PRINCE PURPLE RAIN (1984)

Because Sound Matters – One-Step Vinyl Edition (2025)

Few albums better capture the sound, color, and electricity of the 1980s than Prince’s Purple Rain. I was a college freshman when it hit, and almost immediately, it was everywhere. It poured out of dorm rooms, clubs, parties, and fraternities. Purple Rain wasn’t the kind of record you sat down and studied—it was one that filled the air and set the atmosphere wherever it played.

Even today, these songs snap you right back into that moment. Decades later, it remains one of the most culturally defining records ever released.

RECORDING AND PRODUCTION

Sunset Sound, Hollywood CA

Purple Rain was recorded almost entirely at Sunset Sound, with a few key live performances captured at First Avenue in Minneapolis. The album was tracked, mixed, and mastered on analog tape.

Prince delivered Warner Bros. a ¼” EQ’d analog master tape, and that tape served as the source for the original 1984 vinyl release.

Because Sound Matters elected not to risk further wear to that production master by running it through multiple passes for the One-Step process, instead working from an existing 192 kHz / 24-bit transfer of that EQ’d master.

ORIGINAL 1984 VINYL (BERNIE GRUNDMAN MASTERING)

Los Angeles, CA

The original U.S. vinyl was mastered by Bernie Grundman, and it remains one of the most instantly recognizable examples of mid-eighties production. It is unapologetically bright, with a forward top end that can approach glare on some systems. But that brightness is part of the record’s personality. The kick drum pops, the snares crack, guitars slice through the mix, and the synth textures shimmer with urgency.

On songs like “Let’s Go Crazy” and “I Would Die 4 U,” the original BG pressing has a drive and cohesion that feels inseparable from the era and from the way this music was originally experienced—loud, in motion, and usually surrounded by people.

If you’re crate-digging, look for “BG” etched in the dead wax.

THE 2009 KEVIN GRAY RHINO REMASTER

Back in 2009, Rhino reissued Purple Rain, mastered by Kevin Gray and pressed at RTI as part of their audiophile campaign. In revisiting my review, I recall it toned down some of the original’s excessive brightness. Fatigue was less of an issue, and the overall tonal balance was more relaxed. The kick drum gained some weight, and the record could be played louder without becoming abrasive.

It was, and remains, a solid reissue that addressed the chief complaint about the original without fundamentally changing the album’s character.

THE 2025 ONE-STEP (BECAUSE SOUND MATTERS)

The BSM One-Step uses the 192/24 file of the EQ’d master as its source and is pressed at RTI on Neotech VR900-D2 high-performance vinyl. The record is housed in a sturdy slipcase, with an “old-style” tip-on jacket replicating the original artwork, along with a repro inner sleeve and poster.

Across the nine tracks, the presentation is:

• Cleaner

• Quieter

• More separated

• Tighter in the bass

• More controlled overall

The noise floor is dramatically lower, instrumental lines separate more distinctly, the top end is smoother than most originals, and the tonal balance is more even.

Repro of original poster included w/ One-Step edition

WHERE IT FALLS SHORT

“Let’s Go Crazy,” which should leap from the speakers, feels more polite here. The attack is cleaner, but the momentum is slightly blunted. “The Beautiful Ones” loses much of the raw, desperate edge that makes the performance so powerful.

Most telling is the transition from “I Would Die 4 U” into “Baby I’m a Star.” On the original BG mastering, that segue feels like a single, unbroken surge of energy—the kind of section you might replay multiple times during a party. On the One-Step, the greater separation and refinement come at the cost of that sense of unstoppable forward motion.

In other words, the One-Step sounds more like a record to admire than one to move to.

CONCLUSION

There is no question that Because Sound Matters has executed this One-Step edition with care. The pressing is extremely quiet, the packaging is excellent, and the mastering successfully tames the harshness that some listeners find objectionable on original copies.

But Purple Rain is not primarily a technical achievement. It’s a record of motion, emotion, and unfiltered energy. It was built for dance floors, crowded rooms, and the kind of late-night listening that blurs the line between live and reproduced sound. The One-Step, for all its control, goes on to dull that vital emotion.

For listeners coming to this album for the first time—or for those who have always been put off by the brightness of early pressings—the One-Step may well be a satisfying way to experience Purple Rain. It offers a cleaner, more “audiophile-ready” presentation that will appeal to some.

But for those who have lived with this record for decades--and especially for anyone who remembers how it felt when it was new, the original Bernie Grundman–cut vinyl still delivers the most convincing experience.