R.I.P Prince

[Gerald]

I was watching the 1999 live dvd again (I still wish it was better quality, not something you will play too often most likely) and I was wondering about the drums. Prince is known for his use of drum machines, especially the Linn LM-1:

Linn LM-1 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

However, live he has Bobby Z. on drums. Still you get that same drum sound as on the records. How does that work? You can't create the sound of a drum machine with live drums, can you? Or is it a combination of drum machines and actual drums live, where Bobby Z. plays along to a drum machine?

 

[kingricefan]

I was watching the 1999 live dvd again (I still wish it was better quality, not something you will play too often most likely) and I was wondering about the drums. Prince is known for his use of drum machines, especially the Linn LM-1:

Linn LM-1 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

However, live he has Bobby Z. on drums. Still you get that same drum sound as on the records. How does that work? You can't create the sound of a drum machine with live drums, can you? Or is it a combination of drum machines and actual drums live, where Bobby Z. plays along to a drum machine?

I don't know how the drumming is accomlished.

 

[Gerald]

I don't know how the drumming is accomlished.

I can't find any info about it. Clearly he used the drum machine in the studio, but nothing about how they did it on stage. The image is just too bad to see if there is a drum machine on stage - but it really is that same sound as on the studio recordings, maybe slightly less pronounced (although that may be because of the poor sound quality), but it's still there.

 

[Gerald]

I don't know how the drumming is accomlished.

Aren't you a member of a Prince board? Could you ask it there?

 

[Gerald]

Prince Estate Announces 'Prince and the Revolution: Live' Streaming Event

The Prince Estate will stream 'Prince and the Revolution: Live' across three days on YouTube, starting Thursday, May 14th, at 8 p.m. ET.

www.rollingstone.com

Not sure what they mean with across three days. That it just gets repeated over and over again?

 

[Gerald]

I can't find any info about it. Clearly he used the drum machine in the studio, but nothing about how they did it on stage. The image is just too bad to see if there is a drum machine on stage - but it really is that same sound as on the studio recordings, maybe slightly less pronounced (although that may be because of the poor sound quality), but it's still there.

I'm fairly sure that on stage they used both a drum machine AND live drumming. I've seen other bands do that too. And I think it's the same on the records - not everything on the record is drum machines on each track - live drums are used too. It's always used the way that suits each track the best, I think, one or the other or both together.

It's too bad they never go into how each track is made in full detail. Even in the excellent The Story of 1999 podcast, which you wish was added on an extra disc in the set, they never fully dissect each track.
I haven't read all the liner notes yet though, but I doubt they do that there. It comes down to listening real well and try to distinguish which is live drumming and which is a machine, which is probably hard when you're not professionaly working in music.

 

[Gerald]

I'm fairly sure that on stage they used both a drum machine AND live drumming. I've seen other bands do that too. And I think it's the same on the records - not everything on the record is drum machines on each track - live drums are used too. It's always used the way that suits each track the best, I think, one or the other or both together.

Seems I was absolutely right. And I got it confirmed right from the source, Bobby Z. himself. In the pre-show of the Purple Rain live broadcast last week he took questions and mine was answered. That was the absolute cherry on the cake of the Prince re-releases for me, really cool.
It clearly was very early days for drum machines, and especially using them live.



Watching the full concert with everyone was fun too. But the chat was almost impossible to keep up with - I assume they want to create a concert feeling where everyone can shout/post something at any time, but the comments from the Revolution themselves drowned in the overall amount this way.

 

[Gerald]

I don't understand what's up with the dvd's in the re-releases. For the third time in a row the dvd in the Up All Nite (One Nite Alone Collection) set is horrible in image quality. I can understand the 1999 and Purple Rain ones looking bad because of their age, but the Live at Aladdin Las Vegas concert is from 2003. Was it as bad when it was first released at the time on dvd? I remember watching it at the time, but I don't have the dvd anymore so I can't check.
It doesn't even look like a professional dvd release, the image is highly unsharp, and there are constantly horizontal stripes visible just like on the 1999 dvd. Strangely when you see it on Youtube it looks better. The cd's are great - I think the solo with piano cd is one of the most beautiful things he's done and I didn't know it yet. But this set was 45 euro, so you expect the dvd to have at least decent image. I don't understand how it can look this bad, it's almost as if it was completely wrongly transposed to dvd - those horizontal stripes even show up on the still photos that are shown.

 

[Gerald]

I looked at customer reviews from the Aladdin dvd at the time and there are also complaints about the image, so that's how it always was apparently. I may have returned it at the time because of that, because I remember having it but I don't anymore.

Just to check the difference, I put in the Rave unto the Year 2000 dvd and it's excellent, especially the sound. Clearly not as sharp image as a blu-ray, but no major issues with it. The sound is probably so good because it was shot at the venue of Paisley Park, so the sound conditions were most likely optimal.
But the main difference in quality is possibly because it's from Eagle Rock who have a high standard of releases, where the Aladdin dvd is just from NPG I think.

It holds up really well as a performance to the more classic performances from the Purple Rain and Sign O'the Times eras, with nice renditions of Purple Rain and The Cross with a choir. Also loads of guest performances from The Time, Lenny Kravitz, George Clinton (only in the extras) and members of Sly and the Family Stone. It's one of those setlists that will please everybody - a good mix of lesser known songs like She's always in my Hair, but also all the hits. Highly recommended. I'd buy the recently re-released set for the remix album, but just to get that album the price of over 30 euro seems high.