The
"Artists" sound and How to Make it.The
"Artists" sound and How to Make it.This page takes a look at the fantastic tricks and effects which the Artist uses in his performances. But please remmember, there's only one Artist and only he can make the guitar sound so unique!
The Artists Effects array encorporates both high tech Rack mounted multi effects and old fashioned "Stomp boxes"
Boss pedal board: (Used for recording and performing.)
Hyper metal. (Think of Endorphin machine.)
Vibrato (The sound used on the intro to "Papa")
Digital Delay (Think of the intro to Temptation.)
Octaver (Think of the guitar sound used on the song Diamonds and Pearls.)
Flanger (Think of the Finale to "Lets Go Crazy")
Turbo Distortion (Think "Peach")
Tremolo (Think of the song "Dolphin")
Uk manufactured Coloursound Wa pedal.
Rackmounted Multi effects:
Alesis Quadraverb (Used for Reverb.)
Roland GP16 with VCA expressionpedal (Used for Ring Modulation)
Two Zoom 9030's working together to make sound patches.
(Appently these effects he has knicknames for ie. Pillow talk and Twin Reverb.)
The Guitar intro to "When Doves Cry"
This is basically a series of trills an slurs played at high speed with lots of Fuzz, recorded backwards.
Screeching sound during the intro sequence to "Computer Blue" ("Wendy?" "yes Lisa?")
This is guitar feedback Hendrix style played through the Flanger pedal, the Feedback knob set to maximum. This effect was used in conjunction with a delay effect on the outro to "In This Bed I Scream." to creat that grinding guitar note that lasts forever.
The Guitar Deconstruction at the end of "Private Joy" (Also used on the Come track "Orgasm")
A similar trick to the Flanger screech, only played backwards with the pick scraping slowly along the strings.
Those "Grungy" noises he always makes in between notes.
This is tricky, he makes a sliding motion between phrases like many other guitarists, the difference here is that the fuzz effect is so saturated that when he stops holding the note the incidental noise of the slide becomes a growl. This kind of saturated tone can be achieved by mixing two distortion boxes to make the fuzz go crazy.
The Aquatic Wacka sound he uses on songs like "Poorgoo", "Calhoun Square" and the Undertaker set.
This is not an ordinary Wa/volume effect but an expression pedal with the volume parameters turned right up. As far as I can tell, when prince lifts his foot off the pedal the volume is cut off complely
The warbling effect used on the Guitar break-finale to "3 Chains of Gold"
He uses this on many songs, though you may not have been aware that it was a guitar making the noise! As far as I can tell he has an expression pedal rigged to control Phase, tone and volume simultaneuosly to produce a sound rather like muting a trumpet.
The impossibly high bends and "wipeouts" used on many songs since the Diamonds and Pearls album.
This is "ring modulation", he uses the Roland Gp2 with a "Whammy" pedal, with which he can control the pitch of his guitar with his foot.
