Before the PR tour Prince didn't really use horns when playing live. Do you prefer songs like Delirious played live with the original synth lines or with horn lines?

bigbrother said:

Before the PR tour Prince didn't really use horns when playing live. Do you prefer songs like Delirious played live with the original synth lines or with horn lines?

Synths are great when placed well but the thing I like about horns is that it changes the dynamic and can give a song more punch if done right.

Depends on the song. I hate horns on Let's Go Crazy and other "rock" tracks, but on the funk tracks it's ok... I just think the synths are a little bid more nasty than horns

Synths=soopafonki

In general I prefer synths. Horns can work great with Prince's music but I haven't really enjoyed his post NPG/Hornheadz horn section. I thought that Alan and Atlanta were good but I liked the early-mid '90s players the best. The newer stuff just seems to be lacking something.

I like both

I like either but I'd definitely lean to the keyboards just because Prince was a pioneer in how he used them to replace horns and also in the quirky lines he made for them. Delirious was perfect for keyboards. His use of keys was and always will be THE Prince/ Minneapolis sound.

I'm a big fan of horns in general (EW&F, Chicago) and usually believe that songs sound better with horns but I am not a fan of synth part replacements in Prince songs for some reason. Horns just don't sound better than synths in songs like DMSR or Lets Go Crazy. weird but horns make them sound cheesier than the old 80's synths if that makes any sense.

On the other hand I love the horn parts on SOTT and other stuff like Girls and Boys, Love Bizarre and Sexy MF.

makes perfect sense, although Prince famously replaced horns with synths, he also mixed in a lot of keyboard stylings, and that along with the synth sounds themselves (grand, ostentatious often) makes them perfect for his songs. His use was revolutionary, riffs like the delirious one would never have been played by a horn or a guitar or a bass, Prince did what he did and he did it right the first time.

I do like synths (I'm a Prince fan, I have to ), but lately I am missing the horns on the funkier songs to fill them out, especially on the covers he's doing.

I generally prefer synth lines. I don't like the replacement of synth parts with horns.

bigbrother said:

Before the PR tour Prince didn't really use horns when playing live. Do you prefer songs like Delirious played live with the original synth lines or with horn lines?

Only certain songs work with the horns, I prefere the synth

they mixed well live during SOTT's If I Was Your Girlfriend

but sound sappy on other songs

Synths work a jillion times better with Prince's music.

bigbrother said:

Before the PR tour Prince didn't really use horns when playing live. Do you prefer songs like Delirious played live with the original synth lines or with horn lines?

... interesting enough P was using the synths to 'mimic' the sound of horns, especially with The Time projects he was working on. Now that P can 'afford' to hire some horn players, my thinking is he's using them more. Some songs sound better with horns and some sound better with the synth sound.

PurpleLove7 said:

bigbrother said:

Before the PR tour Prince didn't really use horns when playing live. Do you prefer songs like Delirious played live with the original synth lines or with horn lines?

... interesting enough P was using the synths to 'mimic' the sound of horns, especially with The Time projects he was working on. Now that P can 'afford' to hire some horn players, my thinking is he's using them more. Some songs sound better with horns and some sound better with the synth sound.

I think Big Chick said that he didn't like horns. The manner in which Prince played and used the keys along with the ability to manipulate electronics with bends and amplification made Prince's sound, that along with the thick chords which were Prince's (or maybe Lisa's) signature. The chording's probably wouldn't have occured to a typical horn section. You take a riff like 1999 and it sounds corny with horns, it's really a very basic riff but you put it on that huge sounding keyboard sound and it's perfect. I would say overall that I'd prefer his keys, but with his move to gradually getting more "real" music he's left behind some of the things that made his sound.