Prince Estate Signs Deal With Sony Music to Re-Release 35 Catalog Albums

[privateuniverse]

Price watch for the Sign ☮ the Times box:

Bull Moose: $122.97
Import CDs: $113.65
Deep Discount: $132.73*
Amazon: $149.98

*Deep Discount is currently running a 15% off sale bringing their price down to $112.82.

I am going with The Moose on this one. After shipping & tax, they've got the best price for me. YMMV. ☮

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Sadly, Prince's final album, Hit 'n' Run Phase Two, is even more brickwalled. It's pretty brutal. Unfortunate, as it's a fantastic album.

Back in ancient days when everyone moaned about the limited ~60dB range of LP records there were various expanders that attempted to improve this. I owned the Pioneer RG-1 unit, 2 of 'em of course. There was a blend resistor on the control voltage to the 3080 VCA to somewhat link the chs. Naturally I clipped that. I had 4 chs of unbridled surround sound! And no matter how critical I try to be about this I still have to say after all these years, it sounded really good. Of course Phase Linear made their version, & so did MR. RG himself, Robert Grodinsky.

I think what made this successful was that it aimed at enhancing on the peaks, not trying to add expansion all over the range which would be more like dbx who also had their peak un-limiters. Also in those days there was headroom available in analog gear that you don't have in digital formats; you simply can't go over level threshold whether peak un-limiting or not. I guess one way in PC software would be to drop the over all level & then find a way to enhance the peaks. Or find a downward expansion that achieves the same thing. I have spent hours playing with compress/expand VST's & I can't find anything that sounds as good as that old Pioneer unit.

Any suggestions anyone? Cuz it looks like Prince's music could use some dynamic TLC.

Hey ya got a show on tonight?

 

[privateuniverse]

Back in ancient days when everyone moaned about the limited ~60dB range of LP records there were various expanders that attempted to improve this. I owned the Pioneer RG-1 unit, 2 of 'em of course. There was a blend resistor on the control voltage to the 3080 VCA to somewhat link the chs. Naturally I clipped that. I had 4 chs of unbridled surround sound! And no matter how critical I try to be about this I still have to say after all these years, it sounded really good. Of course Phase Linear made their version, & so did MR. RG himself, Robert Grodinsky.

I think what made this successful was that it aimed at enhancing on the peaks, not trying to add expansion all over the range which would be more like dbx who also had their peak un-limiters. Also in those days there was headroom available in analog gear that you don't have in digital formats; you simply can't go over level threshold whether peak un-limiting or not. I guess one way in PC software would be to drop the over all level & then find a way to enhance the peaks. Or find a downward expansion that achieves the same thing. I have spent hours playing with compress/expand VST's & I can't find anything that sounds as good as that old Pioneer unit.

Any suggestions anyone? Cuz it looks like Prince's music could use some dynamic TLC.

Hey ya got a show on tonight?

Yes sir! I'll be on in 30 minutes. Laurie Anderson is on right now!

 

[privateuniverse]

Here's part of the problem with the Prince catalog (at least for this album, 3121 CD, which I really love BTW )

View attachment 53121
View attachment 53122

Here's the track "Baltimore", the opening cut on his final album, Hit 'n' Run Phase Two. My ears aren't that sensitive to brickwalling, but with this, I noticed immediately on my first listen. Wish it could get remixed. The whole album is awesome, every song is excellent, but it's tough to listen to because of the mix.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Here's the track "Baltimore", the opening cut on his final album, Hit 'n' Run Phase Two. My ears aren't that sensitive to brickwalling, but with this, I noticed immediately on my first listen. Wish it could get remixed. The whole album is awesome, every song is excellent, but it's tough to listen to because of the mix.

View attachment 53243

Man, that is uuuugggly!!!

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Here's the track "Baltimore", the opening cut on his final album, Hit 'n' Run Phase Two. My ears aren't that sensitive to brickwalling, but with this, I noticed immediately on my first listen. Wish it could get remixed. The whole album is awesome, every song is excellent, but it's tough to listen to because of the mix.

View attachment 53243

GACK! That is the worst I've ever seen!

 

[Beefalo]

GACK! That is the worst I've ever seen!

Can't beat this for bad:
http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/162547

 

[Cyber 1]

that's insane

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Here's the track "Baltimore", the opening cut on his final album, Hit 'n' Run Phase Two. My ears aren't that sensitive to brickwalling, but with this, I noticed immediately on my first listen. Wish it could get remixed. The whole album is awesome, every song is excellent, but it's tough to listen to because of the mix.

View attachment 53243

Side bar: good to see someone still uses AA 3 besides me!

 

[privateuniverse]

Wow, this is really nice. I think I like it better than the version on the original album. ☮

 

[aludra]

Here's the track "Baltimore", the opening cut on his final album, Hit 'n' Run Phase Two. My ears aren't that sensitive to brickwalling, but with this, I noticed immediately on my first listen. Wish it could get remixed. The whole album is awesome, every song is excellent, but it's tough to listen to because of the mix.

View attachment 53243

The mastering engineer should be Horsewhipped!! That is a disgrace! What a way to totally F- Up music..

 

[4-earredwonder]

Just pre~ordered [presently out of stock] the Warner/Rhino 2 disc 1999 RBCD set with the remastered DJ tracks on Disc 2. Only $15.99!

 

[privateuniverse]

A couple of things that just popped up on Prince's official social media: