This past Saturday, I had the esteemed honor and privilege of attending a panel discussion at the AES Convention in New York City that focused on the technical wizardry behind the Europe '72 box set. I'm hopeful that an audio recording of the panel will become available. In the mean time, here are some thoughts and recollections from what the panel shared with those in attendance:
AES New York 2011 - Grateful Dead Europe '72
Saturday, October 22, 9:00 am — 10:45 am (1E15/16)
Moderator:
Sam Berkow
Panelists:
Gary Lambert - Grateful Dead Historian
Jamie Howarth - Tape Transfers and Plangent Processes Speed Correction
Jeffrey Norman - Mixing Engineer
David Glasser - Mastering Engineer
Abstract:
In the spring of 1972, the Grateful Dead toured Europe with a new (and modified) Ampex MM1100 tape recorder in tow. The tour, and subsequent LP release, finds the Dead at one their creative peaks. In September 2011 Rhino Records will release a massive CD box set containing every note recorded on this 22-show tour —over 70 hours of music on 73 discs, surely one of the most ambitious rock and roll box sets to date. This Workshop will bring together the production and engineering team who have been working on restoring, mixing, and mastering this historic music. Musical excerpts from the project will be presented, and the project workflow and creative challenges will be discussed.
You can purchase the mp3 of this AES panel by following this link:
http://www.softconference.com/aes/sessionDetail.asp?SID=281053
...
After waking up from my sidewalk sleeping bag, I rubbed the early city mist from my eyes and wandered around the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center with my finger in the air, in hopes of scoring a miracle ticket to the Europe '72 panel discussion.
OK, you got me...a short trip on the LIRR and a cab ride from Penn Station got me to the Javitz Center in plenty of time to register my free exhibits pass and purchase a ticket to the Europe '72 panel discussion. All in all, money very well spent. The discussion was extremely informative, awe inspiring, eye opening and more enjoyable than I had expected.
Sam Berkow, a friend and colleague dating back to my Masterpiece A/V days supporting the String Cheese Incident, opened the proceedings with sweet, humorous and heartfelt welcoming words. Accompanied by a thoughtful slide presentation, Sam followed up a brief introduction to the Grateful Dead and the significance of the Europe '72 tour by introducing the panel members; describing the roll each person played in the project...
...
Gary Lambert started the discussion by offering a personal anecdote about the day his box set arrived from Rhino Records. Apparently he spent much of the first day just staring at the steamer trunk in amazement (it's nice to know I wasn't alone. I must admit I squealed like a fat kid at Friendly's when mine arrived). Gary then gave us some excellent historical background information about the band as well as the economics/logistics of the tour.
Gary raised an interesting point about the logistics of tour and how that played into the sonic consistency of recordings that were produced. Because they were trekking all over Europe, crossing international borders, the Grateful Dead - who were legendary tinkerers - were required to keep their equipment manifest uniform. This in turn, forced them to use the same gear from night to night. Twenty-two shows with the exact same equipment and stage set-up.
...
To me, the most fascinating and technologically complex (i.e. over my head) aspect of the panel discussion followed as Jamie Howarth described how his team applied the Plangent Processes Playback System to mitigate the wow, flutter and sonic distortion present on the master reel recordings.
The technology behind this system is explained here:
http://www.plangentprocesses.com/
The modified Ampex MM1100 used to record the Europe '72 tour was state-of-the-art for 1972. With that said, there were inherent limitations with the transport - motor slippage, speed variations, scraping of the oxide on the tape as it passes over the metal recording-head, etc. All of these "issues" translated to wow, flutter and audible distortion on the master 14" reels.
After the analog reels were transferred into the digital domain, Jamie's team "chased the bias" - a 160 kHz tone that ran throughout the recordings. This gave them a reference to lock onto, thereby allowing them to greatly diminish the wow, flutter and distortion of the master recordings. The "before and after" audio samples Jamie played were simply staggering. He also played a recording from a stethoscope held against an MM1100 in operation. One doesn't realize just how much noise is present in an older recording, until it's no longer there...talk about disproving a negative.
...
Jeffrey Norman walked us through the arduous but rewarding task of mixing the (now corrected) 24 bit/96 kHz multi-track recordings. Explaining in detail how he mixed the entire project in ProTools, using a custom Neve console with Flying Faders II, Fairman TMC and Z-Systems Z-CL1 compressors and an assortment of EQ's and plug-ins.
You can read a bit more about his facility here: http://www.mockingbirdmastering.com/facility.html
I especially enjoyed listening to Jeff describe the philosophy he applied to his work on the Europe '72 box set, approached each show like he was mixing a studio album. Given the consistency of the on-stage set up, Jeff set his pan based on photos taken from the tour. Appropriate EQ techniques were applied to the individual instruments/voices and very (almost non-existent) compression was used to provide a proper blend to the overall sound. Jeff explained how his experience as a mastering engineer has taught him that minimal compression in the mixing stage allows for maximum dynamics in recording. It also provides the mastering engineer maximum flexibility with which to apply his craft on the final product.
No preamplifiers were used on the Europe '72 tour. Instead the individual 16-tracks were run through a stage-split (allowing for front of house and monitors to be mixed) and straight to tape. This provided a very dynamic recording. Keep in mind that Keith's piano was recorded with a single transducer microphone, which explains the often unique tonal quality of his instrument and why his presence is often very low in the mix. Jerry's guitar and pedal steel guitar ran through an A/B box and straight into a close-mic’ed Fender Twin amplifier - no effects or stereo signal like later in years.
When questioned about his approach to the particular sound of each venue on the tour, Jeff elucidated that his goal was not mix the recordings in hopes of reproducing Aarhaus or Lille. Rather, he allowed the ambient information from the mono audience microphone, as well as the overhead drum mics to reproduce the room presence and ambiance. This comment validated my experience with the box set - as I've found that acoustic characteristics of each venue are clearly defined within the first few snare/tom hits on Billy's kit. {Check out Newcastle, Amsterdam and Hamburg for examples of this acoustic phenomenon}
The other interesting, if not endearing part of Jeffrey's presentation was his retelling of the way in which the digital audio files moved around the country between Plangent Processes on the east coast, Jeff in California and Air Show Mastering in Boulder, CO. I get a huge kick to think that the 24 bit/96kHz master audio files for the (in humble opinion) single greatest CD release in the history of the universe bounced around the country, inside a FedEx truck on a memory stick and a portable USB hard drive...
I remember how exciting it was to receive cassettes, then DAT's and CD's in the mail from friends during my early days of trading tapes. It was like the proverbial Christmas morning (even for a Jewish kid from Long Island). I wonder if Jeff and David ever enjoyed a similar rush during this process.
...
The final panelist to present was David Glasser - the mastering engineer from Airshow Mastering. Accompanied by Sam Berkow's slides, David briefly described the gear he used and his philosophy to mastering. Minimal compression (as David put it "the meters barely moved"), Sonic Studio's soundBlade and a discerning ear were Dave's primary tools as he added the final touches to this seminal CD release.
Something to keep in mind...while discussing the process of dithering down the 24 bit/96kHz master recordings to the final 16 bit/44.1 kHz CD product, David mentioned how "no one would ever be crazy enough to tackle this project again." Therefore, he (along with the other team members) decided to retain the 24 bit/96kHz masters. I can only imagine that at some point in the future, there will be a 24 bit/96kHz release of this magnificent, one-of-a-kind box set!
As if I needed any more reason to feel cosmically connected to this box set - at the outset of his presentation David thanked his partner at Air Show, Charlie Pilzer. It turns out I sold Charlie a pair of Duntech Sovereign speakers several years back:
http://www.duntech.com.au/english/products/classic-series/sovereign.html
Several of Sam's slides showed a pair of monstrous speakers (powered by Ayre amplification) in David's mastering studio. For a few minutes, I fantasized that my Sovereigns were used in the mastering of the Europe '72 box set. Talking to Charlie after the conclusion of the panel discussion, it became clear that "my" Sovereigns are used in the Tacoma, MD Airshow studio. The box set was mastered on Dunlavy (SC-IV's I think) at their Boulder, CO studio.
Either way...it's a small world (but I still wouldn't want to gift wrap it)
...
The panel concluded with several audio samples from the box set (The Stranger, Tennessee Jed and Playin' In The Band) as well as some Q&A from the audience. All in all, it was a fantastic experience and well worth the effort required to get into the city so early on a cool Saturday morning. I will keep my eyes and ears peeled for any recorded documentation of the panel - if I find anything I will certainly make it available on this blog.
As always, thank you for reading and stay tuned...
© Aaron Miller – 2011
AES New York 2011 - Grateful Dead Europe '72
Saturday, October 22, 9:00 am — 10:45 am (1E15/16)
Moderator:
Sam Berkow
Panelists:
Gary Lambert - Grateful Dead Historian
Jamie Howarth - Tape Transfers and Plangent Processes Speed Correction
Jeffrey Norman - Mixing Engineer
David Glasser - Mastering Engineer
Abstract:
In the spring of 1972, the Grateful Dead toured Europe with a new (and modified) Ampex MM1100 tape recorder in tow. The tour, and subsequent LP release, finds the Dead at one their creative peaks. In September 2011 Rhino Records will release a massive CD box set containing every note recorded on this 22-show tour —over 70 hours of music on 73 discs, surely one of the most ambitious rock and roll box sets to date. This Workshop will bring together the production and engineering team who have been working on restoring, mixing, and mastering this historic music. Musical excerpts from the project will be presented, and the project workflow and creative challenges will be discussed.
You can purchase the mp3 of this AES panel by following this link:
http://www.softconference.com/aes/sessionDetail.asp?SID=281053
...
After waking up from my sidewalk sleeping bag, I rubbed the early city mist from my eyes and wandered around the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center with my finger in the air, in hopes of scoring a miracle ticket to the Europe '72 panel discussion.
OK, you got me...a short trip on the LIRR and a cab ride from Penn Station got me to the Javitz Center in plenty of time to register my free exhibits pass and purchase a ticket to the Europe '72 panel discussion. All in all, money very well spent. The discussion was extremely informative, awe inspiring, eye opening and more enjoyable than I had expected.
Sam Berkow, a friend and colleague dating back to my Masterpiece A/V days supporting the String Cheese Incident, opened the proceedings with sweet, humorous and heartfelt welcoming words. Accompanied by a thoughtful slide presentation, Sam followed up a brief introduction to the Grateful Dead and the significance of the Europe '72 tour by introducing the panel members; describing the roll each person played in the project...
...
Gary Lambert started the discussion by offering a personal anecdote about the day his box set arrived from Rhino Records. Apparently he spent much of the first day just staring at the steamer trunk in amazement (it's nice to know I wasn't alone. I must admit I squealed like a fat kid at Friendly's when mine arrived). Gary then gave us some excellent historical background information about the band as well as the economics/logistics of the tour.
Gary raised an interesting point about the logistics of tour and how that played into the sonic consistency of recordings that were produced. Because they were trekking all over Europe, crossing international borders, the Grateful Dead - who were legendary tinkerers - were required to keep their equipment manifest uniform. This in turn, forced them to use the same gear from night to night. Twenty-two shows with the exact same equipment and stage set-up.
...
To me, the most fascinating and technologically complex (i.e. over my head) aspect of the panel discussion followed as Jamie Howarth described how his team applied the Plangent Processes Playback System to mitigate the wow, flutter and sonic distortion present on the master reel recordings.
The technology behind this system is explained here:
http://www.plangentprocesses.com/
The modified Ampex MM1100 used to record the Europe '72 tour was state-of-the-art for 1972. With that said, there were inherent limitations with the transport - motor slippage, speed variations, scraping of the oxide on the tape as it passes over the metal recording-head, etc. All of these "issues" translated to wow, flutter and audible distortion on the master 14" reels.
After the analog reels were transferred into the digital domain, Jamie's team "chased the bias" - a 160 kHz tone that ran throughout the recordings. This gave them a reference to lock onto, thereby allowing them to greatly diminish the wow, flutter and distortion of the master recordings. The "before and after" audio samples Jamie played were simply staggering. He also played a recording from a stethoscope held against an MM1100 in operation. One doesn't realize just how much noise is present in an older recording, until it's no longer there...talk about disproving a negative.
...
Jeffrey Norman walked us through the arduous but rewarding task of mixing the (now corrected) 24 bit/96 kHz multi-track recordings. Explaining in detail how he mixed the entire project in ProTools, using a custom Neve console with Flying Faders II, Fairman TMC and Z-Systems Z-CL1 compressors and an assortment of EQ's and plug-ins.
You can read a bit more about his facility here: http://www.mockingbirdmastering.com/facility.html
I especially enjoyed listening to Jeff describe the philosophy he applied to his work on the Europe '72 box set, approached each show like he was mixing a studio album. Given the consistency of the on-stage set up, Jeff set his pan based on photos taken from the tour. Appropriate EQ techniques were applied to the individual instruments/voices and very (almost non-existent) compression was used to provide a proper blend to the overall sound. Jeff explained how his experience as a mastering engineer has taught him that minimal compression in the mixing stage allows for maximum dynamics in recording. It also provides the mastering engineer maximum flexibility with which to apply his craft on the final product.
No preamplifiers were used on the Europe '72 tour. Instead the individual 16-tracks were run through a stage-split (allowing for front of house and monitors to be mixed) and straight to tape. This provided a very dynamic recording. Keep in mind that Keith's piano was recorded with a single transducer microphone, which explains the often unique tonal quality of his instrument and why his presence is often very low in the mix. Jerry's guitar and pedal steel guitar ran through an A/B box and straight into a close-mic’ed Fender Twin amplifier - no effects or stereo signal like later in years.
When questioned about his approach to the particular sound of each venue on the tour, Jeff elucidated that his goal was not mix the recordings in hopes of reproducing Aarhaus or Lille. Rather, he allowed the ambient information from the mono audience microphone, as well as the overhead drum mics to reproduce the room presence and ambiance. This comment validated my experience with the box set - as I've found that acoustic characteristics of each venue are clearly defined within the first few snare/tom hits on Billy's kit. {Check out Newcastle, Amsterdam and Hamburg for examples of this acoustic phenomenon}
The other interesting, if not endearing part of Jeffrey's presentation was his retelling of the way in which the digital audio files moved around the country between Plangent Processes on the east coast, Jeff in California and Air Show Mastering in Boulder, CO. I get a huge kick to think that the 24 bit/96kHz master audio files for the (in humble opinion) single greatest CD release in the history of the universe bounced around the country, inside a FedEx truck on a memory stick and a portable USB hard drive...
I remember how exciting it was to receive cassettes, then DAT's and CD's in the mail from friends during my early days of trading tapes. It was like the proverbial Christmas morning (even for a Jewish kid from Long Island). I wonder if Jeff and David ever enjoyed a similar rush during this process.
...
The final panelist to present was David Glasser - the mastering engineer from Airshow Mastering. Accompanied by Sam Berkow's slides, David briefly described the gear he used and his philosophy to mastering. Minimal compression (as David put it "the meters barely moved"), Sonic Studio's soundBlade and a discerning ear were Dave's primary tools as he added the final touches to this seminal CD release.
Something to keep in mind...while discussing the process of dithering down the 24 bit/96kHz master recordings to the final 16 bit/44.1 kHz CD product, David mentioned how "no one would ever be crazy enough to tackle this project again." Therefore, he (along with the other team members) decided to retain the 24 bit/96kHz masters. I can only imagine that at some point in the future, there will be a 24 bit/96kHz release of this magnificent, one-of-a-kind box set!
As if I needed any more reason to feel cosmically connected to this box set - at the outset of his presentation David thanked his partner at Air Show, Charlie Pilzer. It turns out I sold Charlie a pair of Duntech Sovereign speakers several years back:
http://www.duntech.com.au/english/products/classic-series/sovereign.html
Several of Sam's slides showed a pair of monstrous speakers (powered by Ayre amplification) in David's mastering studio. For a few minutes, I fantasized that my Sovereigns were used in the mastering of the Europe '72 box set. Talking to Charlie after the conclusion of the panel discussion, it became clear that "my" Sovereigns are used in the Tacoma, MD Airshow studio. The box set was mastered on Dunlavy (SC-IV's I think) at their Boulder, CO studio.
Either way...it's a small world (but I still wouldn't want to gift wrap it)
...
The panel concluded with several audio samples from the box set (The Stranger, Tennessee Jed and Playin' In The Band) as well as some Q&A from the audience. All in all, it was a fantastic experience and well worth the effort required to get into the city so early on a cool Saturday morning. I will keep my eyes and ears peeled for any recorded documentation of the panel - if I find anything I will certainly make it available on this blog.
As always, thank you for reading and stay tuned...
© Aaron Miller – 2011
1 comment:
isn't AES a gas? this sounds like a great panel, and confirms what i'd hoped - 24bit archives were retained for posterity.
i avoided the E72 release because i don't need 60 plastic coasters taking up perpetual space in my attic, since i'd rip them all to lossless anyway. if they had released lossless FLAC, say on a personalized portable SSD drive, i would have been all over that! maybe some day.
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