Hi! I am trying to figure out Prince's instrumentation on the songs that I really like, the list of instruments used on the song. Trying to figure out why some songs work so well, especially with minimal instrumentation. For example, "When Doves Cry" not having a bass. "If I was Your Girlfriend" - I am not hearing any guitar. I already searched a little bit on the Org for instrument lists and I have not found a thread, so therefore my post.

For any of the musicians/nerds who want to figure this out, would be cool to have the instrumentation list per song all in one place. I think would be useful for doing cover versions, or own songwriting in general. Does that sound like fun? If so please join in, would be so helpful for some of us still learning. And extra points for knowing exactly which model of the instrument used, lol!

"If I was Your Girlfriend":

Samples in Intro (Symphony, Organ...)

Drum Machine

Synthesizer (Oberheim?)

Bass Guitar

"Kiss":

Drum Machine (Linn drum)

Guitar 1 (Acoustic?)

Guitar 2 (Electric)

Synth (not sure what kind...)

iZsaZsa said:

princevault is great.

Hello! Yeah, princevault is very helpful, thanks. But where Prince played all of the instruments, it does not list them out. Checked again, its only listing "recording personnel" so its not quite instrumentation but it does help where others are playing so thanks again!

[Edited 8/6/16 10:23am]

hezekinap said:

"If I was Your Girlfriend":

Samples in Intro (Symphony, Organ...)

Drum Machine

Synthesizer (Oberheim?)

Bass Guitar

Do you mean just a list of intruments or the actual arrangment of different "voices/sounds" used?

A lot of the 80s stuff always sounded like primarily drum machine & keyboards to me, with occasional bass or guitar super-low in the mix in comparison to his live or later stuff.

hezekinap said:

ufoclub said:

hezekinap said:

"If I was Your Girlfriend":

Samples in Intro (Symphony, Organ...)

Drum Machine

Synthesizer (Oberheim?)

Bass Guitar

Do you mean just a list of intruments or the actual arrangment of different "voices/sounds" used?

Hmm, good question. I meant mainly list of instruments, and deciphering of voices/sounds count as instruments too i think. I was less thinking about arrangment actually, but i welcome whatever input that helps to decode a song.

WhisperingDandelions said:

A lot of the 80s stuff always sounded like primarily drum machine & keyboards to me, with occasional bass or guitar super-low in the mix in comparison to his live or later stuff.

hey, I agree his 80s stuff has more drum machines, but it depends on the album. I think his Dirty Mind & Prince, was live played drums. I am guessing that from Controversy/1999 he gets into drum machines in combination with live drums or sometimes just the drum machine. Sign o the Times has a lot of drum machines.