The ‘Let’s Dance’ Snare
It was the early 80s, and I was a tape-op in a big recording studio, clients coming and going, often bringing their own engineers in to work on the session. I was a total dogsbody, the lowest of the low.
It was mid 1983 to be precise. David Bowie had returned to the charts from a long absence with an amazing album ‘Let’s Dance’, and the title track had just come out as a single - sweeping all before it. This recording - produced by Nile Rodgers - was the epitome of great production and great sounds, including Tony Thompson’s drum sounds… Massive power but with such a deft touch!
He may have been the drummer in Chic - whose tracks floated effortlessly in the disco firmament - but this guy was POWERFUL!
His sounds on ‘Let’s Dance’ were so great, so state-of-the-art that any visiting engineer coming to work at the studio - as a matter of course - would arrive with the 12” vinyl of it under his arm.
It was my job to fetch a turntable, and also an Eventide Harmoniser rack unit - from the outboard gear storeroom.
There was a moment on the instrumental B-side where there was an exposed snare drum hit - with no hi-hat or reverb hanging over - which was sampled into the Harmoniser. This was then triggered by the snare drum of the actual drummer on the session, in real-time as he played. Velocity-sensitive, no latency problems.
Also, no legal problems apparently! This was before that side of the music industry had got their act together…
The end result gave the session drums some of that Tony Thompson/Nile Rodgers zeitgeist!
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