People relate guitar to Prince

but it was synth that defined Minneapolis sound

in the 1980-1984 period most of the songs had strong

synth hook and synth was the most prominent instrument in the mix.

without synths Prince wouldnt have trademark MPLS sound defined.

I think that synth is most important throughout his entire career.

Prince adding guitar on top of synth is what set him apart.

the strength of the synth deminished after 1986 extremely after 1990

Guitar, Bass, Synth, Piano,keyboards/, Linn Drum, Acoustic Drums, Horns, and a powerful voice that counts as an instrument on its own were all equally the most important...nah...it was the way he used all those instruments at once, and how he knew just the right mix, like omitting bass from WDC, how the keyboards were the horn section in DMSR, how he could use live drms and the Linn Drum in the same song...other than Prince and Phil Collins, who else did that? Not many, and they were the most successful by far.

I do.

the cutting edge Prince, the incarnation that will always trump all the others throughout the 30 odd years will be the years where he was setting the trend with the synthesizers. You didn't have to know much about synths to have his music capture you because it was so fresh and so different than everything else. As a sidenote, as I've said a million times, it was also because of the jazz chords he used along with the sparser use of gospel chords which set him apart from everyone else in the pop field at the time. His main instrument though, was of course the guitar, piano/keys are a hard instrument to negotiate as a front man and I also think Prince was a better guitarist than pianist.

[Edited 5/24/19 13:29pm]

Madhouse6 said:

For me it’s the LINN Drum machine

certainly, a case could be made for that too. me and my friend had an arguement once about Prince's rhythm tracks, he wasn't as sold on them as I was, but again, he had sounds that were so different and unique than anything else around at the time.

thebanishedone said:

People relate guitar to Prince

but it was synth that defined Minneapolis sound

in the 1980-1984 period most of the songs had strong

synth hook and synth was the most prominent instrument in the mix.

without synths Prince wouldnt have trademark MPLS sound defined.

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I think what defined Prince as a musican was that his sound was constantly changing and evolving. He wasn't tied to just one instrument or one genre. As I often tell people who are only familiar with Prince's radio hits, you could listen to a hundred of his songs back-to-back and never believe they were the same artist, let alone know any of them were Prince.

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yeah but creative use of synth is what defined him and made him what he is

thebanishedone said:

yeah but creative use of synth is what defined him and made him what he is

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I disagree. What defined Prince was that he wasn't tied to any one sound. Other artists were master of one specific genre and style. Prince was a master of all music.

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lurker316 said:

thebanishedone said:

yeah but creative use of synth is what defined him and made him what he is

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I disagree. What defined Prince was that he wasn't tied to any one sound. Other artists were master of one specific genre and style. Prince was a master of all music.

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it was but how many hits and people did he influence, the only ones who followed him for his later 80's work were fans. 1999 even influenced MJ to ask for a similar riff to open thriller, and yes, mj was copying prince's sound on Bad but it was the sound of prince from the 1999/pr era, i can't think of a lot of copying of the brilliant work on atwiad-sott.

PeteSilas said:

lurker316 said:

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I disagree. What defined Prince was that he wasn't tied to any one sound. Other artists were master of one specific genre and style. Prince was a master of all music.

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it was but how many hits and people did he influence, the only ones who followed him for his later 80's work were fans. 1999 even influenced MJ to ask for a similar riff to open thriller, and yes, mj was copying prince's sound on Bad but it was the sound of prince from the 1999/pr era, i can't think of a lot of copying of the brilliant work on atwiad-sott.

strong point .i agree

and its true

Quincy told Rod Templeton that he wants synth riff similar to 1999 for the song Thriller