From Prince Vault:

"An ensemble of musicians from a Minneapolis radio station, The WAYL Orchestra, was brought in to add strings to the song, but Prince didn’t like the end result, preferring synthetic strings instead."

From this old (2004) thread (http://prince.org/msg/7/92901):

"Sorry dude, have another listen (preferably with good quality headphones). It just sounds too real to be a synthesiser. Even today's most advanced synths don't have sounds THAT realistic, let alone in 1978! I'm convinced it's a small string section... BUT WHO???"

I'm with toejam here. It simply doesn't sound like synths. It must be a real string section.

Is Prince Vault correct or not? What do you think?

[Edited 6/11/15 2:47am]

It could be a Mellotron, or something similar but a bit more 1978 contemporary maybe?

edit: although there's no mellotron on the credits.

all vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, Orr bass, bass synth, singing bass, Fuzz bass, Fender Rhodes electric piano, acoustic piano, Mini-Moog, Poly-Moog, Arp String Ensemble, Arp Pro Soloist, Oberheim 4-voice, clavinet, drums, syndrums, water drums, slapsticks, bongos, congas, finger cymbals, wind chimes, orchestral bells, woodblocks, brush trap, tree bell, hand claps, finger snaps

I suppose if there was another instrument they could justify putting on there they would have.

[Edited 6/11/15 3:00am]

I just listened to it. I'm pretty sure that's a real string section.

jaawwnn said:

It could be a Mellotron, or something similar but a bit more 1978 contemporary maybe?

It could. Interesting idea. But then you still would have to use the recording of a real string section for the Mellotron to produce the sound of strings. Which wouldn't be Prince anyway.

It could be also used on SoTT and many more albums

https://www.youtube.com/w...TKL1XnD9AA

or he used a mellotron sampler/synth

[Edited 6/11/15 11:04am]

[Edited 6/11/15 11:36am]

Anyway, it still sounds like a real string section, which would mean that Prince Vault is wrong about this. And also that "For You" is not completely the "one-man band" album I thought it was!

olb99 said:

The WAYL Orchestra was involved when the demo was being recorded at Sound 80 in Minneapolis.

Prince got the idea to put strings on Baby when Danielle Mauroy in New York was interested in only that song and wanted to record it with a full string orchestra. She also wanted to take Prince's publishing rights.

Owen Husney talked to Prince on the phone while he was staying with his sister Sharon in New York and convinced him to come back to Minneapolis becaused he believed in him more than Danielle did.

For the real album recorded in Sausalito, Patrice Rushen's boyfriend, Charles Veal arranged and conducted the string section on Baby that was totally uncredited.

[Edited 6/15/15 20:15pm]

[Edited 6/15/15 20:16pm]

wahclavinet said:

The WAYL Orchestra was involved when the demo was being recorded at Sound 80 in Minneapolis.

Prince got the idea to put strings on Baby when Danielle Mauroy in New York was interested in only that song and wanted to record it with a full string orchestra. She also wanted to take Prince's publishing rights.

Owen Husney talked to Prince on the phone while he was staying with his sister Sharon in New York and convinced him to come back to Minneapolis becaused he believed in him more than Danielle did.

For the real album recorded in Sausalito, Patrice Rushen's boyfriend, Charles Veal arranged and conducted the string section on Baby that was totally uncredited.

[Edited 6/15/15 20:15pm]

[Edited 6/15/15 20:16pm]

Interesting. Now I notice that Charles Veal is mentioned on the "For You" page (http://www.princevault.com/index.php/Album:_For_You):

"Charles Veal - string arrangement on Baby (uncredited)"

But not on the "Baby" page.

IIRC the first time I've heard of Veal being involved was the discography at the end of Alex Hahn's book, but (again IIRC) he was credited as playing the violin not conducted a string section. Obviously the definitive info is known by either Hahn or Nilsen or both, and probably a few more people, but no matter what it's clear that Veal was involved and that the song features some real strings. Great thread BTW

databank said:

IIRC the first time I've heard of Veal being involved was the discography at the end of Alex Hahn's book, but (again IIRC) he was credited as playing the violin not conducted a string section. Obviously the definitive info is known by either Hahn or Nilsen or both, and probably a few more people, but no matter what it's clear that Veal was involved and that the song features some real strings. Great thread BTW

A while back, Per Nilsen wrote about it in Uptown magazine. It's known that Charles Veal did the string arrangement.

I forgot that it didn't happen in Sausalito - it took place at Sound Labs studio in LA, where the album was mixed. Patrice Rushen was also recording there at the time.

http://www.petergillis.ne.../02/01.htm

http://www.discogs.com/ar...pe=Credits

[Edited 6/26/15 13:37pm]