2000 Downloaded from http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/S-82QrNWRamMk/reviews/20031230/grateful_dead_dvd.html?page=all Crutchfield Advisor Reviews & Reports The Making of the Grateful Dead Live DVD The Closing of Winterland - Part I December 30, 2003 Creating The Closing of Winterland The art of audio/visual necromancy in the 21st century by Lindsay Planer I am far from a closet Deadhead. My earliest memories of listening to music as a child are hearing Anthem Of The Sun(1968) while being driven to pre-school. Maybe there was something in the Kool-Aid at Mrs. Howell's, because as long as I can recall, I've worn my tie-dyed heart on my sleeve as a badge of courage. My most honored credentials include being marked "present" at somewhere between 100 and 120 Grateful Dead shows between April 3, 1979 and July 9, 1995 - although I lay claim to 120 different ticket stubs, as a rule, I don't count the ones I can't remember. My personal Grateful Dead sojourn began less than four months after New Year's Eve 1978. Although I wasn't aware of it, by the time the bus came by and I got on, a distinct era in music history had passed. However, as evidenced by the six-plus hour concert captured on the recently released Grateful Dead DVD, The Closing Of Winterland (2003), the era did not conclude quietly. Contained within this double-DVD package is far more than just a stellar Grateful Dead performance. It documents the last rites of one of America's premiere rock n roll palaces, the Winterland Arena. For a lucky 13 years, the venerable venue represented the crown jewel in rock' n 'roll entrepreneur Bill Uncle Bobo Graham's San Francisco-based live music establishments. Although Uncle Bobo had retained the lease on the building since 1965, it was only after the demise of his bi-coastal Fillmore Auditoriums in 1971 that the former ice rink became prominent as a Mecca among Bay Area concert attendees. The Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin, and Quicksilver Messenger Service were among the local bands that came of age during San Francisco's ballroom scene, and went on to become regulars at Winterland. However, as the late 60s Summer Of Love soundtrack turned into the heavy metal thunder of the early 70s, Winterland became a haven for a who's who of rockers, ranging from the Rolling Stones, to Bruce Springsteen, to the Sex Pistols. In fact, it is little wonder that the best selling live rock album of all time - Frampton Comes Alive (1976) - was recorded there. Or, that The Band chose to hold their epic finale, The Last Waltz (1977), within Winterland's hallowed halls. Coups such as these made Bill Graham a powerful figure in the increasingly corporate world of popular music and the Winterland Arena a true rock' n 'roll monument. As the 1970s drew to a close, the building's physical structure on the corner of Steiner and Post in San Francisco was beyond need of repair. As such, Graham chose not to seek renewal of his lease. For a fond farewell, he summoned one final gathering of the tribes on New Year's Eve, 1978. As The Grateful Dead had logged nearly 60 shows at Winterland since 1965, they headlined an all-star musical epic, joined by the New Riders Of The Purple Sage (NRPS), along with John Belushi (vocals) and Dan Ackroyd (vocals/harmonica) under their musical nom de plume, The Blues Brothers. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of this ultimate sonic convergence, The Closing Of Winterland is available as both a four-disc CD collection and a separate double-DVD set. The audio discs capture every note that the Grateful Dead played, direct from the original 24-track analog tapes, while the DVDs expand significantly the contents with a virtual time capsule of video captured by local San Francisco public television station, KQED. While the main event centers on the Grateful Dead's four-plus hours on stage - which the DVDs present in Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround sound mixes, as well as in a standard 2.0 stereo mix - there are substantial supplementary materials as well. These include the half-hour long Winterland: A Million Memories documentary, examining the Grateful Dead, their audience, and the unrivalled relationship that both shared with Winterland. Plus, interviews with Bill Graham as he feverishly prepares for the festivities, words with author, Merry Prankster, and long time Deadhead Ken Kesey, and an interview with bandmembers Mickey Hart (percussion) and Bob Weir (guitar/vocals) during a "pause for the cause" between the first and second sets. Not enough? The DVDs also include footage of the Blues Brothers performing Soul Man and B Movie, a video/still photo montage of the NRPS doing Glendale Train, and the Making Of The DVD featurette that examines the technical aspect of preparing this epic project. Keen consumers can also take advantage of alternate camera angles during the Dead's performances of Wharf Rat, St. Stephen, and Good Lovin. It is with extreme pride and pleasure that CrutchfieldAdvisor goes behind the scenes with the creative team that made the DVD release of The Closing Of Winterland possible. First up is an in-depth conversation with Jeffrey Norman, the Grateful Dead's long time archival audio engineer. This will be followed with the publication next week of our interview with David Lemieux, the video producer of the project. Before becoming every Deadhead's best friend, Norman was a staff engineer for Wally Heider's Filmways Recording studios in San Francisco between 1976 and 1980. His luminous work at The Plant Studios in the early 1980s yielded highly regarded sessions with Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, Carlos Santana, the Rubinoos, former 13th Floor Elevator's leader Roky Erickson and his group the Aliens, Metallica, and Jessie Colin Young. By 1984, Norman had garnered a well-deserved reputation as one of the Bay Area's pre-eminent studio engineers and worked with John Fogerty, Huey Lewis & the News, and Bruce Hornsby. After years of freelance work, he joined the Grateful Dead's studio staff in 1994. We sat down with Norman at the Grateful Dead's studio on November 18th, which just so happens to be the release date for both the four-CD as well as the two-DVD incarnations of The Closing Of Winterland. CrutchfieldAdvisor: Can you begin by walking us through as much of the process of creating The Closing Of Winterland as you can, from your point-of-view and involvement? Jeffrey Norman: First off, let me say that I worked in tandem with David Lemieux, who is basically responsible for everything you see, whereas I am responsible for what you hear, both on the DVD and CD packages. Now, 2000 that said, The Closing Of Winterland has been one of the most grueling and difficult projects that I have ever worked on, for a number of reasons. None of these difficulties were music related, however. It's all . . . whew! CA: Well, this is all uncharted territory from a technical aspect, right? You had never married a video to a separate audio source before while taking them from analog into the digital domain, correct? JN: Yes, that is true. So, here's a bit of history that led David and myself to decide this was actually going to be viable. Well, the genesis of the whole thing dates back to the mid 1990s when former Grateful Dead producer John Cutler and I brought up the idea of releasing a VHS and CD set - this was before the days of DVD. So, the very first thing we noticed is that there was no time code that the independent audio and video tapes would both be able to identify. There wasn't even a 60 hertz cycle sync pulse for the video - which is basically the industry standard. This would be essential if the audio was to be matched to the video. However, it did not exist. So, we figured we'd perhaps issue the show as just music or as on a videotape with the same audio that already exists on the broadcast. Eventually, we re-shelved the tapes and moved on to other more feasible ventures. So, fast-forward to 2002. We knew that we wanted to work on this and that technology had advanced enough to make it theoretically possible for us to pull this off - in theory, mind you. CA: How were you gonna pull it off now, whereas you could not before? What had changed? JN: By transferring both the audio as well as the video to a digital format, I figured we could start from there. We had not had the ability to do both mediums before. So last year, when we were in the planning stages, we decided to begin working on it in the early spring of 2003, for release in the fall. I knew one priority would be to obtain a digital multi-track workstation. That was quite a scene in and of itself. To sidetrack a second here: I was initially going to work with a platform called Pro Tools, which is designed by Digidesign up in Palo Alto, California. Then I began to work on a few other workstations. So, I began working with a system and ended up logging a full month on this prototype or beta-version. I loaded in the audio and performed some minor noise reduction and was about three-and-a-half weeks in. Then, we had a major problem as this workstation was simply not going to be completed and fully functional in the foreseeable future. CA: YIKES!! JN: (Laughs) That is an understatement. So, I had to go back to square one. I eventually got a Pro Tools system and had to redo everything I had done on this other platform. Now, to give you a bit of chronology, it is now June 2003 and we are just now getting started in earnest. Basically, the issue was that the technology was not able to deliver what I needed it to. CA: I guess that is what happens when you are on the cutting edge. JN: Exactly. I mean in my mind, I didn't think what I wanted to do was so difficult, but we were under a looming deadline as well. Anyway, after getting Pro Tools, I had to invest even more time learning it, which I did on-the-job. That might sound funny to most engineers, because Pro Tools has become one of the industry standards. So, we now have a 24-bit/96khz Pro Tools digital workstation, on which I loaded up the multi-tracks reels of audio tape onto my hard drive. The next step was to divide the audio into three sessions: set one, set two and set three. Because this show was being professionally recorded by Wally Heider's Studios, they captured every note. They were using two machines, so there was what we call an overlap reel - when one machine was almost out of tape, they would start the next one and so on. Once all the audio was there, I edited the respective sets to mirror the actual performance. Once each set was complete, I also, by default had constructed a usable time code which I chose to be SMPTE [Society Of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, the current industry standard for digital audio and video]. Now, for those keeping score at home, while we now have a time code, it still has no relationship with the video yet, that is. CA: What is the status of the video at this point? JN: The video has been transferred to the state of the art digital Beta format. When that procedure occurs, the video is given a completely separate time code of its own. So, now both the sound and picture have a way to precisely measure content, which is indelibly synched to the performance. Meaning for instance, if it is 16 minutes, 20 seconds and 45 frames - or whatever - into a song, that time will always be at the same exact spot. This brings up a [little-known fact], which is that even the most reliable analog machine varies to a degree every time you use it. So, if you have a pair of analog machines that you wish to play simultaneously, while you can start them together, they will begin to drift almost immediately. I mean, within the context of, say an hour, two analog machines running at the exact same speed should be pretty darn close, but they will not be exact. When I was running tests early on in the process, I played the audio and video independently. By the end of one hour, there was a 22 second discrepancy. And, hey, that is quite a bit. CA: Obviously that wouldn't do. JN: To say the least. So, returning to the audio, once it was in a digital format on my hard drive, I could do a rough mix. It was still in 24-track, just exactly like the master tapes, the only difference is that it is in digital and has a time code. I can still adjust the levels and equalization if need be. Once I completed the rough mix, we took a digital audio tape with the built-in time code to the place that had done the video transfer. I was, to be honest, in a major panic at this point. I had no clue how long it would take them to marry the two. In theory, the way to do it was to copy my audio rough mix onto their machines, which also contained the new video master. Then, during playback, every time there is a loss of synchronicity, you can take a few frames out at the nearest camera change. But, I thought, "Dear Lord, at 22 seconds off and 600 edits an hour . . . this is going to take forever." Enter Bob Johns, our Video Editor. He is an old pro and he does this all the time. He showed me that we didn't have to cut every time it was a frame off, because no one can see the difference. He was amazingly quick and it was his effort that ultimately created a single document of his edited video matched to my edited audio. That whole process took three days, man . . . THREE DAYS! I was q 2000 uite literally stunned that he could cut, basically, a set in a day. We were already a month behind schedule because of the software/workstation debacle. CA: Needless to say, you were relieved. JN: To put it mildly. The next step was for me to get back to our studios and do a proper stereo and 5.1 surround sound mix. CA: OK, let's delve into the audio. What were the condition of the tapes? Were there any inherent aural deficiencies or problems that you had not counted on or that complicated the process further? JN: Well, we had to physically bake the tapes. This is done to readhere the oxide layer to the plastic, or mylar, backing. Because this is a known anomaly with mid 1970s vintage 456 Ampex tape stock, I had anticipated having to do this and it was not an issue. I baked the tapes for 12 hours at 130 degrees in our small oven, which was crafted by Ultrasound. Then, I loaded them into the Pro Tools workstation. Once we had them transferred, they sounded great. On Bob [Weir]s guitar track, we had to pump up the audio and then suppress any noise. It was recorded at like -40 db and it was pretty much all hiss. Plus, because of the chaos on stage, trying to get Sugar Magnolia - the opening song - up through Fire On The Mountain to sound cohesive was a challenge. That was a couple of days right there working with noise reduction in Pro Tools. I would re-record the audio track and then have to make all sorts of other adjustments. I really took a long time with everything and I could mix to what was prominent in the video as well. CA: That reminds me of the segment right after Fire On The Mountain when Weir makes his stage announcement and the crew are popping all the balloons on stage. Did you enhance or mix those pops specifically for 5.1. They sound frighteningly realistic. JN: No, that one is strictly serendipity. But I know what you mean. There are several places that were mixed specifically to enhance the visuals. To answer your question though, the majority of the problems that I had to deal with were the standard run of the mill issues that come with the territory. For instance, a few times the drums were recorded a bit low, like Weir's guitar. Some of these older tapes and recording methodologies were far from elegant. So, I just attempt to repair that stuff as best I can. CA: So, was the theory as practical as you had initially envisioned it? JN: Oh, I'd say so. We did a rough mix with time code, cut the video to the correct audio and then I had an audio and video document that I could fine tune both in stereo and 5.1. CA: Who, if anyone, from the band was involved in the creation of this package? JN: Mickey Hart (drums/percussion) was the most hands on. He and his engineer, the legendary Tom Flye, came in and mixed the Rhythm Devils section and worked with me on the drum mix. He likes to be in the studio and he had done a few Grateful Dead-related surround sound mixes on the DVD-Audio releases of both Workingman's Dead (1970) and American Beauty (1970). He came in with Tom and basically set up a soundscape for the drums. Sort of the way he thought it should sound. CA: Did either you or Mickey do anything special, such as use audio outboard processing, to create the 5.1 surround mix? You briefly referred to a few processes in the Making Of The DVD mini-documentary. JN: Yes, actually we did some rather unconventional things. One primary thing we did was to Keith [Godchaux]s keyboard. It was recorded with very poor acoustics in the mid to lower ranges. When he is playing with his right hand on the top registers, it sounds fine, but everything else is thick sounding and not very clear or discernable. So, I was trying to place this sound within the context of the 5.1 and Mick said, "Nah, it should be front and center," and he was 100% right. On a related note, one day when Tom Flye and I were working together, we decided that we needed to do some re-amplification. So, we tried a couple of different things to make the lead guitar and keyboards sound more prominent. What I settled on was a process of isolating the instrument track and then sending that sound through one of Garcia's vintage amplifiers and re-recording that sound. So, now we have two guitar tracks. I did the same for Weir and Keith as well. CA: How is the timbre of the instrument altered by doing that? JN: Well, it took a while to get the correct amplifiers. I ended up with a few of Garcia's vintage Fender amplifiers and thought the tones were tremendously complementary. If you just listen to the right front and right rear speakers, you can hear a real wide stereo spread. So, I guess what I am driving at is that the sound didn't change in a tonal way, it is just more pronounced and richly present in the 5.1 mix. These amplifiers create a real unique character and sound that is pretty cool and more definitive. CA: That sounds pretty radical, is that standard operating procedure for engineers working in 5.1 surround? JN: I . . . hmmm, I dunno? Maybe they do, but I have never heard of this specific technique being incorporated. I got the idea from hearing a 5.1 mix that featured a similar sound of a really wide guitar spread. I have no idea if they used a synthetic delay or another amplifier. It occurred to me that this re-amplification process would be the way to get as authentic a sound as possible. CA: Where did you get one of Garcia's vintage amplifiers? JN: Long time Grateful Dead roadie Steve Parrish has kept tabs on all of the old road gear. So, I borrowed something from him. I then played Garcia's solo guitar track through that amplifier, made a few very minor tone alterations so that the sound would be as close as possible to what was on the tapes. Then, as it was being played back, I recorded the new audio on a separate track of Pro Tools. So, now I had a pair of tracks to work from. CA: So, sort of like an extra hue in your sonic paintbox? JN: Ha, you said it (laughs)! CA: That really is one of the things that separates you from most standard engineers, at least to my ears. You work with subtleties with a great deal of interest and precision. JN: Well, I try to enhance, not rewrite history and not clobber you over the head with something just for the sake of being different. I mean, newer isn't always better, and I gotta cop to not being all that impressed with surround projects that "put you in the best seat in the house." It is kind of boring and doesn't seem to work all that well. I would go for having the listener up on stage and, as the song goes, have them Playing In The Band. Admittedly, 2000 that is not completely realistic, since we weren't there originally. So, it bends reality, but by the same token it is infinitely more interesting and listenable. You feel Garcia surrounding and enveloping you on the right and Weir does the same on the other side. It is a great feeling as well as a great sound and is above all tremendously realistic - which was my ultimate goal. I was really happy with the results, especially compared to the other 5.1 stuff that I have heard. CA: Back to the video for a second, is this the same thing that folks who were watching KQED-TV in the Bay Area would have seen? JN: Yes and no. What was available to us was the same thing that was shown on KQED. Plus, we also had an alternate camera angle, which was not broadcast. That video feed is called an "Iso" - as in isolated. I'm certain that David will describe that a little more when you speak with him. There were four separate cameras shooting the event at all times, so we have alternate footage from any of the other cameras that were not "live." So, let's say that [Jerry] Garcia is singing and the video image being transmitted live is a shot of him singing. OK, well, also being shot - but not broadcast - at that exact moment is a wide view of the entire band, or maybe Donna [Jean Godchaux] on backing vocals, or whatever. Well, we could go back and choose to show Donna instead, or in a split-screen with Jerry. So, to get back to your question, there are a few places where there may have been a better or more graceful shot on the "Iso" rather than what they originally showed. This was going out live - as it happened. Any and all decisions about which camera to use - which is known as "switching" - was done at that moment. Here is where David shined. He viewed every frame to make certain that we were utilizing the best and most effective image to match what we are hearing. Plus, we also have the alternate camera angle option that begins during the second verse of Wharf Rat. CA: Speaking of which, why are there only alternate camera angles for the final few songs? JN: For some reason, there wasn't another or a separate tape of completely different angles that covered the entire show. Perhaps by accident or design, they let the tape run for the final half of the third set. So, we used it. CA: Are there any places where you had to patch the video up to correlate to the music? JN: We chose to edit out some of the crawling text viewer announcements, such as the ones that are for specific products. I think there was something about The Gap, and you occasionally see the "Tune In To KSAN" and the "Happy New Year" graphics, which are kind of cool, albeit primitive by today's standards. CA: That reinforces the authenticity, sort of like a multimedia time capsule. JN: Well put. It really has the feeling and vibe of both a real show and a vintage broadcast. Although, there were not too many surround sound broadcasts back in 1978. CA: Who recorded the video? JN: The folks at the local public television station, KQED. They recorded everything in two-inch Quad video. CA: What is that? JN: Two-inch videotape, which looks just like audiotape actually, and Quad was the name of the format, like VHS or Beta. These were big machines and to give you an example, the very first 16-track audio machines - which were made by Ampex - were converted from this two-inch video machine. Then, in the mid 1980s, the two-inch tapes of the show were transferred to one-inch video. Presumably, someone in the Grateful Dead's organization had the forethought to properly archive the video back then. So, we had this one-inch video to work from and it looked great. This gets into David's area of expertise, however. Because, while I was dealing with all the audio, he was working with equal fervor on the visual aspect. In this way, Closing Of Winterland is the epitome of a co-production. He was also integral in making decisions on the package, choosing all of the extra materials, getting licensing for non-Grateful Dead written songs, did all the photo layouts on the New Riders Of The Purple Sage and We Bid You Goodnight segments. He even did all the visible lyric entries. CA: At what point in the proceedings did the two of you join forces with your collective accomplishments? JN: It was quite natural, actually. I would check in with David and see what he was up to and he'd listen to the mixes I was doing. We'd bounce ideas off of each other and talk about the logistics. For instance we knew that there was no way we could put the all three sets of music onto a single DVD. So, we decided to present the show as the main entity and then the bonus materials in a separate place. This opposed presenting everything in a strict chronological fashion, which would have dictated that the Conversation with Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Ken Kesey go between the first and second set. CA: You are obviously pleased - and rightfully so - with the final results. What, if anything would you have changed? JN: Well, hmmm . . . one thing is that many of the decisions had to be made almost instantly. There was no time to live with it, ya know? We were right up against the deadline, I mean it had to be in stores today, actually. But, in general, there will always be places in mixes that I will labor over. I am never going to be 100% satisfied, but at some point you have to let go and accept that you did the absolute best you could in the time you had to do so. I know it is pretty close, because I am able to take the CDs and listen for the pleasure of the music in my car. CA: That is always a good test. JN: Well, yeah. Plus, I did not know this show as well as you or the other hard-core tape collectors. I knew it was considered a peak performance, but I didn't know it. I have to say, apart from the emotional and historical aspects, this concert really holds up to repeated listens. It's fun to listen to all the way through. Plus, thanks to David's hard work, it is equally fun to watch. Speaking of watching, that is where David comes in with his expertise. End of interview. Once again, on behalf of CrutchfieldAdvisor and myself, I'd like to extend heartfelt thanks to the immensely talented, eternally generous, and painfully humble Jeffrey Norman. But wait, we have only told half of the story! Point your browsers back here next week for the second in our two-part series The Making of the Grateful Dead DVD The Closing of Winterland." We will have the privilege of actually going into the infamous Grateful Dead tape archives with current vault keeper, David Lemieux. His insight and keen ear for quality and - as we will find 17c out next time - equally perceptive eye for copious quantity, is at the heart of this mammoth audio-visual achievement. Lindsay Planer is a freelance journalist and Public Radio host. He is a regular contributor to several publications, including All Music Guide and CrutchfieldAdvisor.com. . 0