I was wondering; does Prince have a demo 4 every single song he´s ever written? I would originally think so since it´s common 2 put down musical ideas as a demo before u start recording, but on many songs in the song list on Prince Vault there is not listed any demo version at all. So do u think that Prince sometimes just composes and writes music directly in the studio without feeling the need 2 make a demo of it or does he have demos 4 everything??

I think certain track were created witout a demo. For example he is known to get a new keyboard or drum machine or synth, and then just use the preprogrammed voices immediately to build a song. And it was instigated by the equipment. Of course he probably has lyric ideas floating around that he could adapt to any music he makes.

i'm not sure about currently, but he usually just laid tracks down without demos or click tracks, one iinstrument at a time, single take. drums, bass, keyboards/guitar ettc then send the engineer away whilst he reocrded his vox in the soundbooth,, then when done ask the engineer back too mix and track was doen. maybe later mixes or overdubs

there aren't many tracks circulatinng that are demos as mmost people would consider the term

unique said:

i'm not sure about currently, but he usually just laid tracks down without demos or click tracks, one iinstrument at a time, single take. drums, bass, keyboards/guitar ettc then send the engineer away whilst he reocrded his vox in the soundbooth,, then when done ask the engineer back too mix and track was doen. maybe later mixes or overdubs

there aren't many tracks circulatinng that are demos as mmost people would consider the term

Very interesting way of working. Thank u 4 the info, I didn`t know that. I guess Prince might have a different way of working than most artists,or maybe not. For all I know most artists do it this way. It`s just that I thought that it was normal to get the musical ideas down into a simple demo or sketch before working more thoroughly with it. But cool info...

MrNorway said:

unique said:

i'm not sure about currently, but he usually just laid tracks down without demos or click tracks, one iinstrument at a time, single take. drums, bass, keyboards/guitar ettc then send the engineer away whilst he reocrded his vox in the soundbooth,, then when done ask the engineer back too mix and track was doen. maybe later mixes or overdubs

there aren't many tracks circulatinng that are demos as mmost people would consider the term

Very interesting way of working. Thank u 4 the info, I didn`t know that. I guess Prince might have a different way of working than most artists,or maybe not. For all I know most artists do it this way. It`s just that I thought that it was normal to get the musical ideas down into a simple demo or sketch before working more thoroughly with it. But cool info...

most arstists do demos and guide tracks, but princee is unusual in thhat he doesn't. hhe has the ong mapped out in his heead and just plays it, breaks and all in place

unique said:

MrNorway said:

Very interesting way of working. Thank u 4 the info, I didn`t know that. I guess Prince might have a different way of working than most artists,or maybe not. For all I know most artists do it this way. It`s just that I thought that it was normal to get the musical ideas down into a simple demo or sketch before working more thoroughly with it. But cool info...

most arstists do demos and guide tracks, but princee is unusual in thhat he doesn't. hhe has the ong mapped out in his heead and just plays it, breaks and all in place

He sometimes records a guide percussion track and then replaces it during continued production. For example "New Power Generation", or "Miss Thang" and sometimes he records a solo production as a demo and then plays that for the band or his session musicians to build what he considers the intended release version. And sometimes he uses his own prototype even if he is making the release version solo, like in the case of "If I Love U Tonight". Examples of a few demos or early versions are scattered on a lot of studio bootlegs. He also does do a lot of editing and restructuring, evidenced by early versions of songs like Erotic City or Something in the Water, and I believe there's a real obvious edit in the middle of "Eye No".

ufoclub said:

unique said:

most arstists do demos and guide tracks, but princee is unusual in thhat he doesn't. hhe has the ong mapped out in his heead and just plays it, breaks and all in place

He sometimes records a guide percussion track and then replaces it during continued production. For example "New Power Generation", or "Miss Thang" and sometimes he records a solo production as a demo and then plays that for the band or his session musicians to build what he considers the intended release version. And sometimes he uses his own prototype even if he is making the release version solo, like in the case of "If I Love U Tonight". Examples of a few demos or early versions are scattered on a lot of studio bootlegs. He also does do a lot of editing and restructuring, evidenced by early versions of songs like Erotic City or Something in the Water, and I believe there's a real obvious edit in the middle of "Eye No".

no, he doesn't use a guide track. who told you that?

i asked people like hans buff and femi when i was at paisley park sitting in the console room of studio b, people who were there when he recorded

unique said:

ufoclub said:

He sometimes records a guide percussion track and then replaces it during continued production. For example "New Power Generation", or "Miss Thang" and sometimes he records a solo production as a demo and then plays that for the band or his session musicians to build what he considers the intended release version. And sometimes he uses his own prototype even if he is making the release version solo, like in the case of "If I Love U Tonight". Examples of a few demos or early versions are scattered on a lot of studio bootlegs. He also does do a lot of editing and restructuring, evidenced by early versions of songs like Erotic City or Something in the Water, and I believe there's a real obvious edit in the middle of "Eye No".

no, he doesn't use a guide track. who told you that?

i asked people like hans buff and femi when i was at paisley park sitting in the console room of studio b, people who were there when he recorded

Just listen to the early versions of those particular songs, he's either got real drums or a drum machine, and then later on he replaced it with another instrument. Also with the way he used drum machines early on, those are functioning as guide tracks. It's just a fancy click beat that he keeps in because it's actually got snare,kick,hihats, etc built in. Hans Buff and Femi are probably referring to a formal old school click track (a "blip"), but even they will tell you Prince sometimesy lays down a beat and bass first (kind of like that staged part of the movie where he walks in on the band jamming on a programmed beat, or in the magnoli doc where he is playing around on a keyboard over a funky effected looped beat with his sunglasses on), and that's his guide, and then later he might replace it or cover it with live drums different electronic drums. Even "Soft and Wet" demos are there for you to hear. And he does sometimes edit the structure of his songs later to create the final release form. He doesn't always just play the song with the exact breaks, etc. That's proven by the outtakes of songs that are later restructured.

I talked with Femi at the last celebration, and there are a lot of ways Prince records. And he likes trying different ways from time to time. He doesn't always just walk up to a recording device and lay in final tracks in perfect structure! The boots prove this. He's even lifted some of his studio grooves from just jamming around with his band or friends which is like making a demo (like the Irresistible Bitch groove).

That's how we get so many different mixes or versions of songs on these studio bootlegs. It's part of his process. Just look at the evolution of "Come".

Also technically, ever since "Dirty Mind" he releases some of his demos on the actual album (giving some of his tunes that minimal simple Prince sound), and then keeps working on the arrangement and structure on his live renditions for a more traditional full sound. And then he sometimes releases that as a new studio version.

All I'm saying is that he records in many different ways, not always the same.

ufoclub said:

unique said:

no, he doesn't use a guide track. who told you that?

i asked people like hans buff and femi when i was at paisley park sitting in the console room of studio b, people who were there when he recorded

Just listen to the early versions of those particular songs, he's either got real drums or a drum machine, and then later on he replaced it with another instrument. Also with the way he used drum machines early on, those are functioning as guide tracks. It's just a fancy click beat that he keeps in because it's actually got snare,kick,hihats, etc built in. Hans Buff and Femi are probably referring to a formal old school click track (a "blip"), but even they will tell you Prince sometimesy lays down a beat and bass first (kind of like that staged part of the movie where he walks in on the band jamming on a programmed beat, or in the magnoli doc where he is playing around on a keyboard over a funky effected looped beat with his sunglasses on), and that's his guide, and then later he might replace it or cover it with live drums different electronic drums. Even "Soft and Wet" demos are there for you to hear. And he does sometimes edit the structure of his songs later to create the final release form. He doesn't always just play the song with the exact breaks, etc. That's proven by the outtakes of songs that are later restructured.

I talked with Femi at the last celebration, and there are a lot of ways Prince records. And he likes trying different ways from time to time. He doesn't always just walk up to a recording device and lay in final tracks in perfect structure! The boots prove this. He's even lifted some of his studio grooves from just jamming around with his band or friends which is like making a demo (like the Irresistible Bitch groove).

That's how we get so many different mixes or versions of songs on these studio bootlegs. It's part of his process. Just look at the evolution of "Come".

Also technically, ever since "Dirty Mind" he releases some of his demos on the actual album (giving some of his tunes that minimal simple Prince sound), and then keeps working on the arrangement and structure on his live renditions for a more traditional full sound. And then he sometimes releases that as a new studio version.

All I'm saying is that he records in many different ways, not always the same.

the tracks you are referring to are complete rerecordings. he didn't record a version with live drums and then stick a drum machine in it's place or vice versa

typically he would start with drums, if live drums he would lay down the track in a single take, with all the breaks in place, no click track or anything to play along against. then he would put down bass, then either keyboards or guitar and layer until the instrumentation is complete, then do vox. maybe add something afterwards. but most bands would record guide tracks and keep replacing parts, and that's what price doesn't do

at times he will record a complete version of a song, and later completely rerecord it, such as can't stop this feeling i got, but since he got paisley at least he would rarely record demo's in the sense that most bands did, he just went in the studio and recorded

But to get a hold of the multitrack tapes and hear what's in there would be interesting.

unique said:

ufoclub said:

Just listen to the early versions of those particular songs, he's either got real drums or a drum machine, and then later on he replaced it with another instrument. Also with the way he used drum machines early on, those are functioning as guide tracks. It's just a fancy click beat that he keeps in because it's actually got snare,kick,hihats, etc built in. Hans Buff and Femi are probably referring to a formal old school click track (a "blip"), but even they will tell you Prince sometimesy lays down a beat and bass first (kind of like that staged part of the movie where he walks in on the band jamming on a programmed beat, or in the magnoli doc where he is playing around on a keyboard over a funky effected looped beat with his sunglasses on), and that's his guide, and then later he might replace it or cover it with live drums different electronic drums. Even "Soft and Wet" demos are there for you to hear. And he does sometimes edit the structure of his songs later to create the final release form. He doesn't always just play the song with the exact breaks, etc. That's proven by the outtakes of songs that are later restructured.

I talked with Femi at the last celebration, and there are a lot of ways Prince records. And he likes trying different ways from time to time. He doesn't always just walk up to a recording device and lay in final tracks in perfect structure! The boots prove this. He's even lifted some of his studio grooves from just jamming around with his band or friends which is like making a demo (like the Irresistible Bitch groove).

That's how we get so many different mixes or versions of songs on these studio bootlegs. It's part of his process. Just look at the evolution of "Come".

Also technically, ever since "Dirty Mind" he releases some of his demos on the actual album (giving some of his tunes that minimal simple Prince sound), and then keeps working on the arrangement and structure on his live renditions for a more traditional full sound. And then he sometimes releases that as a new studio version.

All I'm saying is that he records in many different ways, not always the same.

the tracks you are referring to are complete rerecordings. he didn't record a version with live drums and then stick a drum machine in it's place or vice versa

typically he would start with drums, if live drums he would lay down the track in a single take, with all the breaks in place, no click track or anything to play along against. then he would put down bass, then either keyboards or guitar and layer until the instrumentation is complete, then do vox. maybe add something afterwards. but most bands would record guide tracks and keep replacing parts, and that's what price doesn't do

at times he will record a complete version of a song, and later completely rerecord it, such as can't stop this feeling i got, but since he got paisley at least he would rarely record demo's in the sense that most bands did, he just went in the studio and recorded

I thought the preliminary version of "New Power Generation" with live drums played by Morris Day is the same recording as the released album version but only after changing up the percussion. So it seems like the real drums acted as a guide track for all the other parts and eventually got covered up.

Some 1999 tracks seem like they started with a drum machine as a guide and then he added live intrumentation on top of it. I don't think he played the drums partially on a kit first then added the drum machine elements on a song like Automatic or Let's Pretend We're Married. But it seems that many of Prince's songs have a drum machine or automatic midi triggered element to them, and therefore by nature function as a built in click track to which he could add to. Same goes for newer tracks that have any kind of automatic element to their beats.

The preliminary alternate version of Erotic City is not a different recording, is it? He edited the structure later for the released version. And that again seems like instruments added on top of a drum machine guide track that has an exact cycle of repetition.

The most obvious case of him making an old fashioned demo is of course the acoustic fragment of Kiss he made up and gave to Mazarati and David Z.

Also the recent report by Stevie Nicks that he gave her an instrumental of what he eventually turned into Purple Rain also shows he does record demos that are then developed into songs.

Actually his method of developing songs is illustrated in Purple Rain by the inclusion of the audio of working versions of songs, that are fictionally attributed to his band or Wendy and Lisa. It's possible he worked backwards to create fictional "demo" recordings for the movie, but it also seems likely he might have just included his own real musical sketches.

If one of these studio engineers is available for questions, it would be cool to ask specific questions about songs they were privy to the production of in detail. But I do know that Femi at the last celebration was also kind of playing along with the part of promoting Prince and helping to create the spirit of the event. It's good hype to say there are no clicks, edits, or demos to ANY of the songs. I do beleive something like Tambourine or Irresistible Bitch was probably done without any demo or tempo guide.

there are a few tracks where there arre ealier versions, but i don't think most of them are thought of as demos at the tiime. prince just goes in and makes a track, rather than makes a demo with a view to a proper version later. as he has hiis own full studio and can play everything himself, he doesn't have the same requirement to demo as other artists who need other musicians to make a finished product. prince just has an idea for a track and unleashes it first time in tthe studio. he may revisit the track later if the original didn't work for him, but i think his intention isn't to make an demo but for that one version to be final