The sound of the Dark Side of the Moon...

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gilwe

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It there any web page or site that is dedicated for the creating of the wonderful (amazing) *sound* of the album ? I'm very curious about what equipment and recording techniques they used on the recordings.
 
Unfortunately, I don't think so. There are plenty of magazine articles and books published over the years that go in to a lot of it. The video : Pink Floyd Live at Pompei has some actual footage of some of the Dark Side sessions, which is actually quite revealing, as well.
 
chessrock said:
Unfortunately, I don't think so. There are plenty of magazine articles and books published over the years that go in to a lot of it. The video : Pink Floyd Live at Pompei has some actual footage of some of the Dark Side sessions, which is actually quite revealing, as well.
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I found the clips interessting, but watching Pink Floyd eating lunch with a bunch of Tech's isn't what I would call revealing... ;)
 
moskus said:
I found the clips interessting, but watching Pink Floyd eating lunch with a bunch of Tech's isn't what I would call revealing... ;)
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Shows how much you know. The inspiration for the drum sound came while they were eating some cheezy poofs.

Anybody ever watch 'Wizard of Oz' while listening to Dark Side? I heard about it a few years back and we tried it. It's pretty fuckin cool. Whenever I hear the album now I can remember which scenes they went to and some of the synchups are pretty scary.
 
It's pretty spooky.

I like the part where Dorothy balances herself on the fence just as Gilmour sings "Balanced on the biggest wave . . . "

Or the part where Roger sings "The lunatic is on the grass" as the scarecrow frails and frollics about on the grass.

Also pretty weird how the munchkins dance in near-perfect timing to "Money."


I was listening to an interview on the BBC where they asked Nick Mason if they were watching Wizard of Oz and purposely trying to time it to the movie during the DSOTM sessions. And he replied with his dry English wit: "Actually we were trying to sync it to the Sound of Music and it didn't quite work out."
 
moskus said:
I found the clips interessting, but watching Pink Floyd eating lunch with a bunch of Tech's isn't what I would call revealing... ;)
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I found it very interesting. I never thought of having apple pie with the crust cut off..............
 
That DSOM sound is the Alan Parsons sound actually. On his own albums.....that same characteristic sound is all over them.
 
chessrock said:
It's pretty spooky.

I like the part where Dorothy balances herself on the fence just as Gilmour sings "Balanced on the biggest wave . . . "

Or the part where Roger sings "The lunatic is on the grass" as the scarecrow frails and frollics about on the grass.

Also pretty weird how the munchkins dance in near-perfect timing to "Money."


I was listening to an interview on the BBC where they asked Nick Mason if they were watching Wizard of Oz and purposely trying to time it to the movie during the DSOTM sessions. And he replied with his dry English wit: "Actually we were trying to sync it to the Sound of Music and it didn't quite work out."
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Lol.

I thought the coolest part was how Great Gig in the Sky kicks in just as the tornado appears. As the singer is really wailing Dorothy is running around and screaming. Then the descent of the house syncs perfectly with the music. Dorothy gets up to open the door, it goes to color and Money starts playing. Pretty weird stuff.

Lt. Bob said:
That DSOM sound is the Alan Parsons sound actually. On his own albums.....that same characteristic sound is all over them.
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Yeah, definately.
 
You mean like on the song "Don't Answer Me?" :D I just remember the freaky video with all the manequins.

Parsons was quite the innovator for the time, but I also think it was pretty obvious that Floyd had their own production-type trademarks that held pretty firm in their material through the years, regardless of who was producing.

Oddly enough, I'm still not totally sold on Ezrin, although I hear he did a lot to mediate the battles between Gilmoure and Waters just to get their stuff completed, which was probably his greatest contribution.
 
chessrock said:
You mean like on the song "Don't Answer Me?" :D I just remember the freaky video with all the manequins.
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Parsons produced the album and I think it's obvious in a lot of ways. The backing vocals, drum reverb and synth tones are all vintage Parsons sounds. Most of the other Floyd albums have a more up front and cleaner sound. DSOTM is a lot more ambient and dreamy sounding. Listen to Parson's song 'Time" or the synth intro to "Eye in the Sky" and it almost sounds like it's right off of DSOTM. Personally I think most of his solo stuff is pretty boring but his sound worked well with Floyd on DSOTM.
 
TexRoadkill said:
Parsons produced the album and I think it's obvious in a lot of ways. The backing vocals, drum reverb and synth tones are all vintage Parsons sounds. Most of the other Floyd albums have a more up front and cleaner sound. DSOTM is a lot more ambient and dreamy sounding. Listen to Parson's song 'Time" or the synth intro to "Eye in the Sky" and it almost sounds like it's right off of DSOTM. Personally I think most of his solo stuff is pretty boring but his sound worked well with Floyd on DSOTM.
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I agree......go back to pre-DSOM, and the bands' sound, to me, is way different.
 
chessrock said:

Oddly enough, I'm still not totally sold on Ezrin, although I hear he did a lot to mediate the battles between Gilmoure and Waters just to get their stuff completed, which was probably his greatest contribution.
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I used to think that most producers of bands that already made it, like Pink Floyd, were just there to get their royalty checks and probably were sitting the back just nodding their heads yes for whatever the band wanted to do.

But then in TapeOp magazine I ran into this interview they did with Bob Ezrin and a good half of it dealt with his work with Pink Floyd and in particular on The Wall. His description of helping to organize that album and to construct filling material so that it had the cohesive feel that it has....it was a real eye opener. (You might be able to find the article at www.tapeop.com

I realized that producers do really have an impact on a project. Call me neive but I never really thought much about that before. I figured with a new band that's trying to make it, the producer is working hard, but with the big esablished bands I always kinda figured producers were the guys smoking blunts on the couch in the control room saying "Sounds great guys...keep up the good work!"
 
DSOM was recorded on an EMI "TG series" desk, though in a conversation with Alan Parsons he mentioned that they didn't use the compressor/limiters in the desk... FWIW some of the 'Chandler LTD.' stuff is based on the "TG series" hardware from that period.
 
I read a while back that a single EMT 140 plate was used for the entire album. The bells and chimes were recorded with teac reel to reels by Parsons. Paul.
 
You can hardly hear any compressor on all PF early stuff... Not using compressors has always worked for me.

BTW, Parson also engineered the sound of Beatle's Abby Road (if I'm not wrong) that has been recorded at the same studio.
 
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