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Alan Parsons: From The Dark Side of the Moon to The Alan Parsons Project:

Old Joad

By Old Joad
in The Coffee House

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smallstonefan

smallstonefan

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Looking forward to watching this, thanks. 🙏

I spent two days with Alan at a mixing class at his Parsonics studio. He was a calm, classy guy. One of my favorite studio items is a copy of Dark Side of the Moon that Alan signed for me while we were eating sushi at his dining room table! 🤘

Here are a few photos : one of the signed album and one of Alan regretting letting me push the faders! 🤣

AO01 album.png

AO03 oops.png

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smallstonefan

smallstonefan

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My biggest takeaway from my time with Alan is his influence on my bass recording. On day 2 of the class he brought in Toad the Wet Sprocket to record and walked us through his process. I got to hang out with their bass player Dean Dinning. He was a super chill dude. He told me the story of how he came up with the name Toad the Wet Sprocket and how the Monty Python actor reacted when he heard it on the radio. It was awesome hearing the story come from him.

Alan was recording Dean through the Neve and using a dbx 160vu on the bass. (He was using a second one on the vocals). He said he preferred to use a Fairchild (as he said in the above interview) but the Fairchild is an expensive beast and he really likes the dbx. He sets ratio halfway between 6 and 10 and gets max reduction at noon on the meter; I think it was his assistant engineer Noah that said -10db is as hot as they want to hit it and that's the middle position (noon) on the meter. 

This is a photo of Alan's dbx 160 VU while recording Dean. 

Dean said it was the best recorded bass sound he had ever had and he was thinking of getting a 160vu. I ended up getting one when I got back and that's how I record bass - using Alan's techniques. 

image.png.bd67089b10eb9f7bac95cb93ebd6685a.png 

 

Also: Did anyone notice anything else in the photo of the album that was related to the interview with Alan? 😁

 

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Old Joad

Old Joad

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  On 8/8/2024 at 8:43 PM, smallstonefan said:

Looking forward to watching this, thanks. 🙏

I spent two days with Alan at a mixing class at his Parsonics studio. He was a calm, classy guy. One of my favorite studio items is a copy of Dark Side of the Moon that Alan signed for me while we were eating sushi at his dining room table! 🤘

Here are a few photos : one of the signed album and one of Alan regretting letting me push the faders! 🤣

AO01 album.png

AO03 oops.png

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That is very cool, thanks for putting up the pix🤘

 

  On 8/9/2024 at 5:38 AM, smallstonefan said:

My biggest takeaway from my time with Alan is his influence on my bass recording. On day 2 of the class he brought in Toad the Wet Sprocket to record and walked us through his process. I got to hang out with their bass player Dean Dinning. He was a super chill dude. He told me the story of how he came up with the name Toad the Wet Sprocket and how the Monty Python actor reacted when he heard it on the radio. It was awesome hearing the story come from him.

Alan was recording Dean through the Neve and using a dbx 160vu on the bass. (He was using a second one on the vocals). He said he preferred to use a Fairchild (as he said in the above interview) but the Fairchild is an expensive beast and he really likes the dbx. He sets ratio halfway between 6 and 10 and gets max reduction at noon on the meter; I think it was his assistant engineer Noah that said -10db is as hot as they want to hit it and that's the middle position (noon) on the meter. 

This is a photo of Alan's dbx 160 VU while recording Dean. 

Dean said it was the best recorded bass sound he had ever had and he was thinking of getting a 160vu. I ended up getting one when I got back and that's how I record bass - using Alan's techniques. 

image.png.bd67089b10eb9f7bac95cb93ebd6685a.png 

 

Also: Did anyone notice anything else in the photo of the album that was related to the interview with Alan? 😁

 

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Toad the Wet Sprocket album Dulcinea is one of my all-time favorites 🍻

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smallstonefan

smallstonefan

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It's the microphone. 🌞

Alan talks about using this Neumann on snare and he uses it on acoustic guitar. I got it for acoustic guitar and it's amazing how much it "sounds like an album" to record an acoustic guitar through that mic into a Neve pre. So I guess both my acoustic recording and bass recording techniques came from Alan. Thanks Alan! 🙏

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Grem

Grem

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  On 8/9/2024 at 5:30 PM, smallstonefan said:

It's the microphone. 🌞

Alan talks about using this Neumann on snare and he uses it on acoustic guitar. I got it for acoustic guitar and it's amazing how much it "sounds like an album" to record an acoustic guitar through that mic into a Neve pre. So I guess both my acoustic recording and bass recording techniques came from Alan. Thanks Alan! 🙏

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Yeah, I see it now. Another Duh moment!! :)

Can I ask what is that to the left of the mic, a statue of...

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craigb

craigb

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  On 8/9/2024 at 11:00 PM, Grem said:

Yeah, I see it now. Another Duh moment!! :)

Can I ask what is that to the left of the mic, a statue of...

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  On 8/10/2024 at 12:28 AM, smallstonefan said:

Sure! That's a fun little piece. It's a little hut and palm tree carved out of iron wood we bought from an artist who lives on a beach in Negril, Jamaica. 

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C'mon Michael!  Wasn't that obvious??! 😆

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