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Just a little bit about Ziggy Stardust the album, which everyone mistakenly mistook for a concept album. Any delay came from a Studer C37 stereo tape machine with a varispeed.” The multitrack machines were an Ampex 8 track and later a 3M 16 track. Compression came from two UREI 1176’s and two Teletronix LA2A’s. “The album, like the others that followed, was mixed on a 20 input Sound Techniques console, using moderate board EQ, a single EMT plate reverb, and just a little compression on the overall mix. How about mixing? Again, right from the source: Unlike many other recordings of the time, we never recorded the effects because David only did one take, so there was never any time to set them up.” We didn’t have many tracks at that time, so even if both mics were used, they were mixed together to a single track. It also had the added benefit of helping suppress any popping and sibilance as well. I came up with this method so I could instantly switch between the two to see which mic sounded better (and maybe even use both), instead of having him stand in front of one mic and sing a bit, then go in front of the other mic and sing a bit. “What I quite often did while recording David’s vocals was use an AKG C12a and a U67 and place them at a 90 degree angle to each other so he was singing in-between them. OK, how about the technical bits of recording Bowie. You’d think there was a mistake when he was laying it down, but when we’d listen to the playback we’d find that what we thought sounded odd the first time through was intentional and worked perfectly.” I’d get the level and he’d sing the song down and that would be it.
![david bowie ziggy stardust david bowie ziggy stardust](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0555/1295/7111/products/pulse-prod-ziggy.jpg)
“David was always exceptional with his vocals, since 99% of the time it was the first take, beginning to end, with no punches.
![david bowie ziggy stardust david bowie ziggy stardust](https://assets.catawiki.nl/assets/2018/1/17/3/b/8/3b8614b3-cb74-45c4-b54c-000064ba904e.jpg)
Since this is all about the isolated vocal, a great story from the book is about David doing vocals. For those of you who don’t know or don’t remember, I co-wrote Ken’s autobiography Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust and there were so many great Bowie stories that he related while doing it that it’s difficult to pick just one, so I’ll include a few. It’s the isolated vocal track from the title track of David Bowie’s iconic Ziggy Stardustalbum and it features not only David’s excellent vocal skills, but producer/engineer’s Ken Scott’s impeccable production as well. David Bowie “Ziggy Stardust” Isolated Vocal