anyone aware of the multiple syncopated rhythms going on in most prince tracks?

been listening to the belle of saint mark and in this bed i scream today, and amongst everything else, its prevalent and essential to making most of princes grooves. i think its the thing im most addicted to. it runs right through all his work, dispite all the sound changes, production, image etc.

anyone get the same feeling?

is that his Santana influence? i think it's cool that Prince tries all kinds of stylings

Syncopation can make for wonderfully catchy tunes. I love when a rhythm track is fleshed out with other instruments hitting on the same beats. One of my favorite 12" cuts comes to mind: She's Always In My Hair.

spoida said:

I don't know exactly what you're referring to...but the way I see it, "syncopated rhythms" doesn't just occur in Prince's tracks - that's something most R'n'B/funk musicians use more or less all the time.

Or did I misunderstand you?

What syncopated rhythms on "In This Bed I Scream"? Does that matter? It's just multitrack bonanza, all kinds of wonderful things can happen when you have 5600x45 of tracks available to throw crap on.

Novabreaker said:

this song was just an example. it seems to happen on almost every song and any tempo. what i mean is the clarity of the syncopation, not a jumbled mess but when sometimes there is a part when musicians find space to accent their instrument and stand out. A constant thread throughout the piece where a defined role for each instrument allows it to cut through and play off the timbre of another, over the (majority) 16th pattern.

I agree a lot of funk artists know this art, i just feel that prince has conjured up a lot of original interesting patterns, if this is a specific artisitc piece of his work that defines his sound.

yes, multitracking can produce interesting polyrhythms, so can sample layering. i just think prince orders his tracks without a big element of chance, giving his tracks a slight manufactured (industrial?) funky feel.

spoida said:

I see. Yeah, there is a lot of clarity with Prince's arrangements. for your view.

• Compared to other similar artists, Prince often uses very sparse arrangements (i.e. fewer instruments).

• He seems to prefer a relatively dry sound, with less reverb effects than you'd normally hear, thus making the instruments sound clearer.

• Regardless of whether he's programming sequencers, playing the instruments himself, or using his band, the performance is always rhythmically precise, with everything exactly in its place.

• Prince knows about space. As every musician knows, that's the secret of the groove. Many times, the pauses can be just as exciting as when you're actually playing (or even more). Prince utilizes this to full effect. He doesn't play more than he has to. I think this might be because he often plays everything himself - knowing in his head what the track's gonna sound like, he intentionally leaves space for himself, to later fill with another instrument. If you have different musicians doing overdubs (which is the way most people work today), they might not have the same understanding of the whole picture, thus playing more than what's really necessary.

RealMusician said:

Not just a secret to a groove. It's also the secret to a professional-sounding piece of work. And by that I mean quality.