I am actually quite pleased with most of the tracks on 20Ten, this albums is a big step in the right direction for me. I love it that Prince uses the Linndrum again on this new album, but I do feel that the sound of it is somewhat lacking in quite a few tracks.

The snare sounds too "dry" in most songs IMO, and I feel the beats used to be a bit more creative/daring with the use of soundeffects (reverb/ flanger etc.) back in the 80's. They sounded bigger and badder somehow, less clean.

Tracks like "Future Love Song" and "Sea Of Everything" could have done with a bit more "The Beautiful Ones" and "When 2 R In Love" vibe IMHO. Also the tracks Sticky Like Glue and Lavaux (which I both absolutely love BTW) stick out as tracks where the beats could have benefitted from some more treatment in the FX department.

The best sounding beat on 20Ten is probably Act Of God, this one comes closest to the original 80's sound for me...

I like it

I thought it sounded great. Much stronger sounding than that embarassment of a last album he had.

It sounds natural and not forced. Like not using it just for the sake of attempting to sound vintage like he did with Rave. And it works. I like it.

it reminds of a thread where someone suggested he use it for his next album

with all the inspiration and advice Prince gets from the org, makes you wonder when we'll be paid

maybe we should start demanding an advance

this guy does what we say then charges us money for it

I agree they are too clean. The Linn on older recordings remind me of a time when Prince was really hungry. You know; you don't have much money so you try crazy stuff to get that sound in your head and stumble up on something hot? Like running your drum machine threw your guitar effects and bam, When Doves Cry happens?

All said time marches on and I love what he's done on 20TEN. Who ever said Prince lost it has lost it. The Kid still has game,

In the 80's he could make a cold blatantly electronic sound heat up cherry red with funk and passion.

On 20ten it sounds like he is dragging the linn around like a dead "remember this" symbol at a high school reunion.

I think the dryness is intentional because he's tired of the colder reverb sound he mixed up back then. Just like 80's pop metal guitar had a cold reverb all over it that would sound dated now.

Prince is always trying to mix dryer and more in your face simple, he always did. These days he's just not into using the same style reverb or EQ to complicate his mixes.

I like the warm dryness of his mixes right now, I just wish he would go for more weirdness... at least one layer more of thick weirdness. I LOVED the song 3121.

Beginning Endlessly uses reverb contained within a slow slapback type echo to great effect.

Unnecessary.

robinhood said:

[..]

this guy does what we say then charges us money for it

That's called "a job" or "employment".

NouveauDance said:

Unnecessary.

I kinda like that he uses is again, most of my best loved Prince tracks contain Linndrum.

What would you prefer he had used, if it was up to you?

fantasticjoy said:

I love it. Although I agree its not quite like what it use to be, but very close. Alot better than MPLSound which sounded more sampled to me as well as sounding like he just threw them on the tracks.

Agreed wih your comment about MPLSound. The Linndrum is quite good on 20Ten, it is just the clean sound that could be improved on IMO.

Cravens said:

robinhood said:

[..]

this guy does what we say then charges us money for it

That's called "a job" or "employment".

do you make more money than your boss?

funkaholic1972 said:

NouveauDance said:

Unnecessary.

I kinda like that he uses is again, most of my best loved Prince tracks contain Linndrum.

What would you prefer he had used, if it was up to you?

His imagination?

vainandy said:

I thought it sounded great. Much stronger sounding than that embarassment of a last album he had.

I'd expect you'd be quite happy with 20Ten, as you favor Prince's early funk/rnB period, isn't it?

Xtraordinary said:

I agree they are too clean. The Linn on older recordings remind me of a time when Prince was really hungry. You know; you don't have much money so you try crazy stuff to get that sound in your head and stumble up on something hot? Like running your drum machine threw your guitar effects and bam, When Doves Cry happens?

All said time marches on and I love what he's done on 20TEN. Who ever said Prince lost it has lost it. The Kid still has game,

Yeah I am really quite happy with what's on offer this time! But agreed, a bit more creativity in the FX and weirdness department would not hurt for the next album...

NouveauDance said:

funkaholic1972 said:

I kinda like that he uses is again, most of my best loved Prince tracks contain Linndrum.

What would you prefer he had used, if it was up to you?

His imagination?

I had guessed you'd come up with "creativity" beforehand, so imagination isn't far off! I do agree to an extent...

RPR said:

In the 80's he could make a cold blatantly electronic sound heat up cherry red with funk and passion.

On 20ten it sounds like he is dragging the linn around like a dead "remember this" symbol at a high school reunion.

I think it sounds like the opposite a lot of the time, much of the 80's Linn sounds cold and dead to me because of the reverb and EQ style.

I think that it is great. I dont want to say that he went back however he went FORWARD and used his Linn from BACK THEN.

Im so silly. But I love it

RPR said:

In the 80's he could make a cold blatantly electronic sound heat up cherry red with funk and passion.

On 20ten it sounds like he is dragging the linn around like a dead "remember this" symbol at a high school reunion.

Co-sign! That's exactly what it sounds like.

They need to be retired.

if you wat the 'old' Linn/Prince sound back

2 VITAL ingredients missing..............

Susan and Coke

and...............

stop recording at PP-go back to the basement and sunset sound

I dig it.

polkadotbliss said:

if you wat the 'old' Linn/Prince sound back

2 VITAL ingredients missing..............

Susan and Coke

Go on, tell us more!

polkadotbliss said:

if you wat the 'old' Linn/Prince sound back

2 VITAL ingredients missing..............

Susan and Coke

Susan Rogers and Coke Johnson? or Susan from V6 and the snorty coke?

After the golden era, Prince ditched the Linn and took up the grooves with different electronic instruments.

I actually dug what he started doing post Linn.

Here are some of the standouts for me.

On "The Future" from the Batman soundtrack, he employed his same badass groove theory with whatever the fuck he used to create that awesome clickity, clickity percussive groundwork that forms the basis of this track. In the 80's that would have been done with the Linn.

"101" Same here, the percussive basis for this funk masterpiece would have employed a Linn in the 80's but instead of the linn, still creates equally badass grooves with a different instrument altogether instead.

"Pheromone" To this day, I say the electronic percussive groove that forms the basis of this painfully underrated masterpiece is on par with the best he was able to create with the Linn.

This groove still boggles my mind at the sheer imaginative and delicious funk genius of it!

"I Wish You Heaven- Pts. One Two and Three" He ushered in the modern beat groove only to abandon it. "Take this beat I dont care, I got plenty others that are sooo fine" I believed it too! Too bad he really didn't.

"Bob George" Droned out thuds instead of the synthetic snapy electro linn drums. This was so not of the ordinary in 87, people forget how revolutionary this was in 87. The thud beat blew me away when I first heard it, so funky and so simple in a way no one had done before. This slice of this genius even made it into a Madonna remix of " Like A Prayer" that I heard on the radio in 87 but have never heard again since.

And lets not forget the daddy of all post Linn genius......"Sign O' The Times"

My point is, it was not the Linn itself, It was something inside his noggin. It was just sheer genius.

He was still able to create amazing percussive grooves sans the Linn. Whatever happened to him in the 90's he was never able to muster this talent again.

NOTHING that was lazily slapped onto 20ten or Mplsound with the Linn, sounds even remotely as interesting to me as his weakest 80's tracks.

[Edited 8/10/10 19:53pm]

To me it's almost the opposite of MPLSound. On MPLS the linn drm sounded like "look it's old school because i used the Linn drum" but the beats are cold and straitforward - almost like they are just samples.. like it's on auto-run. On 20ten the beats have a lot more play to them. especially on "Beginning Endlessly". On "Future Soul Song" I like the simplicity, but yet its not just a standard 4-on-the-floor or whatever beat. Plus he didnt crowd the palette adding 300 overdubs of extra keyboards, vocals, etc. It sounds very simple to my ears.

[Edited 8/12/10 12:26pm]

One of the biggest mistakes Prince ever made was dropping the use of the LinnLM1 drum machine from his music. The way he used it, it wasn't a drum machine but rather an instrument itself. Once he got away from using the LinnLM1 his beats and rhythms were never again as complex or nearly as interesting.

Now, he's been away from the LinnLM1 for so long he no longer feels comfortable with it - at least that's how it sounds to my ears.