Many of Prince's early recording used this drum machine. I feel it is the core element of the "Prince sound". My favorite track that utilizes this would be If I was your Girlfriend and Ballad of Dorothy Parker.

1999

When Doves Cry

I was watching Bring On The Night with Sting, and I had forgotten that there's one point where he's programming a song (possibly "Work The Black Seam Together") and he's punching up the beat, step by step, on an LM-1.

Fave Prince song with it: The first one he did w/ the Linn - "Private Joy".

ernestsewell said:

Ooo !!!

Good pick ...

I'll go with Private Joy for 319 Ernie

The Ballad Of Dorthy Parker

I can't pick only one, but I'd like to mention:

777-9311
The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker
The Beautiful Ones
Here
Automatic
What Do U Want Me 2 Do?
I Would Die 4 U

i was going to say something in the water, but someone said ballad of dp. that's a fucking awesome choice!

he did a great job with when doves cry as well...and hot thing (including live), the latter being very simple but very effective.

Dance Electric

PurpleLove7 said:

Who is Ernie?

If I was your girlfriend
2nd when doves cry

ernestsewell said:

Um, you ... No disrespect ...

PurpleLove7 said:

"Ernest" is good.

motherfunka said:

What song I call my LM-1 favorite changes depending on my mood, but right now, I'd say "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" is my favorite.

I bought an LM-1 last year, and I've toyed around re-creating some drum patterns from Prince songs. I tried re-creating "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" but I can't get the opening snare pattern anywhere near close no matter how hard I try.

It drives me crazy now because now when I hear '80s Prince songs (and other '80s songs that use the LM-1) I subconsciously dissect the drum patterns in my head. So instead of just enjoying the song, I sit there thinking to myself, "snare, rimshot, claps, snare, snare, cabasa, rimshot claps".

well, sometimes it is just speeded up or twiddled with outside the actual machine isn't it? i've been having fun with samples from it...i've yet to put an entire track together, but i'd imagine i could. some tracks he also seems to use more than one drum machine on...(thieves in the temple, opening sound is linn-lm-1)

if i was u're girlfriend is another prime example of him making something more than the sum of its parts!

stichdoll said:

You're right. Prince did a lot of post-production, so a lot of his Linn patterns aren't "dry" Linn. I have an effects mixer, and I've toyed around with flanging (which Prince was rather fond of using), but I still can't re-create a lot of what Prince did. I would love to see one of the actual LM-1s that he used. I've heard it's modified with a bunch of extra knobs and switches, so I'm curious to know what they do.

I toyed around with re-creating the opening to "1999" last week. Check it out here if you want some amusement. http://www.james-tech.com...999ish.mp3

Keep in mind, I was just toying around for my own amusement and improvised most of this, so before all you purist start picking it apart and comparing it to the original, I should say that I know it doesn't replicate the opening of the real song by a long shot.

--
[Edited 3/27/10 16:54pm]

PicassoFace said:

Not bad...sounds great!

better than programming on mplsound!

only kidding, but it is good.

The Beautiful Ones

I all those songs listed, still don't know exactly what the LM-1 Linn drum sound is tho
Time to listen to just the songs mentioned

colorblu said:

This probably waaay more information that you'd ever want but...

The LM-1 was the first drum machine to sound like real drums because it used samples from a real drum kit (by late '70s standards, that was quite impressive). The key thing, though, is that each of the drum "voices" has its own tuning knob, so you can tweak the sounds (so they don't sound so much like "real" drums anymore). Prince was fond of tuning the rimshot and claps low and created a characteristic sound just from those two voices. He was also fond of adding flanging through a rack mount effects mixer.

Check this out, and I think you'll get it. http://www.youtube.com/wa...Mad5DLHNOw

The guy adds the rimshot at about 54 seconds in and the claps around the 59-second mark. Whoever created this video seems to have the all of the drums tuned similarly to Prince's tunings.

I saw this a cpl of days ago and made no comment...



well...The Ballad of Dorothy Parker came up via iTunes shuffle.

That's like asking what's your favourite Prince song.

Can't decide.

ernestsewell said:

... my apologies, won't happen again

WDC and 1999

When Doves cry
1999
Computer Blue

is Dorothy Parker?

If so then that too!

Asking fave linn tune from Prince is like asking me my favourite food, sorry

Let's Go Crazy. I just like that BRAPP-A-BAP on every 7th beat.

lotusflw3r said:

BINGO.

My favorite Linn beat isn't technically a prince song, but:

Nasty Girl