What's up everybody. I've really been enjoying the Come album recently. It has a very mesmerizing and compelling atmosphere running throughout the album that makes it really easy to get lost in. Well, until the "1 2 3 4!!!!!" intro on Loose. Anyways, the drums contribute a lot to this atmosphere so I was wondering if anybody might be able to tell me what they are exactly? Live drums that have been tampered with (sound-wise)? Drum machines? (If so, what drum machines?) Thanks a bunch! (For those of you who are heavy into the joint worlds of gear and recording, please pardon my ignorance).

I'm mainly thinking of the tracks Come, Space, and Letitgo if that's of any help to ya'll.

Thanks again!

My feeling is "Come" and "Papa" are live drums (and band), the other songs are just tracks that Prince did in the studio himself with electric drums. The album feels like something thrown together to me in a hurry, although I do like most of it and I feel it's aged quite well

It's a combination of the drum machine/samples and live drums. Some songs are entirely live drums (Dark), and some are entirley electronic (Loose).

Thanks lynx and steakfinger for your replies!

lynx: I know there's a thread out there detailing the various studio dates of this albums production but I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume that it was put together quickly too. I think this can be good sometimes. Some say that a precondition of genius is some sort of imposed limitation. I'm not saying Come is necessarily of genius level but I know Lovesexy, for example, was put together pretty quickly. Not to be down on the era. I think The Dawn bootleg pretty well proves it as one of his major creative peaks! In that context the work seems genius to me.

steakfinger: Might you know what drum machines he was using at the time?

Thanks again!

(For the record, that period between 93-95 is definitely in the top 3 for me personally. I'd be tempted to place that era in the top 2.)

[Edited 12/18/17 14:22pm]

[Edited 12/18/17 14:24pm]

A mix of live drums from Michael B and drum loops by Kirk

In the 80s, Prince programmed his own drum loops primarily on the LINN-LM1 drum machine. By the 90s he, like most artists influenced by hip-hop, were using samples of old drum loops. "Space" took its funky layered drum pattern from a couple of songs. You can get the breakdown here:

https://www.whosampled.co...nce/Space/

[Edited 12/19/17 14:11pm]

renfield said:

In the 80s, Prince programmed his own drum loops primarily on the LINN-LM1 drum machine. By the 90s he, like most artists influenced by hip-hop, were using samples of old drum loops. "Space" took its funky layered drum pattern from a couple of songs. You can get the breakdown here:

https://www.whosampled.co...nce/Space/

[Edited 12/19/17 14:11pm]

Thank you!!
Thank god for Who Sampled!

https://www.whosampled.com/album/Prince/Come/