Totally over produced. I have found the songs that are the most simple where he does and played his own intruments are the best songs on the albums. When he over does it with way too instruments, band members, rapping, etc. its just too much.
Even his "throw aways" that are given out to other bands end up being #1 hits.

padawan said:

yeah, I think it is somewhat compulsive for him to finish song after song. admirable compared to me who never finishes anything, but finishing it doesn't automatically make it worthwhile

NDRU said:

That's one of P's biggest shortcomings. Doesn't know when to stop. No self-restraint. Overproduces, overembellishes, overindulges.

Like the "Purple Rain" encore on the Musicology DVD. He kept going and on and on. I was like, "Enough already! I know you're having a blast, but come on. Give it a rest already!"

VenusBlingBling said:

I always thought the Dance, the 2nd version was wayyy over produced. If I could remix that cut, I would remove the Liberace piano solo. It just kills the mood and simplicity of the song. Prince's haunting falsetto, with the deeper voice whispers are just RUINED by that interlude piano solo.

Some of the extra things really do add to a song...

The NASA launch from, "Live4Love."

The walk in, "Shy."

There's a plane landing in a song I can't remember...I thought it was, "International Lover," but it isn't.

Tame said:

I think the plane was in "Come On".

The Nasa launch is also at the beginning of another song. Can't think what it was.

There's also a similar Nasa thing on "Space".

overproduced to make up for underwriting.
It really depends on the track, but he leans towards production that pretty much wrecks it for me anymore.

Tame said:

I think the plane landing you're thinking of is in Supercute.

Se7en said:

There's just too much echo, and double-tracking on the vox for my taste. It's also musically over-indulgent with the faux sitar. I prefer the bluesy, acoustic instrumentation of the outtake to the album version. But even that suffers from the distracting vocal reverb.

I think he does-nice thread Venus

Se7en said:

We're both right. It's in "Come On" at the end, and "Supercute".

being a Sound Apprentice myself, I must say he inspires me, and I hope to produce some songs for Prince to hear someday... Hopefully he will like them

Se7en said:

Nope, it's White Mansion.

I heard a little Rascal Flatts on some commercial last night. Now, THAT shit is overproduced! It doesn't have a million tracks or weird sound effects. But every track is so processed it sounds like computers emulating the human voice & electric guitar.

.
[Edited 1/2/10 1:24am]

He has taken some songs too far in the past or there was too much going on in them, like a lot of songs in the 90's like Endorphinmaching, and I love that song. I think Prince got it together again in the 00's.

mzkqueen03 said:

That ain't got shit to do with listening to a CD. Don't even stretch the truth, lest it become a lie.

thedance said:

Haha, like clockwork you know no matter when someone brings up a thread about Prince and overproduction someone's gonna eventually bring up Emancipation and say it sounds plastic . Suprised it took this long this time.

I generally disagree with the OP.

On some albums Prince has showed tendencies of overproduction: Lovesexy, the Symbol album, some parts of the Gold Experience and Emancipation, and also the Rainbow Children, but on most of his other albums his production could best be called 'economical' (apart from the often multi-layered vocals probably).
In fact: I think it is one of his most obvious musical characteristics even: keeping the production sober, minimalistic even.

That doesnt mean he always succeeds with keeping his arrangements sober, i think.
The songs on Dirty Mind worked well on a demo-level, as a form of an happy accident.
Those on 1999 were minimalistic, drawn out dance jams, with enough innovative idea's to keep those jams interesting.
An album like Parade might sound 'lavish' on first impression, but when you take a 'close listen' you might discover its rather minimalistic.
Sign of the Times had purposely stripped down arrangements, that showed Princes mastership with arranging songs.

But, on the other hand,

On an album like 16 by Madhouse the minimalism gets too far stretched out, and boring.

And on Musicology it sounds like he decided to NOT produce most of the songs at all, turning the arrangement of a song like A million days in a blurry mess, for example.
[Edited 5/19/09 14:46pm]
[Edited 5/19/09 14:46pm]

Too many layers.

Most of his greatest songs had the least amount of production.

Annihilator said:

I'd say that is not totally true. Some of his songs appear simple, but still have many layers.

When Doves Cry is the best example. Minimal sounding with the drums & no bass, simple keyboard. But the vocals are heavily layered, and the arrangement is long & drawn out with classical sounding keyboard overdubs.

NDRU said:

But compare the amount of layering then and now. These days he goes overboard just because he can.

In general no. One reviewer said that Saviour was over-produced. I disagree. Saviour is a great song and the full sound made it even more powerful. There is the ocassional song that is over-produced, but in general no.
[Edited 5/19/09 22:51pm]

I have no idea

I like his music, think his songs are great for them most part, and that's all that matters.

I do feel that less is more in Prince's case though. He's an accomplished song writer, a pretty decent singer, and first rate musician. He doesn't need production tricks like Janet or Madonna.

NDRU said:

Wrrd. A good observation on WDC.

Besides, compared to most artists / producers operating today his songs are still usually very sparse if we're honest about it. You have the occasional "Last December" or "Planet Earth" anthem here and there, but if all we'd get would be the sparse tracks folks here would still find reason to complain about him "not following the times" or something like that. SOTT and Parade vacillated between more sparse and extravagant production numbers and that seems to be the best way for an artist of his kind. There really is no fully going back anymore - or was The Truth supposed to have been an unquestioned masterpiece in every orgers' mind?

I find it sort of kitschy that a guy who owns a huge studio complex and seemingly has more money than it is for any individual to have should in the minds of some individuals be making exclusively "raw" and "demo-like" music. You know, "stuff that is comparable to Dirty Mind" - he did his early records in an entirely different cultural frame too. If he really needed his custom-made symbol guitars, his Mesaboogie amplification setups, his Steinway grands, his vintage organs and electric pianos and all the other equipment he owns to make exclusively "No More Candy 4 U" -type of tracks, I'd probably just have to laugh.

I don't think "overproduction" equals that simply with notions of a track being multilayered or using sound effects. "1999" had a lot of soundeffects for example, whereas his first album was very multi-layered too. "Overproduction" may refer to the overt sleekness as can be heard on songs like "Te Amo Corazon" (comparable to a lot AOR material). However, I'd like to point out that considering how easy it is actually these days to come up with such a polished sound with the aid of some expensive equipment - well, it's not even that expensive anymore since even basic digital gear can pull of similar results - then the case might be that a track that sounds "overpduced" or "polished" may have been actually recorded in far less time than something that sounds "raw" and "demo-like" to some ears. To my ears, he could go for a bit rawer acoustic drum sound once again, for example.
[Edited 5/19/09 23:26pm]

I think he does overproduce. As I said in another thread recently, I think a big part of his downfall as a producer came when he had the Paisley Park studios to live in. Too much time and too many toys led to him constantly fiddling with things and cleaning them up and adding effects and corny sound effects, etc.

YES, he definately does.

I might get flamed for it but the best example is the complete Lovesexy cd. The alternate versions are much more restrained and show the real musicianship Prince is capable of but there's, UNFORTUNATELY, always the need to either sound avantgarde (1989) or contemporary (1990-2009)....

U're gonna C Me is a recent example, What in God's name was wrong with the One Night Alone version?? Okay if you want the song to be available to the general public but why not simply show your musicianship instead of embellishing it with all these little sounds???

I know there are quite a lot of people who mainly listen to his outtakes/ alternates and I think this might be a reason for it.

Does he need a producer? He just might .....(good question to ask Wendy and Lisa )
[Edited 5/19/09 23:43pm]

eelco said:

Eh. It's an entirely different track that has very little to do in common with the first take on the basic song structure. In fact, Prince changed it so much that they are hardly the same piece of music anymore - so it doesn't really count as a good example of "overproduction" per se. So, now songs can't even have 1/8 -notes being played on a synthesizer on them without them being labeled overproduced?

If you just listen to the track itself it should be obvious that there's quite a lot of space between the different elements. What fills up most of the track is the bass and Prince's vocals - the semi-orchestral stuff on top of it is no more excessive than what we had on "International Lover". The earlier material just used recording methods of their own time that resulted in more restricted bandwidths for the seperate tracks. Giving effectively an impression that they would utilize a "less-is-more" approach compared to most modern material, where in fact this is not the case at all if you perceive it on the level of the arrangements themselves

Love2tha9s said:

yeah I actually agree with you.... maybe not the most wise comment from me, cuz everyone knows that about Emancipation already
[Edited 5/20/09 1:32am]

I sort of see what you mean, but I think you're using the wrong terminology.

Producing a record usually involves a lot of different tasks. These could be, for instance:

• Selecting songs
• Selecting and booking studios and musicians (including negotiating about fees, and making sure everybody's getting paid)
• Doing arrangements
• Planning and keeping schedule in the studio (and keeping within budget)
• Making technical, practical, and artistic decisions about the recording process (such as which mikes to use for the drums,
how many takes are needed, whether to play the solo on the basic track or overdub it later, etc)
• Doing, or assisting in, the mixing (levels, effects, etc)
• Sequencing songs for the album
• Overseeing artwork, packaging, etc
• Making deals and decisions about distribution, marketing, etc.
• Doing administrational paperwork (licensing, union matters, copyrights, etc)

To sum it up: Producing is really another word for simply getting the record done.

With that definition, I think it's wrong to say that a record is "over-produced". If it exists, it's produced.
It might be badly produced, in different ways, but not over-produced.

Usually, what people mean when they use that expression is that there's too much detail and variation in the arrangements,
and/or that the mix has too many effects and gimmicks.

But producing is really much more than that.