RECORDING LEGENDS BOB EZRIN AND ALAN PARSONS
GO "BEHIND THE WALL" AT THE NINTH ANNUAL
PACIFIC NORTHWEST STUDIO SUMMIT
Presented By The Recording Academy® Pacific Northwest Chapter, the Producers & Engineers Wing and Guitar Center Professional, This Special Event Unleashed Stories From Two of Popular Music's Greatest Recordings: Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (March 25, 2008) -- While the Producers & Engineers Wing of The Recording Academy® is renowned for its mission to keep its members on the cutting edge of professional audio technology, it has an equal passion for preserving and presenting the living history of recorded music. The 9th Annual Pacific Northwest Studio Summit took place on Saturday, March 1, 2008, when The Recording Academy Pacific Northwest Chapter, the Producers & Engineers Wing, and Guitar Center Professional presented a panel featuring Bob Ezrin and Alan Parsons, the engineering and production team behind two of music's all-time classic recordings, Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall.
The event, which took place before a packed house at the Experience Music Project's JBL Theater, saw Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain biographer Charles R. Cross lead Parsons and Ezrin back through time, peering into how the multi-platinum recordings were recorded and mixed, and exploring the group dynamics behind the music and technical information on how groundbreaking legendary band Pink Floyd made their sonic statements.
"It was an extraordinary experience," said Ben London, Executive Director of The Recording Academy Pacific Northwest Chapter. "The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon are practically imbedded in our DNA, so to hear from the men that molded these releases was like sitting down with Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison and having them explain how they thought up the light bulb and the telephone."
Continuing the Summit's nearly decade-long tradition of providing attendees with insights both practical and inspirational, the event also included an in-depth acoustics seminar by Performance Media Industries president and lead consultant Anthony Grimani, who led the audience through a presentation on techniques for improving their monitoring environments and creating better work spaces for sound recording.
"The Producers & Engineers Wing of The Recording Academy takes both aspects of our mission seriously: to continue to disseminate information about new technologies and techniques in professional audio, and to present and preserve the history of music recording," said Maureen Droney, Executive Director of the Producers & Engineers Wing. "Bob and Alan enlightened and entertained everyone with their recollections of the technologies, techniques and personal dynamics of these great records and that amazing era of music. The P&E Wing strives to present a wide range of information to the audience, and that's why our events are usually standing room only."
The PNW Studio Summit, which began in Seattle in 1999, has featured a cross-section of significant producers and engineers, including Steve Albini, Mike Clink, Terry Date, Geoff Emerick, Jack Endino, Steve Fisk, Jimmy Jam, Bob Power, Nile Rodgers, Al Schmitt and Phil Tan.