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Looking Back: Tracking Prince on API

Mix magazine recently spotlighted Prince's iconic song "Let's Go Crazy" in their "Classic Tracks" feature, discussing the hit's recording process, which included an API console.

While most tracks for the album Purple Rain were recorded live at the famous First Avenue club in Minneapolis in August of 1983, "Let's Go Crazy" was recorded by Prince and the Revolution at The Warehouse studio in St. Louis Park, MN in October that same year.

The Warehouse was a large industrial rehearsal space, and Engineer Susan Rogers was responsible for turning it into a successful recording environment, a difficult task as the room was long and rectangular with high ceilings and no isolation.

"We just threw a nice piece of carpet on the floor and set the API console in front of where the band rehearsed," she recalls. "And I set up monitors on stands, wheeled over a tape machine, an outboard gear rack, got some snakes and got everything wired up."

Rogers also installed the custom API console in Prince's home studio at Paisley Park only a week into her job as his sound tech.

"Let's Go Crazy" became Prince's second Number 1 hit on Billboard's Top 200 on August 4, 1984 and remained there for 24 weeks.