We all know the one of Prince's early and signature sounds was the "fat" synth sound which he used on most albums up to and including Purple Rain.

I read here and in books that he used to layer like 7 or 8 synth (oberheim probably) sounds on top to get that fat sound.

My question is... back in the early 80.s before MIDI, how did he re-create it live?? I don't think early synth's could do "layer" effects let alone sample.

But the Revolution and the Time both had those fat "hoh-ens" sound when playing live pre MIDI.

Also, once Eric joined the band, it also seemed like there were several sax's playing in unison. I assumed by then he was sampling and having Lisa or Matt play with Eric to get that sound. Anyone know?

Yeah, the layering quote was from Matt Fink, and I think I can vaguely remember that was from an interview he done with KEYBOARD magazine (January 1990 issue???)

The front cover has Dr Fink and Rosie Gains on the cover.

Maybe if u can find that issue, it will tell u more.

Sorry 4 lack of info

Well although MIDI wasn't a proper "standard" until 1983, guys like Roland and Oberheim had been working on it for years earlier. Lots of synths were digital by the end of the 70s too.

However, most of the synth solos in the early Prince albums could be easily performed live by a single keyboardist without MIDI sequencers. I've heard nothing on those early albums that's unplayable for a good keyboardist...

ian said:

I don't mean the synth solos as much as the synth parts which act more like horns. (e.g. chords and hits).

Especially on 1999 for example, on the song 1999, LRC, Let's pretend etc, DMSR... they all have heavy "synth horns" which sound really fat... but how many layers could Lisa and Matt been playing live?

And I'm talking more about live versions than the album whre he could overdub and layer... Live he only had 4 hands (Matt and Lisa's)!

The parts can usually be played with one hand, so together they could play four parts simultaneously, each consisting of 3-4 notes at a time. Also, the synth they used allowed them to stack voices on top of each other for extra fatness...

GaryMF said: