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Transcript
00:00The studio accident that created a Phil Collins classic.
00:04Dead air in the studio usually signals disaster, but for Phil Collins, it became the sound of the 1980s.
00:11The gated reverb drum technique, that explosive, atmospheric punch immortalized in In the Air Tonight,
00:16emerged from a forgotten talkback microphone during Peter Gabriel's sessions in 1979.
00:22A studio communication mic accidentally created one of music's most iconic drum sounds.
00:26While recording Peter Gabriel's third solo album, engineer Hugh Padgum and producer Steve Lillywhite
00:32left a talkback mic on, routing it through heavy compression and a noise gate.
00:38When Phil Collins played, the signal produced reverb that bloomed and then cut abruptly.
00:43The team embraced the effect, first on Gabriel's Intruder and later on Collins' In the Air Tonight,
00:48crafting the legendary drum break, punchy, atmospheric and rhythmically unique,
00:53perfectly matching early MTV's Visual Sonic style.
00:56One studio accident shaped an entire decade.
01:00Like Link Wray's 1958 amp-punctured fuzz on Rumble and Kings of Leon's scratch vocal on S on Fire,
01:06Phil Collins' gated reverb became 1980s shorthand, adopted by Prince, Springsteen and studios worldwide.
01:13What began as a forgotten mic evolved into the era's sonic DNA,
01:17showing that music's greatest innovations often come from embracing accidents,
01:20controlled chaos that can't be programmed.
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