Studio

Where the records were actually made. Abbey Road, Britannia Row, the Astoria houseboat, Chateau d'Herouville. Sessions, control rooms, isolated tracks, and the engineers and producers who are usually a footnote: Alan Parsons, Chris Thomas, Bob Ezrin, James Guthrie. The making-of material for Dark Side and The Wall is unusually well documented, including the tape loops, the cash registers and the string of coins Nick Mason made by hand in 1972.

Part of Pink Floyd

88 moments in this segment.

  1. - Building the Astoria, 1911. Workmen building the superstructure of the houseboat Astoria on Tagg's Island in 1911. Seventy-five years later it became David Gilmour's recording studio.
  2. - Pink Floyd - Recording Interstellar Overdrive and Nick's Boogie (London, 1967). Filmed at Sound Techniques in London in January 1967 for Peter Whitehead's Tonite Let's All Make Love in London. The band are recording rather than performing, which makes it unusual for the period.
  3. - Pink Floyd - Nothing Part 14 (Official Music Video). A fragment from the Meddle sessions. The band's own account is that 'Echoes' was assembled from pieces catalogued as 'Nothing, parts 1 to 24'.
  4. - 1972-02-23 - Pink Floyd - Recording Obscured by Clouds (With Interviews). Recorded at the Château d'Hérouville in France in 1972, where Obscured by Clouds, the soundtrack to Barbet Schroeder's La Vallée, was made quickly.
  5. - Pink Floyd - Money (Early Mix 1972). An early mix from the Dark Side of the Moon sessions at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, which ran across roughly sixty days between 31 May 1972 and 9 February 1973. Dick Parry played the saxophone on the finished track. He died on 22 May 2026.
  6. - Pink Floyd - The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon (Classic Albums)(Official Trailer). From the Classic Albums film on The Dark Side of the Moon, with Alan Parsons and the band taking the multitracks apart.
  7. - The Story Of The Dark Side Of The Moon. The Dark Side of the Moon was recorded at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, across roughly sixty days between 31 May 1972 and 9 February 1973, on sixteen-track machines. The spoken voices are real people answering flashcard questions Waters wrote, not actors.
  8. - Episode 2 - 50 Years In A Heartbeat: The Story Of The Dark Side Of The Moon (Touring). The Dark Side of the Moon was recorded at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, across roughly sixty days between 31 May 1972 and 9 February 1973, on sixteen-track machines. The spoken voices are real people answering flashcard questions Waters wrote, not actors.
  9. - Episode 1 - 50 Years In A Heartbeat: The Story Of The Dark Side Of The Moon (Recording). The Dark Side of the Moon was recorded at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, across roughly sixty days between 31 May 1972 and 9 February 1973, on sixteen-track machines. The spoken voices are real people answering flashcard questions Waters wrote, not actors.
  10. - The Making of the Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd ( 1973 time money us and them ) - In 500 words. On the making of The Dark Side of the Moon, recorded at EMI Studios, Abbey Road, across roughly sixty days between 31 May 1972 and 9 February 1973.
  11. - Pink Floyd - The Machine Song (Demo #2 Revisited - Official Lyric Video). An early demo of what became 'Welcome to the Machine' on Wish You Were Here.
  12. - Pink Floyd - Have A Cigar (Alternative Version). From the Wish You Were Here sessions at Abbey Road in 1975. Roy Harper sang the released version, having been recording in the building at the time.
  13. - Pink Floyd - The Doctor (Comfortably Numb) [The Wall, Work In Progress Pt. 2 1979] [2011 Remaster]. A work-in-progress recording from The Wall sessions in 1979. Bob Ezrin co-produced with Gilmour and Waters, and James Guthrie engineered.
  14. - Pink Floyd - Run Like Hell (The Wall, Work In Progress, Pt. 2, 1979) [2011 Remaster]. A work-in-progress recording from The Wall sessions in 1979. Bob Ezrin co-produced with Gilmour and Waters, and James Guthrie engineered.
  15. - Pink Floyd - Yet Another Movie (Demo). A demo from the A Momentary Lapse of Reason sessions in 1987.
  16. - Learning To Fly (Alternative Version HD). From the A Momentary Lapse of Reason sessions, 1987, the first Pink Floyd album made without Roger Waters.
  17. - Pink Floyd - Marooned Original Demo (Cosmic 13). An early demo of 'Marooned' from the 1993 Division Bell sessions, largely recorded on the Astoria, Gilmour's houseboat studio on the Thames.
  18. - Pink Floyd - High Hopes (Early Version) [1994 Recording]. Recorded during the 1993-94 Division Bell sessions, largely on the Astoria, Gilmour's houseboat studio on the Thames. Material from these sessions became The Endless River in 2014.
  19. - Pink Floyd - Rick's Theme (1994 Recording). Recorded during the 1993-94 Division Bell sessions, largely on the Astoria, Gilmour's houseboat studio on the Thames. Material from these sessions became The Endless River in 2014.
  20. - Pink Floyd - Nervana (1994 Recording). Recorded during the 1993-94 Division Bell sessions, largely on the Astoria, Gilmour's houseboat studio on the Thames. Material from these sessions became The Endless River in 2014.
  21. - Pink Floyd - Slippery Guitar (1994 Recording). Recorded during the 1993-94 Division Bell sessions, largely on the Astoria, Gilmour's houseboat studio on the Thames. Material from these sessions became The Endless River in 2014.
  22. - Pink Floyd - Blues 1 (1994 Recording). Recorded during the 1993-94 Division Bell sessions, largely on the Astoria, Gilmour's houseboat studio on the Thames. Material from these sessions became The Endless River in 2014.
  23. - Pink Floyd - David's Blues (1994 Recording). Recorded during the 1993 to 1994 Division Bell sessions, largely on the Astoria, Gilmour's houseboat studio. Material from these sessions later became The Endless River in 2014.
  24. - Pink Floyd - Marooned Jam (1994 Recording). Recorded during the 1993 to 1994 Division Bell sessions, largely on the Astoria, Gilmour's houseboat studio. Material from these sessions later became The Endless River in 2014.
  25. - Pink Floyd - Airships (1994). Recorded during the 1993 to 1994 Division Bell sessions, largely on the Astoria, Gilmour's houseboat studio. Material from these sessions later became The Endless River in 2014.
  26. - Pink Floyd - High Hopes (Early Version, Unreleased 1994 Recording). Recorded during the 1993 to 1994 Division Bell sessions, largely on the Astoria, Gilmour's houseboat studio. Material from these sessions later became The Endless River in 2014.
  27. - Farfisa Compact Duo, Paris exhibition. A Farfisa Compact Duo shown at the Pink Floyd Interstellar exhibition at the Cite de la Musique in Paris.
  28. - An EMS VCS 3 synthesiser. The VCS 3, a British suitcase synthesiser built by Electronic Music Studios in London, is the source of the sequenced pulse under "On the Run" and the treated bass of "Welcome to the Machine".
  29. - The Astoria on the Thames. Gilmour's converted houseboat studio, moored on the Thames near Hampton. Much of The Division Bell was recorded aboard it in 1993 and 1994.
  30. - The Astoria houseboat studio. The boat was built in 1911 for the impresario Fred Karno. Gilmour bought it in 1986 and fitted it out as a recording studio; the settlement of the 1986 dispute is documented as having been signed aboard it in December 1987.
  31. - Pianos in Studio Two. The grand piano and three other instruments kept in Studio Two. Richard Wright's keyboard playing is the least discussed and most structurally important element of the band's sound.
  32. - The Astoria studio, 2008. David Gilmour's Astoria houseboat studio on the Thames, photographed in August 2008.
  33. - Studio One at Abbey Road. Studio One is the large orchestral room. Dark Side of the Moon was recorded across roughly 60 days between 31 May 1972 and 9 February 1973, on 16 track machines.
  34. - The Studio Two nameplate. Pink Floyd worked in Studio Two and Studio Three across the 1967 to 1975 period. Alan Parsons was the staff engineer on Dark Side of the Moon; Chris Thomas was brought in late explicitly for a fresh pair of ears on the mix.
  35. - The control room of Studio Two, Abbey Road. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn was recorded at EMI Studios on Abbey Road in 1967, produced by Norman Smith, a former Beatles engineer. The Beatles were making Sgt. Pepper in the same building during part of that period.
  36. - An orchestral session in Studio Two. Atom Heart Mother in 1970 brought Ron Geesin in to work on the orchestral title suite, the band's first serious use of choir and brass. Both Waters and Gilmour have publicly disparaged the album in later years.
  37. - Alan Parsons Legends Series Sept 2010 Working with Pink Floyd on Dark Side of the Moon. Alan Parsons was the staff engineer on The Dark Side of the Moon at EMI Studios, Abbey Road. He made the original quadraphonic mix and has spoken about his dissatisfaction with it.
  38. - The 53rd GRAMMY Awards - Alan Parsons: Pink Floyd. Freeform Rock DJ legend, Jim Ladd, sits down with legendary Producer, Engineer and Recording Artist, Alan Parsons, to talk about Alan's time working on Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of The Moon.
  39. - Sonic Elements Alan Parsons Interview Dark Side Questions pt 1. During the recording of the upcoming Sonic Reality music & sample library product "Alan Parsons Sample Project" Alan Parsons answers questions about what the original interview questions were for the voices heard on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon which Alan recalls from 35+ years ago!
  40. - Alan Parsons' Quadraphonic Mix of "Money" (Dark Side of the Moon) Explained NAMM 2012. At NAMM 2012, Alan Parsons explains his quadraphonic mix of "Money" from Dark Side of the Moon, and provides detailed info on how the loop was achieved. Only on the Live2Play Network, www.l2pnet.com.
  41. - Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here SACD documentary - The Missing Piano (2012). On the making of Wish You Were Here at Abbey Road in 1975.
  42. - Britannia Row, Islington. The street that gave the studio its name. Britannia Row Productions also became the band's touring PA company, and the studio was later used by a long list of other acts.
  43. - Alan Parsons Interview - Talking About The AudioXciter App. Legendary producer, Alan Parsons, in an interview about Aphex's new AUDIO XCITER music player app. From his early days working with The Beatles, producing Dark Side Of The Moon, and his own multi platinum band, The Alan Parsons Project, Mr.
  44. - Music Matters 2012 Keynote Interview: Bob Ezrin. Legendary producer Bob Ezrin discusses his work on some of rock's greatest albums by Pink Floyd, Kiss, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, Nine Inch Nails, and Alice Cooper along with many more. Bob will also discuss his pioneering work in the live performance, film, TV production, and digital media space.
  45. - Keynote Interview with Bob Ezrin | CMW Playback | Departure. In a legendary career as a music and entertainment producer, songwriter, arranger and mixer that has spanned over 40 years, Bob Ezrin has worked artists including: Alice Cooper, Kiss, Pink Floyd, Fefe Dobson, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, will.i.am, Jay-Z, Taylor Swift, U2, Green Day, Rod Stewart, Nine Inch Nails, 30 Second...
  46. - Pink Floyd Clare Torry "The Great Gig in the Sky" interview. Clare Torry talks about 1973 "The Great Gig in the Sky" recording sessions for Dark side of the moon (Pink Floyd) The Mudman do not own the rights to this video track nor it's audio track, it is uploaded for educational reasons only. See my channel for more Pink Floyd and thanks for watching.
  47. - Pink Floyd - The Endless River - The full 9min EPK. On The Endless River, November 2014, assembled from the 1993 to 1994 Division Bell sessions and presented as a tribute to Richard Wright, whose playing it is built around.
  48. - Pink Floyd - The Endless River EPK part 1 - “a continuous flow”. On The Endless River, November 2014, assembled from the 1993 to 1994 Division Bell sessions and presented as a tribute to Richard Wright, whose playing it is built around.
  49. - Gilmour's Hiwatt amplifier. One of David Gilmour's Hiwatt amplifier heads. Hiwatt, built in England by Dave Reeves, was the backbone of the band's stage sound through the 1970s.
  50. - Tape machines and record sleeves on display. Reel-to-reel tape machines in the Atrapando el Sonido exhibition at the Fundacion Telefonica. Machines of this kind, and the multitrack tape they carried, are what made the layered construction of the band's records possible.
  51. - Stage and studio hardware at the V&A. Dark Side of the Moon was recorded at EMI Studios on Abbey Road across roughly 60 days between 31 May 1972 and 9 February 1973, on 16 track machines, a step up from the band's earlier 8 and 4 track work.
  52. - An electric mandolin at the V&A. Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains gathered instruments, stage props and hardware from across the band's working life. It ran at the Victoria and Albert Museum from May to October 2017.
  53. - The Binson Echorec unit. Meddle, recorded across Abbey Road, AIR and Morgan Studios in 1971, was assembled from fragments the band catalogued as "Nothing, parts 1 to 24". One became "Echoes", 23 minutes long, a whole side of the record.
  54. - A Fender Precision bass and the Piper drum head. A Fender Precision bass shown against a Premier drum head lettered "Pink Floyd". The name came off a single sleeve note, Paul Oliver's notes to a Blind Boy Fuller LP on Philips in 1962, listing the Piedmont players Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.
  55. - Hofner Club 60. A Hofner Club 60 electric guitar with a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece. Photographed at Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 13 October 2017.
  56. - Binson Echorec. A Binson Echorec, the Italian magnetic-drum delay unit that gives the early Pink Floyd records their repeating, decaying echo. It is on "Echoes", "One of These Days" and most of the Barrett-era material. Photographed at Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 13 October 2017.
  57. - Binson Echorec and Selmer amplifier. A Binson Echorec beside a Selmer amplifier head. The Echorec's magnetic drum, rather than tape, is why its repeats hold their high end where a tape echo dulls. Photographed at Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 13 October 2017.
  58. - Farfisa combo organ. A Farfisa combo organ of the type Richard Wright played through the 1960s. Photographed at Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 13 October 2017.
  59. - British synthesiser and drum machine, 1960s. Early British electronic instruments from the band's equipment, including an analogue drum machine. The rhythm box on "Bike" and the drum patterns on the early records come out of gear like this. Photographed at Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 13 October 2017.
  60. - EMI recording tape, 1967. EMI magnetic recording tape from 1967, the year the band cut The Piper at the Gates of Dawn in Studio Three at Abbey Road while the Beatles were working on Sgt. Pepper in Studio Two. Norman Smith produced. Photographed at Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 13 October 2017.
  61. - Fender Precision Bass. A custom-modified Fender Precision Bass from the band's instruments. Photographed at Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 13 October 2017.
  62. - Gilmour's Fender double-neck steel guitar. The Fender Duo 1000 double-neck steel guitar David Gilmour bought in Seattle in October 1970 and played on "One of These Days", "Breathe" and "The Great Gig in the Sky". Photographed at Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 13 October 2017.
  63. - Nick Mason's drumsticks. Drumsticks belonging to Nick Mason. Photographed at Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 13 October 2017.
  64. - The coins from "Money". A third of the original string of pre-decimal pennies and threepenny bits Nick Mason assembled in 1972 to make the cash-register loop that opens "Money". The rhythm is in seven, counted against the coins. Kept afterwards by his then-wife Lindy Mason. Photographed at Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 13 October 2017.
  65. - The Black Strat. David Gilmour's Black Strat, the Fender Stratocaster he bought in New York in 1970 and played on the Pink Floyd records that followed. It sold at auction in 2019 for just under four million dollars, with the proceeds going to a climate charity. Photographed at Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 13 October 2017.
  66. - Gilmour's 1952 Fender Esquire, "The Workmate". The 1952 Fender Esquire David Gilmour named The Workmate for its battered state, bought from Seymour Duncan and used in rehearsals for the 1977 In the Flesh tour. Photographed at Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 13 October 2017.
  67. - Waters' Ovation Magnum bass. Roger Waters' Ovation Magnum 1 bass guitar, designed by Charles Kaman and made in 1977, played on The Wall. Photographed at Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 13 October 2017.
  68. - Gilmour's EMS Synthi Hi-Fli. The EMS Synthi Hi-Fli, nicknamed The Sound Freak, that David Gilmour bought in 1972 and used on The Dark Side of the Moon. EMS was a British firm in Putney; its VCS3 is the machine behind the sequencer pulse on "On the Run". Photographed at Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 13 October 2017.
  69. - Gilmour's red 1983 Stratocaster. David Gilmour's candy apple red 1983 Fender Stratocaster, his main guitar for twenty years, played on "Learning to Fly" and "Signs of Life" and across The Division Bell and On an Island. Photographed at Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 13 October 2017.
  70. - Gilmour's Fender Telecaster. David Gilmour's Fender Telecaster 52V, a 1982 reissue of the 1952 original. Photographed at Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 13 October 2017.
  71. - Clare Torry (Great Gig in the Sky Vocalist) Interview. Clare Torry improvised the wordless vocal on 'The Great Gig in the Sky' in a single 1972 session for a fee of thirty pounds. She sued in 2004 for songwriting credit; the case settled out of court, and pressings from 2005 credit the composition to Wright and Torry jointly.
  72. - Alan Parsons session at Parsons Audio Expo 2018: Dark Side Of The Moon. From the Alan Parsons presentation, "Recording Technologies 1968-2018: How the Medium influenced the message", at Parsons Expo 2018. Alan discusses working on "Dark Side of the Moon".
  73. - Pink Floyd’s The Later Years Revealed Part 2: David Gilmour Discusses Astoria Recording Studio. David Gilmour on the Astoria, his houseboat studio on the Thames at Hampton, where much of The Division Bell was recorded.
  74. - The Lost Art of Conversation: A Pink Floyd Podcast (Episode 1: Studio). The band's own podcast on their studio work, made around The Later Years box set.
  75. - The Astoria on the Thames. The Astoria, an Edwardian houseboat moored on the Thames near Hampton, converted by David Gilmour into a recording studio. The Division Bell was largely made aboard it. It is also very widely reported as the venue where the 1987 settlement was signed, though that has never been sourced to a document.
  76. - The Astoria from Hurst Park. The Astoria seen from Hurst Park, 2019. Gilmour bought the boat in 1986 and fitted the studio into its main saloon.
  77. - The Lost Art of Conversation: A Pink Floyd Podcast (Episode 4: Unreleased). The band's own podcast made around The Later Years box set, on unreleased recordings.
  78. - Alan Parsons Interview with The Backbeat Experience. Interview with Alan Parsons by phone from April 30, 2010. Phone chat with one of the most influencial musical geniuses of our time, who cut his teeth in Abbey Road Studios behind the mixer with the beatles and left his mark on likely the biggest album of all time, Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon".
  79. - Pink Floyd - Arnold Layne (Alternative Version). Released March 1967, produced by Joe Boyd. Syd Barrett's song about a clothes thief; some radio outlets refused to play it.
  80. - Pink Floyd - Recording Obscured By Clouds (Pop Deux Documentary). Filmed at the Château d'Hérouville in France, where Obscured by Clouds, the soundtrack to Barbet Schroeder's La Vallée, was recorded quickly in 1972.
  81. - Pink Floyd - Animals 2018 Remix Documentary (Full Length). On Animals, released in 1977, loosely built on George Orwell's Animal Farm and divided into Dogs, Pigs and Sheep.
  82. - Pink Floyd - Animals 2018 Remix Documentary (Recording Process). Animals was the first album made at the band's own studio, Britannia Row in Islington, recorded between April 1976 and early 1977 and engineered by Brian Humphries. Richard Wright received no writing credit on it, the first Pink Floyd record without one.
  83. - Bob Ezrin • Sound Opinions • Roger Waters & The Making of Comfortably Numb. Bob Ezrin co-produced The Wall with Gilmour and Waters, and later co-produced A Momentary Lapse of Reason.
  84. - Pink Floyd - Scott & Watts (Behind The Scenes Documentary Clip). Roadie Roger 'The Hat' Manifold and road manager Peter Watts are among the voices heard on The Dark Side of the Moon, answering Waters' flashcard questions.
  85. - Richard Wright's Farfisa Compact Duo. The Farfisa Compact Duo organ Richard Wright played on A Saucerful of Secrets and after. Photographed at the Their Mortal Remains exhibition in Toronto, 25 June 2023.
  86. - Alan Parsons: From The Dark Side of the Moon to The Alan Parsons Project. In this episode, Alan Parsons shares insights from his prolific career, including his engineering work with legendary bands like The Beatles and Pink Floyd as well as his evolution into a headlining artist and producer with The Alan Parsons Project.
  87. - How Bob Ezrin made Pink Floyd’s The Wall | Full interview. Bob Ezrin co-produced The Wall with Gilmour and Waters, and later co-produced A Momentary Lapse of Reason.
  88. - Britannia Row Studios, Islington. Animals, released in 1977, was the first album recorded at the band's own studio in Islington, built after they left the Abbey Road system. Sessions ran from April 1976 to early 1977, engineered by Brian Humphries.
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