One of the most interesting thing about We Can Fuck is the reverb.

To me, this is what it sounds like;
- Vocal track reversed.
- Reverb applied and printed on a seperate track.
- Gating applied.
- Played back at slightly varying speeds.

This is what I'm hearing - but this seems like a lot of work for a Prince track, especially in the days of analogue.

What do you guys think?

bluegangsta said:

One of the most interesting thing about We Can Fuck is the reverb.

To me, this is what it sounds like;
- Vocal track reversed.
- Reverb applied and printed on a seperate track.
- Gating applied.
- Played back at slightly varying speeds.

This is what I'm hearing - but this seems like a lot of work for a Prince track, especially in the days of analogue.

What do you guys think?

Swore I heard a tiny part of the reverb used on We Can Fuck in the bedroom scene with Prince and Appolonia...

feeluupp said:

bluegangsta said:

One of the most interesting thing about We Can Fuck is the reverb.

To me, this is what it sounds like;
- Vocal track reversed.
- Reverb applied and printed on a seperate track.
- Gating applied.
- Played back at slightly varying speeds.

This is what I'm hearing - but this seems like a lot of work for a Prince track, especially in the days of analogue.

What do you guys think?

Sounds exactly like that. I call it preverb. Something Pink Floyd was adding to their drums on "Echoes" back in '71. Great effect that adds that eerie quality to it.

cb70 said:

Sounds exactly like that. I call it preverb. Something Pink Floyd was adding to their drums on "Echoes" back in '71. Great effect that adds that eerie quality to it.

Pink Floyd always used it at it's best. My favourite use is Shine On You Crazy Diamond.

Prince also used it in the begining of Purple Rain.

This reverb is present, as well, in most versions of the song stemming from the 1983 recording, but lowered (significantly) or muddled in the mix, and not for the full duration of the vocal.

.

There is also at least one mix of the Dream Factory-era (17 June 1986 Washington Ave. Warehouse) recording that incorporates the vocal reverb, recreating some of the finer production points of its studio predecessor.

.

[Edited 6/27/17 22:07pm]

It's such a cool but spooky effect, sounds a bit like recordings of spirit voices from beyond, in those days must have been quite complex to create - loved the fact he was so experimental then!

My guess:

1 - Put the recording on reverse
2 - Add the FX, record, record also the 100% dry track, and another with 100% wet.
3 - Put back the tape as God intended
4 - See if you cannot add some other FX to the new 3 reverse-sounding tracks you got.
5 - During mixdown, subtly tweak the faders, so your FX doesn't ever quite sound the same.

Now yeah, these gate compressor settings are tricky. Must be a huge non-standard setting on either the attack or the release, and maybe it was gated on the reversed signal, or the gating recorded in reverse, that's whay it sound so odd. A long compression tail in reverse, put it back, and you have a long growing volume effect. With a carefully timed pre-delay, so it starts on a 4th (or could be a 8th, but it doesnt matter).

We Can Funk — phoque — Fuck?
Ow, come on, the one that "Can't Stop This Feeling I Got" blends into,
that's the one. It's one of his finest sonic moments, that Hammond, Eric, Miko's solo...
More horny in painful need than horny toad, it bears a frustration, not a Valentino's declaration à la one on GB. In 1986, he desperately NEEDS to funk — fuck meee — fuck.

But I like the laid-back interpretations as well.
The 1986 version just sounds final to me, because it's always been part of a musical tryptic (Girl O' My Dreams - Can't Stop - We Can Funk — fuck! again — Fuck).

My inner Tipper Gore is dripping with a fury
by typing this F word so many times in one reply

I have an incredibly CD quality version of the 1986 version of We Can Funk that also has the same reverb. The 86 version I have blows any version of the 86 that's been released on bootlegs compulations out of the water. Has that spooky ghost effect like someone mentioned earlier.

Every time I hear it, Whole lotta Love immeditately comes to mind aka the breakdown section ---"way down inside...woman you need"