I love when Prince mixes different things on the left and right channels on his songs. He's done some incredibly creative and distinctive work with this technique, probably most notably on Pop Life. Sometimes it's just a simple thing, as in Reflection or Jughead; other times it adds a nice layer to the song, a fun and interesting thing to discover while listening, like Girls & Boys. Throw out some of your favorite examples of Prince's mixing things differently to the left and to the right.

Automatic.

17 days comes 2 mind

200 BALLOONS

Crystal Ball

Genesia said:

Everything about that song is cool. I'm glad you pointed that one out.

L4OATheOriginal said:

Uh-oh, I'm embarrassed to say I don't think I know about the different mixing in that one. I'm off to listen...

All of it's good...I get exhausted running back and forth from speaker to speaker. Sometimes I get mad. Cuz' I know Prince is trying to drive me crazy.

Wonderful trait/skill...He does it in Sexy MF during Mayte's interview, during Get Loose near the end...What's funny is I will sometimes use one headphone when listening to my MP3 player, while wearing the other headphone on my clothes. It's like having it in stereo.

Tame said:

JUGHEAD! prince's worst song ever!

rusty1 said:

I can think of worse.

Another artist who benefited from the Beatles', Stevie Wonder's and Hendrix's studio trickery, for sure.

For songs that have me checking speakers for Easter eggs, I'd add:

Walk, Don't Walk
Anotherloverholenyohead
Joint 2 Joint
Emancipation (a nod to "Higher Ground," pan-wise)
Baby, I'm a Star
all of the Lovesexy and Batman albums
Joy in Repetition

ThreadBare said:

That's interesting. Can you elaborate on this? Thanks.

Efan said:

Listen to Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground," and you'll hear that he multi-tracked his clavinet parts. The intro is a all a-quack and gurgle with the clav parts. Together, they form the riff.

Prince used the same approach, but with his bass guitar, to construct the groove on "Emancipation." Both dudes are masters at rhythm and timing, and it shows on those two tracks.

Although, in Prince's case, I think he sampled himself and looped the riff. I'll have to check.

ThreadBare said:

I never would have put that together. Thanks for the explanation; much appreciated.

L4OATheOriginal said:

this song has alot going on in it.

Efan said:

b4 i scroll down the rest of this thread...during the breakdown part..listen 4 that keyboard rift that's only in one channel

L4OATheOriginal said:

Ah, thanks. It sounds like the voices on the verse after the breakdown ("Here I sit in my lonely room...") are mixed differently too. Never heard that before.

Efan said:

i know what u mean the 1st time i heard that is through earphones and after many years of knowing that song, it came as a pleasant surprise at how funky that keyboard riff is..must b fink