Purple Rain
Purple Rain is Prince's sixth album. It is Prince's biggest selling album and features two number one singles. It was accompanied by a highly successful film of the same name. It features a mixture of pop, dance, hard rock and psychedelic sounds.
The album is notable for featuring his band, the Revolution, on six of the songs. Prince's guitar playing is more prominent on this album, whilst he continued using his Oberheim synthesizers and Linn LM-1 drum machine. Other new sounds include the Yamaha DX7 and a string section.
Prince and the Revolution performed the material from the album live from August 1983, with the Purple Rain tour running from November 1984 to April 1985.
Prince Live
Rig Diagram
Click on the equipment for more information · Download this rig diagram as an image
The Revolution Live
Wendy Melvoin
Prince In The Studio
Purple Rain was recorded between July 1983 and March 1984 at Sunset Sound, the First Avenue nightclub and Prince's Kiowa Trail home studio and St. Louis Park warehouse studio.
The Revolution appear on six of the nine songs (Let's Go Crazy, Take Me With U, Computer Blue, I Would Die 4 U, Baby I'm A Star and Purple Rain), probably using their live rigs listed above.
Equipment
| Vocals |
|
|---|---|
| Guitars | |
| Amplifiers |
The guitars amps were recorded through Shure SM57 (First Avenue) and Sennheiser MD421 (St. Louis Park) microphones. Guitars were also recorded direct using a Countryman 85 DI |
| Effects | |
| Basses |
Basses were recorded direct using a Countryman 85 DI |
| Synthesizers | |
| Pianos and Keyboards |
The Steinway Model B was recorded with AKG C414 microphones. |
| Drums |
Drums were probably recorded with the following microphones - Kick Drum: Sennheiser MD 421; Snare: Shure SM57; Toms: Sennheiser MD 441/MD 421; HiHat: Neumann KM84; Overheads: AKG C414 |
| Strings | Violins were recorded with Telefunken ELA M 251 microphones and cellos with Neumann U47 microphones. |
Production
Recording (First Avenue)
Outboard (First Avenue)
- UREI 1176 Compressors x4
- UREI Teletronix LA-3A Compressors x4 (for Drums and Vocals)
- DBX 160 Compressor
Recording (St. Louis Park)
Outboard (St. Louis Park)
- UREI Teletronix LA-2A Compressor
- API 55a Outboard EQ
- Massenburg GML 4 Channel Mic Pre-Amp
- Lexicon 224 Reverb
- Lexicon Prime Time Digital Delay
- AMS RMX16 Reverb
- EMT 250 Reverb
- EMT 140 Reverb
- Eventide H949
Recording (Sunset Sound)
Outboard (Sunset Sound)
Recording (Kiowa Trail)
Outboard (Kiowa Trail)
References
- Tudahl, Duane (2017) Prince and the Purple Rain Studio Sessions - 1983 and 1984
- Brown, Jake (2010) Prince 'in the Studio' 1975 - 1995
- Mix (2019) Let’s Go Crazy
- Mix (2009) Classic Tracks: Prince and the Revolution’s “Purple Rain”
- Musician (1984) Prince's Sceptres
