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1984-1985

Purple Rain

Purple Rain is Prince’s sixth album. It is his most commercially successful album and is the soundtrack to the film of the same name. It features a mixture of pop, dance, hard rock and psychedelic styles.

Co-credited to the Revolution, three songs were recorded live with the band at First Avenue and a further three were recorded at Prince’s St Louis Park warehouse. The album augments the “Minneapolis Sound” with a string section on several songs, arranged by Lisa Coleman and Prince.

Prince and the Revolution first performed material from the album in August 1983, with the Purple Rain tour running from November 1984 to April 1985.

Prince Live

Equipment

Rig Diagram

Click on the equipment for more information · Download this rig diagram as an image
UNKNOWN WIRELESS SYSTEM MESA/BOOGIE FOOTSWITCH WITH BAG END D12-M CABINETS MESA/BOOGIE MARK II HEAD X3 BOSS OC-2 OC T A VE BOSS CE-2 CHORUS or VB-2 VIBRATO BOSS DM-2 DEL A Y BOSS BF-2 FLANGER BOSS SD-1 SUPER O VERDRIVE BOSS PSM-5 POWER SUPP L Y/ MASTER SWITCH DUNLOP CRY BABY

Prince In The Studio

Prince in the studio in the Purple Rain era.

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
  • Sennheiser D330 (St Louis Park)
  • Shure SM57 (First Avenue)
  • Neumann U47 (Sunset Sound)
Guitars
Amplifier
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 and Percussion
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.

References