All Prince heads are forever trying to get insight into how Prince creates his records. Anyone who has a set of headphones will attest to the fact that there are interesting sounds always buried in the mix of a Prince song.

By accident a couple of years ago I found a new way to listen to Prince. Just this weekend I listened to "3121" and "musicology" using this method. What were the results? Well with this method "love" sounds like a Tamar song (her vocals are very prominant) with Prince just helping on the vocals. On the song "musicology" u can distinctly hear the bass and drums being played by Prince. On certain songs it will be almost like hearing a different version of the song.

Some songs are more mind blowing than others but all will be interesting. I tried this with the "lovesexy" album and was blown away. It is especially revealing with this album because "lovesexy" is so dense with sounds.


Here's how to do it if u have a reciever that has surround sound:

1) Turn the mode of reciever to surround for play back of the CD (sound should come from all 5 speakers).

2) Detach the wires from the back of the center speaker rendering it mute.

3) Detach the wires from the front two speakers leaving only the back speakers attached. (note: in my case my front speakers are much more powerful than the back so I wanted to hear the sound from them. So after detaching the front speakers I took the wire from the back speakers and hooked them to the front. So in essence i was then hearing the output sent to the rear speakers now on the front speakers).

4) turn up the volume


5) get a cocktail, a blunt or whatever intoxicant u desire and listen. The musicolgists among us will be amazed. Try "lovesexy" first.

6) come back here and let me know how the experiment goes and what u found.

cool idea, I'd like to try that.

When I saw this thread, I initially thought of the Beatles "Love" album, that was made in 5.1 surround. It'd be great if someone did that idea with a whole heap of Prince songs.

Try it!

It doesn't matter that the cds are not mixed in 5.1. The output to the back speakers will only contain some of the music thereby reavaling what's left.

You've got too much time on your hands honey!

tricky99 said:

Is there any headphone brand or model that you´d recommend ?

I know EXACTLY what you are talking about!
Go put on If I Was Your Girlfriend RIGHT NOW and hear
how freakin cool the background vocal tracks sound!!
There is even a spot in the background vocal track where
he starts to sing "If I..."
and then stops as if he had done it in the wrong place!
and then put on Joy In Repetition and the part when he sings
"was this woman he never noticed before.. etc..."
there is a vocal track buried in the mix that comes out of Prince
doing a really high falsetto!!
I discovered this listening "method" a long long time ago and
like you was a-fucking-mazed at the results! I would set up mikes
in front of the speakers and record the "new" versions onto tapes
so I could check them out at any time.

The Chili Peppers Blood Sugar Sex Magic album sounds cool like
that too. Sir Psycho Sexy comes out with no lead vocal track at
all and at the time I recorded that version for my girlfriend
because she liked the music, but didn't dig the lyrics

Enjoy! and don't worry about them knuckle heads laughin at ya,
you are the one with the extra fun listening experience

Sounds crazy, but I'll be damn if I don't try it myself!!!

chewymusic said:

Thanks Chewymusic! some of these people don't know what they are missing. I have also done this with Marvin gaye and stevie wonder. Gives u great insight into what goes into a song. U took it another step by actually recording the results. I don't think i'll take it that far but given all the great music I have I can use this process occasionally forever.

It's all based on the OOPS Effect. You can replicate it with most audio editing programs.

There's some instructions here, using the OOPS effect to create surround sound from stereo tracks.

Folks....sorry but I have to ask again...is there any reasonably priced headphone set that you would recommend ? I´m still using some cheap ass plasticky Kenwood headphones from the 80s...they´re OK but I´m looking for something better without paying too much.

KoolEaze said:

what i was talking about had nothing to do with headphones. U may want to ask that question in a new thread.

tricky99 said:

Oh, I know that you´re not talking about headphones in your thread, I got that . I was referring to your second sentence. Thanks for replying anyway.