prince have some warehouse where
he storage his old equipment old keyboards,
guitars,drum machines.
My question is if Prince use his old tools from 1983 or 1984 in combination with digital recording would it work ?
I have a feeling drum machine on Mplsound
is more like vst pluggin not real linn drum machine
am i wrong?

Okay AGAIN.....Prince hyped MPLSound as a throwback sounding album. He mentioned using the Linn again, and you can hear it all over the album. However, Prince's songwriting and production skills are vastly different. There's no raw edge to his songs anymore. Everything is so slick and cleaned up that the dirty edge stuff used to have isn't there anymore. So an old drum machine like the Linn, on a record he does now, sounds horrible and desperate.

Back in the day, Prince would record a song, with the whole band, in an echoy cement warehouse, and with a few overdubs, just put it out. "Let's Go Crazy" is a great example of that rawness. So is "Darling Nikki". You don't get any of that on MPLSound. It's all slick production and flat sounding.

So it's not IF, it's HOW.

ok Ernesti agree but on Mplsound he used linn samples not real linn ?
what about real old linn from the early 80's?
do u think that old drum machine can't be used now?

Well he said in interviews that he's never found anything that keeps time like the Linn Drum.

I suspect he programmed the beat in the Linn played it out into protools and looped it from there. I would think this would be quicker and easier for him than just midi triggering samples. The reason I think this is because it's easier for him to play with the Linn Drums sounds altering tone and tunning for each instrument rather than just pre picking which sample to lay in

chopingard said:

You have to also consider the fact that he was very anti-Pro Tools until this album, and although he or his engineer might have figured quite a few things out, I would still think just playing the Linn outright is more desirable for him, because he has more control over it.

thebanishedone: There's no reason he couldn't use any drum machine or instrument on any album, unless he flat out doesn't own it or it doesn't work. That Linn still works for sure.

thebanishedone said:

how he used the linn on Minneapolis sound had no creativity 2 it, it sounds the same on each song

whereas Sheila E's usage of it on her football response 2 Prince tears it up, it's funky sweaty and very much 'purple music'

OldFriends4Sale said:

Yeah Sheila ripped it up with that beat. Prince is focused on making the guitar sing now and I think his beat making and bass playing is being severly neglected now, especially funky bass lines!

joyinrepetition said:

Sheila is definately a purple soldier still, she picked up his sound visual and vision
I'd like them 2 work on an album 2gether, she'd nudge him in some good direction

OldFriends4Sale said:

She was on 3121. She has a softer side in music now too, and we sure don't need that from Prince anymore.

I agree fully with Ernest here....it´s not about "if" but about "how" he uses the LM-1. And it baffles me to see that a guy like Prince, who used to be one of the most creative beatmakers in music history, doesn´t seem to get what made his Linn sound so special.He used to do all kinds of weird stuff with it when he composed songs in the 80s. You can read about it in Per Nielsen´s book DMSR....very innovative stuff and spontaneous things, or some tricks and effects that maybe Prince himself doesn´t remember anymore.

Why he feels that just using a Linn again will suffice is totally beyond me. He´s been using this kind of hype since 1999, since the release of the Rave album, and back then, just like today, he was merely scratching the surface of what the old Minneapolis sound stands for.

I agree with Ernest's first post. It's not "IF" for he certainly has been using it on and off since Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic, but this time around it's in a more sterile, cleaned up manner.

However, I would imagine if we saw remasters of some of his older work, specifically his first two albums, Controversy, and 1999, the cleaned up sound wouldn't sound too much different.


I felt that much of Emancipation had a 'throwback' sound to it, when not dotted with catchup-to-hiphop sections.


I also thought much of MPLSound sounded like 'old Prince'. The last minute of 'Another Like Me' sounded ALOT to me like the last minute of "I Wanna B Your Lover"---there were aesthetic differences, but I could easily listen to each and say, "that's Prince."


I don't mind the clean, studio sound. What I'd love though is for the songs to be a bit more challenging to the ear. His songs now are just too 'normal' .... at least 'normal' for Prince.



What I wouldn't give to hear him get all 'Parade' on our asses again, but this time, with his new found freedom to produce a 3 goddamned CD fuck-tatcticalar masterpiece.



Prince.

midi triggering is the way to go because it keeps the original raw energy you used to play in the pattern.

protools cuts it off.

ernestsewell said:

Well said.

ernestsewell said:

Wrong, Ernest.

He has used ProTools before.

Why do I keep having 2 say here, that ProTools isn't sound generation... it's recording, mixing, and mastering.

U can use whatever U want for sound sources, and still record, mix, edit within ProTools.

'The Rainbow Children' was mixed and mastered in ProTools.

chopingard said:

I believe this is what he did.

All that having been said, I still use 100% hardware 4 my stuff, and I love my hardware MIDI rig.

Roland, KORG, Ensoniq, E-Mu, Novation, etc, all have their distinctive sound offerings and characteristics.

I sync my LinnDrum 2 my sequencer, and it's right there with everything else.

Giovanni777 said:

Not according to Prince. He wasn't using ProTools 10 years ago (TRC).

We know ProTools isn't sound generation. We know it's a mixing tool. However, Prince himself has said he wasn't thrilled about the use of ProTools and hadn't delved into it until recent days.

No. Listen to MPLSound and try keeping your lunch down.

It isn't about the instruments, it's about translating inspiration and bellyfire into a good fucking song. You can do that with an orchestra and you can do it with a tin can and a voice.

ernestsewell said:

Yes he was.

Joe Lipinsky did the work in ProTools, and this is even credited on 'The Rainbow Children' CD.

Again, mixing and mastering.

It may have been recorded 2 tape before mixing/mastering in ProTools. Femi Jiya was part of the recording process, which I thanked him 4, when he was working on Stevie Wonder's 'Time 2 Love' project.

I'm pretty sure both 'Musicology' and '3121' utilized ProTools.
[Edited 2/21/10 10:24am]

NouveauDance said:

just listen to Seasick Steve, he does it with a 2 string guitar and a bass drum.

No what would work is Prince hanging with real-world-type people like he did with his band members in his younger days, people with differing views on life. Not just sycophant like celeb 'friends' and fellow Jehovah's Witnesses.

His songs have less meaning since he's boxed himself in.

joyinrepetition said:

The beat Sheila used wasn't hers. It's a stock, library beat in the style of prince

I think the old tools may work but, it has 2 go with some cool lyrics also. I think if Prince used his old format with the Linn Drum machine along with some of his great song writing, it's cool. I wish he would use some of those old keyboards sounds also. I mean along with his great guitar work, it's a win. In my opinion, some of songs I like from him of the last like 10 years were tha ones where he attempts of going back in tha day with the Linn Drum and etc. were songs like 'Dance 4 Me', 'No More Candy 4 U', 'Why Do U Want Me 2 Do', 'Props & Pounds', 'Black Sweat', '(There'll) Never B Another Like Me', 'Wherever U Go', 'Musicology' and these are just some of the songs from like 1999 to present year. I think it would be cool 2 hear a good song with the old format and sound. I mean, I think Prince can do it. I just don't think he really wanna go there and take it back 4 like 2 seconds. LOL!

I agree with ernestsewell, I miss that rawness of Prince's music. I think that plays a part in that also. I was not totally feeling the way he did with tha Linn Drum on Mplsound. It sound sampled! He switched it up a few times but not too much.
[Edited 2/21/10 17:15pm]

Prince has used the Linn recently and sure, it doesn't sound like "the good ol' days", but I think his programming is still good. I look back on tracks like Undisputed and Black Sweat (which I suspect is a vault track) and it sounds like "old Prince Linn" to me.

However those seem to be the exceptions that prove the rule - Prince's Linn doesn't sound the same. I don't think it's his programming, I think it's the lack of Susan Rogers. I think she had a lot to do with some of the innovative processing of the Linn, the use of filters and delays that created some of Prince's best and most unique beats. To me, that was a collaboration, and I'm not sure if even Susan could replicate some of those things.

we got our fair share of linn

i want him to bust out the fucking oberhiem synth.

i want those vintage 'horn' hits and lines

you can bet the bank that if he used his full arsenal of classic tools instead of just some linn samples it would have been off the meat-rack.

minneapolisFunq said:

Yeah a combination

I miss the synth work

I like horns on some things, not everything

I think that's 1 think I didn't like about, say the Lovesexy tour, was that just about every song used the horns and it substitudes too much for the synth and every song didn't need horns

Dr Fink still killed the Head synth solo though, just can't touch it

Yah but No more Candy 4 u sounds like milion times before heard 12 blues progression

Marrk said:

Wow.....reminds me of someone else....