The Not-Gated Drums of David Bowie's "Low" Album | What's That Sound Ep. 17

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The drum sound heard on the Tony Visconti-produced "Low" album has been a subject of much interest in the recording world - most notably for the distinctive 'gated' drum sounds heard on tracks like "Sound and Vision." The only thing is - they're not exactly gated drum sounds. In this video, Noam and Reuben dissect the famous drum tones and recreate them using a vintage piece of Eventide equipment. Learn more here: bit.ly/3Wc81lU
Recorded by Noam Wallenberg at Rax Trax Recording
raxtrax.com
noamwallenberg.com

[@TizzleVizzle]

Nice try guys. Your version is very controlled and it sounds similar. The H910 was not quite hi-tech yet. The later models of the Harmonizer became more hi-tech better IC chips were available. I dropped the pitch only a few percents, like maybe 11, but I used the Feedback knob really cranked up high so that the pitch dropped into an abyss. But what was really special is that Dennis Davis wanted to hear the effect during the live sessions and he discovered that he could 'play' the Harmonizer and alter the length of the drop offs. The H-910 was far from accurate or perfect. It was unpredictable and that was the charm of it. Later models were too clean for my purposes. I went over to the French company that made the stereo Publison pitch altering machine. It was as funky as the H-910 but it was two-channel. Another use of the H-910 was to actually tune vocals and instruments, but it would only work on one note at time. Before the days of AutoTune and Melodyne, this couldn't be done. But with the H-910 I would tune a few words or even syllables by turning the pitch until the note was in tune, by ear of course, then bounce it to another tape track, then I'd bounce the tuned words together with the lead vocal track to make a new comp. Anyway, keep up the good work fellas.

[@Manmademadman]

This person knows too much. This person was there.

[@ryanlargent9320]

Davis trying to affect the drop-offs live is an amazing tidbit! It reminds me a bit of how Jacob Collier plays his vocal harmonizer. (Also, I’m only now realizing just who wrote this comment. Thanks for your work and for dropping by!)

[@JoeM1314]

Somebody fetch a priest! Salute to you legend, thank you for the insight.

[@xoxb2]

Not sure what's more striking - the man himself commenting, or the fact that Bowie needed pitch correction. Fascinating insights. And thank you for your wonderful contributions to this music over the years! I still find Sound and Vision mesmerising 45 years later.

[@tulsaliberationfront]

Thanks for changing our lives Tony! 🙏 💕🙏💕🙏

[@stephenmacartney]

Tony Visconti, doing more on this record than people think.

[@andrepereira744]

"Tony Visconti, doing more on Bowie's music and career than people think"

[@slaterslater5944]

My man! "Producer can do Derek and Clive voices if you need him to"

[@liamfitzdrums]

Had the pleasure of meeting him once. He's a cool guy & his production is fantastic.

[@scottbussler4041]

Eno unfortunately tends to get most of the credit on this album. Doubt either of them really care though

[@johnmclaughlin2392]

I’ve read that the production of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures was insane. It would be cool to see it recreated.

[@szrnkabela]

That's the real gated shit! 🚪

[@funkkidmusic301]

Low is my favorite David Bowie album 🔥🔥 Thanks for this

[@robertzaiiii1323]

If y’all are taking requests, Tony Thompson’s drum sounds on the The Power Station album are massive. Steven Drozd’s sounds on Slow Nerve Action would also be a great candidate.

[@maxmatson1578]

I second that emotion big time! 👍

[@evanbowser3586]

Slow nerve action!!

[@coldsludge]

Race For The Prize with it's dual contrasting drum parts too could be neat

[@artkincell]

I second the Tony Thompson request. I bought the record and listened to it on my (then) brother-in-law's really crappy turntable, and even with PLASTIC speaker housings the drums sound massive. Couldn't wait to get home to use my own system.

[@thenationsempire]

SLOW NERVE ACTION!!!!!

[@AlexBallMusic]

Very interesting indeed. Didn't realise the Eventide was on drums predicting gated verb, but via a different path. Requests - always loved the Neptunes' drums of Justin Timberlake's "Like I Love You". Would be interested to hear it recreated.

[@Bati_]

Hi Alex, thanks for the wonderful videos you upload!

[@TizzleVizzle]

I will reiterate, gated drums sound nothing like the H910 effect.

[@TheEnderBand]

I always thought the weird hiss sound on Sound and Vision was the sound of throwing a little water on a red hot pan and it converting to steam lol I always pictured the beat sounding like a little machine that was blowing steam out

[@chronic_johnson_a.r.a.b]

I definitely think of someone spraying with a bottle of water. I thought it was just achieved with a synthesizer by Eno, just as this video explains.

[@TheEnderBand]

I didn't mean that I literally thought they did that to make the sound- that would be weird. I meant it was how my brain interpreted the sound. I think I have a weird form of synaesthesia where I experience sound like they're basically sound effects for physical and spatial phenomena inside my mind's eye. So white noise is like steam inside that purely abstract world Another example is how I perceive different type of distortion- a distorted guitar melody is like an asteroid belt-like ribbon comprised of different grains suspended in mid-air like Saturn's rings and depending on the type of distortion, the texture, size, and distribution of the grains is different. Power amp distortion is usually like larger, stickier orbs and preamp distortion is like smaller and more tightly-grouped and they float through the 3D space of my mind's eye in concert with the melodic and rhythmic movement of the music so it will undulate with bend up and down with the melody and rhythm Sorry if this sounds completely ridiculous lol

[@schumanhuman]

Best Bowie album, though I vaguely recall an interview where Bowie said he thought the Low drum sound on it's own was 'disgusting' but worked in context, it kind of is really.

[@szrnkabela]

As much as he was ahead of it's time and felt it is the future, even he couldn't understand it yet on the spot.

[@markferguson3745]

I always thought that the Stooges Funhouse LP had some of the most singular production that I've not heard elsewhere.It is at once in your face and ambient at the same time . Low and Heroes were the two LP's that opened my eyes to the possibilities and set me on a path as a lifelong musician. Bowie's vocals don't always work for every style he's taken on( like Iggy Pop, or Lou Reed), but when they suit the material, ......

[@natewall4500]

Airbag by Radiohead has always felt like such a wild drum sound, I’d love to see an episode on that!

[@raptor_guy2327]

It’s compressed to hell and I love it so much

[@franklinkoo1716]

It’s a loop

[@alyosha917]

Its a sampled and chopped up drum loop, so its got a lower bitrate and is very compressed. Thats all there is to it!

[@Wayne_Robinson]

I managed to get a similar result in Reaper by using JS: Pitch Down-Shifter in a feedback loop including high-pass EQ and saturation. It was the first pitch shifter I tried that had no appreciable latency, otherwise the result is a stutter decay that would be useful in a different way.

[@handssmelloh9173]

It'd be really interesting how you guys would try and get the In Utero drum sound. It's roomy but also super focused especially in the low end. Nothing but the essentials, brick and morter style.

[@chrishamblin4848]

There are videos of Steve Albini himself explaining how he gets his drum sound floating around on YT. It's interesting cos it's so simple. He's the master of capturing the ambiance of the room

[@handssmelloh9173]

@@chrishamblin4848 For sure, I've watched most of his lectures. Such a master at the bare essentials like phase and placement. I'm just curious how these guys would approach it with a smaller room and their setup.

[@bigrivermedia762]

A big part of it is how Steve uses the room mics (laid flat on the floor facing drums) and delaying them around 20 ms. Great trick to getting in that realm of sound.

[@andrepereira744]

Its easy. Thousands of mics everywhere. Also, its called the "Albini sound" and not "in utero drum sound". Albini already had use the same techniques ( and sound) with the Pixies before NIrvana, for example

[@allyemeraart]

3 sets of room mics, you can get the multi-tracks online for a fair few songs and observe them

[@Debaser987]

Hell yeah! It would be dope if y'all would do the drum sounds from Sleater-Kinney's the Woods, Flaming Lips "Race For the Prize," or really any Dave Fridmann drums. Good god, those things sound huge.

[@sadmachinesaudio6462]

How about a classic Steve Albini drum sound like Surfer Rosa or In Utero?

[@thepostapocalyptictrio4762]

Thank for doing a video on the “Low” drums. If you’re taking request, how about the double tape echo madness on the intro drums to The Beach Boys “ Do it again”. Thanks and keep up the brilliant work

[@GloveBunniesVideos]

Great video! Another request would be how Terry Bozzio got that massive snappy drum sound on all those Missing Persons' songs, like "Destination Unknown."

[@FearOfMusic]

That was the longest 12 minutes of my life. All anyone wants to hear is the intro to Sound & Vision

[@dimitreze]

nice I love the drums on this album

[@mrparry6028]

I’m not being obtuse but on my copy of Low, David Bowie is credited with producing what I always assumed must be the white noise sound on this track with a bicycle pump.

[@artkincell]

Nice record picture on the desk. I use the same one all the time.

[@ryanlargent9320]

“Flowers of Romance” might be an interesting one

[@prufrockrenegade]

It would be cool if you ventured into some iconic hip hop drum breaks like Impeach the President by the Honeydrippers or Synthetic Substitution by Melvin Bliss

[@bluehole6019]

Impeach The President sounds so good!

[@matthewfbridges]

completely unrelated… but Low has possibly my favourite Bass sound of all time.

[@the-np4mr]

Amazed at how many people I've heard say this albums drums are gated, always thought I was crazy for thinking otherwise

[@modernbodies]

Can you do the T Rex drum sound? That slap-backy sizzly drum sound is super cool.

[@kpm999]

Ooh yeah, that Ballrooms of Mars sound!!! xx

[@heathrezabek]

Just discovered this series and love it! Also love DB's low/Sound&Vision drums here! Request - Drums from Prince's 1986 song Kiss. (All of Parade deserves a look of course).. I see a Reverb video on Prince / Kiss from 2020, but no samples available, and I wonder if there's anything new to discover. Aside from the classic gated reverb, I've run across various accounts of the voodoo used to get that weird pumping sound the kicks produce, or whatever is wobbling in the background between beats. This account is the closest hint I can find on it but I feel like I've also seen others. It's a timeless sound, full of magic. ""The kick drum, from a Linn LM-1 drum machine, gets extended and reshaped with a rhythmic bounce courtesy of an unusual reverb. The AMS RMX 16, an early digital reverb popular then (and now) had two programs called "reverse." Not actually reversing the reverb -- you'd need a time machine for that -- the program amplitude modulates the reverb tail so that it goes from low amplitude to high amplitude, getting louder, before abruptly cutting off. It behaves as if the room's impulse response is being played backwards (see below), so it was called "reverse" on the reverb unit."" recordingology.com/2017/02/01/kiss/

[@martenthielges1179]

good stuff!! it would be awesome to have a couple of snare samples of the Eventide FX unit as 100% WET samples...

[@maceobot]

How about the drum sound of Primus' Brown Album? From what I heard they don't know how they made it. But it's totally unique!

[@ed6330]

R U Mine? - Arctic Monkeys - HAS TO BE DONE!!! Crazy good tune and killer drum sound!

[@fritsvanzanten3573]

Lovely series!

[@ixis99]

Please study Budgie's drum tones of Siouxie & the Banshees on the Kaleidescope LP( 1980 ). Particularly the song "Trophy".

[@kelseywarren7020]

Hell yes! Love the sound of that track. Plus Budgie is criminally underrated.

[@jorriffhdhtrsegg]

Eventide make a plugin of it. I have a similar effect on a pedal though. Its a granular delay so i am tempted to use. Also racks by alesis or yamaha had feedback pitch but it seems too hifi probably

[@octachron_ios_drum_sequencer]

Thank you very much! And actually on of my absolute favorite Bowie albums! 😃

[@lonesomelooch5661]

How about Keith Moon on The Who Sings My Generation? That first record has a fantastic, raw drum sound. Glyn Johns

[@ChromeDestiny]

My favourite Keith Moon drum sound is on Tommy.

[@ViceSquad]

Wonderful

[@charleymarkson]

Oh thank god, I can listen to "sound & vision" again!.. I always thought the open hi-hat sound you recreated with the synth was just Bowie going "psst" into a microphone. 😄

[@TheQualium]

I thought it was Eno going “pfffttthhh”, because he’s credited with vocals on that track and I don’t hear them anywhere else. It also seems like a very Eno idea.

[@jlouis4407]

I always thought that sound was just compressed air being released

[@nigelallistair]

Can you explain your technique for accomplishing such extreme isolation between your mics - particularly the complete lack of hi hat in the snare mic. Just the result of the severe gating on the snare?

[@danbal4185]

I believe that you've nailed it the hi-hat sound. Beside Eno's EMS Synthy they also used the minimoog in several tracks on the album.

[@bonsaibloom]

so sick! and a free sample pack? thats real cool of u guys 2 thumbs up from me! :0)

[@theneonchimpchannel9095]

I think they had the snare mic under rather than over the snare drum, but I could be wrong. Still, this sounds pretty close, closer than I've been able to get.

[@TheGerkuman]

I always thought the cymbal sound was the sound of bacon hitting a hot, oiled frying pan.

[@martijnschilders1726]

nice one guys! i like all those videos. maybe an another about How to get the 10’s Indie Rock Drum Sound? would be amazing

[@myautobiographyafanfic1413]

Would have loved to have heard how you tackled other tracks from low

[@billystar1306]

Great presentation.. As a drummer, my first question: Are these Dave Weckl signature sticks? The sound guy's analysis was beyond awesome and informative. As a producer I thank you humbly for your input.

[@mustafakhaled7703]

Here is a request, Nate Smith's The Fearless Flyers drum sound. PLEASEEE!!

[@natenauseda7749]

I LOVE this series! These sounds are amazing! I feel like some of this history is off though. The first Gate, being the Valley People Kepex, came out in 1970 and was known to be used on Dark Side of The Moon, and other early '70's records. Though they might not have used a gate for this sound, I'm sure they had at least a few available, and at their disposal.

[@damianoakes2592]

I think when they say gated drum, they mean gated reverb on drums, which would have been about two years after this. But, yes, they did use gates on the drums on Low, most notably on the track "A New Career in a New Town," where some parts are gated so you only hear the kick drum where Dennis Davis was playing the full kit. And of course there was the gated room mic technique they used on "Heroes" which is most famous for the sound of David Bowie's vocals on the titular song.

[@QwazwasWerty]

Yay! Thanks!

[@chadczternastek]

I been trying to really understand this album. Im a huge huge Bowie fan and i know there is something I'm missing. Like i have listened to it hundres of times and I'm trying to get past the lack of lyrics. Thank you guys and the comments cause i learned a lot just today.

[@Renniz72]

Great job. Nailed it. It's one of my favorite bowie albums. What are those headphones on the console?

[@DiscoKnight]

Looks like audeze lcd-x

[@stanvidgg]

Great series. If I’ve learned anything from this series, it’s that every studio needs a Ludwig Acrolyte.

[@music-ti7fu]

PLEASE do the White Stripes’ Elephant drum sound

[@_Only_Zuul]

definitely we want a 1hr video about metallica "st anger" drum sound, is so very much needed.. 😐😐😐

[@tlkshowhst]

Please do Simple Minds’ “Don’t You Forget About Me”

[@runglerhz5590]

Pity about the Moog. Since Eno was all over this record too I'm putting a lot of money on that it was an EMS VCS3 or Synthi.

[@void0094]

Do New Day Rising by Hüsker Dü. It is a wall of sound

[@busywl69]

You know a ton of folks are going to sample this. Sounds really good.

[@email3575]

no one needs to, the link for the free sample pack of them is above, thats what they do for all these

[@busywl69]

@@email3575 nice

[@RasCuban33]

I’ve got a Ibanez HD1000, wondering if I can get it to do the same effect.🧐

[@TweedSuit]

Iggy Pop's "The Idiot" was recorded during the same sessions as Low and also features the Harmonizer on drums. The same rhythm section played on both albums. It makes sense that you tuned the snare up high as that's how Dennis Davis tuned his snare.

[@szrnkabela]

Do a complete breakdown of Subterraneans

[@szrnkabela]

It is the breakout track of Low and perhaps the only unfiltered description of DBs mind during his cocaine duke meltdown as well as the sympathy towards the people of East Germany who he and IP witnessed from the perspective of the West Berlin enclave.

[@experimentalchris]

Flaming Lips "The Spiderbite Song"

[@Schilliebillie]

Thanks guys! If my memory serves me well, a Sansamp on a snare (use an effect send and return) gives almost the same character.

[@ghostexits]

Very nice, but it wasn't just a straight H910 detuning patch. According to the man, there was an amplitude follower on the Harmonizer, modulating the H910 pitch, according to how loud the drum was being hit. This alters the effect fairly dramatically, and you can hear it on the record.

[@sensitiverambo]

Wolf Parade I'll Believe in Anything/ATTQM drum sound.

[@wg821]

Here is a good read on this subject: David Bowie's Low (33 1/3) by Hugo Wilcken

[@alexgarza4513]

Please do a recreating the sound of Charlie watts! His drums sound especially amazing in Bridges to Babylon or Some girls or even Start me up.

[@1mikeloz]

Steve Albini and the Shellac drum sound pleasseeee

[@lukebyrne-perkins4455]

Jesus lizard drums on goat

[@handssmelloh9173]

Any of Albinis albums from around then for sure. He's got videos out how he does things now that's similar but still would be cool to see how these guys would achieve it.

[@malachisanders6884]

could you do inxs kick album drums please

[@partirparlesarmoires]

That would be great if you could do the drum sound of The Cure on Seventeen seconds or Pornography. For Seventeen seconds, the sound engineer has explained in details how it was done but it could be interesting to see it recreated in this kind of video.

[@pioneernut7487]

Robert Smith was influenced by Low during recording Faith

[@danielhoffheins2068]

Since you have the Eventide out, how about Kashmir?

[@RocknJazzer]

the eventide on kashmir was a different eventide unit...that was their "instant phaser"

[@bigfakenetwork]

Yes, along with @TizzleVizzle , it was really important that Davis was able to "play" the harmonizer. Visconti talked about this at an AES a few years back. That's why on the actual recording it wasn't a "set it and forget it" single sound, like say a sample, but rather a variety of snare sounds throughout the track, as Davis fucked with the intensity.

[@th3giv3r]

"if you dig what you are about to hear..."

[@connorjones7473]

Love this series, but this one is a bit off to my ears. You cant hear enough of the pitch envelope on the snare, and the decay isn't long enough. Assuming this is supposed to be Sound and Vision, those first 3 snare hits don't sound gated at all to me on the original. Nonetheless, great videos overall

[@thebreakfastmenu]

We need some Nick Mason drum sounds!

[@stephenbrown7545]

Why?...he is a lucky man and an average drummer at best.

[@thebreakfastmenu]

@@stephenbrown7545 I accept no Nick Mason slander.

[@jdtorian]

Killer. Sound great. Not as fun as stealing directly from Low but killer none the less.

[@mc3067]

Lots of expensive equipment, but it sounds nothing like "Sound and Vision" to my inexperienced ears. The snare is cut very short, like an ordinary cheap digital gated reverb: it doesn't breathe like the song does. Also relisten to the left channel high hat in the actual recording: definitely percussive, not just a white noise whoosh.

[@ElTrolldego]

How about the Amen break?

[@littlemouse7066]

At the time musicians were very surprised by the sounds used on that record because they had never heard anything like that before and the sounds on Low and Heroes (and partially on Lodger) had a huge influence on the music that came after them. By the way sorry but it doesn't sound like the record to me.

[@PhatLvis]

Pretty good, pretty close.

[@cassidysacre9394]

The meters cissy strut pls !!!

[@philswaim392]

So insane to think that nothing exists that sounds like this. Its purely a concoction of a specific physical setup digitized and altered. It is impossible to play this sound without digital tech

[@primethe8th]

Do St Anger

[@jawoody9745]

He used the same Harmonizer on Magazine's classic Secondhand Daylight album.You guys should have let the feedback up. The sound you came up (down?) is way too controlled.

[@PaulBradshawMedia]

What is meant by “overhead”?

[@1mikeloz]

They’re referring to the mic thats sitting over the drum kit! :) these mics are usually called drum overheads

[@PaulBradshawMedia]

@@1mikeloz gotcha - thanks for explaining 👍

[@SearchfortheMeaning]

'Dream dream electric dream...."

[@everydamnjim]

Hard to go wrong with a D12

[@szrnkabela]

Louis Cole kickdrum sound

[@morioh6505]

JOY DIVISION PLEASE

[@Maximus-ib6hw]

Would be interesting to hear it just with the plug-ins that were used on the original album

[@aaronsinger]

Plugins were 20 years away when this album was recorded. Digital hardware such as the Eventide Harmonizer had been around for a few years, though. There is of course a plug-in now based on that H910 Harmonizer.

[@MrRuhavik]

Great! Dire Straits 70s drums please....

[@email3575]

basic 70s drums, nothing out of the ordinary. You can hear the isolated tracks here for instance kzbin.info/www/bejne/pZWwdKJtia5kZs0

[@CroTube5000]

Wait, did I miss it or did you mention that Visconti/Bowie apparently hit a tin ashtray with a drumstick and added that in? Anyone else hear that story?

[@TizzleVizzle]

That was used for the 'cowbell', which we were too impatient to hire. So we beat a metallic tape reel to death. -- Tony V

[@CroTube5000]

@@TizzleVizzle Is that you Tony? Hello and thanks for all the work.

[@TizzleVizzle]

@@CroTube5000 It's me. Thank you so much.

[@johndmcgonagle]

@@TizzleVizzle incredible that you're here commenting Tony. Thanks so much for Low. Side 1 in particular is one of the most spectacular set of songs I've ever heard. Been listening to Blackstar again recently too. Bono, in his new book, specifically comments on how incredible the middle section of Blackstar (the title track) is. Thanks for everything Tony. Your book is on my shelf, beside a book about The Blue Nile, and Last Night A DJ Saved My Life :-)

[@MaxTovstyiMusic]

Do Led Zeppelin! When The Levee Breaks or Kashmir etc.

[@tagacale1733]

so in a nutshell, you need about 167 K worth of gears to get this sound. got it

[@Bati_]

H910 Harmonizer plugin might worth a try (on sale now for 74 USD), plus any free stock pitch shifter + distortion + reverb combination might achieve similar results…

[@officialdanplants]

Feels like @reverb's support hit the wrong note and it's echoing through the entire process. #ReverbSupport

[@walkerphillips1488]

Right?

[@dikkeskieven484]

Sweet, now do Jesus & Mary Chain's Just Like Honey

[@martinheath5947]

As far as this is concerned, you guys could achieve this sound with some envelope filter, EQ and compression.

[@elliotsteeves112]

Iggy Pop was arguably as influential to this record as Brian Eno was.

[@declankelly8964]

Anything off the Era Vulgaris album by Queens Of The Stone Age should be examined. Anything by QOTSA, actually.

[@Reverb]

We can help with the second part of that request! Here ya go: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hInWXnawgrSAr5o

[@youngmike8645]

Right??? 😂