Sound Engineer KEVIN SHIRLEY Talks About Revisiting LED ZEPPELIN's 'The Song Remains The Same'

November 20 sees the release of LED ZEPPELIN's "The Song Remains The Same" movie DVD from Warner Home Video and, simultaneously, the release of a two-CD "The Song Remains The Same" soundtrack through Rhino Records. Thanks in large part to the efforts of sound engineer Kevin Shirley (IRON MAIDEN, DREAM THEATER),the titles are much more than recycled, re-packaged material — both are a fresh sonic adventure that breathe new life into "The Biggest Band In The World" on stage changing rock 'n' roll into rock.

Modern Guitars Magazine recently spoke to Kevin Shirley about his work on "The Song Remains The Same". A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

ModernGuitars.com: The advance copy of the two-disc "The Song Remains The Same" movie soundtrack credits Jimmy Page as producer and Peter Grant [LED ZEPPELIN's manager who passed away in 1995] as executive producer.

Kevin: "Yes, Peter Grant was involved in the original making of the movie and its soundtrack, but let me tell you, the CDs you have there bear only a little resemblance to the original soundtrack album with respect to the performances included or anything else. It's all new, all culled from the three nights at Madison Square Garden. The movie was the template for the new audio. To be fair, the movie, at the time, was adequately shot and edited and we weren't allowed to change any of the imaging, so we had to work with the audio. I don't know if you remember the original audio, but it was sometimes out of sync and there were many questionable edits, so I tried to make a more cohesive package that flows with the movie a lot better. What you have there really is a movie soundtrack with a few extras."

ModernGuitars.com: When the movie first came out [1976], wasn't an attempt made to create something of a surround sound experience in at least some theaters?

Kevin: "Yes. Jimmy [Page] and Eddie Kramer did some mixes, back in the day at Electric Ladyland, and they were pretty good. They tried to resurrect those for the audio, but I think they were a little less than thrilled, which is why we set about re-doing it again from scratch. 5.1 [Dolby Surround Sound] has made a huge difference in things. It's like taking an 8-track and saying, 'Does this work as modern DVD audio?' It might have been state of the art back then, but it just doesn't fly anymore."

ModernGuitars.com: The new "The Song Remains The Same" movie DVD is in 5.1. What's the audio point of view? Where am I sitting in Madison Square Garden?

Kevin: "You're sitting three rows back, in the center, just behind the gorgeous girl with blonde hair [laughs]."

ModernGuitars.com: What's coming from my 5.1 rear speakers? The crowd?

Kevin: "There are all sorts of things coming from the rear speakers. Audience, delays, and there are some elements coming back from the rears like in 'Dazed And Confused' — the violin bow thing goes all over the place when Jimmy's climbing up the mountain — some of the drum solos, and in the fantasy sequences the audio travels between the front and the back. So, you're sitting in the middle of this very interesting experience. There are also the sound effects. There's the subway train that comes in the middle of the movie right before 'No Quarter' — the train comes from right behind you and through the middle of your head, which is pretty cool, actually. It's a surround experience, no doubt. It's not a concert with just some subtle rears."

ModernGuitars.com: What were your instructions? What were you told was the goal with respect to the new edition of "The Song Remains The Same"?

Kevin: "What I was told was, 'Here's the movie, and we can't touch it [the visuals] but can we improve the audio? How can we make this a very good ZEPPELIN experience?' There are many bad edits with the original audio. With all due respect to Eddie [Eddie Kramer who served as the original sound engineer], the original's a pretty average mix — but Madison Square Garden might have been a tough venue with the equipment that was available then — it would probably be much easier and better with what we have now. I took it and looked at it as carte blanche. I looked at the movie and would say, that doesn't sync at all so why don't we find the right piece that syncs? If you look at the end of 'Stairway To Heaven' on the original movie, the visual's from a completely different take than the audio. I'd say, 'Why is there a different take?' and I'd be told, 'Oh, because there's a mistake on the original audio.' Well, I could fix the mistake and we could put the original audio back on there. There are things you can do now that you couldn't do back then."

Read the entire interview at www.modernguitars.com.