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         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,
          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 quite 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, 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
          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.