Sign O' the Times - Prince (super deluxe edition)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by masswriter, May 29, 2020.

  1. Orthogonian Blues

    Orthogonian Blues A man with a fork in a world full of soup.

    Location:
    London, UK
    In the recent Miles Davis 'Birth Of The Cool' documentary, there was a short clip of him from that NYE gig, which looked to have been freshly restored. So perhaps it has been readied for a release...
     
  2. Orthogonian Blues

    Orthogonian Blues A man with a fork in a world full of soup.

    Location:
    London, UK
    I'd be ecstatic if this set had -

    A full length Cosmic Day.
    The mythical extended Dorothy Parker.
    The original, stripped version of Wally (yes, I have heard the leaked version, which I think is silly. Maybe Susan Rogers sneakily made a back up of the first version before she had to erase it? o_O)
     
    redsock and warewolf95 like this.
  3. Turntable

    Turntable Senior Member

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    Can't comment on digital, but on vinyl it's the best sounding so far imo. Tighter punchier bass and more open transparent top end.

    Original BG Euro pressing and 1999 BG remaster as comparisons.
     
    Edmoney likes this.
  4. Joost van Gijzen

    Joost van Gijzen Avada Kedavra, MF's!

    Location:
    The Netherlands
    7" versions ARE a waste of space if they're just early fade-outs. It's completely ridiculous.
     
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  5. Joost van Gijzen

    Joost van Gijzen Avada Kedavra, MF's!

    Location:
    The Netherlands
    And you think WB gave the original tapes to Apple Music for them to master?
     
    Turntable likes this.
  6. Turntable

    Turntable Senior Member

    Location:
    Sydney, Australia
    LOL
     
  7. Joker to the thief

    Joker to the thief Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    I prefer the flat transfer hi-res release from around 2013, but it's not a bad remaster by any means.
     
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  8. Stillwaiting

    Stillwaiting Forum Resident

    This is my first post here. [MOD: Please, no discussions about other forums allowed. Please read the forum guidelines. thanks]

    Now this is amazing news! I still can't understand the guy posting that thought there was a connection to the 1998 Crystal Ball, and wondered about the licensing of the five billion 1990's songs on that fairly weak release. You don't put 1990's songs on a SOTT Super Deluxe!

    The sad thing here, is it should be a 20 CD set with 3 DVD. Warners and the estate have never heard of Blu Ray, so I won't even try to explain it to anyone, other than pointing out that Blu Ray are more scratch resistant due to the likely better dye coating used in the manufacturing process. And they sound better than DVD in almost all cases.

    Honestly, everything should be included without repeats. I do think that offering stand alone releases of the original Camille, Crystal Ball, and Dream Factory albums on both vinyl, cd and Special Edition CD/Vinyl would be the best thing, but some of the stooges in charge can't think in terms of what makes sense.

    [MOD: NAME CALLING NOT ALLOWED] add reverb, echo, and god knows what into the SOTT project. Yes, Prince did at times, use reverb, but allowing this incompetent fool to mix vault tracks is an insult to fans, and a total Frankenstein devaluing of Prince's legacy. Not saying I would be the best choice to oversee the vault, but having all these people involved who have little, if any real passion for the material is horrible. I would do it for $50,000 a year easy, and would make certain all remasters are done the right way, like 1999 was done, and would make sure Niko Reverb is fired, and get Susan Rogers to oversee things on that end.

    Another sad point, is we are not in our 30's anymore. Most Prince fans are aging and some are dying off. We can't get a Super Deluxe of every single album, it just doesn't make fiscal sense. What we should have, is massive box sets of all the unreleased material, and box sets for the studio albums like Rush and Genesis did, diving them into 3 eras or so.

    SOTT is the greatest album ever, by anyone, period. It deserves to be curated and documented with impeccable standards. What the Stooges don't know, is that if you actually do things right, you can make a lot of money. If the only focus is making a lot of money, you usually underwhelm many, and make much less than you could. I can tell you this, if I was in charge of the Purple Rain remaster, it would have been delayed, and not released until Erotic City was fixed, and Joshua "The Cowbell Artist" Welton was fired, and banned from rearing his no talent head again. This stooge was actually on stage with Prince playing a cowbell, or a triangle, or just being there for no reason. And he had NEVER remastered anything, not even a toaster, and he gets to remaster PURPLE RAIN? It would be like me at 18 with no money getting Cindy Crawford as my first adult date. No way!

    I consider myself to be a Prince scientist. And the releases after Prince's passing have been a bit of a letdown. Stooge Bolas put reverb all over Originals saying "It's what I imagined Prince would've done." Huh? Really? Also, Baby You're A Trip was a Frankenstein mix for sure. Prince's original backing vocals were replaced with the backing vocals by Jill Jones recorded YEARS later. I've had to make my own mix of the original and the Frankenstein mix, which just sounds like a bad cut and paste, since I don't have the multitracks.

    [Mod: discussion about another forum]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 31, 2020
  9. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus

    For fun I made a playlist using 7 inch edits wherever possible on 1999. It made it short enough for a single and man did it change the album! Most of the dark undercurrents If the album and disturbing weirdness completely gone! Made it seem like a pure pop album.

    Anyway I have faith in these guys. This is gonna be good.
     
  10. ralphie

    ralphie Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lawrence, KS
    No, it doesn't. All an album has to be to be considered an "Apple Digital Master" is for the files to be delivered in high resolution (anything 44.1/24 and up is considered high resolution to them) and have nothing peak above -0.5db so the conversion process doesn't shoot any of the peaks into digital zero, therefore introducing extra distortion. For an example of something I know is available on the U.S. iTunes store, look for the 20th anniversary deluxe reissue of Guerrilla by Super Furry Animals. See where it says "Apple Digital Master"? I sent them the same files the rest of the digital distributors got, but I made sure in mastering that none of the peaks were higher that -0.5db, so Apple parades it as if it was specially done for them. It wasn't and most aren't. As someone who has had a number of albums available on the iTunes store from day one and has done special "iTunes" sessions that have gotten appended as bonus tracks to albums, they're still using the masters that were turned in back whenever they were turned in. The only thing that's been changed in the last 2-3 is their branding.
     
  11. ralphie

    ralphie Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lawrence, KS
    Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited for this release. I have a Prince tattoo, which may help demonstrate the level of Prince fan I am. I am also aware of how iconic he is in Minneapolis. I've spent lots of time there over the years. I've played both First Avenue and 7th Street Entry a number of times. I've been to Paisley Park. I have dear friends that live in Minneapolis that are also huge Prince fans. If I told them right now that a deluxe Sign O' The Times reissue was coming right now, this would be at the absolute bottom of the list of things they'd care about right now while they're dealing with the aftermath of another egregious example of police violence and watching large parts of their city burn down.
     
  12. englishbob

    englishbob has left the SH Forums...19/05/2023

    Location:
    Kent, England
    It already sounds great, but you want a remix? IDGI
     
  13. MikeManaic61

    MikeManaic61 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia
    That's all subjective. I don't really have a problem with that and it doesn't the ruin the experience.
     
    tin ears likes this.
  14. Eleventh Earl of Mar

    Eleventh Earl of Mar Somehow got them all this far.

    Location:
    New York
    I made a thread on the leaked set that got removed - I can't link the details, however it lists 13LPs and 8CD

    Probably some sort of Dream Factory config, Camille config, and anything else from the 1986 period that missed out. If we assume half the set is album and live sets, the other half should be everything else.
     
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  15. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    How does the original CD of this sound? I know a lot of the early Prince CDs sound great, but I seem to recall people saying Sign O’ The Times wasn’t especially good.

    I did read that the remastered MLPS Japan SHM CD of a few years back was excellent though.
     
  16. sideofham

    sideofham Well-Known Member

    Compared to the original LP, the CD sounded very dull and lifeless. I haven't heard the SHM myself, but I heard reports that it was similar to the original CD.
     
  17. englishbob

    englishbob has left the SH Forums...19/05/2023

    Location:
    Kent, England
    What is an MLPS?

    There is a Japan SHM CD, but it is the same thing as every other CD edition out there. SHM is just a manufacturing marketing gimmick, like XDR tapes where back in the day

    From memory there are no remastered Prince albums in the back catalogue, with the exception of Purple Rain and 1999 now.
     
  18. Joost van Gijzen

    Joost van Gijzen Avada Kedavra, MF's!

    Location:
    The Netherlands
    It ruins my experience when a set gets announced as having x extra discs, and you find out that half of such a disc is filled with 7" edits
    instead of alt versions or unreleased tracks.
    Make these 7" versions download-only.
     
    masswriter likes this.
  19. Tsomi

    Tsomi Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lille, France
    The original CD version of Sign o' the Times sounds pretty dry/dull and could be much more involving, in my opinion.

    Unfortunately, it looks the people having the SHM CDs are really happy to have them and to keep them, but I couldn't find any detailed comparison. I heard that they were "just" the original CDs with some slight, pretty good EQ adjustement, but that's all I could find (others say that they're the exact same mastering as the old CDs, with just some volume change). Same thing for the HDtracks remasters (which stop with Parade and which were new masters, as far as I can tell), not many comments with more details than "I prefer this/that one".

    So I just hope that the new remaster is going to be well done, like the one they did for 1999.
     
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  20. englishbob

    englishbob has left the SH Forums...19/05/2023

    Location:
    Kent, England
    I have the original CD and the Japanese SHM - I can't tell the difference. The object of owning these where purely just the mini LP sleeve edition

    Also, just in case some of you missed this thread, Spotify is the WORST way to listen to the album right now.

    Vinyl rips on Spotify??
     
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  21. englishbob

    englishbob has left the SH Forums...19/05/2023

    Location:
    Kent, England
    Rather than working out how 13 LP's subdivide, I'm working on the 8CD premise...

    Disc 1/2 Remastered album
    Disc 3/4 Extended versions/edits/b-sides
    Disc 5-8 ?

    I'm hoping that the last 4 discs are vault material and those different versions from CB/DF/Camille etc. What would be even better if they could get the original album on 1 disc now, leaving a possible 5 discs for the good stuff. (running time from Wikipedia is quoted at 79:52, no idea if that is correct).

    I'm personally not bothered about a live disc(s) in this set to be honest, most of the live releases so far have been fairly lacklustre in their quality. A live DVD performance would be welcome, rather than promos etc. In a dream setup, the DVD would be the complete original SOTT show footage from the Rotterdam show(s) that was used as the basis for the feature film.

    I'm hoping for a really great sneak peak track when the official announcement goes out, hopefully something really juicy!
     
  22. ralphie

    ralphie Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lawrence, KS
    The original CD is quite dull. I picked up the mini-LP replica when I was in Japan several years ago hoping to get a good digital version. Nope. To my ears, I can discern absolutely no difference between this and the standard CD version other than the volume having been raised. Per usual, the packaging is absolutely stunning, though.
     
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  23. englishbob

    englishbob has left the SH Forums...19/05/2023

    Location:
    Kent, England
    Fun fact: At 8 discs in length, this is only 2 short of the complete "Beatles in Mono" recorded output, and will represent Prince's output for (arguably) 12 months! :)
     
  24. Bobby Morrow

    Bobby Morrow Senior Member

    I always thought it had been properly remastered. Must have heard it wrong.:) I’m sure the packaging was beautiful though.
     
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  25. englishbob

    englishbob has left the SH Forums...19/05/2023

    Location:
    Kent, England
    Actually, re-reading the original info, there is a

    Remastered 2CD

    ...which means the album itself is over 2 disc...BUT

    Deluxe 3CD

    ...means the x2 CD album and x1 CD for B-sides and extended stuff. Maybe a 4th disc in the box then for edited versions. Or maybe they really are evil, and putting edited single versions and edited B-sides on the 1 CD for this 3CD "deluxe". Yes, probably that!
     
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