If you had to pick one and lose the other, which would you choose? For me, it's synths all the way. For the most part, aside from Eric Leeds, I don't like the usage of horns in Prince's music at all. Most of his classic albums don't have horns on them. And I dislike it when he performs songs that never had horns on them, with huge horn sections. It takes away from the beautiful synth minimalism that defined the Minneapolis Sound and set Prince apart from everyone else.

Give me some thick, rich, analog stacked synths any day!

Synths were fun with the analog oberheim and such on albums between 1980-88. However I prefer tasty use of brass sections if I have to choose between that and his weak 90s digital sounds. The Liv Warfield and Andy Allo albums are tons better than most of his protégé albums, as well as about anything from the 90s and 00s. And they are very "horny". The Rainbow Children had some horns too right? Pretty cool. Musicologoy had some tasty use of horns. However he has a tendency of overkill on his live shows. Especially his most recent live version of Mutiny. And mixing The Family with The Time and James Brown did not sound that good. I think it's more about attention actually soundin good. Thick walls wit horns are great for climax, but when it is placed all around the place, it will eventually get a bit tiresome. However imo it's all about what suits the overall sound of a song

Militant said:

If you had to pick one and lose the other, which would you choose? For me, it's synths all the way. For the most part, aside from Eric Leeds, I don't like the usage of horns in Prince's music at all. Most of his classic albums don't have horns on them. And I dislike it when he performs songs that never had horns on them, with huge horn sections. It takes away from the beautiful synth minimalism that defined the Minneapolis Sound and set Prince apart from everyone else.

Give me some thick, rich, analog stacked synths any day!

I'm obsessisively in love with synthesizers so I'd most likely choose keys over horns anytime, whatever the artist we're talking of. I for one prefer the 2011 version of Extraloveable to the 2013 version.

This being said I dig horns too, Eric of course, who's a genius if you ask me, and the Hornheads just as much, who IMHO complement Prince's work in the exact same way Clare Fischer did, with a great sense of details, a natural elegance and a sound that was just as if it was tailored for Prince's music in the first place.

As for the new horn section they're good but I haven't been really "hooked" by their sound yet, so we'll see how it goes with time, but so far I've found them to sound a bit "generic".

In the end I like the fact that Prince's music goes from barebone minimalist synthfunk to sophisticated funk and jazz group efforts. I also appreciate the fact that P managed to... mix both styles. If u listen to The Slaughterhouse and The Chocolate Invasion, it's minimalist electrofunk just as much as 1999 (for me these tracks were a true return to form for Prince), and still Prince managed to have the Hornheads pop up in the mix here and there and it just made perfect sense! The same could be said for many Leeds/Bliss interventions on tracks such as Hot Thing or Telepathy, who aren't exactly organic in the first place.

Like errant said, depends on the song. I don't really like horns on songs that didn't originally have horns on them, especially Days of Wild. 87-88 and 92-93 tours were great with the horns. Absolutely love the horn intro to Sexy MF.

I hate horns in Princes music.he sounds the best with analgue synths.

[Edited 3/8/14 23:46pm]

Well, I think SOTT is really his best album and that was mostly samplers, organs and the like. There are barely any analog style synths used on it. The horns are used for a lot of the stuff that would have been otherwise played on a synth on his earlier output. By the 90s him still using analog synths would have been a bit silly considering what the attitude towards older synths at the time was. I'm glad that we got all those horn-heavy tracks like "Come", "Dark" and so on during that era.

Really, it all depends on the material. I am not sure if Prince himself even understands the difference in sound between old analog synths that he used back in the day and their modern-day counterparts. Even when he's been talking about preferring analog recently I still see those same workstation type of keyboards on stage (there's not even a Moog Voyager or Little Phatty there, although 75% of bands that perform music comparable to his seem to have one on stage these days).

Snyth and Horms before 3rd Eye Girl's heavy guitars for me

Synths.

wow, I think I would pick the Synth

I can deal with Synth of various degrees on almost any song

But the use of horns on almost every song, can 'water it down'

Atlanta Bliss trumpet though... wow. I love it

Uff, I wouldn't be able to choose. I'd probably say synths, but Prince has made such a brilliant use of horns in albums like Love Symbol, Rainbow Children and Andy Allo's that I'd have to conclude: gimme both!

[Edited 3/11/14 1:24am]

errant said:

Depends on the song. They both work in his studio material. On stage, synths. If only for the fact that he tends to overdo it with horns. It gets incredibly cheesy.

I agree with this completely.

The live horns do have one big thing going for them though. When Prince says, "Maceo can you blow", you know it's a great time to take a piss.

Synths by a million miles. They define the unmistakedly "Prince" sound to begin with. When you used to turn on the radio and hear a new song you had never heard before and hear those synths, you knew it was Prince before he even sung the first lyric on the song. And then once that falsetto kicked in, you definitely knew it was Prince. Hell yeah, give me some Prince with synths and singing in nothing but falsetto and falsetto only. As you can tell, I'm an "Old Prince" fan.

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As for all those horns.....uh....no. I don't hear Prince when I hear them. I hear an impression of somone paying a musical tribute to their musical heros such as James Brown. And now that he's added a ton of them to his band, it's starting to sound like a tired jazz band or Las Vegas type show. The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear them is Doc Severinson and Johnny Carson's old"Tonight Show" band when they used to play the music behind the singers that used to perform as guests on the show.

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[Edited 3/11/14 23:01pm]

TheEnglishGent said:

errant said:

Depends on the song. They both work in his studio material. On stage, synths. If only for the fact that he tends to overdo it with horns. It gets incredibly cheesy.

I agree with this completely.

The live horns do have one big thing going for them though. When Prince says, "Maceo can you blow", you know it's a great time to take a piss.

I think you have used this joke already.

Just a listen 2 'Tricky' Oh, gimme some horns.

vainandy said:

Synths by a million miles. They define the unmistakedly "Prince" sound to begin with. When you used to turn on the radio and hear a new song you had never heard before and hear those synths, you knew it was Prince before he even sung the first lyric on the song. And then once that falsetto kicked in, you definitely knew it was Prince. Hell yeah, give me some Prince with synths and singing in nothing but falsetto and falsetto only. As you can tell, I'm an "Old Prince" fan.

.

As for all those horns.....uh....no. I don't hear Prince when I hear them. I hear an impression of somone paying a musical tribute to their musical heros such as James Brown. And now that he's added a ton of them to his band, it's starting to sound like a tired jazz band or Las Vegas type show. The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear them is Doc Severinson and Johnny Carson's old"Tonight Show" band when they used to play the music behind the singers that used to perform as guests on the show.

Totally agree with all of this.

novabrkr said:

TheEnglishGent said:

I agree with this completely.

The live horns do have one big thing going for them though. When Prince says, "Maceo can you blow", you know it's a great time to take a piss.

I think you have used this joke already.

But it's not funny!

Militant i think the topic should be analogue synths vs horns

Horns all the way

Thibaut said:

errant said:

Thibaut said:

Horns all the way

I had the displeasure of seeing Purple Eain live with an aborted guitar solo, and a horn solo instead. Can you imagine that? And if you can, would you reconsider your vote?

Okay, that doesn't sound right. But isn't that a guitar vs. horns issue? Would you have preferred a synth solo?

EddieC said:

errant said:

Thibaut said: I had the displeasure of seeing Purple Eain live with an aborted guitar solo, and a horn solo instead. Can you imagine that? And if you can, would you reconsider your vote?

Okay, that doesn't sound right. But isn't that a guitar vs. horns issue? Would you have preferred a synth solo?

over horns? probably.

Synth. Because P's synth tended to deliver original ideas, whilst his horn output tended to be based on homage, JB and more..

I have never liked horns and it bugs me when he uses them on a song that wasn't recorded witht them, too. I read that recently he had the horn section play the solo in Purple Rain instead of him. Blesphemy!

[Edited 3/14/14 12:53pm]