I have a pretty good understanding of how Prince got his drum sound on Dirty Mind/Controversy, but there's one sound that's always boggled me. You can hear it clearly on Controversy (the title track); it's a sound he would layer over the snare hit, usually on the 4. I've always thought it sounded a lot like a bull whip, but this was before sampling, and I have a pretty hard time picturing P standing in front of a mic, cracking an actual bull whip.

Anyone know what this sound is? My only guess is it's an analog synth sound (filtered white noise?) triggered by the synth drum P was fond of in the Pre-Linn days, but it sounds too "real" to be a synth sound.