Alan Parsons in Nashville, TN Oct 27th, 2007

Discussion / Q&A    Pink Floyd

Alan talked about Dark Side of the Moon; no questions leap out in my memory that haven't already been asked, so here are a few details:

·       He'd previously worked on a commercial demo reel for a client with the clocks montage which he later suggested be incorporated in Time

·       The Money loop was very difficult to build as it was multiple butt splices of analog tape to achieve the effect. Tragically (but rather musically) the individual sounds were clipped off instead of overlapping natural decays which you could get assembling the sounds in digital mediums. It worked out to a 7/4 measure that I played not unlike a click track at the beginning of the first verse and then took it out. The band played in nearly perfect time so I was able to re-introduce the effect on the second verse as well."

Check out detailed discussion of techniques employed for quad Floyd:  http://www.stereosociety.com/FourSides.html

Q. When did you really start working with Pink Floyd?

A. First full-scale project with them was engineering Atom Heart Mother  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_Heart_Mother

Q. What was it like to work with Syd Barrett?

A. "It was quite challenging; I worked with him on The Madcap Laughs. He was trying to put his music together but was pretty incoherent by this time. The only way this album got made was from all the efforts by great people around him being made on his behalf. He had to pretty much be babysat the whole time. Sad really; without him there would've been no Pink Floyd as we know it."

    Home    Story   Photos    Other Q & A:    The Beatles    Engineering / Production    Music    Quad / Surround    Inspiration