I was just watching a SOTT-era concert and noticed during "Beautiful Night there is a "crunchy" sound in addition to the snare.

Sheila is clearly playing a live acoustic drum, but that crunch sound is often there too (on a lot of studio songs too).

How do they get that sound sometimes but not othertimes?

I know Wally/Brooks or Jerome have a percussoin pad, but I really doubt they are ever hooked up. At the Time shows I"ve been to, I've never been able to see a link between Jerome's hitting the pad and when the "clap" sound is heard with the snares.

I guess the drummer could have another pad too but it seems hard to hit both the live snare and the pad and still be playing the hi hat.

she is playing with a "trigger" on her acoustic snare.
whenever she hit's the real snare,a little mic-like device, which is taped to the head of the snare drum,triggers a sound from a drummachine or synthesizer.
usually prince's snare triggers are set on the clap sound.

wallysafford said:

That makes sense.

But does she turn it on and off during the same song? Cuz within a song, sometimes it's natural snare, and other times it's with the added electronic sound?

ANd am I right about Wally/Brooks/Jerome's pad just being for show?

the drum-tech controls how the trigger is set.
it can be set differently on each song.
as far as i know,those drum pads were turned on for brooks,safford and jerome.
i'm sure they were turned down pretty low in the mix though

do not forget prince reworked the sound in the studio
this could have been added in the studio

wallysafford said:

INteresting. SO a tech can turn it on and off during a song for breakdowns, different sections etc.?

And how did BObby Z do it? It seeme dlike for songs like MOuntains, ANother lover, the whole main beat was a machine rather than him tirggering it.

And how do ou know all this stuff btw?

bobby z played along with the linn lm1 drum machine.
the linn kept the beat steady and bobby added fills and cymbals with real drums
and drum pads.bobby z used triggers alot also.
the drum tech basically is in charge of anything to do with the drums.
if a song required a linn beat,it was the drumtechs job to make sure the proper
program was set up,bobby z did stop and start the machine by hand though.
these days,blackwell controls the triggers and samplers with his foot pedal,which is located on the floor next to his hi-hat.
hope i helped ya

Yes very much!

I always wondered how Bobby kept the starts and stops so tight during jams like Baby I'm A Star extended jams.

And what were those four little snare like things mounted above the bass drums? Were they pads?

And you never told me how you know all this stuff? I find it fascinating. I have a LinnDrum (LM2) which I'm debating keeping or selling.

john has some black pads which look a bit like practise pads to his right when playing i think. these are normally hooked to a computer or drum machine and produce a sound when struck. check out the ona aladdin dvd during "the work".