Prince's "old" drum sound

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Here's one for the musicians:

I'm trying to get an approximation (through programming my trusty VST drummachine and not sampling the sound itself) of Prince's old
snare sound. But I just can't figure out how he did it. It's that sound like a champagne bottle popping in a cave - think "Glamorous Life", "I Would Die 4 U " and just about anything else he did c. 1985. I know he used a Linn Drum primarily. Anybody have an idea how to do it?

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Friday, 17 January 2003 16:49 (twenty-three years ago)

it sounds like a handclap patch, with reverb... ?? sorry, that's as helpful as i can be

― brains (cerybut), Friday, 17 January 2003 16:50 (twenty-three years ago)

It's definitely a LinnDrum. Without an actual LinnDrum, you'll probably have serious problems properly replicating that sound, although I know there are patches for various programs. I wasn't really been satisfied by the one I heard tho. Sorry, this probably isn't very helpful...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 17 January 2003 17:15 (twenty-three years ago)

a good friend of mine who's a Prince fanatic claims to have the same LinnDrum model used on those classic recordings...i'll ask him for the specifics next time i see him online...

― Al (sitcom), Friday, 17 January 2003 19:08 (twenty-three years ago)

http://www.rogerlinndesign.com/products/museum.shtml

Here you'll see the complete line of Linn Drums Machines from the 80s.

Prince used the LM-1 extensively on the 1999, Purple Rain and Sign of the Times records. He also used it on various other cuts.

This machine is a great box and i own the LinnDrum. I swear by it, as there is a reason Prince still uses this box.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Mat
http://www.olympus-mons.com

― mat, Friday, 17 January 2003 19:40 (twenty-three years ago)

There are two different snare sounds being referred to, I think.
When it's a snare it's definitely a Linndrum (eg 'Little Red Corvette' or 'Kiss' - on the latter the snare sound may be pitched down a little..that was my impression when I last listened to it, which was a long time ago). The other sound, I'm guessing from the reference above to a handclap, is probably a bit like a Jam & Lewis late '80s clap/snare which would have heavy compression and a gated reverb on it. That sound is sort of descended from the p-funk clap of the '70s which evolved into the Zapp style funk clap of the early '80s and was further refined and exaggerated by people like Jam & Lewis and Teddy Riley (as well as Prince himself of course).

― David (David), Friday, 17 January 2003 19:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Ok it was probably the LM1 not the 'Linndrum' as you suggest.

― David (David), Friday, 17 January 2003 19:48 (twenty-three years ago)

i have perfected the replecation of the linn sound however it took lots of practice. so there you go.

― chaki (chaki), Friday, 17 January 2003 19:56 (twenty-three years ago)

replication?

there is no such thing with the LinnDrum line. You can only try. :)

― mat, Friday, 17 January 2003 21:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Hmmm. Can't wait to get home and try this. It seems to be what I was trying to get. Anyhow - thanks everyone for the responses!

>The other sound, I'm guessing from the reference above to a handclap, is probably a bit like a Jam & Lewis late '80s clap/snare which would have heavy
compression and a gated reverb on it. That sound is sort of descended from the p-funk clap of the '70s which evolved into the Zapp style funk clap of the early '80s and was further refined
and exaggerated by people like Jam & Lewis and Teddy Riley (as well as Prince himself of course).

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Friday, 17 January 2003 21:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Hmmm. Can't wait to get home and try this

Yes a heavy compression (with a slow attack so it exaggerates the
percussive edge to the beginning of the clap sound) plus a gated reverb. Also try strongly boosting the mid range on the eq (roughly around 1khz) to give it an aggressive rasp.

― David (David), Friday, 17 January 2003 21:47 (twenty-three years ago)

I wish I could help but thank you for reminding me of the Prince's old drum sound. ahhhh...lovely.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 17 January 2003 22:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Indeed it is a Linn Drum he uses, I had a real nice soundfont that was pretty damn close a while ago, so if you have Halion or anything that can load soundfonts it might be worth a look.

On a prince related note...

Boom Bip, on that doo doo breaks 1 album, track three, is just an instrumental of (my favourite prince song) 'the ballad of dorothy parker', he hasn't actually done anything to it, apart from the absence of a vocal, quite odd.

Headlining glastonbury so the rumour mill reports.

― Thom, Sunday, 19 January 2003 23:03 (twenty-three years ago)

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