yeah, roll your eyes, but "cybersingle" is my song of the moment

there's so much to like here, once you get past your initial kneejerk 'it sucks'

give it another chance, go ahead

the guitar work and the drums are deliciously dirty and there are just enough
of those little princely extra nuggets in there to make it one of those songs
that give up a few more bits even after twenty spins. for instance the few little
uh huh ehm's in the BG as he sings "cause u don't know it's wrong 2 steal'

i love how this was a song just written for and put out on his website. sounds like
it was recorded in an afternoon, yeah, but that doesn't make it less enjoyable.

apart from the silly 'chorus', it's a great little tune.

seems to segue into "2045 Radical Man"? or is that just me? if you put them back
2 back they work very well.

anyway, to the question:

does anyone know what the vocal effect is that he's using on the opening verse?
is that a second vocal track, washed through a guitar plug in, like on IT?, overlaying
some of the lead vocal track?

or is it a way more simple effect created using some sort of editing software?

anyway, i can't really remember him using this particular effect on any other song,
can you?

the only thing it calls to mind, very slightly, is the very end of "welcome 2 the dawn"
on the last "welcome.....2 the...daahahaaaawn, thank U", but it's not an exact match.

similarly, i'm also wondering how he created that effect.

i should ad that the vocal effect on the 1st verse is very subtle and not used on every word,
but mostly on the last words of each line.

it's especially pronounced at the end of the line:

"what good is the mind if a man is run by another"

it's way more clear when using headphones.

which is another reason why so many later prince songs are -imo- a lot better than people
give them credit for by simply discarding them as 'throw away tracks'. he clearly put a bit
of thought and work into most of them as almost all of his tracks have some bit of weird n
quirky production element or extra in there that isn't in any or almost any other tracks of
his.

and that's just coming from me as a non musician who can only go by ear.

i'm sure that there are many genius things happening in a lot of his later tracks, but since
no one is talking about their recording process like people who were there for tracks he did
in the 80s, we know almost nothing about them, and by we i mean casual fans who don't
know what it takes to record stuff or how to cook up certain things in the studio

billymeade said:

Same vocal effect as on "Animal Kingdom"! Sounds like he's singing though a guitar amp but who knows

good god, yes, "animal kingdom" !! that slipped my mind for a second there.

thanks for pointing that out

I've always liked Cybersingle, never understood the hate.

Just played it for the first time in ages. I forgot how much I used to like it, especially the 'all the beautiful ones are with me' line

good to see that at least a few other people like it

I've always liked Cybersingle and still play it. I love the lyrics.

TheEnglishGent said:

I've always liked Cybersingle, never understood the hate.

Me too. Loved it then, love it now.

It's like a sequel to Interactive.

[Edited 6/19/19 5:31am]

just wanted to add that it was a fine tune...when he was in 'that' phase of analysing the matrix around him & trying to communicate his message directly with the fans.

Sounds like he's singing through a Ring Modulator. I know I can get the same effect when using one so it has to be it. Not sure which Ring Modulator he was using though. Don't know if Boss had a dedicated foot pedal for that but they did have it included in their studio multi effects units in the 90's.

cb70 said:

Sounds like he's singing through a Ring Modulator. I know I can get the same effect when using one so it has to be it. Not sure which Ring Modulator he was using though. Don't know if Boss had a dedicated foot pedal for that but they did have it included in their studio multi effects units in the 90's.

thank you very much indeed.

I think the guitar parts on "Race" had ring mod on them as well. At least it sounds like that to my ears.

ian said:

I think the guitar parts on "Race" had ring mod on them as well. At least it sounds like that to my ears.

interesting

The effect is ring modulation. He also uses it on his guitar in The Rainbow Children title track and some of the guitar work in The War. Ive always dug Cyber Single! Has some great drum and guitar work!