ALAN PARSONS
THE ART & SCIENCE OF SOUND RECORDING…
an interview by Tom Brooks
If you’re living on planet earth, you’ve nearly every style of music, from symphonic [Tom Brooks] Alan, you’ve probably run into
undoubtedly heard the music of legendary rock to EDM, from the Chicago Bulls’ theme every imaginable engineering challenge in your
producer / engineer / songwriter Alan Parsons song to ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro. music career. In the big picture, what would you
- from Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon He pioneered technologies we take for granted say are the top 5 tips to help GTR’s producer-
(45x Platinum) and the Beatles’ Abbey Road today, such as sampling and playing with loops engineers make their music sound better?
/ Let it Be to the Hollies, Pilot, Ambrosia, (as in Pink Floyd’s “Money”), surround sound, Paul McCartney’s solo albums, and his own vocoder vocal FX, EDM pop-synth textures, [Alan Parsons] Tip #1. "Don’t let technology
creation, The Alan Parsons Project. His name is and more; receiving 11 Grammy nominations. get in the way of the artist’s performance and
synonymous with Abbey Road Studios, starting
creativity." I’ve watched sessions crumble
there as an assistant at age 18, fine-tuning Recently Alan poured his wealth of knowledge because the engineer was spending too much
his craft with the likes of Sir George Martin and experience into “The Art & Science time trying to get a plug-in tweaked or an effect
and Geoff Emerick, and eventually becoming of Sound Recording”, a must-have video dialed in; all while the creative energy of the
President of the studio in 1998. presentation and companion book that is artist was just slipping away.
educational, entertaining, and inspiring all at
In a recent Music Radar poll, fans voted Alan the same time. He sat down with our own Tom Tip #2. "Consider each microphone and its
one of the “Greatest Producers in Music Brooks to give GTR readers a sneak peak… sound source." I remember something Glyn
History”. His creative genius can be heard in
22
Johns taught me on a Beatles session, way
Sep Oct 2017
GearTechRec.com