There’s a lovely practical detail behind the expanding vocal on David Bowie’s “Heroes”: some of the microphones were waiting for him to get louder.
Producer Tony Visconti described putting one microphone close to Bowie and two farther away in the large room at Hansa. The distant microphones had gates, which kept their signals out until the sound crossed a set level. As Bowie pushed his voice, more of the room joined the recording.
A rather elaborate way of saying: yes, we heard you.
The clever part is the connection to the performance. A louder voice also brings in more reflected sound, so the sense of space changes with the singing. The room appears to open around him. There’s a physical reason for that impression, right there in the microphone positions.
Visconti also recalled having only one track left for the lead vocal. The three microphones therefore had to be combined, rather than recorded separately for someone to sort out later.
That last detail is worth keeping beside the famous trick. It makes the setup feel less like a recipe and more like a decision made in a particular room, with a particular singer, with just one track available for the result.
Tony Visconti at Red Bull Music Academy, Madrid, 2011. Image source: Red Bull Music Academy, Madrid 2011. Source
