Can you tell me how to emulate Prince’s drum machine sound?

Following Prince’s tragic death, tributes were understandably paid to his skills as a multiinstrumentalist, songwriter and performer. However, his talents as a drum machine programmer shouldn’t be underestimated; his beats were a key part of what became known as the ‘Minneapolis sound’, which was also exemplified by the likes of Jam & Lewis and The Time.

The classic Prince drum machine sounds (think of those used on his 1999 and Purple Rain albums, for example) came from the LM-1 and LinnDrum, so it’s emulations of these machines that you should seek out. Aly James Lab’s VProm is a faithful LM-1 emulation, and there are LinnDrum samples contained within Arturia’s Spark VDM.

Alternatively, if you’re an Ableton user, you can download SympleSound’s PurpleDrums, a Live 9.5 project that includes a Drum Rack based on processed sounds from both the LM-1 and LinnDrum, as well as ten Prince-inspired MIDI loops. That should certainly be enough to help you get your purple groove on.