Best recordings of Grateful Dead "Wall of Sound"?

Can any forum Deadheads direct me to some best sounding recordings made of the "Wall of Sound" set up used by the Grateful Dead during 1973-1974?

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=145294&highlight=grateful+wall+sound

I already have the Cow Palace (Dick's Picks 23) and the Road Trips Vol 2, No. 3 sets.

I would think, however, that there are some cool audience recordings of this available on the Live Music Archive website as well.

Thanks!

 

I think the Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack is from that era, but I'm no expert Deadhead.

 

you are correct, sir. those were the last shows that used it. i saw/heard that system indoors in boston in june of 74 and twice outdoors in hartford and jersey city in july and august that same year.

 

DICK'S PICK 12!

Actually as it's a Dick's Pick and not a multi-track I don't know if it trumps audio fidelity, but from a music standpoint it's a must.

DP 31 is another must have, and though lesser loved by many DP 7 does have a Dark Star>Dew.

Yes I know, I've suggested about everything in print from that year. Though I did skip Steal Your Face!

Of those not released Selland Arena (7/19/74) can be had with no cassette generation. There's more - one place to look over what circulates with lineage info is db.etree.org and sort on the Dead for 1974.

Some of the May/June shows have wonky mixes for the first few songs as they would work the levels on the fly (such as 6/18/74 - Road Trips avoided these songs). I actually find it kind of interesting as you'll have 20 seconds of just Weir's guitar and drums, then Jerry guitar w/out vocals, then Phil's bass goes up etc. Better to get that out of the way in the first set.

Edit - I had included 2/24/74 which sounds excellent, but it isn't a Wall Of Sound show.

 

As far as audience recordings like the original poster asked, there is one of 8/6/74 at the Archive which I think is good (assuming it is the one used as fills on my copy of the show). 7/21/74 is another one with a good reputation.

 

Original poster asked about nice audience tapes of Wall of Sound era GD.

A few that I think sound really good (at least from my old cassettes) and are really fun musically are:

3/28/73 Springfield
2/23/74 Winterland
6/26/74 Providence (particularly fun due to crowd reactions)

I haven't checked, but I bet all of these are available on archive.org.

Enjoy!

 

That's right - one really needs audience recordings from 1974 to appreciate the Wall of Sound.

8/6/74 is really nice sounding, and a fantastic show to boot (no pun intended). Greatest "Eyes of the World" ever.

Also 6/22 and 6/23 as well as the aforementioned 6/26/74.

archive.org has quite a few AUD's from 1974 ready for lossless download. Enjoy!

 

7/21/74 is a very nice AUD of the Wall. It's been "remastered" by Mouth of the Beast and sounds great.

http://www.archive.org/details/gd1974-07-21.ecm22p.bertrando.motb0056.88979.sbeok.flac16

 

Let us not forget the new fresh 24bit transfers that Rob Berger performed on Jerry Moore's fantastic 1974 audience recordings.

6/22, 6/23, 6/26, 6/28, 6/30 & 7/29

These can found and had at Archive.org

-Mike

 

A lot of the soundboard recordings are way out of balance. Audience of this period is a must.

 

this may be a bit off topic, but:the only time i saw the Dead was pre-WOS
(Vanderbilt U., Nashville, 10/72) & the sound was excellent -clear,not too
loud & improving after the early numbers.i was surprised at the number &
type of speakers used-they looked like large "home hi-fi " speakers in stacks
rather than the "concert " speakers i was used to.was the WOS really a big
improvement ?

 

If a "WoS" tape is "re-mastered", are you really listening too the "WoS" sound???

 

DP 31 is a must have. But since 1974 Dead has never really been my cup of tea, I'm afraid I'm not really the person to ask.

 

There are two runs worth checking out. The first February tour and damn near any show from June in 1974. One of my favorites it Louisville. Great long improve jams.

 

I agree, 8/6/1974 is a STUNNING show, one of the best ever. The aud tape is sweet.

One personal caveat: although I LOVE the musical clarity of sound of the WoS tapes, I'm not a big fan of the "tinny-ness" on the vocals from the double mic setup.

 

The 2/74 Winterland run wasn't Wall of Sound. The first WOS show was Cow Palace 3/23/74 (most the show is DP 24)...

The 5/19/74 Portland show is not mentioned above & one I enjoy a lot...

 

If you know where a circulating boot of this show is, please let us all know. The 10/21/72 Vanderbilt show is one of the long elusive shows nobody has been able to get their hands on...

 

JUst off the top of my head, the Grateful Dead movie soundtrack is closer to the "sound" of the Wall than the DP board tapes. I heard the Wall at least a few times (indoors and outdoors) and there was a light airy echo to it. I'm not sure if the Movie soundtrack is a board/aud matrix, but on Donna's yell on Playin' she doesn't seem to be coming through the board, but she's there. (There were rumors that she wasn't recorded at times, but the tapes seem to prove otherwise.)

 

I didn't know that. Thanks for the correction. I thought that they were using it as early as 73...my bad.

Rick

 

I'd agree that the cd set Grateful Dead Movie soundtrack is the best I've heard from '74. They put the vocals tracks back in phase and eq'd them to fix some of the thin, tin sounding quality most WOS recordings have. But am I correct in remembering that Jeffery Norman said he played back Garcia's guitar track through a Fender amp and re-recorded it for the making of this cd. Watch the special features of the movie to find out. It does have a reverby quality to it, but maybe this was addivitive.

 

As far as I know, the GD Movie recordings (Winterland October 74) were the only multitrack live recordings of the Dead in 73 or 74. I have read that some things went wrong with the recordings, including problems with Donna's track, and, IIRC, Bear said that the mic on Bob Weir's guitar amp fell over in the first set of the first night and was never put back in place. However, Bear has said some oddball things.