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Well, hopefully it’s not that big a part of my personal life. In terms of history, it’s come back to bite me in the ass — but in a positive way. [chuckles] But, no, it’s been interesting to go back after 40 years and have the opportunity to revisit and look at this stuff again. That, to me, was a great pleasure, especially since I didn’t work on the original album.
Considering the almost primitive recording conditions you had…
Yes, the console had 12 inputs and 8 outputs. There were also a couple of Shure mixers, and that was basically it.
What type of adjustments did you have to make?
There was very little to do — but first we had to make sure all the lines were working. There were some buzzes and things that were always going to be part of the scene. As one could imagine, we were in the middle of nowhere, with power coming from not exactly the keenest source. Once we got past that, the fact of the matter was that we were using Shure 565s, which were the predecessors of the Shure 58s, for literally everything. There were no condensers. And, you know, each band presented its own book of problems, which were either in the playing, or the fact that the monitors weren’t quite what they could’ve been. There was no double-miking; it was just a matter of trying to figure out what each band was doing as they were doing it. It was a minor miracle that anything got recorded at all.
Is it fair to say you felt lucky that you had Richie Havens to start things off?
It was a nice way to start the show, for sure. And the fact that he was just with an acoustic guitar — well, he also had a second acoustic guitarist and congas — yes, that was a pretty easy way to go.
Back to the original soundtrack album that you didn’t work on. . .
Yes, let’s be perfectly clear. As I said earlier, it was a great pleasure to revisit this material since I hadn’t worked on its release. It was determined that somebody else was to work on the album, however shortsighted that was. But like I said, working on this Blu-ray edition for Warner Home Video was a wonderful opportunity to set the record straight and show what it could sound like. Have you had an opportunity to hear the 5.1 mix?
Oh yes. Before viewing Woodstock: The Director’s Cut, 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition on Blu-ray, I went back and re-experienced the Blu-ray version of the Jimi Hendrix Live at Woodstock 5.1 mix that you originally produced for DVD. Incredible.
Well, thank you. I certainly think the 5.1 of Jimi at Woodstock is as good as it’s going to get. I tried to avoid pitfalls by presenting him in as true a fashion as possible without overenhancing things. The whole idea with a live performance such as Jimi’s is to make it as big and as fat as possible, squeeze every last element that you can out of it, and give people the opportunity to enjoy a really astounding performance. And Jimi put on an object lesson in how to play the guitar. Yes, there are some hiccups and quirks, and some of the support musicians may not have been quite up to Jimi’s standard, but Jimi was the guy in charge, and he did a fantastic job. There are some stunning moments there, no question.
Was there one particular “aha” moment when you were working on that mix, that made everything else fall into place?
I can’t really say that, but I can say — obviously, the beginning of the set is tough because the band members are getting used to their own levels onstage, and we’re trying to figure out where everything is. There are some hairy moments in the first song, and then after that it settles down. But I think that’s the case is every performance, no matter who it was at Woodstock. The first song is always a little shaky — in the band’s performance, or a mike is missing, or something’s going on because, well, hey! We’re talking about Woodstock!
Now, as to the Woodstock release itself, let’s be clear. I didn’t have anything to do with the Woodstock Director’s Cut mix. I did mix the 2 hours of the extras [Woodstock: Untold Stories]. And if you compare those two, well, there is no comparison.
You sifted through hours and hours of footage for that.
The Hendrix project is what inspired us to go deeper into the vaults and start thinking along those lines. Once [film restoration specialist] Bill Rush and I figured out there was so much stuff sitting there that had never been heard, then we wanted to make sure the powers that be were aware that there was 10 hours worth of really good unreleased material, of which you see in new box set is about 2-and-a-half hours worth in the boxed set.
The fact of the matter is, 10 or 15 years ago, we couldn’t have even done this. The technology wasn’t at the right point. Certainly now, with all the WAV plug-ins I use, and the de-noising and de-clicking and all the rest of that, and the fact that some of the musicians were willing to lend their talents to fix some of the things that were obviously not there to make for a seamless performance.
So Bill Rush and I put our thoughts together on what could be done with outtakes of Santana, Canned Heat, Johnny Winter, the Who, the Grateful Dead, Creedence; the list went on and on. Once we figured that out, we put together a demo reel for the powers that be at Warner. And they jumped up and down and said, “Wow, we should really put this out for the 40th anniversary.” And that sort of started the process.
Of the 10 hours of footage that you found, was there a longer pre-edit or rough cut than what’s in the boxed set?
Obviously, when you’re looking at 10 hours of material, there’s no way you’re going to put all of it out. You have to figure out who is the most important artist, and then you go from there. You make an A list, a B list, and a C list, you figure out the best performances, and you hope the legal department can get all the rights. There’s always going to be a stumbling block.
So did you mix more than what was released as Untold Stories?
It’s not a question of me making the call, it’s a question of legal making the call. It’s their call.
Right, right. So there could have been other material…
There could have been, and there was.
Okay. Got it. Would you like to do further live-music surround-sound mixing?
If there is the accompanying video or film, then I think 5.1 makes an awful lot of sense, because you look at a band on stage, there it is, with the audience wrapping around, which is what I did with Woodstock. I wanted you to get the feeling that you’re in the center, 30 to 40 rows back in the best seat in the house — or in the mud, as the case may be. To have the feeling as if you’re there: That, to me, is very exciting.
So what was your opinion on the Creedence stuff, the Carlos Santana stuff, and all the rest of it, and the 5.1 I just did?
I’d seen and heard some of that stuff by way of unauthorized sound and footage before. After experiencing what you’ve done with it aurally, I liken it to wiping off a windshield. In a sonic sense, it’s like the music has been “cleaned off.”
Oh good, and the visuals were restored too. I’m curious — did any of the other artists stick out for you, like Joe Cocker [“Something’s Coming On”]?
I did enjoy Joe’s performance, but I also liked Jefferson Airplane [“3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds”] too, as we hadn’t seen a whole lot of them officially. And the interplay amongst the Santana band [on “Evil Ways”] was amazing.
That was a totally rescued track, you know? He [Santana] overdubbed his guitar — just for the first part of it, not the second part. You would never know. The whole idea of it was to have it rescued and restored; otherwise, it would have never been seen. He agreed to it as soon as he heard it. I did a demo, and he said, “Let’s do this.” I went up to San Francisco to record it, and he nailed it in under an hour. It was fantastic. And the same with some of the percussion tracks; there was a lot of leakage, and we had to fix that too. But it was an integration of what was there originally and what was put on recently, and, from my perspective, it was seamless. There’s a certain point where he comes in with the guitar solo, and that’s the original — that’s not messed with at all. There’s a whole backstory as to why he was like that. [chuckles]
It was nice to see the Grateful Dead [“Turn on Your Love Light”], since that was always a big issue.
The Grateful Dead were interesting. The lights weren’t exactly all that good at that point. And though it may not be their greatest performance ever, it’s still fascinating to see that the band was playing pretty well. There was a negative feeling about it for so may years from the band, and I think if the band had seen it the way I had mixed it and the way it had been restored, they would have said, “Hey! This is pretty cool! We actually did play at Woodstock!”
Let’s not forget Mountain [“Beside the Sea” and “Southbound Train”], and Johnny Winter [“Mean Town Blues”].
Johnny Winter was playing his ass off!
And Paul Butterfield [“Morning Sunrise”].
Yeah, the horn section was good there. I did it as fat as I could. We mixed this in LA, and we did final dubbing on Stage 12 at Warners. It’s always a pleasure to work with those guys.
And Creedence [“Born on the Bayou,” “I’ve Put a Spell on You,” “Keep on Chooglin’ ”] was killer!
Creedence was great! There was so much bad blood going back and forth, but the guys finally figured it out. And wow, what a pleasure to see that stuff.
Of the 8 hours you have left over, how much would you consider presentable?
I’d say maybe 4.
Are there any other projects like Woodstock in the pipeline for you?
I wish! [chuckles] There are a couple things in the works right now that I can’t mention, but suffice to say that there are a couple of Hendrix live things we’re working on that will come out.
Would you consider working on any studio material in 5.1?
Well, it’s quite a challenge, you know, and certainly when it comes to Jimi. He’s not around to tell me what to do or help me make those decisions, therefore that’s a decision Janie Hendrix [President and CEO of Experience Hendrix], myself, and John [McDermott, who manages the Experience Hendrix music catalog] will have to make. It’s always been in the back of my mind — but whether or not that’s going to happen is down to the fates and whims of the gods and whether they’re going to be kind to us.
I think “1983” and other things from Electric Ladyland would lend themselves perfectly to 5.1.
Well, I would say out of all of Jimi’s studio albums, Electric Ladyland is the one album best suited for 5.1. But whether or not it would make economic sense, that’s a whole different ballgame. Let’s face it: the record industry is minuscule, and a surround audio mix would sell 10 copies. Well, maybe only 10,000.
Here’s how it really makes sense. If one could make the case for Electric Ladyland as a visual thing as well as the audio, then it would really work. So if somebody would want to make a film about Electric Ladyland and what it means — and I know I’ve done that movie, the documentary, Making of Electric Ladyland — but if it’s very visual, like a painting, then it might make sense.
Now that you’ve spend time working with 5.1, does it make sense to you as somebody behind the board?
Oh God, yeah. 5.1 for me is the way to go. I wish I could do more of it. But like I said, it really makes sense when you have the visual to go with it. And that’s what I’m trying to do more of.
Did you dabble much with quad?
I did actually mix [Led Zeppelin’s] The Song Remains the Same in quad, for what’s its worth. and it actually sounded pretty damn good!
What’s your position on vinyl?
I’ve always loved vinyl. You can’t beat it. Marvelous-sounding stuff.
I take it you’re not a fan of MP3s or how a lot of records these days are being mixed and mastered too loud.
If you consider the fact that virtually every rock albums is sounding the same in terms of the dynamic range — well, there is no more dynamic range. In fact, when I go to mastering now, I insist the mastering engineer pull the level back so there is room for the song to breathe. Otherwise, you might as well put all the faders up to one spot, compress it to death, and say, “Here you are, folks.” It’s absolute craziness, and to me it’s counter-productive, counter-intuitive, and flies in the face of creativity. Every damn record sounds the same. I know a lot of mastering engineers are totally against it, and hopefully some of the up-and-coming bands will say, “You know, we need to change things here.” It’s something that I insist upon with records I work on — they will not be straightlined.
So, just to clarify this as we wrap things up: You would’ve liked to have worked on the surround mix for the main Woodstock movie itself, right?
Oh, yeah, well, that’s wishing, isn’t it? It would be nice to think they’d want me to go back in and redo it. We’ll just have to see. Perhaps they’ll do something different for the 50th anniversary.
Maybe they could include some mud with that package.
I’ve always thought they should do that — include premixed mud that you can roll around in.