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[bob ebeling]

Alan Moulder said yes to a Q & A on PSW for us!

Let me chat with Terry and figure out the details...after swimming at the Y.....

[bob ebeling]

I e-mailed Terry to try to set it up.  Back in 2004 in my last stab at true artistry, Alan and Flood found me with my band in NYC and flew us out to London for to finish the LP.
Not only is he really talented, but he's an even nicer guy!  He was one of the most comfortable and welcoming fellows I've ever hung out with.  
He loved to talk gear and didn't mind showing me his specific chains, talking settings, etc...  

Hope to get this hooked up quick.  

[Ross Hogarth]

i am totally into having alan guest on the forum

[Seb Riou]

Bob, you are becoming "Most Valueable Poster" of the month
To me at least !

Thanks for the great inputs, having Alan Moulder would be a blast

[Kassonica]

bob ebeling wrote on Sun, 26 September 2010 05:45

Alan Moulder said yes to a Q & A on PSW for us! Let me chat with Terry and figure out the details...after swimming at the Y.....

I love his work with NIN, and trent Reznor, THANK YOU...

[bob ebeling]

Thanks Ross and all!  MVP...   I hope we all catch Alan on some downtime or this could end up being like the Alan Parsons chat on xxxxSlutx!  

I assured Alan this morning that this is NOT xxslutz and that 96% of the jokers get driven out fast around here.

By the way Mr. Hogarth, the Sia record....WOW!  That is a mindblower of sonics right there.  Deep respect.  I was answering the question of 'is there any sonic territory left to explore?' to a couple buddies and I pointed them straight to that record.  

The first three songs are in my 'hour before work/warm up the brain' session.

Ross, should I PM you to get something rolling with Alan?  

[Gabriel F]

I love Moulder´s work. It would be great to have him here sharing some of his great ideas and knowledge.

[bob ebeling]

Alan has expressed some reservations based on gearslutz.  I can't blame anyone for wanting to live happily the way they are. I'm thankful for the higher level of control on PSW and I'm trying to impress him that he won't be slacked on by the one guy that thinks he ruined their favorite artist.

The one thing that motivates me to try to get more of the best guys talking is that as time goes on we are losing massive amounts of info when some guys drop out or pass on.  I want that kid I once was to have a fighting chance 20 years from now.

I was working with one of the most knowledgable Vari-Mu and tube design guys in the world last year and trying to get him to trust the web and post his knowledge.  The bad taste he already had was just a wall.  I slowly got him closer and then one day it was curtains.

This guy can dance circles around almost anyone in the world in tube design, but he just cannot put up with the amateur attacks and misinformation.

[Gabriel F]

I dont think anyone in this forum will bash Moulder. But if that its a concern, maybe we can ask the questions in advance and you pass them to he with any sign of stupidity filtered.

[bob ebeling]

I'm waiting to hear from whence Terry is at?  

But yes, that might start happening!  I already am getting some answers to some questions from him.

He mixed Interpol and Blonde Redheads latest records on ATC's:

Alan Moulder:I do have ATCs in the studio. They are my main monitoring source but they are the SCM 20 nearfield ones.... not the large in the wall ones.

Me:passive or active model?  Your bottom is very consistent.  Do you rely on the mastering engineer to 'finish' the bottom up
or can you always judge what the hell is going on at 35-45hz?

Alan Moulder:They are active. I try not to rely on the Mastering for the bottom but between the ATCs Dyn Audio BM15s and a Phillips boom box it's normally pretty ok.


So, what's your question?...maybe this will develop and I'll just drag him on here!

[RSettee]

bob ebeling wrote on Mon, 27 September 2010 11:30

Alan has expressed some reservations based on gearslutz.  I can't blame anyone for wanting to live happily the way they are. I'm thankful for the higher level of control on PSW and I'm trying to impress him that he won't be slacked on by the one guy that thinks he ruined their favorite artist. The one thing that motivates me to try to get more of the best guys talking is that as time goes on we are losing massive amounts of info when some guys drop out or pass on.  I want that kid I once was to have a fighting chance 20 years from now. I was working with one of the most knowledgable Vari-Mu and tube design guys in the world last year and trying to get him to trust the web and post his knowledge.  The bad taste he already had was just a wall.  I slowly got him closer and then one day it was curtains. This guy can dance circles around almost anyone in the world in tube design, but he just cannot put up with the amateur attacks and misinformation.

I can't remember any attacks on other guest forum hosts, like Ed Cherney. I'd personally like to hear some lesser known information on how the Swervedriver albums were made (particularly "Mezcalhead"), and if he'd be up for it, some interesting stories on how "Loveless" was made.

[Gabriel F]

I would like to know his aproach to reverb and delays.

I notice his mixes has some meaty snares but they are not very bright or compressed to hell or artifically replaced to make them fit in a dense mix and have that punch, and i love the ambience on the drums in general, any tips on that?.

Does he compress distorted guitars a lot? I notice the guitars are really controlled on transients. In fact, the hi end "spikes" of guitars, hihats, cymbals, etc are always in control and never gets peaky.

i love how he gets synths, loops, etc sound pretty organic and blend naturally with standard rock/pop instrumentation.


Thats for a start.

[bob ebeling]

I just sent both of these posts to Alan. (Gabriel and RSettee)
It's 3 AM there, so I'll see if we luck out in the morning.

[bob ebeling]

It seems like I get nice concise answers within 48 hours.  I have no idea if he's in the middle of a project right now or not.  That was one of my new questions.

If you've read thru g-slutz stuff, you can easily understand why a super peaceful gentleman would just choose to abstain.  Maybe if we get little gems once in a while that will be cool enough.

I can tell you from the time I spent with him that he is very peaceful.  Very light hearted but of the 5 of us locked in the same room day after day, the hardest working.

Also, and I'm sure you guys understand this, I get alot of questions from clients too of 'how do you get your mixes to sound like that' kinda nature.  There's really no answer beyond, do it--mix- for 20 years and learn from mistakes, learn from constant experience.  Then there are the guys that want to photograph my eq settings--go for it, it really doesn't mean anything out of context.  The guys that are coming up and watch over my shoulder for 4 hours.  There's no explaining the 2000 tiny little decisions and how that all adds up to some magic sometimes.

Your questions are great though, I'm not estimating myself on any level with Mr. Moulder or speaking for him whatsoever.  I have a feeling simple questions will get answers.  Like about compressing guitars.  If he likes a certain box he'll tell us.  I have a feeling he might not write me a 2 pager about stories from Loveless.  

Peace out.    

[RSettee]

bob ebeling wrote on Mon, 27 September 2010 20:44

It seems like I get nice concise answers within 48 hours.  I have no idea if he's in the middle of a project right now or not.  That was one of my new questions. If you've read thru g-slutz stuff, you can easily understand why a super peaceful gentleman would just choose to abstain.  Maybe if we get little gems once in a while that will be cool enough. I can tell you from the time I spent with him that he is very peaceful.  Very light hearted but of the 5 of us locked in the same room day after day, the hardest working. Also, and I'm sure you guys understand this, I get alot of questions from clients too of 'how do you get your mixes to sound like that' kinda nature.  There's really no answer beyond, do it--mix- for 20 years and learn from mistakes, learn from constant experience.  Then there are the guys that want to photograph my eq settings--go for it, it really doesn't mean anything out of context.  The guys that are coming up and watch over my shoulder for 4 hours.  There's no explaining the 2000 tiny little decisions and how that all adds up to some magic sometimes. Your questions are great though, I'm not estimating myself on any level with Mr. Moulder or speaking for him whatsoever.  I have a feeling simple questions will get answers.  Like about compressing guitars.  If he likes a certain box he'll tell us.  I have a feeling he might not write me a 2 pager about stories from Loveless.   Peace out.

I suppose a more specific question i'd have would be on Swervedriver's "Mezcalhead"--the band had said that they did demos where they couldn't reproduce some of the noises and that they had to sample some of those noises from the demos. Did Alan do the demos? How long did it take to transfer some of the demo stuff to the actual recordings, and how much of it? Also, I believe that I read that James and Adam did all the bass parts themselves in the studio, as well.

Also, the songwriting, structure and production is noticeably better than "Raise" (although "Raise" is more like a collection of some early tracks). It's one of the few albums that I can think of that has alot of more experimental noisy touches, yet never meanders too much or falls off the rails from a pretty concise, structured attack. How much did Alan suggest changes?