Prince And The Revolution "Live" 2CD/1BD set (NPG/Legacy) (6/3/2022)

[4-earredwonder]

Just ordered from Deep Discount....With their 10% off utilizing coupon code TIGERSHARK [until June 6th], the price is $28.79 w/free s/h!

https://www.deepdiscount.com/prince-and-the-revolution-live/194399571620

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Evidently my order is out for delivery to arrive earlier than expected today. When I track the delivery Amazon also suggests " Products related to items in your shipment." These items are a 1lb can of Planters Peanuts and the 4K Blu-Ray of Wild Things.
Now maybe I can see sitting down to watch this with a well constructed martini & some tasty peanuts. But I'll have to think a bit about re-watching the Campbell/Richards flick again...

 

[J. PUPSTER]

A couple of Atmos tracks were available on Apple Music for weeks - and the entire album is now there in Atmos as today...

But honestly, it‘s a live album. Other than a few people here, most people think middle of the stage live surround mixes sound silly unless the music was presented that way.

yeah, the whole "what's appropriate for the situation" thing.

I guess the way I look at it is, most of the Rock concerts I've been to in my life, positioned a good distance from the stage, all I hear is a muddy mono mess and often way too loud. Another way to view the "Live" mix we get, is that at least you often hear separation between the Fronts- L&R and sometimes good Center.

The Prince folks really missed a great opportunity when they didn't do a surround/Atmos mix on the Welcome 2 America box set. Could have been great. I did an Up-mix that sounds pretty good to me, but of course a good real deal studio mix much more preferred!

 

[4-earredwonder]

Evidently my order is out for delivery to arrive earlier than expected today. When I track the delivery Amazon also suggests " Products related to items in your shipment." These items are a 1lb can of Planters Peanuts and the 4K Blu-Ray of Wild Things.
Now maybe I can see sitting down to watch this with a well constructed martini & some tasty peanuts. But I'll have to think a bit about re-watching the Campbell/Richards flick again...

Yowsa, SW: Prince + Wild Things + well constructed Martini = more like Mixed Nuts!

 

[5.1 4 Life]

Got my copy of Prince & The Revolution Live 1985 Friday afternoon. While the picture quality is a modest improvement over previous editions, the sound quality is Miles Ahead! I remember first getting it on VHS back in the summer of 1985 (along with Purple Rain) so it's great to finally have it on Blu-Ray & 5.1/Atmos.

Now I hope The Prince Estate will give the same treatment to the Sign 'O The Times concert movie from 1987.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Got my BD ripped from Dolby TrueHD 5.1.
A couple things to note if you rip it for audio. It rips the 20 songs into 22, with the first one being just 3+ minutes of audience noise (so I deleted that one.) Then, the last track "Purple Rain" is seemingly split into 2 (probably starts credits or something IDK) with the last few minutes needing to be copied and pasted back into the ending to make it whole.

As to the mix, just about what I figured with a major Center channel presence and some occasional things popping up in the rears, like on this song "Possessed" see the action at about 1:10 min. - it's the horn section fading into and back out of the rears. If they were going to do that I believe they also could have been slightly more aggressive to the rears, but overall the sound is pretty good IMO.

 

[Bob Romano]

I noticed that there is an annoying amount of hihat cymbal and what sounds like a ride cymbal through much of the mix (5.1) I'm really surprised that Bernie Grundman mastered this. I'll have to listen again but I got annoyed after about 15 minutes or so and shut it off.

 

[RustyStatic]

I definitely hear the pros and cons folks are sharing on the mix and the visuals... but overall I'm just finding myself grateful that we at least have something at this level of quality documenting The Revolution when they were at the height of their powers. The tech being used in '85 hasn't aged all that well... not even as well as considerably older tech... but I've got this cranked right now, the Atmos is providing some nice "live-style immersion" if nothing else, and it doesn't take much effort at all to just get absorbed in the performance and enjoy it for what it is. And oh boy, what it is. Hard not to smile when the lights come on and they're all dancing in unison... freakin' Prince, man. The guy was the absolute best even on his worst night.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

I definitely hear the pros and cons folks are sharing on the mix and the visuals... but overall I'm just finding myself grateful that we at least have something at this level of quality documenting The Revolution when they were at the height of their powers. The tech being used in '85 hasn't aged all that well... not even as well as considerably older tech... but I've got this cranked right now, the Atmos is providing some nice "live-style immersion" if nothing else, and it doesn't take much effort at all to just get absorbed in the performance and enjoy it for what it is. And oh boy, what it is. Hard not to smile when the lights come on and they're all dancing in unison... freakin' Prince, man. The guy was the absolute best even on his worst night.

Yuppers, enjoyed this last nite. I think how good someone might interpret this is also might have to do with how someone has encountered before. If all you've seen is YT clips or like me, a bootleg, then it is tremendous upgrade. My boot was def better than VHS quality... maybe someone used the Syracuse master tape to run off copies? But this certainly beats that video quality. Excepting for the parts where they had not learned in '85 to not drench the stage in deep red or purple light. The pic improved noticeably when I turned the color saturation down quite a bit. And of course this is analog SD video so it needs to be considered how good the upscaling is. Compared to my SD digital copy, very good. Maybe for others that already have the DVD, not quite so much.

I chose Dobly True MA 5.1 for playback first off. The rear ch activity was even lower than what I expected from earlier comments. Thin, I'd call it. Raising the rear chs failed to impress. So I went back to using the stereo 2ch outputs from my Oppo & the Surround Master and found a big improvement! There weren't many direct sounds added to the rears (maybe some pre-synth would help that) but the soundstage definitely became fuller & more balanced. Interestingly there was a significant change using this method & choosing the different surround formats on the disc. Absolutely the one of choice was ATMOS even when down mixed to stereo & played back via the SM.

It's abit interesting to think about the tech logistics of this. Performed live with no breaks or intermission. Recorded & broadcast in the USA to only Syracuse local market and then blasted out over who knows what satcom for distribution in Europe? All analog me thinks and then converted at destination from NTSC to PAL, SECAM, what ever. WOW!

I must agree with what you and others have said about the performance. That doesn't change no matter what the presentation format is. But certainly this combination makes this the definitive edition of Prince in Syracuse '85.

 

[5.1 4 Life]

I definitely hear the pros and cons folks are sharing on the mix and the visuals... but overall I'm just finding myself grateful that we at least have something at this level of quality documenting The Revolution when they were at the height of their powers. The tech being used in '85 hasn't aged all that well... not even as well as considerably older tech... but I've got this cranked right now, the Atmos is providing some nice "live-style immersion" if nothing else, and it doesn't take much effort at all to just get absorbed in the performance and enjoy it for what it is. And oh boy, what it is. Hard not to smile when the lights come on and they're all dancing in unison... freakin' Prince, man. The guy was the absolute best even on his worst night.

I saw Prince & The Revolution twice during the Purple Rain tour in 1985 (also picked up Live 1985 when it first came out on VHS that summer). And Yes Indeed, Prince & Co. "was the absolute best" in concert. To finally have the Syracuse Concert on Blu-Ray is a Blast.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

I saw Prince & The Revolution twice during the Purple Rain tour in 1985 (also picked up Live 1985 when it first came out on VHS that summer). And Yes Indeed, Prince & Co. "was the absolute best" in concert. To finally have the Syracuse Concert on Blu-Ray is a Blast.

Holy crap! That's amazing, incredible, and awesome to have seen Prince TWICE during the Purple Rain tour! May I ask where they were? And how did they compare to the Syracuse performance?

The last time Prince came to my area was in '98. I really wanted to go but I was in the grips of anxiety about attending. I figured I was just too old, too square, and too white to fit in with what I was sure a glamorous funky audience. What a fool I was. I mean, just look at this set list:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/prince/1998/kemper-arena-kansas-city-mo-73d9ae1d.html
Not sure if NPG was with him or he had moved on to something else by then.

 

[RustyStatic]

That is a killer setlist indeed... and wow, seeing Prince at ALL, let alone twice on the Purple Rain tour... that's indeed incredible @5.1 4 Life! Never seeing him live is my #1 biggest musical regret (on the fan side of things, anyway), followed closely by Bowie and then Zappa, although for that one I might as well say Zeppelin or The Doors; I was only 14 when he played his last full show (although it was only 30 minutes from where I grew up) and although I was aware of him I wasn't a full blown fan for another 2-3 years. For Prince and Bowie it was just apathy at the time... "eh, I'll see 'em next time around". I didn't become a big(ger) Bowie fan until after he stopped touring and I didn't put Prince pretty much at the top of my heap until his passing led me to investigate what he was capable of more closely and I realized what I had missed. Whaddya gonna do.

Speaking of that, one of the things I watched that made me realize I had made a grave error in kinda painting him with a broad brush was this:



Talk about a fantastic recording...

 

[4-earredwonder]

That is a killer setlist indeed... and wow, seeing Prince at ALL, let alone twice on the Purple Rain tour... that's indeed incredible @5.1 4 Life! Never seeing him live is my #1 biggest musical regret (on the fan side of things, anyway), followed closely by Bowie and then Zappa, although for that one I might as well say Zeppelin or The Doors; I was only 14 when he played his last full show (although it was only 30 minutes from where I grew up) and although I was aware of him I wasn't a full blown fan for another 2-3 years. For Prince and Bowie it was just apathy at the time... "eh, I'll see 'em next time around". I didn't become a big(ger) Bowie fan until after he stopped touring and I didn't put Prince pretty much at the top of my heap until his passing led me to investigate what he was capable of more closely and I realized what I had missed. Whaddya gonna do.

Speaking of that, one of the things I watched that made me realize I had made a grave error in kinda painting him with a broad brush was this:



Talk about a fantastic recording...

WOW, Rusty....simply Astounding. BMG Management which now controls those Montreux masters has been of late releasing some amazing RBCDs in stunning MQA encoded quality so wonder if they have access to this concert and will one day release it as a BD~V in its entirety.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Got my BD ripped from Dolby TrueHD 5.1.
A couple things to note if you rip it for audio. It rips the 20 songs into 22, with the first one being just 3+ minutes of audience noise (so I deleted that one.) Then, the last track "Purple Rain" is seemingly split into 2 (probably starts credits or something IDK) with the last few minutes needing to be copied and pasted back into the ending to make it whole.

As to the mix, just about what I figured with a major Center channel presence and some occasional things popping up in the rears, like on this song "Possessed" see the action at about 1:10 min. - it's the horn section fading into and back out of the rears. If they were going to do that I believe they also could have been slightly more aggressive to the rears, but overall the sound is pretty good IMO.

View attachment 79717
View attachment 79718

Interesting stuff, J to the Pup.
I'm not quite as speedy as you, working on the Blu-ray. I do plan to try some pre-synth with it and see how it works with the SM. I'll give a listen again tonight but I've half way given up on the discrete surround mix.

So right now I'm goofing around with the CD rip and pre-synth. I know there's no guaranty that a stereo CD will have the same qualities of down mixing from the discrete audio, but I think it should be close enough to decide if I want mess with the Blu-ray.

This the Delirious track with 250 Expand (-7dB synth blend). Dynamic range is definitely increased. And even tho it looks generally lower in level to the eye, the specs show the highest transient peak (which would be a great name for a band) is as high as the original at only -.03 dB. Now just to listen & compare tonight.

BTW, love or hate the cardboard sleeves, has anyone noticed there is artwork/graphics actually printed on the inside?

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Interesting stuff, J to the Pup.
I'm not quite as speedy as you, working on the Blu-ray. I do plan to try some pre-synth with it and see how it works with the SM. I'll give a listen again tonight but I've half way given up on the discrete surround mix.

So right now I'm goofing around with the CD rip and pre-synth. I know there's no guaranty that a stereo CD will have the same qualities of down mixing from the discrete audio, but I think it should be close enough to decide if I want mess with the Blu-ray.

View attachment 79736

This the Delirious with 250 Expand (-7dB synth blend). Dynamic range is definitely increased. And even tho it looks generally lower in level to the eye, the specs show the highest transient peak (which would be a great name for a band) is as high as the original at only -.03 dB. Now just to listen & compare tonight.

BTW, love or hate the cardboard sleeves, has anyone noticed there is artwork/graphics actually printed on the inside?

Yes I noticed the inside art (the new Fripp Exposure BD box has some also of master tape boxes)

I still need to watch/hear my copy on my main system (computer only on audio so far.) I'll be listening for the troublesome cymbals that bothered Mr. Romano. Was thinking about this some this morning; remember folks used to own dedicated EQ gear like this Pioneer:

I never owned one, but thought about it, and they looked uber cool also.

***BTW - I just noticed looking at my TV schedule, that my Local (Sacramento - CA) station is showing this concert tonight at 9:30 PM here, so folks that don't have the BD can catch it. But I'd recommend an Off air antenna, as my PBS station off of U-verse mostly only carries stereo. I need to check out my off air PBS to see if it's broadcasting surround.

Prince and the Revolution: The Purple Rain Tour | PBS

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Yes I noticed the inside art (the new Fripp Exposure BD box has some also of master tape boxes)

I still need to watch/hear my copy on my main system (computer only on audio so far.) I'll be listening for the troublesome cymbals that bothered Mr. Romano. Was thinking about this some this morning; remember folks used to own dedicated EQ gear like this Pioneer:

View attachment 79737

I never owned one, but thought about it, and they looked uber cool also.

***BTW - I just noticed looking at my TV schedule, that my Local (Sacramento - CA) station is showing this concert tonight at 9:30 PM here, so folks that don't have the BD can catch it. But I'd recommend an Off air antenna, as my PBS station off of U-verse mostly only carries stereo. I need to check out my off air PBS to see if it's broadcasting surround.

Prince and the Revolution: The Purple Rain Tour | PBS

RE: graphic EQ. Yup & in the olden days that's pretty much how everyone (including me) set them up. What I call The Flying V. Adding some righteous Boom & Tizz to our crappy cheap speakers we had back then.

RE: Prince on TV. Do I read this right? About a 15 min preview/sneak peek? Not the full concert?

 

[J. PUPSTER]

RE: Prince on TV. Do I read this right? About a 15 min preview/sneak peek? Not the full concert?

it's on for an hour and a half, but I'm smelling potentially what I affectionately call "The PBS Gang Beg" and they usually just show a partial show, while they hawk the BD/CD etc. for sale/donations!
- check your local listings yadda yadda!

 

[Sonik Wiz]

And I see that this is also available for purchase at HD Tracks:

https://www.hdtracks.com/#/album/62903df02c117f1ea5f01248
24/44.1 but does it sound any better than the basic CD??? Is it 16 converted to 24? I'm pretty sure my 14bit ears don't care.

 

[mrcond]

***BTW - I just noticed looking at my TV schedule, that my Local (Sacramento - CA) station is showing this concert tonight at 9:30 PM here, so folks that don't have the BD can catch it. But I'd recommend an Off air antenna, as my PBS station off of U-verse mostly only carries stereo. I need to check out my off air PBS to see if it's broadcasting surround.

Prince and the Revolution: The Purple Rain Tour | PBS

Thanks for the tip, it is on my local PBS station as well, set my DVR (preceded by an Australian Pink Floyd show and a Get the Led Out show).

 

[Clement]

Absolutely killer show! I was blessed to see Prince live twice in Chicago: December 1982 at the Auditorium and April 1998 at the Aragon–two of the greatest concerts i ever attended. Still miss Prince. So glad to have this release. Stay surrounded, comrades!