Q&A Departments from the 2003-2005 GD Monthly Flashes

QUESTION and ANSWER DEPARTMENT (GD Monthly Flash No. 5 02/12/03)

This months' question was passed to our Archivist, David Lemieux: "Will you ever release a complete 'Evening with the Grateful Dead' concert from 1970 - 1971, i.e., the New Riders of the Purple Sage and the two Grateful Dead sets?"

"The answer would be that this is something that we would examine the next time 1970 - 1971 comes up for Dick's Picks consideration (and, of course, if the tape existed of the New Riders' set). Some of these NRPS sets are excellent, and I have a good relationship with the NRPS's archivist, so this is something that would be feasible to consider when the time comes. " David Lemieux

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QUESTION and ANSWER DEPARTMENT (GD Monthly Flash No. 6 03/17/03)

Question: "I have really been enjoying the View from the Vault DVD series, and am looking very forward to Volume 4. However, I was wondering why all of the DVDs released thus far have been from 1987 and later. Will there ever be any View from the Vault DVDs from the 1970s?"

Answer: "When the Grateful Dead started consistently playing larger venues (ie stadiums) in the late 1980s, they would utilize large video screens to project the visuals to the farther regions of the venues. Fortunately, many of these video screen feeds were taped on professional quality video formats, and these tapes are our source tapes for the View from the Vault DVDs. In the 1970s, these screens were not utilized, and hence we do not have much video footage from this era. However, we do hold a very few excellent shows on video. Because of the age of these videos, they require a little more work to make them releasable in the quality they deserve, but rest assured we will do all we can to get some of these older videos out there."

David Lemieux
Audiovisual Archivist
Grateful Dead Productions

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QUESTION and ANSWER DEPARTMENT (GD Monthly Flash No. 8 06/09/03)

Question: Why do the Dick's Picks often sound so different from one another? Shouldn't they have a similar sound because they are all from 2-track source tapes?

Answer: The reasons the Dick's Picks all have such a different sound are numerous. The primary factors in the different sound of each Dick's Picks are: who recorded a specific show; whether it was a live-to-2-track mix or a PA tape; gear used for recording; and, the format of the source tape (reel-to-reel, cassette, DAT). During the late 1960s and 1970s, Grateful Dead concerts were specifically mixed to tape by different members of the crew for the band's reference, and these mixes were separate from the mix sent to the PA. Each recordist had a remarkably different, but equally interesting, approach to capturing these concerts on tape by creating a specific mix that went directly to tape: Bear (Dick's Picks 4, 11, 16, 23, CD #1 and #2 of 25, 26), Rex Jackson (Dick's Picks 2), Kidd Candelario (Dick's Picks 1, 7, 12, 14, 19, 24, 28) and Betty Cantor Jackson (Dick's Picks 3, 5, 10, 18, CD #3 and #4 of 25). Other Dick's Picks in the series, such as #6, 9, 13, 17, 20, 21 and 27, are PA tapes, meaning what went to tape is exactly what came out of the PA in the hall, and these, of course, sound different from a tape that was mixed separately from what went through the PA.

David Lemieux
Audiovisual Archivist
Grateful Dead Productions

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QUESTION and ANSWER DEPARTMENT (GD Monthly Flash No. 10 09/24/03)

Questions: What criteria is used to determine what shows are selected for release in the Dick's Picks series?

Answer: The selection criteria is a rather detailed process that takes a number of factors into consideration. The first and most important element we examine is excellence of performance. This, above all else, is what gets a show considered for release in the series. The performance quality criteria is both an objective process, as much as that's possible in working with art, as well as a subjective one, in that the opinions of many knowledgeable Dead Heads are taken into account for each Pick. After performance quality, we examine such aspects of a tape as sound quality and, equally important, sound mix, to make sure all members of the band are well-represented in the mix. After this come such variables as rarity of the tape, unique song selections and other such items of interesting historical significance. Ultimately, we try to present as good an historical representation of the Grateful Dead's recorded past as is possible by selecting the best shows that represent all eras of Grateful Dead music. In regards to how a certain era is selected for any given Pick, we look at what has been released under any series title (Dick's Picks, Vault Release, View from the Vault DVD, etc) in the past while and select based on what is appropriate for that time. For instance, in the past year or so we have had a release from 1978, 1969, 1992, 1973, 1977, 1987 and 1980, so that leaves several areas for which to research the next Dick's Pick.

David Lemieux
Audiovisual Archivist
Grateful Dead Productions

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QUESTION and ANSWER DEPARTMENT (GD Monthly Flash No. 11 11/02/03)

Questions: The Dick's Picks series seems to have overlooked a significant era in Grateful Dead history: 1987-1990. Is there a reason why no Picks have been made from this time period (except 9/16/90, Dick's Picks Vol. 9)? And, can we expect to see a Pick from this era?

Answer: Although it's true that there have been no Dick's Picks from this excellent era, there have been many audio and video releases that cover 1987-1990. The DVDs "Ticket To New Year's," "Downhill From Here" and "View from the Vault Volumes 1, 3 and 4" represent this era visually, while the audio release "Dozin' At The Knick," "Terrapin Limited" and "Nightfall of Diamonds" are audio releases from that time (as well as the "View from the Vault" soundtracks). The reasons that this era has not been selected yet for a Dick's Picks release is due to the many excellent-quality video and multi-track master tapes the Grateful Dead have from 1987-1990, making many shows from this era releasable in forms that are different than the Dick's Picks series (ie DVDs and "Vault Release" audio releases). When a "Pickworthy" show comes up for possible release, if we hold multi-track audio or video masters from that show, we release it under one of these other series. Ultimately, though, the end result is that many shows from 1987-1990 have been released, although not as Dick's Picks. There are many shows, however, for which we do not hold multi-track audio or video masters from 1987-1990, so rest assured that some day, likely sooner rather than later, this time period will be represented in the Dick's Picks series.

David Lemieux
Audiovisual Archivist
Grateful Dead Productions

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QUESTION and ANSWER DEPARTMENT (GD Monthly Flash No. 13 03/02/04)

Question: I have heard the Grateful Dead's vault contains a massive amount of tape, and in many formats. How much tape is there, and what sorts of formats?

Answer: The Grateful Dead have about 15,000 audio tapes, about 3,000 video tapes, and more than 250,000 feet of 16mm film. The audio formats include just about everything that has been around since the mid-1960s: 1/4" reel-to-reel, 1/2" reel-to-reel, 1" reel-to-reel (8 track tape, from which albums such as Two From The Vault and the Fillmore East 2/11/69 release were produced), 2" reel-to-reel (16 track and 24 track, from which most live and studio albums after 1969 were produced), DAT, CDs, cassettes, 48 track digital reel-to-reel tapes, ADAT, Beta PCM digital tapes, and a few other random formats of which the vault may have just one or two examples. As for video tapes, again, just about every format from the late 1960s: 1/2" open reel (from which some of the archival footage of the NRPS used on the Closing of Winterland DVD was found), 2" Quad video (from which the Grateful Dead's Closing of Winterland performance was used for the DVD), 1" video (Dead Ahead and So Far were produced from this format), U-Matic (most reference tapes from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s), VHS, D-2 (a digital mastering tape from which View From The Vault Vol. 1 was drawn), Betamax, BetaCam SP and Digital BetaCam. As for the 16mm film, most of it is from the Winterland, October, 1974, concerts, but there are a few other interesting items, such as the film on which most of the Grateful Dead's music videos were shot ("Throwing Stones," "Foolish Heart," etc). For all of these formats, the Grateful Dead vault and studio has equipment on which virtually every format can be played back, with very few exceptions.

David Lemieux
Audiovisual Archivist
Grateful Dead Productions

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QUESTION and ANSWER DEPARTMENT (GD Monthly Flash No. 14 04/02/04)

Question: Sometimes "Dick's Picks" and other releases are complete shows, and sometimes they are compilations of 2 or 3 shows. What determines if a CD release is a complete show or a compilation?

Answer: As often as possible, we try to release complete shows in our live release series. That is always our focus when considering music for release. However, occasionally circumstances arise that make this impossible, so we produce the next best thing (or, in some people's opinion, an even better option), compilation releases. To use "Dick's Picks Vol. 31" as a recent example, there was some tremendous music played during the three shows that comprise the recent Pick (August 4,5 & 6, 1974). Unfortunately, the vault was missing the final reel of August 6 (Roosevelt Stadium), meaning there was no way that the complete show could be released. However, there was some stunning music that remained in the vault from that show ("Eyes of the World", the "Playing>Scarlet>Playing" sandwich, etc.). So, if we had ignored this show because we couldn't release it as a full-show CD, none of this exceptional music would have made its way into the world. Another good example of the necessity of compilation-style releases is "Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead", drawn from several nights in England in 1972. A couple of these shows were mostly un-usable due to technical problems on the master reels, and a couple of others had already been tapped for "Europe '72," so the most appropriate way of getting the best of these shows released was as a compilation. Feedback from Dead Heads has indicated that in this type of situation, a compilation is a pretty darn good solution to these types of issues.

David Lemieux
Audiovisual Archivist
Grateful Dead Productions

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QUESTION and ANSWER DEPARTMENT (GD Monthly Flash No. 15 05/05/04)

Question: I have noticed that on some Grateful Dead audio releases that are compilations that the specific dates from which specific songs are drawn are not listed in the packaging. Why is this?

Answer: The main reason for this is due to production timing. The package elements for CD releases are due at the manufacturing plant well before the audio masters are due. Because we often select specific versions of songs on compilations late in the process, we need to get package elements finalized quite a bit before final versions of songs are selected. We do try to provide information when it is 100% confirmed, but oftentimes it doesn't work out that way. We try make this information available through other ways, though, such as the internet.

David Lemieux
Audiovisual Archivist
Grateful Dead Productions

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QUESTION and ANSWER DEPARTMENT (GD Monthly Flash No. 16 06/28/04)

Question: In the course of your daily listening, do you have any systematic preservation practices to ensure the Grateful Dead's tape collection stays safe?

Answer: Whenever we listen to shows in the vault from the master tapes, we make back-ups during playback of that master. For instance, if we are pointed to a particular show from 1989 that exists only on DAT, we make a DAT, CD and often a high-resolution dub on another digital format, a DA-88, as preservation copies. From that moment on, anytime we want to hear that show, we play back the CD or back-up DAT, and only use the mster if we should get to the point of turning that specific 1989 show into a Dick's Pick. The less we play the master, the better. Now, in the case of reel-to-reel tapes from the need-baking era, 1975-1979 mostly, we are extra-diligent in making back-ups, as a tape can only be bakes 4 or 5 times before baking loses its reconstituting powers. Baking tapes, as you might remember, is what we need to do to make reel-to-reel tapes from that era playable. They are baked for 12 hours at 130 degrees Farenheit. So, with tapes we need to bake, one playback is about all we do, making several back-up protection copies in the process to listen to during analysis.

David Lemieux
Audiovisual Archivist
Grateful Dead Productions

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QUESTION and ANSWER DEPARTMENT (GD Monthly Flash No. 18 10/01/04)

Question: While searching through the out-take material from The Grateful Dead Movie for the bonus songs on the new DVD, did you have all of the music from all 5 nights (October 16-20, 1974) to select from?

Answer: We did have some material from all 5 nights to select from for the bonus songs, but by no means was the entire run filmed. For instance, on the first night, only 5 or 6 songs were filmed (including the big 32 minute "Playing In The Band" that was included in The Grateful Dead Movie, and which can be heard for the first time in its entirety on the 5 CD soundtrack to the Movie). On the second night, we had a little less than half of the show to choose from, and for bonus material we selected "China Cat Sunflower>I Know You Rider" and the "The Other One>Spanish Jam>Mind Left Body Jam>The Other One." From the middle night, October 18, we had a little more than half, but some of the best material from this night was already in the Movie ("Morning Dew," "Goin' Down The Road Feeling Bad"). However, we have also included the sweet "Sugaree," the excellent "Weather Report Suite" and the "Dark Star" that preceded "Morning Dew." From the 19th we had about half of the show to select from ("Scarlet Begonias" and "Uncle John's Band" made the cut), and from the final night, also about half of the show was filmed. So, as you see, not everything was filmed, but between the Movie and the bonus songs on the DVD, we now have more than 3 hours of music from these shows on pristine quality DVD. Rest assured there is more to come down the road from this run.

David Lemieux
Audiovisual Archivist
Grateful Dead Productions

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QUESTION and ANSWER DEPARTMENT (GD Monthly Flash No. 19 11/22/04)

Question:Do you ever need to use pieces of music from other shows in the production of Dick's Picks or other releases? There are certain tapes I've had for a long time that have a very noticeable cut/missing piece, and then when that particular show is released as a Dick's Pick, the cut is miraculously fixed.
M.S.-P., Sebastopol, CA

Answer:A: It is quite rare, but occasionally we do use very short snippets of music from other concerts while putting together Dick's Picks and other releases. Most of the tapes we are working with for the production of Dick's Picks are 7" reel-to-reel tapes with a running time of approximately 45 minutes, and occasionally cassettes with a running time of 45 minutes per side. With no second tape recorder running "overlap," anytime the recorder cuts at the 45 minute mark, it requires a few seconds to change reels or to flip the tape, meaning a few seconds of missing music. Our most desired option is to fix these cuts with a piece of music from the same show from an alternate source tape. We have gotten lucky on a few notable occasions using this method: on Dick's Picks Vol. 25, the first 2 CDs (the May 10 New Haven show) were recorded by Bear. Unfortunately, there were some nasty cuts during the music (reel changes), but fortunately Betty had also recorded this concert, so the 2 or 3 instances of missing 15-20 second pieces of music were fixed using Betty's master reels, as her reels cut in different places. Likewise, on Dick's Picks Vol. 26 (4/26&27/69), there were a couple of nasty cuts on the 4/27 part of the Pick. Once again, we used pieces from the same show to fix these cuts, as Bear had recorded a cassette master of this show in addition to the reel-to-reel master we used for the source of the Pick. Our least favorite option is to fix cuts with pieces of music from another show. This is quite rare, but it is an important option to fix certain problems in order to present the best possible listening experience. On Dick's Picks 28, for instance, one of the versions of "Eyes Of The World" had a missing piece that disrupted the flow of the set. Because there was no other source tape from the show, we were forced to use a short, 30 second piece of "Eyes Of The World" from a show earlier that same week. Again, this is not our ideal situation, but is a very suitable solution to problems well beyond our control. Occasionally, a cut is such an identifiable part of a show that has circulated for years that the cut is not fixed, such as the beginning of "St. Stephen" from 5/2/70 (Dick's Picks Vol. 8).

David Lemieux
Audiovisual Archivist
Grateful Dead Productions

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QUESTION and ANSWER DEPARTMENT (GD Monthly Flash No. 21 03/08/05)

Question: The booklets that accompany the Dick's Picks releases include some excellent photos and other historical items from the shows and eras. Where do you get all of this material, and do you have a lot of it?

Answer: The content we include in the booklets for the Dick's Picks come from a variety of sources. For photographs, we start by contacting the "usual suspects," about 10 or 15 photographers who took photos over the entirety of the band's career. These are some of the names you see quite frequently on Dick's Picks and other releases. Also, we dig deeply into the Grateful Dead's photo archives, which are things that have been sent in to the Grateful Dead over the years, either unsolicited or via the photo request on dead.net. Eileen Law, the Grateful Dead's long-time archivist, has collected thousands of documents over the years, including virtually every press clipping on the band since the 1960s. These are a major source for the content we include in the booklets. Additionally, Eileen has countless other items that make suitable inclusions into the Dick's Picks booklets, such as the Dead Head newsletters from the 1970s, backstage passes, hand-bills, tickets, posters, etc. All of these visual elements are handed over to our package designer, Bob Minkin, who determines the length of the booklets based on the quantity and quality of content, and he lays it all out. It takes a lot of digging to put these booklets together, but we leave no stone unturned in creating what we hope are interesting packages to accompany our CD releases.

David Lemieux
Audiovisual Archivist
Grateful Dead Productions

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QUESTION and ANSWER DEPARTMENT (GD Monthly Flash No. 22 04/07/05)

Question: How were the bonus songs on The Grateful Dead Movie DVD selected for inclusion on the DVD?

Answer: There was a several-pronged criteria for the selection of these bonus songs on the DVD. The first, and most obvious consideration, was that they be excellent performances. We knew from the beginning that we were limited to about 90 minutes of bonus songs on Disc Two of the DVD (we ended up including 100 minutes), so we focused on several key factors: were they songs considered for possible inclusion in the original Grateful Dead Movie by Jerry ("Uncle John's Band," which was originally slated to open to The Grateful Dead Movie, "Sugaree," "The Other One" and its attendant jams)? Did we have usable audio and film elements from which we could do a proper audio mix and a proper film edit on the song? Also key was a conscious effort to include songs that the Grateful Dead were performing particularly well in 1974 ("China>Rider," "Scarlet Begonias," "Weather Report Suite," "Dark Star"). With the wealth of excellent material to draw upon, it bodes well for a future release of more Grateful Dead from October, 1974 on DVD.

David Lemieux
Audiovisual Archivist
Grateful Dead Productions

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QUESTION and ANSWER DEPARTMENT (GD Monthly Flash No. 23 06/08/05)

Question: In the View From The Vault series, some of the DVDs have graphics and animation that cover parts of the music that we want to watch. Can anything be done to eliminate these graphics ? ?

Answer: For good or ill, the graphics and animation on the Views from the Vault DVDs are embedded in the video masters, and there is no alternate footage with which to cover these graphics. As much as we'd like to replace these graphics with shots of the band, we can't simply create footage that never existed in the first place. We are pleased to say, though, that the upcoming Truckin' Up To Buffalo DVD is void of graphics and animation, and you are left seeing some of the most impressive band interaction and joyfulness that we have on video in the entire vault. Summer tour 1989 featured completely clean video feeds being recorded to tape, so the concerts we have from that tour feature the whole band, and nothing but the band.

David Lemieux
Audiovisual Archivist
Grateful Dead Productions