the thunder and lightning parts are really good coming from the heights, but other than that there is not a really lot of discreteness coming from the heights, but definitely really fills the room well and is clearly better than the 5.1, compared.
Overall the video has more negatives than the audio. Some weird camera angles, lots of video where Prince asks for the house to turn off the lights so the viewer is sitting watching mostly blackness with small lights, the worst is the GoPro camera on front of drummers kit which has very poor video quality. But outside of those few things the video concert is quite good.
Not talked about is the CD with previously unreleased songs, that are great, I love them, kind of like Sly Stone, Prince, and Curtis Mayfield all rolled into one.
Sorry for a long winded answer, but if you like Prince even a little bit, then the new CD and concert BD, even in 5.1 is a great purchase.

 

[SomethingAnything]

I may be wrong (I don't have Atmos either), but the 5.1 isn't a downmix as such. The 5.1 contains all the surround info. Atmos uses a matrix style method to extract the extra channels (so also removes them from the standard 5.1) which it then positions on your system using the object metadata embedded. So if something in Atmos moved from left back to left back height those of us without Atmos wouldn't hear any change.

Thanks for replying. That sounds very positive for the future of surround music then. With or without atmos you win. So, staying relevant to the topic, many of us ought ro be interested in this prince release, even if the dedicated 5.1 isn't that good as there is still the good atmos.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Here's a look at the 7.1 wave forms for "Lets Go Crazy" off the Blu-ray.

The audio is mainly Center channel focused and the L&R Surround (side) speakers and Rear Surround (back) speakers have only a minimal amount of ambience from audience and stage. The Fronts seem like just support channels for the Center. I have not yet heard it on my main 5.1 system; but at least it seems like the audio is not crushed or awful sounding, just nothing to get excited about, as usual, for Prince concert sound.

The CD I ripped from the Box has fairly good sound, (not sure I hear digital breaks as others have heard) but what irritates me somewhat is that after buying this expensive box set (and the quality and artwork is really lovely) is that in order to get the Hi-Def stereo files of the main album, you have to buy it again from somewhere like Qobuz. Seems there are only MP3 files, rather than the 24x96 files off the digital audio download card? And of course, no Surround for the main album either (just the concert, well sort of surround I guess)...

Hopefully, the video of the show will make it worth it?

 

[marpow]

Unfortunately I had to return my Prince box set. I played the blu ray and it had a couple skips but it didn't bother me as I knew I would rip it. I ripped it yesterday and I got a few errors on the rip, so whatever is wrong is deep. Hopefully I just have a one off bad disc and I won't get the same thing in early September when the replacement arrives.
Anyone else have problems with there Blu Ray disc?

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Unfortunately I had to return my Prince box set. I played the blu ray and it had a couple skips but it didn't bother me as I knew I would rip it. I ripped it yesterday and I got a few errors on the rip, so whatever is wrong is deep. Hopefully I just have a one off bad disc and I won't get the same thing in early September when the replacement arrives.
Anyone else have problems with there Blu Ray disc?

Did you get the Japanese issue Mark?
Lately, problems with the Harrison discs, and now maybe this; what’s going on, are the pressing plants getting rat dung in their adhesive or something?

 

[marpow]

Did you get the Japanese issue Mark?
Lately, problems with the Harrison discs, and now maybe this; what’s going on, are the pressing plants getting rat dung in their adhesive or something?

No, this was the US release I got from Amazon US. I was surprised that my return is not till Sept 9th, usually it is right away with returns. So, does this mean there are problems and repressing the BD or does it mean it is a popular box set and it is back ordered?

 

[temporaryhuman]

I wish the 5.1 and Atmos were different mixes. How about making the Atmos fully discrete and 5.1 audience, reverb only? Something for everyone.

 

[marpow]

Just noticed that if someone did not want to purchase the box set, CDJapan offers a CD and Blu Ray only package. This is not offered from Amazon, wish I saw it earlier.
https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/SICP-31432

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Watched the whole show last night through my oppo/Marantz 5.1 setup and really enjoyed the show; the dude was seriously talented artist / performer. I've got his other DVD's and Blu-rays and I think the video on this as good or better than any of those. The only thing I noticed was at a few areas of the show, there was a kind of long Z shaped artifacts in the video imaging; and since I know little about video, someone here will have to comment on what causes that. I thought it may be some little glitch in my system, but then today GOS put up a YouTube video of a section of the show and I see it there also.

The performance though was top notch as you'd expect from a Prince and NPG show. Drummer John Blackwell Jr. (R.I.P. -too ealy!) and Keyboardist Renato Neto really tore it up and the singers also had a great show. Don't believe I'm familiar with the Bass player at this show.

Loved the classic funk cover stuff he did later in the show. He also played some Keyboards and Bass along with tons of great guitar work.

About the only thing I missed was maybe a little Larry Graham and Maceo, but other than that, thoroughly enjoyed it and put me in my happy space. But when they broke into 1999, for some reason it hit me that we wont ever get the experience of this great performer live again. Hopefully, he's up there somewhere dancing with James Brown and cuttin' heads with Jimi Hendrix, and keeping the party going on.

Also hopefully, there's more video to come with better sound mixes; like what about the "The Earth Tour: 21 Nights in London" at the O2 (all sold out shows?)

 

[marpow]

My Prince box set (return from a previous defective Blu Ray) arrived a few days ago, way ahead of the orginal Sept 9th. I always like using Amazon when I can as it is good customer service.
The Blu Ray on the return is not defective, I was able to rip with no errors this time.
I like watching, such a great performer and band.

 

[rtbluray]

Just ordered this: Prince - Welcome 2 America [Deluxe] - Amazon.com Music

SUPER CHEAP PRICE RIGHT NOW