OTHER TECH

Author Ken Richardson and Guthrie The heart and soul of my time with Guthrie is spent sitting and listening to his mix. The main speakers are ATC's SCM-150ASLs, the domestic version of the speakers used at the Hayden Planetarium. As Guthrie's two cats, Louis and Manu, glide in and out of the room, we go through the entire album, track by track. And Guthrie is eager to provide a remixer's commentary.

Speak to Me. "It's basically made up of speaking voices. When the band finished listening to the initial mix, I was surprised that their first comments related to the album's various speaking voices. And then I realized I had awoken a 30-year-old argument. In 1973, Roger and David had disagreed about those voices. Roger wanted them to be drier and more intelligible. David wanted them to be wetter and more mysterious. In the end, we compromised-the same way they did in 1973."

Breathe. "There are so few elements here-drums, bass, guitar-until later when the Hammond organ comes in. There would be a problem if you started to separate things too much. So this was a case of trying to keep the sound anchored while spreading it.

"Going back to the very first generation of tapes, everyone assumes that the drums will benefit-which of course they do, because you have more transients. But everything benefits; everything is richer and has more depth.

"In the meantime, something had always bothered me about this track. . . . For years, I had been thinking to myself, 'There's some ultra-low-frequency rumbling going on. What the hell is that?' I checked the multitracks, and-there it was, coming from that lap steel guitar. It wasn't coming from the guitar itself or David's amp. It was being picked up in the studio somehow. And we were able to get it out."

On the Run. "The opening organ swirl through the Leslie speaker is actually circling around you, but it's just for a short period of time, and then the sound fades out-so you don't really get a chance to become seasick. The synthesizer sequence running all the way through is coming from everywhere, but it's predominantly in front of you, so you get the feeling that it's a bit more in your lap.

"David wanted the mix to more closely resemble the 'general muddiness,' as he put it, of the original. So I did that adjustment.

"This is the only song where I actually added something. The multitrack tapes had some extra guitar that wasn't used in the final stereo mix: a bit of backward guitar and then a dive. I liked it and put it in [starting at 1:15 into the song]. The band agreed."

Time. "It was a very difficult song to mix in terms of making it groove correctly, with all those different instruments-the jagged guitar, the piano, the organ. It was tricky to find that balance. But when I did, I felt that it was swinging more than the original stereo mix.

"Placing the rototoms was a case of trial and error. I just tried to settle on a spot where they were making use of the space without being too distracting.

"By the way, the length of time from when the clocks finish chiming to the first downbeat is longer on the original multitrack tape. For the stereo mix, they shortened it. And we've shortened it to match."

The Great Gig in the Sky. "In the first part of Clare Torry's vocals, I had originally made her more intelligible, a little drier, more focused at the front-just louder. But Rick thought the overall impact was stronger when she was a bit wetter and more receded in the mix. So I checked the original stereo, and I was surprised to find that she's buried in there. . . . Your memory of these things changes. It's the way that we perceive music: our minds tend to fill in the blanks. She's actually still louder now. But Rick wanted to recapture the emotion of the original. And it's his song."

Money. "The opening sound effects work really well in the original stereo mix. At one point, the panning surprises you. The sounds start moving, and you think there's one that's going to move over here-and it doesn't. The stereo pulls you back to the same speaker. And even though it's just two channels, it creates a specific effect. So I spent quite a long time on the surround mix, trying loads of different patterns. This one at least does what the original stereo did. You get an X for a second, but then it pulls you back to the same speaker, and you're not expecting it.

"Overall, the song is punchier now, it drives harder. In the sax solo, Nick goes to the ride cymbal. In the stereo mix, you can hardly hear that. But going back to the first generation of tapes, you can hear he's doing this great sort of jazz groove.

"In David's middle solo, when he drops down completely dry, I wanted you to feel like you could just reach out and touch the guitar. It's right there."

Us and Them. "The band liked the initial surround mix, so it's basically the same now. Rick, who wrote the music for the song, was delighted. He said he was never happy with the stereo mix.

"The sax plays a very different role here than in 'Money.' It has a close, breathy feel to it-but it also works well when it's wet. So for the surround mix, it's mostly in the center channel-and there's reverb going on in the back. But by also feeding it to the left and right front with less echo, you retain the closeness and the breathiness. I know it sounds incongruous, but it's a great way of achieving something that is present and in your face while, at the same time, having it roomy and lush.

"In the choruses, there's a lot going on. There's stuff playing in the same register, there's intermodulation distortion on the girls' voices on the multitracks, and the sax is now wailing. So I tried to achieve some distinction for the voices, but I needed the slightly messy approach, too-as well as the big dynamic lift. Hopefully, you retain the detail, but you still get the size."

Any Colour You Like. "Originally, I had gone a bit further in the mix, and Roger asked me to tone it down. The ping-pong guitars are now a little less dramatic. David wanted it that way as well."

Brain Damage. "I made Roger's voice louder, which he really liked. I think it's a lot more intelligible. David thought it was a bit too loud. [laughs]

"The background vocals aren't just in the back. Otherwise, they wouldn't be part of the same performance. And that would be a real problem in the car, with all the extremely high ambient noise. It would be a case of the people sitting in the front seats saying, 'We've got rhythm section up here! How are the vocals back there?' 'Not bad. How's the groove up there?'

Eclipse. "I prefer this vocal balance to the original. I think the build is somehow better, and you can hear more of the subtleties in the harmonies at the end." Author Ken Richardson and Guthrie, joined by assistant engineer Joel Plante.

What's next for Guthrie? First, he has to finish mixing the band's concert film Pulse for DVD-Video. Then, he hopes to start his own boutique label. And then . . . more Floyd? "Nothing's been decided, other than we've talked about doing more surround stuff, but only touched on it. I think it will hinge on how well received Dark Side is.

"I personally would love to do Meddle. It's one of the better-sounding Pink Floyd albums. I'd also like to do Animals, which is probably one of the worst-sounding Pink Floyd albums. I love it musically, but the drums sound like hatboxes. Wouldn't it be great to take Animals, put it in the correct spatial environment, and work on the individual sounds? And of course, I'd like to do The Wall, having done it originally."

Does Guthrie have a multichannel wish list of other artists? "You know what I would jump on immediately? I would love to do a surround sound mix of Kate Bush's Hounds of Love. Kate is a dear friend of mine, and I've spoken to her about it-but I don't think she's ready to let go of it yet."

It's a long way from London to California, a long way from the stereo of the '70s to the six-channel sound of the '00s. But in some ways, the more things change, the more we need them to stay the same.

"Whenever I had any extra money as a kid," Guthrie remembers, "I would buy a stack of vinyl. And I would sit down between my two speakers, and I'd be transfixed. I would listen for hours and hours and hours without moving. I'd be thinking, 'How did they do that?' People don't listen like that anymore. They don't have the time, they don't have the focus. If The Dark Side of the Moon in surround helps rekindle our interest in just sitting and listening and experiencing music again, what a great thing that would be."

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