I love the work he did with Susan Rogers, I haven't seen him mentioned, but what do u guys think of HM Buff?

An engineer is responsible for making sure things are recorded at the proper levels, that the musician can get the sounds they need (fx, distortion, reverb, flanging, etc.), make sure that the tracks are modulated, that there isn't any sort of phasing that eliminates sounds, puts the tape on the machine, hooks up the instruments, patches the board for new sounds, programs loops or triggers on drum kits, labels the tracks, puts reference tone down on the tape, set up for mixing (and often times smooths out a rough mix) and a few other things. If editing is being done, sets up the computer (and in the old days edits it with a razor-hence the credit for 'Dave the Blade' on Purple Rain), backs up the work done that day, gets the tapes from the vault, fills out the paperwork, adds his or her opinion, sometimes adds their sound to the song if requested (Femi Jiya is on some Batman tracks), and finds ways to get the sounds that the musician may need. For instance, if Prince said he wanted something different sounding (like a toilet flushing in the song 'Tricky') he can patch a microphone down the hall to record the natural reverb in the bathroom of a toilet being flushed.

Overall, engineers are solution people. They are responsible for making sure the artist can take the sounds they hear in their head and translate them to tape. If they can't, then they find a way to get as close as possible. The best ones bring something that the artist didn't expect to the table and if he likes it, it ends up on the song.

I'm sure there are other things the engineers do, but I can't think of them at the moment.

Wow. Madhouseman, I don't know if you worked for Prince, but you were obviously an audio engineer (like Jesss above as well). My guess is that you worked for P.P. but are keeping it on the D.L. and that is cool. I've read a few of the other responses you've made in other topics and it is obvious that you were involved with at least some of the recordings of his. Either that, or you know A LOT of people up there! lol. It's funny, there are certain people who post on here that seem to know what time it is. DavidEye, BorisFishPaw and you seem to have nailed a lot of the information. I know that some of it is listed in books out there and some of the books really get it. The books D.M.S.R., A Pop Life and Possessed all get large parts of the reality of working with the man right. Possessed gets a lot of crap from diehards, but I can tell you that he really hit many of the stories on the head (and still missed a bunch of even worse stories) and at the same time got some really sweet stuff right like when he celebrated Susan Rogers buying a house. The man ran HOT and COLD, sometimes in only a few minutes time. Yes there is a large turnover and notice there aren't many people that have come back (except for Eric Leeds, Sheila and Femi, I can think of very few, but Femi is the only engineer I can think of). People who work there usually get burned out and need to leave. The definitive book on Prince hasn't been written but if you blend those three books, you may get an idea of what it is like to be one of his engineers or employees.

Now be honest Madhousmman. Did you work for Paisley?

No. Madhouseman did the research for the book D.M.S.R. by Per Nilsen which detailed much of Prince's recording career up until 1988. He is not an audio engineer. However, I worked at Sunset Sound as an assistant engineer around the time he came in to do some of his research.
[Edited 10/4/05 14:54pm]

so many ex-employees.... so little new bootlegs....

I know. Sucks, ha?

Did he do Emancipation? Or New Power Soul?

Who did The Gold Experience?

does anyone know if there are cases of prince engineering some songs on his own, since him being such a control freak, couldnt he get off with doing it himself?p.s. im blond have to ask stupidly sometimes

I bet much of 1999 and before is witout anyone else.

yes, 1999, that album was made very much on his own, ..cool

There are a lot of engineers that worked well with him. Peggy Mac was influencial on his sound from Controversy thru Parade. She and her husband David Leonard were often tag teaming Prince's productions, to the point that they were on call whenever he'd be coming to town. When they decided not to move to Minneapolis, they were left behind.

Susan Rogers, although not trained in engineering stepped up to the plate in 1984 and was there for a lot of his best work. Does that make her the best engineer? I'm not sure, but she is listed on most of Prince's best songs.

Don Batts was instrumental in putting together Prince's home studio and making an enviornment that helped Prince create while he was in Minn. Often those tapes were then taken to Los Angeles and worked on by his L.A. teams, but Don was great at creating a place where Prince could wake up in the middle of the night and record.

Each engineer brought different things to Prince. Some (Bob Mockler) were great at bringing out some thick drum sounds. Others (Eddie Miller and Michael Koppelman) were great at programming sounds in the computers. Both of them brought sounds that Prince had never had.

Many of the engineers that Prince has used have not had a ton of experience. Prince likes to have them know how to work the machines, but doesn't like someone knowing more than him. Often, he asks the engineer to set up the board and then tells them to wait outside while he records much of the music himself. He'll even set up a microphone over the console and sing into it, playing with the sound as he is recording it.

Femi brings experience. Although he isn't the only one to bring experience, Prince does respect what Femi does because he brought him back to Paisley Park after he was away for many years.

The frustrating thing to a lot of these engineers is that Prince will do what Prince wants to do, regardless of the engineer. If he gets frustrated, he'll tell them to hurry up because he is "losing the groove" or he'll tell the engineer to set him up to mix, and then show up and demand to record (an entirely different set up) immediately. Most of the engineers or band members for that matter, feel like after working for Prince, they are able to do just about anything, because they become problem solvers for him.

The bottom line is that Prince likes to know as much as the engineer and is often like a sponge when it comes to knowing how these rooms work. When he has a question, he'll ask, but more often than not, he likes to be left alone in the room to make the music he wants to make, without having to explain it to anyone.

The last thing you have to remember, is that often the songs are tag-teamed by engineers. Prince works a lot of hours and often there are 2-3 engineers on a song over the course of several sessions. When it comes to giving credit, it often depends on what Prince's mood is the day he is listing the names for the album. More than once, people who worked on the song are left off because they had recently pissed him off!

The best engineer? Wow. Depends on what Prince wanted that day!