The Cure

What effects do you think were used on their single High (1992)?

I'm writing a paper for my 20th-Century Theoretical Approaches - Post-Tonal and Rock Music class on The Cure's single High from 1992.

The one I have includes the songs: "High (Single Mix)", "This Twilight Garden", "Play" and "High (Higher Mix)".

I've been listening to it and writing down the instruments and effects I think are being used, but I thought it couldn't hurt to see if anyone else picked up on or heard things I didn't notice/hear.

Re: What effects do you think were used on their single High (1992)?

I don't think this applies to that track specifically, but this is the set up they were using at that time..

Robert and Perry both used Boss analog stomp boxes. Both had BCB-6 pedal trays with chorus, flange. delay and overdrive pedals; Robert added a phaser, and Perry had a graphic EQ in his seperate 6-string bass tray.
Both preferred Dunlop Crybaby wahs. Porl used Boss and T.C. Electronic Flangers, an Electro-Harmonix Memory Man delay, and a Dunlop Rotovibe.
Simon used bits of Boss delay, flange and overdrive..

Hope this helps.. :)

Re: Re: What effects do you think were used on their single High (1992)?

fattyowls wrote:
I don't think this applies to that track specifically, but this is the set up they were using at that time..

Robert and Perry both used Boss analog stomp boxes. Both had BCB-6 pedal trays with chorus, flange. delay and overdrive pedals; Robert added a phaser, and Perry had a graphic EQ in his seperate 6-string bass tray.
Both preferred Dunlop Crybaby wahs. Porl used Boss and T.C. Electronic Flangers, an Electro-Harmonix Memory Man delay, and a Dunlop Rotovibe.
Simon used bits of Boss delay, flange and overdrive..

Hope this helps.. :)

Re: Re: Re: What effects do you think were used on their single High (1992)?

TwilightGardenXO wrote:

fattyowls wrote:
I don't think this applies to that track specifically, but this is the set up they were using at that time..

Robert and Perry both used Boss analog stomp boxes. Both had BCB-6 pedal trays with chorus, flange. delay and overdrive pedals; Robert added a phaser, and Perry had a graphic EQ in his seperate 6-string bass tray.
Both preferred Dunlop Crybaby wahs. Porl used Boss and T.C. Electronic Flangers, an Electro-Harmonix Memory Man delay, and a Dunlop Rotovibe.
Simon used bits of Boss delay, flange and overdrive..

Hope this helps.. :)

Haha, wow. That is beautiful. Thank you so much.

I was actually referring to the entire single. I'm analyzing and comparing all four songs. :)

Re: Re: Re: Re: What effects do you think were used on their single High (1992)?

fattyowls wrote:

TwilightGardenXO wrote:

fattyowls wrote:
I don't think this applies to that track specifically, but this is the set up they were using at that time..

Robert and Perry both used Boss analog stomp boxes. Both had BCB-6 pedal trays with chorus, flange. delay and overdrive pedals; Robert added a phaser, and Perry had a graphic EQ in his seperate 6-string bass tray.
Both preferred Dunlop Crybaby wahs. Porl used Boss and T.C. Electronic Flangers, an Electro-Harmonix Memory Man delay, and a Dunlop Rotovibe.
Simon used bits of Boss delay, flange and overdrive..

Hope this helps.. :)

Haha, wow. That is beautiful. Thank you so much.

I was actually referring to the entire single. I'm analyzing and comparing all four songs. :)

Okay, give me an abridged version (or not, I'm genuinely interested in what you're doing) of what you've come up with and I'll see if I can fill in any gaps..

Robert was very big on "layers" in the Wish, era some songs had as many as 48 tracks on them and some tracks were mixed so low they're almost subliminal.. Several "layers" of the mix in "Higher Mix" have been brought forward, the keyboard line, for example that plays at double time to the rest of the track..
Basically I see High as "Cure Looping 101", there are five or six riffs that are used in that song that could be placed anywhere in any order and the song would still work..

Am I getting close to what you want?!??

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: What effects do you think were used on their single High (1992)?

TwilightGardenXO wrote:

fattyowls wrote:

TwilightGardenXO wrote:

fattyowls wrote:
I don't think this applies to that track specifically, but this is the set up they were using at that time..

Robert and Perry both used Boss analog stomp boxes. Both had BCB-6 pedal trays with chorus, flange. delay and overdrive pedals; Robert added a phaser, and Perry had a graphic EQ in his seperate 6-string bass tray.
Both preferred Dunlop Crybaby wahs. Porl used Boss and T.C. Electronic Flangers, an Electro-Harmonix Memory Man delay, and a Dunlop Rotovibe.
Simon used bits of Boss delay, flange and overdrive..

Hope this helps.. :)

Haha, wow. That is beautiful. Thank you so much.

I was actually referring to the entire single. I'm analyzing and comparing all four songs. :)

Okay, give me an abridged version (or not, I'm genuinely interested in what you're doing) of what you've come up with and I'll see if I can fill in any gaps..

Robert was very big on "layers" in the Wish, era some songs had as many as 48 tracks on them and some tracks were mixed so low they're almost subliminal.. Several "layers" of the mix in "Higher Mix" have been brought forward, the keyboard line, for example that plays at double time to the rest of the track..
Basically I see High as "Cure Looping 101", there are five or six riffs that are used in that song that could be placed anywhere in any order and the song would still work..

Am I getting close to what you want?!??

Yeah! That is the kind of stuff I'm looking for. To be honest, I'm really not that great at identifying effects still, and though I can pretty much point out a distortion or flange and whatnot, the vocabulary is still new-ish to me and it takes me more listens to identify them/I probably miss so many things that are also interesting.

These are the notes I've taken so far, although I've really only spent time on "This Twilight Garden" so far since it's my favorite song, and aside from that I did some research that didn't really seem to pull up anything fruitful.

"High (Single Mix)" + "High (Higher Mix)" = Pop, upbeat
"This Twilight Garden" = Very accented downbeats (1, 2, 3), xylophone/metallophone (probably a synth), drum, shakers, distorted acoustic guitar and distorted bass, synth (a lot of synth warbling in and out), reverb/delay (sounds like it's ethereal, in a world separate than ours--dream world), stereo (L+R = equally balanced for the most part, rocks back and forth--front to back through fade--to give the sense of movement, of waves of music which make it dreamy)
"High (Higher Mix)" = Certain elements of the song with slightly different pitch, tempo speeded up compared to original

One thing we talked about in class was concept albums, and how an artist may not consciously make an album with a particular concept but it might fit it anyway. I wanted to write in my essay that the single High was a concept single because the songs fit a theme or could be like a story between two people in a relationship and the remix for "High" at the end was like a bittersweet ending to the imagined relationship. We talked about The Who's Tommy album and how it was a concept album with the storyline.

So I'll probably compare "High (Single Mix)" to "High (Higher Mix)", and talk about the differences and similarities in all four songs.