I love this video and the breakdown of the different parts on ‘Heroes’.

The majority of Heroes was composed on the spot in the studio, the lyrics not being written until Bowie stood in front of the microphone.

Things to listen out for:

The bass is processed with a flanger; Visconti recounts the bass was recorded to tape with the effect – which meant it couldn’t be removed in the future / after recording.

Synth pioneer Brian Eno played the synth parts and also manipulated the guitars by running them through as an external sound source.

Robert Fripp (from King Crimson) played the guitars; the ambient lead sounds were created by deliberately introducing feedback and physically moving back and forward to adjust the pitch.

The track features ARP Solina Strings (an early string synth) and Chamberlin brass sounds (an early sampler like the Mellotron).

To record the vocal, Visconti set up a series of noise gates, wherein three microphones were placed at different distances from Bowie and each successive gate had a slightly higher threshold. Thus, the further mics would only open when he sang loud enough.

Questions to ask yourself:

1. Name the specific drum tracks that were recorded.
2. What is the effect used on the bass?
3. What was the issue with using this effect and recording directly to tape?
4. What is being modulated on Brian Eno’s synth sounds?
5. What is the name of the string synthesiser? Who was it made by?
6. What were the issues with this early synth sound (not ‘cheesy’)?
7. How did Robert Fripp create the high ‘wailing’ guitar notes?
8. How many guitar overdubs were there?
9. How would Visconti have balanced these on the final bounce?
10. What is a Chamberlain?
11. What were the Mellotron and Chamberlin an example of?
12. Why were they great / not so great?
13. What does Visconti think the ‘cowbell’ might have been?
14. How did Visconti make use of the final vocal track to get the different vocal sounds?