Recording Techniques for Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon

Early 1960s was the time when A&R man (who was responsible for arranging and coordinating all the professionals such as singers, musicians, audio technicians and instrumentation) started getting replaced by record producer. Due to the increase in control of record companies and decrease in the authority of musicians as record producer became more important than the singer in the recording process. One of the example of record producers of that time is Phil Spector, who was considered as one of the most significant record producer because he wrote and recorded many hit songs. It was through these songs, Spector developed his famous “Wall of sound,” which included recording a large number of instruments, blending the sounds together, adding reverb,

This creates a beautiful blending of the two parts together and shows that this song was written to showcase the vocals.

The hand clapping is always on the off beat, yet still accented, and the bass line is constantly on the beat. These layers of rhythm being played simultaneously create juxtaposition. This gives the atmosphere of energy in the piece.

Recorded in 2002, the song, “Clocks” was written and composed by a band Coldplay that included members Chris martin, Guy berryman, Will Champion, and Johnny Buckland. The instrumentation in this song included, vocalization, piano, synthesizers, drums, bass, guitar, and strings.

The goal of LSD, along with other psychedelic drugs, was to open the mind and “find a new light to look upon things” (Bacig). Many artists took this approach to their music and would drop acid before composing music. This gave the music of this era a distinct sound and without LSD, the world would not have psychedelic rock. During this time, many artists referenced LSD in their songs because of the profound effect it had on them. In order to produce the psychedelic feel, the artists would write “esoteric lyrics, often describing dreams, visions, or hallucinations” as well as use other techniques such as distorting and delaying the sound, and playing sections of the song backwards. Another important part of psychedelic rock is the influence of Indian music. Bands such as The Beatles popularized this technique of using ”exotic instruments like the sitar, the tambura, and the tabla” in their music (Psychedelic Rock).

Pink Floyd is one of the most known Psychedelic Rock bands to ever exist. They were a game changer within the music business and appeared countless times on British’s top 100 list. Most of their music including the album “The Dark Side of the Moon” had important political subject to talk about. They were apart of the British Invasion (although the band itself originated from Cambridge & London, England).

They also used audio tricks involving steam organs, orchestras, sitars, and even a pack of foxhounds in full cry at the end of “Good Morning, Good Morning.” The use of animal sounds were actually first used in the Beach Boys album Pet Sounds that the Beatles admired. When asked the Beach Boys where they got their innovation for Pet Sounds, the Beatles Rubber Soul album was what inspired them. “A Day In The Life,” the last song on the album, featured “what Lennon described as ‘a sound building up from nothing to the end of the world’” (Lazarescu). The song “Strawberry Fields Forever” fused two different versions of the same song and used reverse-tape cellos for an eerie effect. After George Harrison used sitar on the song “Norwegian Wood,” other bands like the Byrds, Yardbirds, and the Rolling Stones, soon followed incorporating Eastern-influence sounds into their work.

The B-side of "Paperback Writer" was John's early psychedelic song and the first released Beatles song to feature f tape and tape manipulation when recorded fast and remixed slow. It is...

     From the sounds of Elvis many other important bands of the sixties were inspired, even people a thousand miles away from America. One of these important bands was the Beatles. The Beatles took the rock sound and added more lyrical and musical complexity to the sound. The Beatles were the starters of the “British Invasion” in 1963 when they released “I want to Hold Your Hand” (Kallen, 2012, 31). After their first single they had immense success with other hits such as “She Loves You” and “Woooo!” The Beatles continued to reinvent their music on the various other albums throughout the sixties delving into complex, heavy existential concepts and psychedelic elements, becoming the most relevant influence for modern rock.

The album begins with the hard-rocker “Come Together”. The song is a perfect example of John Lennon’s rock influence in the Beatles. “Come Together” is a song that’s popularity has been

As a result of The Beatles being the number one band in the world, they had access to the industries latest recording tools. Perhaps one of the most important recording tools used by the band in recording was automatic double tracking or ADT. This device allowed the band to flawlessly double any given sound. ADT was used mostly on vocals to enhance the sound of the singer. The Beatles also used an innovative tool known as the Dolby noise reduction system (Dolby NRS). This device reduced the build up of noise during the over dubbing process. Dolby NRS is still widely used in the field of music recording. In an effort to find a new sound, The Beatles cracked open an amplifier and put a fan inside. Just as talking into a fan distorts a voice, the band found that it has the same effect on an instrument. Many of the sounds were added onto the tracks randomly which makes the album virtually impossible to rerecord or perform live.

For thousands of years, music has been influencing people in extraordinary ways. The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band should not be mistaken as an ordinary album. Without a doubt, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, an incredibly innovative album, stands as the most influential album of all time; it stands as a true masterpiece. People all around, especially artists, were influenced greatly by the innovations the album brought to the world of music. Many people have said that from the moment they heard the first track of the album, it was life changing. Like the first falling domino tile of a domino show, June 1, 1967, would mark the start of the influence of many generations of music to come. The album helped popularize concept albums, in which songs are connected to a theme, which would inspire many musicians to do the same. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was a psychedelic rock album; a manifestation of life in the 1960’s. This genre of rock is home to the work of numerous artists who were influenced by the album’s use of this style of rock. The hours of work put into by the Beatles to create this album surpassed those of any of their albums. Not only that, it altered the way music was recorded by creating their own recording techniques. Surely, these recording techniques and tactics were used by future artists in their work which then led to the creation of legendary music. Sgt. Pepper’s opened the gate to innovation; an album whose impact on

In the mid-1960s what would typically be used to record was a four-track tape machine. What this meant was that many parts or instruments would have to be on one track, this meant that when it came to doing the stereo mix multiple instruments would all be panned together in the same place and they could not be separated. Because of this limitation and that stereo was a very new technology, no rules had been made making a stereo mix, and this means that some decisions that would seem strange in the mix on to the ear would have been done purely to experiment. To name an example, the song Taxman by The Beatles the drum kit is hard panned all the way to the left. Techniques like this would be seen as unconventional by today’s music production standards, but back in the 1960s these were a defining feature of 1960s recordings and of the beginnings of stereo mixes.

that of The Beatles. The Bay area was known for creating great bands, but more and more psychedelic bands were beginning to form all over the world, including Pink Floyd, a band from Europe (Scaruffi).

Synthi AKS synthesiser came out just a year before this album’s recording, and this synthesizer was used to play the 8 note sequence. A white noise was also added on this to created hi-hut kind of sound.