The Final Cut (album) - Recording

Recording

American composer Michael Kamen, who had contributed to The Wall, oversaw the orchestral arrangements. He also stood in for absent keyboardist Richard Wright, co-produced, and mediated between Waters and Gilmour. James Guthrie was employed as the studio engineer and co-producer, while Mason's drumming was supplemented by Ray Cooper, and replaced on "Two Suns in the Sunset" by Andy Newmark when Mason was unable to perform the complex timing changes required of him. Mason was also responsible for the repeated reprises of the 'Maggie, what have we done?' chorus. Raphael Ravenscroft was hired to play the saxophone. Recording took place in the latter half of 1982, using eight studios, including Gilmour's home studio at Hookend Manor, and Waters' Billiard Room Studios at East Sheen. The other venues were Mayfair Studios, Olympic Studios, Abbey Road Studios, Eel Pie Studios, Audio International, and RAK Studios.

Tensions soon became apparent, and while Waters and Gilmour initially worked together, playing the video game Donkey Kong in their spare time, the two eventually chose to work separately. Co-engineer Andy Jackson worked with Waters on the vocals, and Guthrie worked with Gilmour on the guitars. They would occasionally meet to discuss the work that had been completed, and while this method was not in itself unusual, Gilmour began to feel the strain, sometimes barely maintaining his composure. Kamen too felt pressured; Waters had never been a confident vocalist, and on one occasion, after repeated studio takes, Waters noticed him writing on a notepad. Losing his temper, he demanded to know what Kamen was doing, only to find that the pianist had been writing "I Must Not Fuck Sheep" repeatedly.

Like previous Pink Floyd albums, The Final Cut used sound effects combined with advances and innovations in audio recording technology. Mason's contributions were almost entirely limited to recording sound effects for the experimental Holophonic system, an audio processing technique used to add an enhanced three-dimensional effect to the recordings (The Final Cut is the second album ever to feature this technology). The technique is featured on "Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert", allowing the sound effect of an explosion to appear to surround the listener. Sound effects from earlier Floyd albums are also evident; the wind from Meddle (1971) is re-used, as are parts of The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), and The Wall (1979).

After months of poor relations, and following a final confrontation, Gilmour was removed from the credit list as producer, at his own insistence. Waters later admitted that he was also under significant pressure, and that early in the production of The Final Cut he believed he would never record with either Gilmour or Mason again. Although he issued a vague threat to release the album as a solo record, Pink Floyd were contracted to EMI, and such a move was unlikely. Mason kept himself distant as he dealt with marital problems.

In a June 1987 interview, Roger Waters recalled the making of the album:

The Final Cut was absolutely misery to make, although I listened to it of late and I rather like a lot of it. But I don't like my singing on it. You can hear the mad tension running through it all. If you're trying to express something and being prevented from doing it because you're so uptight ... It was a horrible time. We were all fighting like cats and dogs. We were finally realising - or accepting, if you like - that there was no band. It was really being thrust upon us that we were not a band and had not been in accord for a long time. Not since 1975, when we made Wish You Were Here. Even then there were big disagreements about content and how to put the record together ... But making The Final Cut was misery. We didn't work together at all. I had to do it more or less single-handed, working with Michael Kamen, my co-producer. That's one of the few things that the 'boys' and I agreed about. But no one else would do anything on it.