How important do you find the synthisizers in Prince's sound

and what was their role in his studio and live sound?

At the early stages of Prince's career synths were

a very prominent soundscape

in his studio and live performances.

Not only that,Prince used them instead of horns

and he invented the Minneapolis sound.

I doubt it would be the same if he didn't use them.

In the 90's Prince put synths in the

background and i can't

remember if he used those synth stabs

on his live concerts with the Npg.

As '00s come Synth started becoming more prominent

in Prince's sound again starting with the Time like synth line

on the title track of platinum album Musicology.

I was happy when Prince stopped using horns and

stripped down his sound to synths as one

of the more prominent instruments in his sound again.

With that move Prince went to his roots of the original Prince sound.

I would add that Cassandra is the best keyboard

addition to his music since Matt Fink.

She added those classic synth patches

to Prince's live set and i wish Prince use that girl more on records.

i'm not sure to understand what you wanna know in the first place

Synths were obviously always very important in 's music. As for their "role", well... that's where I don't really get what u wanna know

databank said:

I actually think that synths were also very prominent during the 90s.

Gold Experience: P Control, Gold, 319

The Newpower Soul album is full of funky synth licks.

The synth sound on Time "Get it Up" and "Cool" are very prominent, I think they make those cuts what they are. Very early 80's sounding synths, but cool as hell. I guess they were the go-to synths for new wave albums of the time like the ones heard on The Cars, Berlin, Gary Newman etc. Those synths are dated, but in a good good way. I cant even imagine anyone even dreaming of updating the recordings or playing the music live with anything that didn't sound like the original synths.

I am not a musician, are the synths used on the Times debut album, Controversy and Vanity Six the same? To me they sound different than the ones used the 1999 album and beyond.

The analog synths he used, especially the oberheim obx is a classic. None of the digital synths he's got later has the great feel and attitude these old analog synths had. It had the potential of sounding both warm, cold, fuzzy and full of attack in a way that felt alot more physical. Both Prince and Dr. Fink were able to make these synths sound almost as live as a brass band, yet futuristic and alienish. Gary Numan must have been an important influence on early 80s prince.

Replica said:

The analog synths he used, especially the oberheim obx is a classic. None of the digital synths he's got later has the great feel and attitude these old analog synths had. It had the potential of sounding both warm, cold, fuzzy and full of attack in a way that felt alot more physical. Both Prince and Dr. Fink were able to make these synths sound almost as live as a brass band, yet futuristic and alienish. Gary Numan must have been an important influence on early 80s prince.

Speaking of the the oberheim, to this day, when the intro to Van Halen's "Jump" comes on, you know it's an 80's sound but It does the trick. I do not think any other synth sound or otherwise could replace it and make the same impact.

[Edited 12/20/11 11:17am]

Soft n Wet

I Wanna Be Your Lover

Sexy Dancer

Uptown

Head

Dirty Mind

Get It Up

777-9311

the Walk

Tricky

Nasty Girls

I Don't Want 2 Leave U

the 1999 & Purple Rain the Glamorous Life albums are full of different sounds

DMSR Automatic

Horny Toad

Possessed

Blue Limousine

Condition of the Heart (different kind of sound)

Love On a Blue Train

2 Nig United 4 West Compton

Like I said, I am not a musician, but what kind of synth is that on Pussy Control. To my untrained ear it kinda sounds like a analog synth, or is it a digital one trying to sound like an old analog.

V10LETBLUES said:

Like I said, I am not a musician, but what kind of synth is that on Pussy Control. To my untrained ear it kinda sounds like a analog synth, or is it a digital one trying to sound like an old analog.

The slight effects on the synth are usually a good give-away whether it is analog or not (even though newer digital synths usually have great sounding effects too...), so I'm quite sure it's digital.

thebanishedone said:

How important do you find the synthisizers in Prince's sound

and what was their role in his studio and live sound?

You serious?

It gave him superstardom. Put him on the map. Even if he tone it down and began to use real horns etc ifor an organic sound years after he dissed us.

I know modern synths and even the ipad can imitate classic analog synths, but I can definitely tell the difference. I do not know what it is, I cannot put my finger on what it is that makes them sound so good to me. They sound more alive. The noises they squeal out sound more primal to me.

[Edited 12/20/11 20:41pm]

To be fair, vintage synths could also sound atrocious. Too much of it really. like most things you hear on reruns of 80's tv shows.

Prince stopped using analog synths quite early on (or, at least, he started using them far less after the Purple Rain sessions).

I believe there are still some of them being used on the late-80s albums, but for the most part by the time SOTT was recorded he was relying on samplers, fm synthesis and non-synth type of keyboard instruments. We know that Lovesexy is mostly Roland D-50 and that certainly isn't an analog synth (he wasn't afraid to use the factory presets on that one either). There might be still some synth parts done with analog synths on GB, but if we are to believe the various articles on the Keyboard and Musician magazine at the time there were no analog synths used on any of the "Prince & the NPG" albums (in comparison, analog synths continued to appear on Michael Jackson albums all the way up to Invincible, I believe).

Moog synths seem to have played a rather minimal role in Prince's music. He was mostly an Oberheim / Roland guy as far as synths go and I don't think he ever had much use for classic monophonic analog synths. He seems to have used the Yamaha electric pianos and the DX7 a whole lot too. It's possible that he has used some of the "modern analogs" that have come out during the last decade on his studio recordings (I've never spotted them on his stage set up though).

[Edited 12/21/11 1:21am]

novabrkr said:

V10LETBLUES said:

sfinky1 said:

thebanishedone said:

sfinky1 said:

I would say synths are a big cornerstone of his sound... Also I'm glad he never used horrible sounding synths with cheesy fake brass sounds... like in Huey Lewis n the News and MJ songs

i don't know what you mean by horrible but prince used a lot of fake brass sound 1999 song for example

oberheim brass sound, sounds fuller with more attack and rawness to it, while the digital brass sounds was back then, and often still now pretty damn weak. The old keyboard digital brass sounds extremely thin and cheap.

thebanishedone said:

novabrkr said:

Prince stopped using analog synths quite early on (or, at least, he started using them far less after the Purple Rain sessions).

I believe there are still some of them being used on the late-80s albums, but for the most part by the time SOTT was recorded he was relying on samplers, fm synthesis and non-synth type of keyboard instruments. We know that Lovesexy is mostly Roland D-50 and that certainly isn't an analog synth (he wasn't afraid to use the factory presets on that one either). There might be still some synth parts done with analog synths on GB, but if we are to believe the various articles on the Keyboard and Musician magazine at the time there were no analog synths used on any of the "Prince & the NPG" albums (in comparison, analog synths continued to appear on Michael Jackson albums all the way up to Invincible, I believe).

Moog synths seem to have played a rather minimal role in Prince's music. He was mostly an Oberheim / Roland guy as far as synths go and I don't think he ever had much use for classic monophonic analog synths. He seems to have used the Yamaha electric pianos and the DX7 a whole lot too. It's possible that he has used some of the "modern analogs" that have come out during the last decade on his studio recordings (I've never spotted them on his stage set up though).

[Edited 12/21/11 1:21am]

wow great submit to this topic.you mentioned analog syths on michael's latter output,can you name some songs please?

The one that springs to mind immediately is "Black Or White", there's some rather odd Minimoog bass at the end. I could be wrong about Invincible, but I remember reading that Rodney Jerkins uses (or at least used) Moog synths for bass. Moog and Arp synthesizers are mentioned in the booklet to the History album, aren't they? I don't have that one as an original here, so I can't check it out.

In general, analog synths never really went away. It's a bit of an unfounded myth that they would have just completely disappeared for more than a decade. They were used for at least many of the bass parts throughout the 1990s as well. Those producers that knew what they were doing didn't give up on them completely, even if analog style "synth horn" sounds and the like weren't used for a while.

As for Prince's "analog synth era", he seemed to have relied mostly on the Oberheim polyphonic synths. He seems to have simply always updated to the latest Oberheim polyphonic synth that had just gotten out during a particular period of time. The difference between the Controversy, 1999 and the Purple Rain eras could be partially explained by the design of those units. They were all based on Tom Oberheim's monophonic "SEM" units - the polyphony was achieved by having several of them aboard -, but the way you had to operate those different synths was different.

The Oberheim 4-Voice has been said to be the main synth on Controversy (I hope I'm not wrong here). It has four SEM modules and while it allows four voices of polyphony it was quite taskful to program as you had to set each of the voice modules individually. This could be one reason why Prince used such "bread and butter" sounds often during this era.

The Oberheim OB-X had an interface that was far easier to operate, which I think suited Prince's workflow a lot better. Additionally, it allowed for a whole lot more polyphony, so it was really easy to play those wide chords that were typical for the MPLS sound on it. The technology inside wasn't that different from the earlier Oberheims (still based on the SEMs), but I think it was just a matter of the interface pushing you into different directions and playing it much more like you would play an electric piano or a Hammond Organ.

The later Oberheims already had a cleaner, less edgy sound. While they were used a lot during the Purple Rain era it seems to be the case that Prince just got bored with them (the OB-8 here is said to be a quite clinical sounding synth compared to the OB-X).

But like I've stated before, Prince's musical genius never really relied on analog synthesis. Records like Parade, SOTT and Lovesexy rely on the creative use of samplers and different types of synthesis techniques. However, it might be worth noting that the early samplers had analog filters, which "warmed up" and "rounded off" the sampled sounds considerably.

The site is discussing his music seriously and not his gilfriend's a hair color.

V10LETBLUES said:

The site is discussing his music seriously and not his gilfriend's a hair color.

i love the gossip in the GD forum...not here so much. I don't mind the gossip stories between him and his bandmates, but g/f's I could really give a shit about and if I hear about his hairline and arificial hip one more tiime imma SCREEEEAM

...but it's gem threads like this that REALLY keep me around.

It's with no doubt his synth work on Controversy and 1999 that was the most influental to later hip hop and electronic music. Also his Madhouse "beats" had some synth sounds that is heard on later gangsta rap in the early 80s. Not saying it was a direct influence. But I do think Prince played a huge part on inspiring the new urban acts.

Thank you Everyone for all that interesting information

I knew I liked Princes' Synths but didn't know how to say why

3121 is filled with Synths. Without the synth parts Lolita and Fury wouldn't exist in their current forms.

thebanishedone said:

They were foundational for his/the MPLS sound, replacing parts that traditionally had been laid down by live horn players.

As the 90s advanced, Prince did use Morris on organ (and Prince kept on recording with them), but I think that decade saw him embrace the use of sampling to a larger extent (even if he often sampled the band's parts -- a lot of time, he was using other folks' music). Sometimes, things got crowded. Somtimes, it felt right. Sometimes, it was cartoonish. But he used it. Listen to "Days of Wild," and it sounds kitchen-sinkish. Listen to "Come On," and the mix is right.

I don't think the synths ever left. They were diminished during his sample-crazy period. But they're back now.

He wasn't the only one at that time incorporating synths into music - it also tied into a cost cutting measure of replacing a horn section and paying less people, but in jazz and progressive rock, took more of a prominent role in the 70s. Devo and "Krautrock" groups like Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk had a following by then. Rock bands like Styx used them more and more. Brian Eno was prob. the one in the center of the synth & sample universe at the time though.

Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder - I Feel Love was prob. where techno as we know it was born. And that was a pretty big hit.

Punk rock rebelled against virtuosos and all things prog rock, but postpunk bands adopted a drum machine and synth because they could rehearse without having the cops calling them to stop, because they didn't have to deal with drum noises. Even Johnny Rotten wound up using synths. Rush wound up bringing them in and some people think Geddy went into synth overkill, but Peart used drum machines and effects just as much as he did the real thing. ABBA was huge in the 70s, and as the 70s progressed, so did the synths. In the 80s, I think they were completely relying on synths. Same with Queen.

And let's not forget Led Zeppelin always had a keyboard, which dominated "In Through the Out Door". Which was recorded in ABBA's studios.

New age guys Yanni was in a Minneapolis band around the same time Prince was starting out, and Vangelis had been in a prog rock band in the late 60s-early 70s.