What keyboards did Prince use?
Prince used a range of keyboards, pianos and synthesizers throughout his career. Prince began using synthesizers on his first album in place of a horn section, allowing him to perform the entire album himself. He is particularly associated with Oberheim synthesizers, a key component of his early 1980s sound (also known as “The Minneapolis Sound”). However, he kept up with developments in synthesizer technology, moving onto over digital keyboards later in the 1980s.
Oberheim Synthesizers
Prince’s association with Oberheim began on his first album, with Prince playing the Oberheim 4 Voice on three songs. He would go onto use every model in the OB series, introducing the Oberheim OB-X on Dirty Mind, OB-SX on Controversy, OB-Xa on 1999 and OB-8 on Purple Rain (Prince possibly played a Matrix 12 on Parade as well). Prince kept the full OB range on hand, and was still using the OB-X as late as 1984.
By the late 1980s, the OB-8 was the only Oberheim left in Prince’s collection. Prince revisited his earlier sound for Newpower Soul and Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic albums, which included the use of the OB-8.
Another key synthesizer from this time is the Arp Omni, a “string synthesizer”. Prince often combined the Omni with his Oberheims, for example during the introduction to the song “1999”.
Early Years
Some of the earliest pictures of Prince performing live show him playing a Farfisa Mini Compact. There are photos of him playing a Moog Polymoog and Moog Micromoog at Sound 80 studios.
Prince assembled a large collection of keyboards for his first album, typical of the late 1970s. In addition to the Oberheim 4 Voice, his collection included a Moog Polymoog 203a, an Arp Pro Soloist, an Arp String Ensemble, a Hohner Clavinet and a Fender Rhodes. He also played a Moog Minimoog on his first album although he didn’t own one himself.
For the Prince album, Prince started using a Yamaha CP-70, a hybrid acoustic/electric piano. Moving into the 1980s, Prince decreased the number of keyboards in his collection, focusing on the Oberheims, Omni and CP-70.
Digital Synthesizers
In the mid 1980s, Prince had an increasing interest in digital synthesizers. He first used a Yamaha DX7 on Purple Rain and his became his main synthesizer on Around The World In A Day. The DX-7 was notoriously difficult to programme and Prince seemed to have mostly used the presets that came with the keyboard. Prince had a preference for preset-driven keyboards, going back to playing the OB-SX on the Controversy tour, and this would continue for the rest of his career.
He started to use early samplers around this time, including the Ensoniq Mirage on Around The World In A Day and Fairlight CMI on Parade. Although the Fairlight was a fully featured workstation, it seems like Prince treated both keyboards like the DX-7, working mostly with the existing preset patches and samples.
In 1986, Prince stopped using the CP-70 live, switching to a dummy piano shell with a Yamaha KX88 and Roland MKS-20 mounted inside. Despite this shift towards digital keyboards, he played a Hammond B3 organ on the Parade tour and Sign O The Times. Prince would take the Hammond out on almost every tour for the rest of his career.
Prince’s digital synthesizer collection continued to evolve through the 1980s. He used a Sequential Circuits Prophet VS on Sign O The Times and a Roland D-50 appears on Lovesexy, Batman and Graffiti Bridge. He also used a number of digital samplers, including others from Ensoniq (ESQ-1, EPS and ASR-10) and E-mu (Emax and Emulator). Despite this collection, it seems that Prince’s preferred sampler was actually a digital effects unit, the Publison IM90 Infernal Machine, which he continued using as a sampler well into the 1990s.
Prince in the 1990s
Prince’s keyboard collection continued to keep up the times, with Roland being his preferred brand in the 1990s. He continued using the D-50 as late as 1992, before switching to a Roland JV-80. It’s likely that both keyboards were used as a master keyboard, controlling a rack of other synthesizers and samplers. In the early 1990s, this included Akai Samplers (S1000 and S3000) and E-mu’s sound modules (Proteus and Vintage Keys). Later, his rack included the Roland JV 2080 and Korg TR Rack. Other Roland keyboards included the A-90 piano (replacing the KX88/MKS-20) and VK-7 organ.
Prince usually kept a programmable synthesizer to hand, with the Roland JD-800 being a big part of his sound in the early 1990s. On Emancipation, Prince introduced the Clavia Nord Lead synthesizer, a “virtual analog” keyboard that emulated his older analog synthesizers. The Lead 2 would be a part of Prince and his band’s set-up for the next decade.
Later years
In the 2000s, Prince replaced his Roland keyboards with the Yamaha Motif series, starting Yamaha Motif 6 on The Rainbow Children, followed by the ES8 and XF8. This would be Prince’s preferred keyboard for the rest of his career. He started using the Fender Rhodes again at this time, and this would be a key part of his sound in the 2000s. He later acquired Moog Minimoog Voyager, bringing his keyboard collection full circle.