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Alan Moulder: From Retro Sampling to Virtual Instruments
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Linked Up By Jesus & Mary Chain
“Working with the Jesus & Mary Chain was fantastic. They are responsible for me working in the field of music I am in now, as I was doing a lot of dance music before then. They taught me a lot,” says Moulder. “Jim is one of my all time favorite singers, and William likewise on guitar. What many people probably don’t realize is that both the Reid brothers have a great sense of humor.

“So we had a lot of fun doing those records, and on ‘Honey’s Dead,’ William and I really got into the programming side of things,” he says. “We used a lot of loops and sampling. Since they had their own studio it took off a lot of the time pressure and we didn’t have to worry about anyone else. Most of the time there were just the three of us there.”

Hard-disk Recording Rocks
Coming from a background recording and mixing in the pre-digital days, producer/engineer/mixer Moulder can profess that technology has made a great difference in his life. “With hard disk recording and editing you can concentrate on getting a great performance. If there are a couple of flaws that bother you, they can be fixed rather than having to do the whole thing over,” he explains.

The Smashing Pumpkins

“Like everything, it is a matter of taste as to how you use technology, but I know that I wouldn’t want to go back!”

Aspiring Engineers Beware
Being a hot-shot audio engineer does not come without sacrifices. He warns, “Be prepared for a good few years with no social life, no sleep and no money! It can be very tough at the beginning and this tends to sort out the serious ones from the rest.

“If you take one step at a time and really bury yourself in learning as many aspects of engineering as possible, you will find it incredibly rewarding,” says Moulder. “It is one of those jobs where you are constantly learning and just when you think you have got it all worked out something comes along to show you otherwise.”

Previous page: Producing with Pro Tools, Logic and Reason

Alan Moulder

1.	Self-taught Audio Kingpin
2.	Producing with Pro Tools, Logic and Reason
3.	From Retro Sampling to Virtual Instruments

In the Studio
(part 3 of 3)

The Plug-in Shopping List
When it comes to effects plug-ins, Moulder fancies Waves. “I use the L1 a lot for getting things to cut through and sit in mixes,” he says. “The Renaissance EQ I like for digital equalizing and their De-esser works well. I use the McDSP stuff a lot for filtering and their new multi-band compressors and analog channels are good, too.

Antares’ Auto-Tune is also a favorite of mine for that little bit of ‘nit picking,’” he explains. “But I never just put it across a vocal. I always use the graphical mode and smooth out any offending notes slightly and bounce them back into the original so I can keep the imperfections I like and get rid of the ones I don’t.”

Moulder is also a fan of virtual instruments and samplers. “I’m all for them,” he says. “I use the virtual Virus a lot. If I want a sound that a virtual instrument doesn’t give me then I’ll use a non-virtual one. With samplers, I think the fact they are built into the computer obviously gives you better timing so generally, the more stuff, the merrier!”