Madonna's soundstage

IT was recorded using some special processing in its day that gives it that sound.   A few others back then as well.

"It is the first album ever to use the audio technology QSound."

Thanks, mapman....very interesting.  I was not aware of this processing.  It is impressive how the vocals and most instruments stay true to a soundstage with those added '3D' components.  I will have to take a closer listen to the others on the list

• The Immaculate Collection by Madonna (1990)
• Power of Love by Luther Vandross (1991)
• Prisoners in Paradise by Europe (1991)
• The Soul Cages by Sting (1991)
• Spellbound by Paula Abdul (1991)
• Help Yourself by Julian Lennon (1991)
• Parallels by Fates Warning (1991)
• Amused to Death by Roger Waters (1992)
• Whaler by Sophie B. Hawkins (1994)
• A Live One by Phish (1995)
• Pulse by Pink Floyd (1995)
• Broken China by Rick Wright (1996)

Amused to Death uses it to a pretty cool effect.  The first song has a dog barking and if your system / room is up to it, it will sound like the dog is off to your right and behind you.  The first time I heard that, I was like "what the...?"

Indeed - Roger Waters has always been into sounds, voices, etc coming from all different places, both on records and in concert....

for clarification, I only copied and pasted the list of albums shown in Wikipedia.  As I looked back again it said above this list that there were over 60 released and that short list were the notable ones.  You can see the full list here

https://www.qsound.com/spotlight/users/recording-artists4.htm

Broken China is my favorite Solo album from the Pink Floyd alumni. The soundstage is huge and the music is great. Listen to it in total darkness...

Spacial expanders go back a long way in the studios.  I have a Cambridge table radio with a “wide” setting that makes the music sound like it’s 3 feet to the side of the box, yet keeps the vocals centered. Personally, I find it distracting when overdone.