Pink Floyd guitar recording technique

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ykarkason

New member
Well folks,
I've literally listened to "In the flesh?" (make sure to have the question mark :p ), from The Wall hundreds of times,
And every time I hear it, I start to wonder how they achieved this mighty guitar sound.

It sound to me as a single-tracked sound, although it seems as if it was recorded with more then 1 mic.

I've read an interview with David Gilmour, who claims that all the solos in Dark Side Of the Moon were improvised(doesn't really has anything to do with the rest ;)) and were miced with one mic standing about 2 inches away from the center of the cone.

Well, I can't believe that with the ego that waters had that time he would let anything to be non-perfect in his masterpiece,
So he wanted to achieve this great sound and I believe that the mics were positined with more "meaning" .

So.... How the hell did they got this sound? :p

Thanks for your time guys :cool: Appreciated!
 
ykarkason said:
Well, I can't believe that with the ego that waters had that time he would let anything to be non-perfect in his masterpiece,
So he wanted to achieve this great sound and I believe that the mics were positined with more "meaning" .
Click to expand...

I dont think David Gilmour ever needed Roger Waters pursuation to get good sounds in the Studio, heck he even played quite a bit of Waters bass parts.
 
NYMorningstar said:
There's lots of videos on youtube about them. Here's a couple:

YouTube - Pink Floyd members discuss recording "Money"

YouTube - The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon (1/5) Spanish Subtitles
Click to expand...

Ohh... If you only knew how many times I have watched them :p
Haha :p ,

But no, I'm talking About "The Wall",
To me, the guitars there seem to have more focus the the Dark side,
And I just want you guys to try to guess how the hell did they recorded this fucking great sound! :D
 
I had to listen again to remember the tone -- Just sounds like a nice guitar tone. A little more distance, a little more space than a typical Gilmour tone, but nothing extraordinary.

Don't get me wrong here - It's a great f'in sound and a great f'in recording -- But a lot of PF is just that -- Great sounds, recorded with great fidelity.
 
I think some of the guitar sounds on The Wall stand out more because of the relatively sparse arrangements, and in particular the drum sounds achieved...

Working from memory here, haven't listened to it for a while.
 
If you really want to get that sound, your gonna need a Big Muff "Rams Head" version. This was David's main distortion pedal from the 70's up til the 80's and even during the 1994 pulse tour he took it along with him for those wall tones. I use a POD X3 Live and have an amazing tone for the Wall that acheives this exact sound. I use a Bass amp (sim), big muff (sim), analog chorus/flanger "Electric Mistress", compression, and to make the sound big using a rotary speaker sim which is a Yamaha RA-200 in real life. The 4X12's in the cabinet of a RA-200 even being a simulation through the pod interface makes the sound big and in your face with punch. As for playing "In the flesh?" it's bend city.

Being in a Pink Floyd cover band, I had to learn tone tone tone and more tone. I am a huge Pink Floyd, David Gilmour fan. Anyone that follows the band through their records found out that Pink Floyd's sound really was from David and not Waters. As a fun fact Dave even played most of the bass parts on the albums because he was "better versed" and "much quicker" than Waters. If a bass line such as "Hey You" is complicated, or played on a fretless, you can bet it was Dave.

During the Wall/Final Cut days of PF, Dave used a Hiwatt 100w as well as Bass amp head units. As for the overall sound of the Wall you need a big muff, Electric Mistress flanger, delay, and compression. Light Chorus where needed.
 
Yup.

I'm a huge fan of both Pink Floyd and David Gilmour.

The sad truth for anybody emulating them is that the sound is much more to do with the extreme quality of Gilmour's playing than any recording techniques or trickery.

He recreates that sound every time he plays live.
 
Bobbsy said:
Yup.

I'm a huge fan of both Pink Floyd and David Gilmour.

The sad truth for anybody emulating them is that the sound is much more to do with the extreme quality of Gilmour's playing than any recording techniques or trickery.

He recreates that sound every time he plays live.
Click to expand...

I shall make a recording tonight of my tone with the POD X3 Live and my playing. :D
 
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