I'm not even sure if he has used analog synths after Purple Rain. ATWIAD still has a thicker overall sound and I used to assume he was still using the Oberheims, but like someone pointed out on this site earlier it seems to be mostly Yamaha DX7 when you give it a closer listen. My guess is that album is mostly DX7 mixed with the Oberheims, but I wouldn't know for sure. He used to stack layers of sound using different keyboards during the earlier days.
Just take a listen to Parade and SOTT though - they're just DX7, organs, pianos and stuff played on samplers. Analog synths might be deeper in the mix, but they're not really in the foreground. The few analog style sounds that are sprinkled across those mixes could have just as well been DX7 or sampler patches. I've always wondered what the warped electric piano sound on "Dorothy Parker" is though, as it could be one of those later DCO synths (no, I don't know what it really is).
Can someone point me a few obvious examples where analog synths might have been used during this era that I'm missing here for some reason?
Judged by the Tommy Barbarella interview in the Keyboard magazine (it came out in 1992, I think) they had nothing resembling analog synths in the rig when Prince started working with the NPG. His 1990s records all have analog style sounds, but they're quite obviously just the digital approximations that were available at the time. Mind you, there were analog synths used even on MJ's 90s records, so Prince ditching them altogether is a bit weird.
Likewise, I doubt Rave has real analog synths on it. I'm a bit undecided on records like MPLSound and 20ten though. Some of the sounds sound like they might have been played on something like a modern Moog or Alesis Andromeda (listen to tracks like "Ol' Skool Company" or "Sticky Like Glue"). In general, I don't think Prince has much of an interest in monosynths, which is what most of the modern analog units are. Even early on, he liked to play chords on his synths.
We can't tell what some of his associates, like Ricky Peterson, used. I've understood Prince just gave the tapes to them and they would add their own stuff on top of that in their own studios. Looking at Peterson's bio, he seems to be credited to playing Moogs even in the 1990s. Many electronic music producers were sticking with analog for bass even in the 1990s.
[Edited 3/13/14 1:23am] |