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No.

Never.

Ever.

Ever.



Why?

Famboozled said:

why not?

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

Because.

Why else?

No seriously, I can't imagine a situation where synth horns would be preferable to real ones.

Prince has great horn players at his disposal, but perhaps still not readily available enough for someone so prolific.

Synth horns make me cringe and have detracted from many a song. Prince isn't alone in this, but it is one of his most frequent production mistakes, IMHO.

Well, back in tha day (damn, did I just say that?!), I would imagine as an up-and-coming artist, Prince may not have had the budget, for one, at his disposal to pay for horn players. He had a nice meat-and-potatoes lineup then: drummer, bassist, two keyboardists (ok that's not barebones, but it was for the many flavors he puts into each song), and a guitarist aside from himself.

I do agree that many a song from then would sound far better today with horn players, but you've got to understand, that was the 70's and 80's. Synth use was becoming big quickly. Today, as was then, I would take horns over synth-use anyday.

xpsiter said:

Yep, the technology was exciting, although more so when Stevie Wonder was feverishly getting his hands on the new Arp and Moog synths in the mid-70s. I can understand why musicians would be drawn to the new hardware, but looking back I sometimes wish Prince had used real horns. Thing is, the 80s have come back into fashion, but synth horns still sound bad most of the time. To me now, in the 00s, the back to basics of real instruments could never be more relevant and necessary. It may see a backward step to look back to the soul and funk of the 70s but real instruments never get old. I want that sound still today. I don't think it renders me stuck in the past. I just think it's timeless. Soul and funk sounds best this way and no changes or trends will alter this.

Stevie used synths beautifully. I never cringe or feel embarassed listening to Stevie's use of synths (pre-1979 that is) as he would never replicate horns, but rather would make sweet and interesting unique sounds (see Music Of Mind album for example). To simply replace real horns with synth ones to me is not an artistic choice so much as an unfortunate compromise that hurts the quality of the music.

What are y'all talking about?

The whole Prince "Minneapolis" sound is based on "synths"..... and they aren't "horns"..... they're "H...O...H...E...N.....HOHENs".... as in... "Gimme some _____!"

Seriously, the sound of the Time..... Holly Rock..... DMSR..... that is classic.. and you don't get that same feel with real horns.

I've been trying to recreate those sounds for years with more modern equipment and still have trouble.

GaryMF said:

Pish. The stuff is classic because it is. It'd be even more classic with real horns.

Don't recreate it. Play real instruments.

Love that 'gimm some howns!'

The Minneapolis sounds is great in spite of the synth horns, not because of it.

Cringe-worthy in most places. It's only because the music is so funky that they don't render whole songs completely awful.


... shouldnasaiditedit
[This message was edited Thu May 13 10:32:20 2004 by Famboozled]