THE UPDATE

Hey everybody! Just wanted to check in and let everyone know what's going on. I know there haven't been as many posts lately which has more to do with my job eating up so much of my time than anything else. I promise I'm not going anywhere and things will return to normal shortly, but starting a new job is simply a difficult thing. That said, here are some important details.

I know a lot of people have been wondering what's been going on with the David Williams interview. We did the interview a few months ago and David wanted to give me more information before I posted it, but it's been harder to get in contact with him as of late. I don't want to talk about his personal details so I'll only say that he has his own problems he's dealing with. When he's ready for me to post the interview I will do so, but not until then. Anyway, it's going to coincide with some awesome events which we'll tell you about when the time comes.

I was recently asked about the lineage of my vinyl rips and some of the Prince-related posts. Regarding albums like Apollonia 6 and Eric Leeds FLAC posts, those are CD rips. In the future I'll include more lineage data about those rips like EAC logs and cue sheets. As for the vinyl, my rips are done with a Technics SL-QD33 Direct Drive turntable with a Shure M99E cartridge. I use a BBE Phono Preamp which I run into a Creative X-FI USB soundcard. I record and edit the audio in Sony Sound Forge 9. I clean all my vinyl with water and a damp cloth, which might not sound very advanced but seems to do a good job. I used to manually declick all my rips but I simply don't have the time to do that with every rip I create, so I generally use iZotope RX 2 Advanced for my declicking needs. I've got the settings in iZotope adjusted rather light and I always give a thorough listen to make sure nothing that shouldn't be removed has been. Hopefully that explains a few things.

The last two Homemade Deluxe Edition Prince albums will be Diamonds and Pearls and the 1992's symbol album. The symbol album will be posted in a week or two and I will give a more specific date as it gets closer to that time. Lots of unreleased remixes and other interesting things on that one. As for Diamonds and Pearls, the incredible DJ Polished Solid will be providing the rip that will be posted and she won't be able to share it until the end of July, so don't expect that until early August. Gonna be a lot of stuff on that one!

There will be some non-Prince Homemade Deluxe Editions coming very soon, including a seriously expanded version of the Beastie Boys' Licensed To Ill. I've also assembled a companion disc to Dr. Dre's The Chronic but I'm not sure I need to give that album the whole Homemade Deluxe Edition treatment. As far as I'm concerned, the definitive version of that album is the original 1992, Interscope Records version. I haven't compared it to many of the other pressings but I don't see how the mastering could have been improved, especially without Dre's involvement. I'd love to hear your opinions regarding whether I should include the main album or just the additional disc. There are other things in the pipeline but we'll talk about them later.

Next post will be tomorrow or Wednesday and will be more J-Pop in the form of both volumes of Puffy AmiYumi's PRMX remix albums. Also, my apologies if I offended anyone with the use of the phrase "Japanophile". I don't know what the appropriate phrase to explain my fascination with Japan and its culture is, but it's healthy and I wouldn't want anyone to think any disrespect was intended.One of thee days I've gotta get there and go record shopping! By the way, speaking of cool Japanese music, anyone reading this have the Pizzicato One record? I'd really like to check it out but it's not available in the US and I can't seem to find a way to purchase it. I'd gladly get it on iTunes but you've gotta have a Japanese account with a Japanese credit card to do so. I would be eternally grateful if anyone could help me out.

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well and, as always, drop me a line for whatever questions or thoughts you have. See you all in a day or two!