New Prince Album: ORIGINALS [June 7th streaming on Tidal; June 21st CD]

I will try tomorrow night.

 

Has Susan Rogers been offered the job? She’s the natural choice.

 

Maybe meant Sheena (Easton), who was on EMI?
Sheena E./Sheila E./Oh, Sheila...

 

At one point she stated that the estate had reached out to her, but nothing has become of it so far. I don't imagine it will now that the estate had a different archivist.

 

Also, Sometimes I Get Lonely really sounds like Prince co write IMO

 

I think Volume 2 is going to have to happen. I figure they did not want to put their cards on the table by calling this release 'Vol.1'. Silly.

A Love BIzarre- Sheila E.
Come Home - Mavis Staples
Open Book(!!!!) - Jevetta Steele
With This Tear- Celine Dion
Round and Round _ Tevin Campbell
Blue Limousine - Appollonia
A Million Miles - Appollonia
Cool Love - Sheen Easton
101 - Sheena Easton
Eternity - Chaka Khan
If I Love U 2 Nite - Mica Paris
So Strong - Dale Bozzio
Neon Telephone - 3 O Clock


Then we can get really into the 90s!!

 

Oh, how could I forget 'Train'.

 

Rather than a Volume 2, I think they should just start releasing deluxe editions of all his protege records and include the Prince versions (it would be great to have double vinyl editions... the official album, followed by a cut by cut Prince version on LP2).

 

A volume 2 would be great. In the meantime you could put your own together using the recent higher quality leaks of recent years.

All Day, All Night
A Million Miles (I Love U)
Neon Telephone
Train
Baby Go Go
The Sex Of It
If I Love U 2nite
101
Love 89
Sticky Wicked
Come Home
Eternity
Yo Mister
I Guess I'm Crazy

 

Agreed!!

 

Agreed. I think all of the big hits, except for A Love Bizarre, have been included here, making the collection attractive to both casual listeners and fanatics. The other tracks folks are listing - again, except for ALB, are by and large somewhat obscure, so it would probably be better from a marketing standpoint to save them for inclusion on either Prince (likely) or protege (welcome, but less likely) deluxe editions.

As long as said Deluxe Editions are issued on CDs (in addition to the now conventional/expected vinyl configuration), I'll be happy.

 

'Mutiny'?

 

The Prince version of The Screams Of Passion is absolutely fantastic, and unlike (for instance) Jungle Love, his version is miles better than the released one.

That said, the leak basically sounds perfect to me, so I'd rather they hunt down some stuff I've never heard before.

 

Yeah, but you said that about "Rebirth of the Flesh," too. No matter how people have EQed it, it still has that tape flutter/chew in the beginning. I'd love a clean version of that.

I'm not picking on you. It just made me think of the SQ on The Originals and how I don't care for it. (these are general statements in the thread; they are not directed toward you.)

For the most part, these do not sound like they went back to the multitracks, but they say that they did. I haven't seen the liner notes, but they are supposedly newly mixed - like we've been discussing - though the music sounds dull and lifeless. If these are the multitracks (and there's every reason to believe that that they aren't), it sounds like a poor mastering job. Or, could the tapes have been that degraded? Or, a combination of the two, plus poor mixing? This can't be Bernie Grundman, can it? Even with fair dynamics some mixes still sound congested. You know, the M3s that I pulled could have also been sourced from Tidal, with a leap in dynamics attributed to siphoning the stream through a soundcard.

I don't expect an audiophile job with a Prince release, and I'm sure I'll continue to get much joy from The Originals. I simply feel that something is amiss. Another thing is it could be, because this is a compilation, they really tried to even out the songs, with EQ or whatever, to give a unified feel to the whole album. It's kind of a fail, as I'm reminded of Prince's own Crystal Ball (1998) compilation, where the tracks were newly mixed, and the mastering was slammed, yet the tracks still sparkled and sounded very clean. The Originals sounds clean yet with a thin coat of of mud on top - just enough to lose some luster.

Am I nitpicking? Yes. Am I saying don't pick it up? No! I simply wonder if this is the sound to expect from future archive releases. Purple Rain Deluxe didn't sound like this. There's a lot of life in it, even with suspect sources (WB sources). Still, it bugs me a little. Perhaps I should cool it down until I get the physical CD.

 

If they did a Volume Two, I'd quite like to see:

The Dance Electric (go for a different version than the one on PR Deluxe)
All Day, All Night
Data Bank
Chocolate
G Spot
A Million Miles
Blue Limousine
Koo Koo
A Love Bizarre
High Fashion
Mutiny
The Screams of Passion
101
The Sex of It
Train

Volumes Three and Four are welcome too. This first set is great!!! Hope they do a few more

 

Boys with small talk and small minds / Really don’t impress me in bed

 

Hmm. Can't remember mentioning "Rebirth," but it's a clean enough boot that I can segue it directly into "Housequake" (the SOTT CD version) as it was originally intended and it works (once you level match). Similarly, the latest leak of "Screams" sounds very clean to me.... There MIGHT be a slight drop somewhere, but for the most part it slots nicely with the ATWIAD material.

For comparison's sake, no boot version of "Wonderful Ass" sounds as good as the official one on PD Deluxe. (And that mix seems to be the original one, no going back to the master tapes.)

I don't hear the congestion you mention on the MP3s I got. My suspicion is the physical CD will sound a lot better than whatever you're listening to. And I'm pretty sure these WERE mixed from the multitracks, as several songs (like Jungle Love) have different elements more prominent in the mix than the released version, or some parts are missing (like Noon Rendezvous, which would've benefited from being closer to the Sheila E. mix). Glamourous Life has a high falsetto BG vocal high in the mix, which is absent on the leaked version, and really improves the track IMHO. And of course, no Apollonia in Manic Monday! (Biggest improvement over ALL the boots...)

As others have posited, Wouldn't You Love To Love Me sounds like a vintage mix, so more than likely no going back to multitracks for that. It's got more of the muddy sound you describe. But I'm not hearing the congestion on the rest of them. I hear some mixing choices I wouldn't have made personally, but YMMV there.

 

I managed to install the component in Foobar2000, but I have no idea how to run it, and my Google searches aren't turning up anything. Could someone please point me to directions on running the 1.1.1 component? Thanks.

 

Open the folder with all the flac files. Then select all. Drag them inside of foobar. They should all still be selected in foobar, so right click on the selecyed files and a menu should appear with DR Meter 1.1.1. in it. Scroll down and select that option and the meter should do the calcations on its own, outputting a text file with the DR numbers to the folder that has the Flac files. Then copy the text into the forum.

 

Thank you. Here it goes:

foobar2000 1.4.4 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2019-06-10 21:03:53

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: Prince / Originals
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR10 0.00 dB -10.79 dB 3:06 01-Sex Shooter
DR8 0.00 dB -9.49 dB 3:04 02-Jungle Love
DR8 0.00 dB -8.97 dB 2:51 03-Manic Monday
DR12 -0.40 dB -15.71 dB 3:00 04-Noon Rendezvous
DR11 0.00 dB -11.91 dB 2:27 05-Make-Up
DR9 0.00 dB -9.68 dB 3:30 06-100 MPH
DR9 0.00 dB -10.39 dB 4:24 07-You're My Love
DR9 0.00 dB -9.78 dB 6:38 08-Holly Rock
DR11 0.00 dB -12.29 dB 5:51 09-Baby, You're a Trip
DR9 -0.68 dB -10.88 dB 4:12 10-The Glamorous Life
DR9 0.00 dB -11.44 dB 4:41 11-Gigolos Get Lonely Too
DR9 0.00 dB -11.12 dB 4:07 12-Love... Thy Will Be Done
DR8 0.00 dB -9.66 dB 5:22 13-Dear Michaelangelo
DR7 0.00 dB -7.99 dB 5:56 14-Wouldn't You Love to Love Me?
DR8 0.00 dB -9.70 dB 4:40 15-Nothing Compares 2 U
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of tracks: 15
Official DR value: DR9

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 886 kbps
Codec: FLAC
================================================================================

Interesting that Roon gives a DR of 5. They must be using different algorithms.

 

Fairly good numbers. I like it. I suppose I just don't care for the mastering much. It will be interesting to see who mastered it.

Oh well, I'll still enjoy it. I've had Prince's version of "Noon Rendezvous" going through my head since the weekend. So nice!

It's good to know that the Tidal stream is probably a good one.

 

Roon algorithm is different and the newest method to get dynamic range. So it is different for every album from DR meter. See and read Roon knowledge page to figure things out. @DigitalL.A.

 

Neat! New Prince recordings is always good news!

 

That difference might explain why it sounded loud to me.

 

Originals: Purple Vinyl Gatefold Hardback Book Sleeve

Anyone an idea what could be on the DVD?