Narrated by actor and musician Billy Bob Thornton, the DVDs are divided into 24 sections, starting with A Brief History Of Recording.
Technical sections come with custom diagrams and musical examples and include in-depth looks at EQ, compression, reverb, and delays. Recording equipment is spotlighted in Microphones, Consoles & Controllers, Monitoring, and Computers & Digital Audio, while a set of specific recording guides looks at Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, and Drums. A series of practical recording sections look at Recording Acoustic Guitar with Vocal, Recording a Choir, A Band Tracking Session, Internet Recording, and, most crucially, Dealing With Disasters.
Alan Parsons' career - spanning recording engineer, producer, composer and artist ¬- acts as both backdrop and inspiration for the series. Alan worked with The Beatles on Abbey Road and Let It Be, engineered Dark Side Of Moon, and produced a string of multi-platinum hits for The Hollies, Pilot, Ambrosia, Al Stewart, and others including his alter ego The Alan Parsons Project.
Trained at Abbey Road, Alan applies his world-renowned recording studio experience to today's 'studio' environment - for many just a bedroom and a computer. From miking techniques, to applying EQ, to monitoring, the issues may be the same but Alan's 'real' practical experience is priceless in a landscape now dominated by virtual technology.
Along the recording trail Alan interviews almost 40 fellow engineers, producers, and artists, whose insights into specific techniques or applications run through the program.
Engineers and producers include Jack Joseph Puig (John Mayer, Green Day, Fergie), John Fields (The Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus), Elliot Scheiner (The Eagles, Steely Dan), Jack Douglas (John Lennon, Aerosmith, Slash), Tony Brown (Dixie Chicks, George Strait) and Chuck Ainlay (Melissa Etheridge, Mark Knopfler), Sylvia Massey (Beck, Tool), Jimmy Douglass (Justin Timberlake, Timbaland), and Allen Sides (Phil Collins, Joni Mitchell). Artists and musicians interviewed include Michael McDonald, Taylor Hawkins from The Foo Fighters, Nathan East, Rami Jaffe, the legendary Carol Kaye, and Erykah Badu.
The DVD set features soundtracks in English, German, and Spanish and has an extensive menu system including "Topic search". Footage includes Alan Parsons' latest release All Our Yesterdays written, recorded and captured on video especially for the series.
Alan Parsons' Art & Science Of Sound Recording has something for everyone, from students of recording technology to music fans looking for insight into how records are made.
(Claire Beeson)
