A Valid Path is the first album I have made without a "real" band. The star of the show was the Yamaha Motif. It is by far the best hardware synth out there. There are also a lot of software synths on the album, including Steinberg's Halion and D'Cota, as well as Native's Absynth and FM7. Drums mostly came from sampled loops or "made up" kits with [NI's] Battery.


There's a brilliant guitar selection on the Motif. There's an absolutely killer power chord sample that we used on more than one track. We used it for some drum and percussion sounds, too. I really like the analog-y pad sounds, and there is a perfect preset "Stereo Clav" sound that I use for “I Robot” live in concert.


The whole album was basically recorded in Steinberg's Nuendo. We used very little outboard processing, as I have come to like the convenience of always being able to come back to a song exactly as I left it. We made substantial use of plug-ins from Steinberg, Waves and Native Instruments.



The album is already mixed as a 5.1 surround version, but it probably won't be released until next year. My guess is that it will come out in the new DualDisc format—i.e., Red Book CD on one side and DVD-A in 5.1 surround with added visuals on the other. The surround mixes were done with the stereo versions as a starting point. Nuendo makes that very easy, and the surround aspects of Nuendo are very well thought out.


There is no doubt that computers have to be purpose-designed for effective and efficient music recording these days. So much modern music is laptop-based, and finding the right combination of processing power, compatibility and speed in a small space is a big challenge. I am pleased to see that AMD is addressing these issues and is working alongside the music hardware and software manufacturers, as well as the computer makers, to provide a truly integrated solution.

All of the vocals and real instruments were recorded using an Aphex 1100 tube preamp. The Motif and other line sources were usually recorded through the converters on the Steinberg I/0 units. Once inside Nuendo, I only used my trusty original 02R as a "direct monitoring" mixer during recording to get around the latency.

www.alanparsonsmusic.com

I intend to upgrade to an 02R96 or a DM2000, and perhaps then I will go back to using real faders again. When I did need real faders, I used the Steinberg Houston controller. That will probably become less of a necessity with the later-generation Yamaha digital mixers, which can be used both as Nuendo controllers and for "real" digital domain audio control outside Nuendo. It's great to see manufacturers like Steinberg and Yamaha working together to make our lives easier in this respect. I am also following mLAN developments with great interest.

 
 

Nuendo Flexibility

Alan Parsons is your classic artist/engineer/producer, and as such he needs to have tools that support him on “both sides of the glass.” Alan continues to push the edge with his new solo album, A Valid Path , which explores the world of electronica in 5.1 surround format.

Alan has been using Nuendo since its initial release, and things have only gotten better since the release of Nuendo 2, known for its remarkably easy-to-use, user-definable interface, its unmatched versatility through support of VST effects and instruments, and its seamless integration between the MIDI and audio worlds. Whether you work in 5.1, 7.1 or even 10.2 surround, Nuendo provides all the power and flexibility you demand, without the limitations of hardware-based systems. You can run Nuendo on your laptop or on your desktop, on Mac or PC, making it the most versatile system available on the market today.