I saw the Dark Side of the Moon tour in 1973. It was the most incredible show I'd ever seen. Afterwards, I went over to the sound crew and talked with them a few minutes. Seeing Alan Parsons here, I just realized it was him I was talking to! I had no idea at the time.
Very cool that you saw them on that tour. I saw them on A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour the same year year I saw Roger Waters on the Radio KAOS tour. Hands down, Roger blew “Floyd” away. My friend and I burned our PF ticket stubs in effigy, we were so disappointed.
My wife and I went to see The Alan Parsons Project back in 2018, and we got to meet Alan after the show. He's a very laid-back, humble gentleman who's super easy to talk to. I talked to him a few minutes about production styles and what we can do to stop the loudness war. He told me the way to stop it was, "We make records that don't have it." It was an honor to get to talk with him, and I'll remember that conversation vividly for the rest of my life. I think it's really cool that he actually went to your studio in person for the interview, Rick.
Sadly, there's NOTHING we can do to stop the Loudness Wars; music is largely consumed by youth and they have no issue when the latest Taylor Swift album has a whole 10 dB of dynamic range.
@VideoArchiveGuy That was the first part of what he said to me. With that iconic Alan Parsons chuckle and grin, he said, "I'm afraid there's no solution to that, my friend; no solution." Then he thought about it for a bit, and that's when he said, "We make records that don't have it."
Let's please not forget Rick Wright. Roger's 1st appearance is in Brain Damage but it's not everything by David up until that point. Rick sings the bridge in Time, which is to me one of the most memorable and beautiful moments in the album and also does harmonies in Us and Them.
@@jessebumann good point! His jazz influence is essential to that song, and there's that famous clip where he explains how he incorporated a chord from So What which gives the progression that distinct flavor
roger legit sings on biding my time, If, careful with that axe eugene, free four and more, rick sings on on songs like summer '68, paintbox, and stay, all this before dark side, i dont know why that comment came from Alan.
And what about the very first "Alan Parsons Project" scene with the studio stuff workers playing the Beatles' instruments while the band is dining? 😂😅😆👍
Would be nice - that is, of course, if his overbearing overpresent wife allows him out of the house alone and doesn't make it a point that she is present for the interview and possibly on camera, too. 🤷🏼♂️🤦🏼♂️ I say this with great sadness, as a lifelong fan of Gilmour and Pink Floyd: she's all over the place, basically can't have a video of his nowadays without several shots of her, and with very few exceptions it's really, really baffling to read the word salad stuff she writes for his or let alone Pink Floyd lyrics... yet somehow he says yes to it all.
@@PrantoKoX Rick could have a translator there and ask David to do it in French. He speaks it quite well but I don't think Polly does so maybe that would give him a chance to speak more freely.
One thing about DSOTM that has stood out to me over all these years related to sound engineering, is how clean and crisp and present the cymbal ride in Us and Them sounds. It's right there unavoidable, but does not overpower the mix. It compliments the song masterfully, and that is something I have ALWAYS tried to duplicate in my own recordings.
All due respect to Alan, it's not just David Gilmour singing everything up to Brain Damage. Rick Wright also sang on Time and Us and Them. It's unfortunate Rick's contributions keep getting written out of Pink Floyd's history...
Of course JT is here fanboying over Rick again. Rick sings like 20 seconds on Time (Roger's melody and lyrics) and only backing on Us and Them. Hardly a travesty to forget that in a conversation. He's not exactly a great singer, either. Nowhere near the level of Roger or David.
While Rick is nowhere near the singer David was, it's always fascinating for Dark Side fans to discover Rick sang at all on these iconic songs. Time has always been one of my all-time favs, and it blew me away to discover after decades of listens, that David wasn't the only PF voice on it.
@@bluemoon-20 Not at all sure how you or anyone couldn't tell that that wasn't Gilmour or Waters singing during Rick's sections... All their voices sound different.
@@nectarinedreams7208 You're the first person I've ever seen say anything positive about Roger's singing voice. Floyd is my favorite band ever, never really cared for his vocals at all.
Dark Side of the Moon is still amazing sounding, to this day. I listen to it in its entirety maybe every couple of years, and also when I get new monitors, and everything sounds great and comes across effortlessly - compared to most other albums, where I'm always adjusting for a little more (or less) bottom end. It's an astounding work of audio engineering.
My dad was a Disc Jockey in Rochester and he used to give me and my sister all kinds of albums that were stamped "PROMOTIONAL COPY Not For Resale" on them...all kinds of stuff, KISS A TASTE OF PLATINUM, AZTEC 2, MANHATTAN TRANSFER, but especially ALAN PARSON PROJECT "PYRAMID". That record sealed Alan into my soul I swear. THANK YOU MR PARSONS
Is it not weird that Alan Parsons looks so young? This guy is almost 80 years old, not a single white hair. Great talent of course and his own discography is great (Alan Parsons Project).
At 75, it's probably dye. Then again, I'm 55 and still have brown hair....but my crows feet and forehead wrinkles make it obvious how old I really am. Maybe hair color (and loss) isn't as much of a "set in stone" indicator of age as many believe?
There are plenty of gray and white hairs on Alan's head. His hairdresser "blended" them in as "highlights". Mr Parsons used to have more gray and white in his beard - it is all colored. No shame on Alan, he is still a working "performing artist".
Can I just take a moment to say how beautifully produced this Video is? The lighting, sound and camera setup is perfect, and creates a wonderful ambience. These things don't just happen, just like producing a great record doesn't just happen. A lot of thought, time and effort, went into setting up Rick's studio. I'd be interested to learn about the Video production technicalities.
Rick its great to hear this style of interview, no hype or BS. I don't understand anything about music production but it was fascinating to listen too, without descending into relationship issues etc.
I am so grateful for this interview with Alan Parsons! Such depth of knowledge being shared, so many details of how he created the music we love. Thank you Alan and Rick Beato !
They spent 7 months recording this masterpiece. Then first time I heard it (on headphones) in 1974 you just knew it was something really special. At one time I had an 8-track, cassette, vinyl, cd, Mobile Fidelity CD, Mobile Fidelity vinyl pressing, and a newly remastered vinyl version. Still have all the vinyl and MF cd. Wish I had them all back.
Alan had a very successful run with his own albums with Pyramid, I Robot, Turn of a friendly card etc. Without Alan Pink Floyd wouldn't have been as successful and he should be credited with that fact
By producing DSOTM Alan had huge influence on how I write songs on the piano. (In a manner of speaking) Richard Wright is my favorite piano/key player. Him and Scott Joplin.
Glyn Johns told me during a session once...that historically he added a ton of high end to his drum sound because he had to compensate for the inevitable loss of high frequency due to bouncing tracks.
Whenever I purchased new audio gear back in the day I typically took a copy of Eye In the Sky to test the speakers, headphones, etc. Always been a big fan of APP and have the majority of his releases on cassette & CD. I put him in the same category as Mutt Lange, David Foster and Bob Clearmountain - maybe even more so 'cuz he's done so much solo work on top of his Abbey Road work with others. Great interview Rick.
I hope Rick has another part of this just talking about the Project. As much of a Floyd fan as i am the Project has loomed large in my life for decades and would love to hear about Alan and Eric and how they made those records. But just wonderful as always.
Hey Rick, you ended up in my feed a few weeks ago and now I’m subscribed, amazing content. I’d love to watch YOU give a crash course on what everything is in the production of an album for laymen like me. Like what exactly is (was?) the mixer doing, how did they do it in the analog only days, what does it look like now with pro-tools and the like, etc… I don’t even know enough to ask the right questions but I’m absolutely fascinated by your world and content
The drums sound sooo good on that particular album. Haunting. I wonder if that was the only one where they had them completely uncompressed. Must be a rarity in rock music in general.
@@dust4magnet He's fairly rightfully getting sick of interviews, but this would be the show for him to avoid the 'drama' questions. And he's got to sell albums right, so he's got to do SOME press:)
@@mikearchibald744 yes, Rick is super aware of how to interview these guys. His approach is not like the press or journalistic. he isnt exploiting people he wants to teach young musicians how it was all done in hopes that music one day will be Better
Than you mr. Beato for yoir energy and enthusiastic videos and brilliant interviews yoi help to make my dsy brighter whilr enduring my long recovery hope to meet you one day
5:29 Everything else was David and Rick (Wright, not Beato), unless I'm very mistaken. I've heard David and Rick sing Breathe & Time together live, and their live vocal harmonies sound like the album, so I always assumed it was both of them singing on the album too.
Gilmore played all Rogers bass parts on the albums as well and wrote most of them I know Roger wrote money and another brick but it's about the jist of it bass wise
I would love to know how Wish You Were Here would have sounded if Mr. Parsons had stayed on board for its recording.Its probably the coldest sounding album I've ever heard as it is now (which may have been intentional).At the same time he and Eric gave us Tales of Mystery and Imagination in its place so the trade off worked out well and I have zero complaints.
Who else thinks Parson's mix is the best? I also like Guthrie but Parsons is just masterful as both engineer and musician. He cared enough to release a good deal of the Alan Parson's Project in hires and it sounds great. I must confess that when I saw the title "Stereotomy" it made me think of the removal of real stereo systems in the US. Kids from the '70s remember that everyone had a stereo with at least a receiver, turntable, and a couple of bookshelves if not floor standers. But then the Walkman and later MP3 and it has devolved into something so much less satisfying.
Interesting comment regarding avoidance of compression on drums. The difference between live drums ... obviously uncompressed ... and most recorded drums is what always stands out to me. When I was a youngster I remember going to live music for the first time and feeling the excitement and dynamic force of the drums ... it was like taking a sniff of smelling salts ... it gives you a jolt and lifts your heart-rate! Quite different to the sometimes sanitised sounds of carefully recorded drums sitting beautifully in a mix.
True legends like Alan and are just real and humble, even though they have resumes they could brag about for ages. And the people he worked with over the years are some of the finest artists and musicians of the late 20th century.
This is useful information from the source. I think this channel is better than the other one though I still get no notifications and there is no bell to ring. If there was it would not take me a month to hear this. I found the bell it is highlighted but still no notifications for me anyway.
Many years ago, 1974, my father came home one day and told me that a bloke, where he worked, was selling some LPs. One of which was that 'Dark Side of The Moon' that I had been talking about. I told him to buy it the next day as it would be a 'steal'. What a disappointment when I opened the bag 'Dark Side Of The Moon' by 'Medicine Head' (recorded and released 1971). Pink Floyd had ripped off the album name. I still have that damn thing in a box somewhere. Thankyou Pink Floyd, you cost me a week's pocket money. I was so pi**ed off that I never bought Pink Floyd's album. However, many years later, my wife had the LP in her collection, which we still proudly own.
I love the Abbey Rd recording of Golden Hair on the Syd Barrett LP. You can hear the mic pick up the resonating guitar strings and perhaps even the dust shown up by a shaft of sunlight... you never know!
The 8-track version of the Animals album was remixed, with the song Pigs On the Wing pts 1&2. The order was changed, and a guitar solo was added to make the 8-track versoin into an endless loop. The solo was played by Snowy White.
I am 66 years and started digesting Pink Floyd when 13 or 14 years old! Every day I had Pink Floyd playing!a come up in music playing bass guitar listening to Pink Floyd! I retired from playing about 7 years ago but when I hear one of these Fender P or J basses played makes me want to pick a bass guitar up again!!! Forty to 50 years later and these songs still go to my soul! Today's musicians don't have a clue what quality music is all about!!! Current generational songs have gone to the dogs! To all musicians in today's generation(s) this was music that was phenomenally written produced and performed 😡😡😡
By the way that quadraphonic mix is available for download everywhere. Alan released it for free when he heard an SACD surround mix for Dark Side was being made, and yet he wasn’t invited! It can be burned to DVD and plays on DTS 4 channel.
Many of my favorite albums are related to Alan Parsons though the bands are not related to each other. Abbey Road- Let it be by The Beatles, Dark side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, and Modern times-Year of the cat-Time passages, by Al Stewart. Not to mention his own stuff with the APP. As a producer and as sound engineer as well, the man is the KING.
I believe there was a release of DSOTM where the two 16 tracks were synced so the sound was first generation throughout. I don't know how popular the release was or if it sounded any better.
Here's some trivia that most people don't know. Rick sang two harmonies with Dave on Comfortably Numb... the parts which start ... "when I was a child..."
Im Subscribed ta Listen 2,Ricks,more than CooL,Vibes!😊Take care Rick!❤ Dark Side of The Moon!I have Albums,Cassettes,CDs,still of this Print!So TimeLess!
I was surprised when Rick told us ( @ 3:57 ) that 87% of us regular listeners were not subscribed. I had to check, and noticed that I was one of those not subscribed. Haha, 87% minus one now!!!😊
You're lucky. That tour was so popular they had a lottery for tickets. You had to send in a letter (1973) and hoped they liked it. I never heard back. One of the only bands I wasn't able to see live back then.
It's interesting how one record can haunt an engineer for the rest of his life. I bet 99% of the questions Mr. Parsons gets are about Dark Side of the Moon.
Thing he doesn’t mention when talking about those bass and drum tracks for floyd: that’s why Gilmour had to record the majority of the bass; Roger simply wasn’t good enough on bass.
