The Grateful Dead's "Wall of Sound".*

The book is in it's 3d printing -- not a paperback by any stretch & unfortunately expensive ($150) -- but it's well done and pictures galore. I sent it up to NY and had several at HQ & the factory sign it. Afterwards, they sent it over to Audio Classics.

Like years ago when I was preserving a pair of MC30's & a MX110 "Z" for another 50 years of use, thought everyone would enjoy a quick synopsis of the WOS history.

Back to topic, I was glad to do it Sir,

Best,

Bob

 

Probably some great memories of that time.

Best Sir,

Bob

 

Yep...great memories be they a lil fuzzy...

 

I don't think this photo has been posted before. It looks like mountains in the background. They didn't play in UT which that background reminds me of; is that Reno maybe?

 

The Great Wall

 

A blogger had someone reach out with some great WOS pictures here https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/grateful-deads-wall-sound-vs-line-array-john-mayberry

 

Below is such a good pic (from the link just above) of the presumably drum mic mixers... the trusty old Ampex MX-10s again. I ran across a John Curl comment that Wickersham/Bear bypassed the 2nd stage of the mixers in some way. From Wickersham "The bass drum is projected by a single column of 16 fifteen-inch transducers. A separate microphone feeds the bass drum system. Other microphones with a stereo mixer feed two drum systems for a stereo field. Each system is three-way, with 12-inch, 5-inch, and tweeters in the array. This system was basically built with leftovers from other parts of the system (the drums had previously been mixed into the vocal system) and more work on arrays, division of channels and pickups and/or microphones is in order for the drum system."

Also notice just to the right of that mixer is a differential mic stand. I am not sure why one would be there, maybe it was for measurements, set aside for an opening act, or simply not set up yet.

 

Kewl photos....thx.

 

A John Curl quote from over at DIY Audio outlining his and the Mark Levinson with the WOS connection:

"Dick Burwen is a good engineer. However, I replaced virtually everything that he did for Mark Levinson when I worked with Mark from 1973-1976. This was Mark's decision, not mine. I only had design control of the JC-1 and the JC-2 in this time period, but my discrete designs went into the LNP-2 and the LNC-2 as well, although they started as Dick Burwen's designs.

Dick Burwen, at the time, used the SAME IC that I had selected for the Grateful Dead PA board back in 1970. This was the HA-911. He had the advantage of selecting them for various tasks, and in hindsight, this was a great advantage, as many units had xover distortion that could be measured with the special equipment that I finally got in 1974.

However, in the meantime, between 1971 and 1973, the Grateful Dead stopped using the IC based board and returned to their modified Ampex tube mixers [Editor note: elsewhere Curl points out the MX-10s were run Open-Loop (without feedback)].

In late 1972, I was again hired by the Grateful Dead to make the active electronics for their new sound system, 'The Wall of Sound'. I decided to make all discrete circuits using complementary symmetry jfet inputs and transconductance output that I had developed in the intervening time since I last worked with them. Sonically they were a success, and everybody was happy, but I had to get a number of them built, somehow. At this time, I fortuitously found Mark Levinson at an AES convention, and he and I decided to make some electronics together. So, along with the design of the JC-1, I commissioned Mark to build the discrete gain modules for the Grateful Dead. He did so, and was so impressed sonically with the result, that he wanted to build the JC-2 preamp based on these modules.
At about this time, Mark also loaned the Grateful Dead one of Dick Burwen's mixer designs for the stage monitors at the Watkins Glen event, and it went well with the crew, who liked its overall sound. However, they did NOT switch over to Burwen modules, OR buy the mixer from Mark Levinson."

 

So it is widely understood that Cow Palace 3-23-74 was the debut of the WOS proper (yes there was an iterative process proceeding it) but this is the first I have really looked at the February Winterland PA, and it frankly doesn't look terribly different than Cow Palace, so I wonder what was the key difference.

 

The next time out after Cow Palace was 5/12/74 Univ. of Nevada and already the vocal cluster was up.


Grateful Dead - Richard Pechner Photography

I can kind of see Billy's point now; from an interview about his book.

The Wall of Sound is the craziest thing, but I never thought about if from the perspective of the guy sitting directly underneath until I read your book.
Ha! The first time I saw it was in Reno and the thing was blowing because they only had one two-ton winch up there and one chain down to it and I went, “Nuh-uh, no good. I’m not sitting under that thing.” I’m not an engineer but I said, “Put two more winches there, one on each corner so it’s triangular shaped, with the longest side on the speakers out front.” And that made it a lot better, but it was intolerable for other reasons!
It was too impractical. All your sound came from behind you and that’s ridiculous. It made the drums sound horrible. Just think about that much sound going out over you. It went right into the drum mics. It was far out, but it was hard for me to get real intimate. I didn’t like it.

 

I thought that the key difference between them was that at the first trial, in February they blew out all the tweeters in the first 20 seconds or so. I don't recall what changes they made for the Cow Palace show, but I am sure it had something to do with the tweeter set up.

 

That’s not Billy’s kit. This was the openers set up. Commander Cody’s drummer.

 

Thanks for clarifying that but just for the record the mixer is the GD's which was the reason for the post.

 

Are you maybe thinking of the '73 WOS prototype tweeters blowing 2 seconds in, Stanford University Roscoe Maples Pavilion on February 9, 1973?

 

Yep, that's the one! Your posts are most interesting and I knew better than to actually post anything myself.

 

Ha, no way, thanks for playing along and dig in any time. I can't find an audience recording on the Archives, which is probably how one would hear it best, but it seems about 1:50 into Promised Land there is a pretty big problem: Stanford University Roscoe Maples Pavilion on February 9, 1973

 

In a standard setup with no flown speakers, in addition to the sightlines being lost because of the side-stage PA boxes creating a proscenium where one didn't exist, with the WOS there was also no FOH location taking up space, and no sightlines behind it lost, either. I'd guess the proportions could be 150 seats each side due to PA box proscenium (although that seems conservative), and 100 due to FOH loss.

Since this is speculation, anyone could insert their own numbers.

Another nice thread.

 

I'm guessing any additional revenue gained by extra seats was eaten up by paying the sizable crew required to maintain the WOS.

I remember see tractor trailers for all the equipment at the Hartford Dillon Stadium show in the summer of 74.

 

Does anyone know where I can buy a nice poster size photo of the "Wall of Sound" (not the schematic/design... an actual photo) ?
I've searched and haven't had any luck ...so far.

Thanks !!

 

That would be so cool. I used to have an 8x10 of it from the time I saw them in Santa Barbara in '74 but the dang thing has gone missing after all these years.

 

This might be Santa Barbara - there are some decent mountains there but maybe not in the same orientation as this. Hard to tell.

 

I think your best bet is Richard Pechner, a) because I think its the pic you probably want, and b) it seems he is tapped into smugmug where you can buy his photos as wall art. I don't know any more about it than it looks like a possibility to explore. Good luck, let us know what works out > Wall of Sound, sound check, P.N.E. Coliseum, Vancouver, BC. 5/17/1974

 

You are right, I ran across that fact not too long ago as well. I think one of the real tells is that tarp. For example Jeffrey Moose has an angled pic, and I think you can see the mountains faintly Jeffrey Moose Gallery Exhibitions

Edit I had a poster of the five-wide Greek '83 just underneath the Santa Barbara pic! I also have no idea where that went... hmmm when is my birthday?

 

Wow - that's great, had a feeling it was UCSB. What a wonderful day that was! Some friends and I drove up from LA the night before and camped out waiting for the doors to open at 10am on concert day. I was almost crushed under a metal stanchion used for crowd control - kinda looks like a bike rack - and screamed bloody murder until folks backed off enough for me to extricate myself.

Anyway, we snagged a prime spot on about the 30 yard line from the stage - right in the middle. Perfect for the WOS. Maria Muldaur opened the show - she'd just had a big hit with "Midnight at the Oasis" and played for an hour or so. Then a long break before Jerry's Acoustic Bluegrass band came out and did a two hour set. Another long break before the Dead did their show, and with a couple of breaks, played for 5 1/2 hours! The sound was in-frickin-credible. We had no idea what it was at the time, but we all were astounded by the clarity, high volume and the fact that none of us had ear fatigue after a full day of listening. It was so clean that even with the high volume we could converse without difficulty hearing what the other said.

I had occasion to meet Rick Turner once and he explained to me that they ran those Macintosh amps at about 1/2 to 3/4 power so there was no distortion. So many amps with so much headroom, driving so many speakers, moving so much air resulted in high SPL without ear fatigue. Essentially it was a giant Macintosh audiophile sound system, except instead of an LP, the program material were live musicians, the Grateful Dead to boot! If I'm not mis-remembering, instruments could be panned around that wall of speakers. I may have just imagined it, but we all thought that's what was happening.

Lots of space jams that day (my fave part of a Dead show) and many scantily clad and fully unclothed people scampering about all day long - lots of pot smoke in the air and plenty of folks selling trips etc. etc. etc. Those were the days.... I still tellthat story and to this day its one of my peak concert going experiences. SQ -wise equaled perhaps only by Dire Straits at the LA Greek Theater on the Brothers in Arms tour and Desert Trip in Oct. of '16 for pure crystal clear sound.