Tech

Bowie producer creates digital effect so you can sing like the Thin White Duke

by Richard Howard

March 17, 2016

Tony Visconti is working on an 'innovative plug-in' based on Bowie's vocal effects.

Bowie wannabes, rejoice. The iconic singer’s longtime producer and musical collaborator Tony Visconti has been revealed to be working on an “innovative plug-in” inspired by their work together.

Over the past two years, Visconti has been working in conjunction with well-known audio software company Eventide on the plug-in effect. The company explained to Music Radar that the idea came about during a meeting between Visconti and Eventide engineers/software designers Adrienne Humblet, Joe Waltz and Tony Agnello:

“[Visconti] described how powerful an instrument Bowie’s voice was (what he called ‘Bowie histrionics’) and how he was able to harness that power by employing various microphone techniques. That meeting inspired the Eventide trio to create a plugin that would mimic and build upon the real world effects that Visconti had created.”

Visconti was an originator of using digital plug-in effects, and spoke of using Eventide’s revolutionary Digidesign delay on David Bowie’s 1974 album Diamond Dogs which at the time he found to be “a miracle.”

The new Bowie-inspired plug-in has already gotten a test drive in the form of a track produced for an upcoming episode of Martin Scorcese’s HBO drama Vinyl. This will likely be an example of how the effect should be used, as opposed to its inevitable abuse by cover bands with deep pockets, blissfully unaware that they’re still butchering “Young Americans.”