One of the defining sounds on David Bowie’s Low came from a piece of technology Tony Visconti had only recently acquired: the Eventide H910 Harmonizer.
Visconti used the processor on Dennis Davis’s drums while recording the album in 1976. The H910 could alter pitch and timing digitally, still an exotic possibility at the time. Instead of using it gently, Visconti pushed the device hard enough to transform the drums into something sharp, compressed and strangely mechanical.
That choice matters because Low sits at an interesting point between rock performance and electronic thinking. Davis was still physically playing a drum kit, but the recorded result no longer had to behave like an acoustic kit.
The studio could redesign the performance afterwards.
We now take this freedom almost completely for granted. A snare can be stretched, pitched, gated, distorted or replaced without anyone considering the process unusual.
In 1976 the distinction between recording a sound and designing it was much less settled.
What I like about the Low drums is that the technology does not disappear politely behind the musician. You can hear the processing becoming part of the identity of the performance.
The drummer plays the instrument.
Visconti plays what happens to the instrument.
Somewhere between them, a third instrument appears: the recording studio itself.
https://www.davidbowie.com/blog/2017/8/23/anciant-album-focus-low
