'Astoria' DAvid Gilmour's recording studio

Too bad these recent Floyd albums, with the exception of the live one with the blinking light, really suck.
It is such an obvious case of overproduction and way too much processing. I really do wonder what is up with Mr. Gilmour, and I have trouble believing that all that audiophile fanaticism will help.
This from a pretty hardcore Floyd fan.
Gilmour's solo albums are pretty thin too, even if you go way back.
I guess the approach that resulted in those mindblowing guitar tones of yore is not too well suited to the rest of the production?
I'd rather hear "Heart Beat Pig Meat."
Ted

With all the money David Gilmour has made off using the Pink Floyd name, he can afford the best...What a dick.

It will never "hold water"
:D

Are you referring to those mu metal type gear racks that are supposd to import a 'good vibe' to the gear?

Will putting CD's into my freezer make them sound better?

I recorded at Pink Floyds Britania Road severeral times, the first was in 78' . We were a little weirded out as a sort of punkl band, by the bearded hippies wandering round in kaftans!

Later.. I tried to rent it (Brit Row) to run my present business from..

Good to know the goss on Astoria..!!!

Thanks - keep us posted! They have a nice old Neve at Astoria dont they?

Of course everyones entitled to their opinions, and if you think the later pink floyd records suck, well thats fair enough. However, I was at the second night of the acoustic gigs at the royal festival hall, and David Gilmour rocked!
Jack

ps Hi Jules. No more news at the moment...busy busy. I'll let you know as soon as I have made some inroads.

Yeah, I haven't liked much out of Floyd since The Wall. Meddle is still my favorite album. I head that Gilmour just gave a house or a huge sum of money or similar away to a charitee. It's nice to see that he didn't blow it all up his nose like a typical behind the music rock star.

The 'flashing light' album, which I like as well -especially on vinyl :) is CALLED 'Pulse' (The first 2,000,000 had a flasing light on the box spine)&

Lost the last post due to power failure :D Mixed at Astoria & mastered by Doug Sax and Ron Lewter at The Mastering Lab.
Yep, they have a Neve VR Legend that originally came from Pete Townsend's Eeel Pie Studio. :cool:
I've often wondered about 'Astoria' and what problems recording in a converted house-boat brings? Has anyone used their facility? :w: :w:

I worked at Eel Pie studios for a few days, it's on a tiny island on the river Thames in West London. But they had an SSL then..The artist, producer of Brit ambient alternative artists -The Cocteau Twins, Robin Gutherie bought it a while ago.. Pete Towndsend had spent a small fortune on it and it boasted concrete floors (?) that were 'laser flat' i.e. good for rolling film cameras about on... he figured video would be the in thing and it would be clever to own a place where you could shoot your own... on this multipurpose studio trivia tip, Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics had a recording / rehearsal stage type room in his studio complex The Church in North London. The whole room was covered in deep blue felt fabric, so he could do that 'put the background in later' type of video shoots in it. It wasn't the best of colors for a studio! It was a weird feeling when I did a little session there.....

:)

The 90' Astoria is not very far from Eel Pie,it's near Taggs Island (Opp Hurst Park). Apparently Fred Karno :) David Gilmour bought it during '86 and refurbished it as a studio, fitting over 150U of rackspace along the studio sides at at the back of desk (& still not enough room) :D and I think both Division Bell (excepting the orchestral & grand piano overdubs) & Momentary lapse were from the Astoria.
:w: :w: :w:

Somewhat 'off topic' but as a matter of interest as to what throwing money at a project can do. This years 'Unity' festival (representing the 5 Continents held in Dubai held during March) was designed to technically outstrip anything ever seen before in the region.
The hydraulic stage was backed by a 140 Metre wide 18 metre high wind wall, 30 Senn MKH416 rifle mics pointing at the stage suplementing the conventional mics. 2,300 lighting fixtures, 42,000 lumens of digital video, 5 electrical substations provided - delivering five megawatts. As a finale fireworks plus explosives were packed into sand dunes 1 km behind the windwall - during one section 19,000 Pains fireworks were ignited in the space of seven minutes...
It's a mad, mad, mad world. :eek:

>Many of the upgrades are following established Hi-Fi High-End practices of specialist cables and
supports. Kimber woven mains cables are now being used. Replacing some of the racks by individual 'Torlyte'
equipment support plaforms with cones, specialist audiophile interconnect cables etc. Their custom Tim de Paravicini
Ampex 1/2" mastering tape deck now resides on oak cone feet supported by a specially built 'Torlyte' rack.<

Michael Jackson bought a hyperbaric chamber and a ferris wheel. Howard Hughes paid for the construction of the Spruce Goose and wore Kleenex boxes instead of shoes. Jay Leno owns cars that he has never even seen in person, and a motorcycle with a helicopter turbine for an engine. What is your point?

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.
-Noam Chomsky-"
Exactly right!!!

I'm not making a point I'm merely stateing a fact. I believe David Gilmour has approached the changes with an open mind - and his own freedom of expression.
If future results confirm his beliefs, then great ;)

Gilmour is an incredible musician, and has been at times a first rate writer.
I didn't know about that acoustic show.
I was rather disappointed that the comeback Floyd shows had so many musicians on stage.
I would have paid dearly to listen live to the space inbetween Wright, Mason, and Gilmour (what do they need a bassist for? Have Wright play keys bass), but that space was completely full of sideman noises.
Like Waters wrote, "the spaces between friends"....

I hope Dave get's what he's after, a new lease on life. Maybe he should stop washing his hair again. Who knows, but there's got to be truly great music in there somewhere.

Ted

>otherwise eat shit, 2000 million flys just can't be wrong, can they??<

Bwahahahahaha! Good one! :D