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

Saw them (in 73?) with this sound system. They were just back from Europe I believe.

 

@duneman, wonderful review. I, too, was at the Wall of Sound UCSB show. I agree with everything you say, although with one small correction. Elvin Bishop was the first band, with his Let It Flow album hot on the charts. Maria Muldaur followed, then the Garcia acoustic band, and finally the Grateful Dead.

 

Technically, the Cow Palace show, 3/23/74, was the first Wall of Sound show. The band had been moving in that direction for a while but they were still using monitors in 1973. Eliminating monitors which required the dual, out of phase vocal mics, allowed them to make the PA the Wall of Sound.

 

Woah - completely forgot about Elvin Bishop! Thanks for the correction.

 

This was Buffalo (War Memorial Theater) - maybe it was in '74. - Those brain cells are long gone...

 

Don't worry. We could have a contest as who of us was higher that day. I'd bet we'd both win.

 

Let It Flow - such a great album.

 

I've got to clear up something I said upthread.

The Wall of Sound was first used at the Cow Palace show, 3/23/74, as I mentioned. I was there, but so were many others. KSAN was giving away tickets before the show. By 1974, the Dead were playing large venues a lot and needed a new, bigger PA. The Cow Palace was specifically picked to roll out a larger PA, loud enough for stadium shows. That was the Wall of Sound. Free tickets were offered just to fill up the Cow Palace. As any soundman knows, you can't judge how a PA sounds in an empty room.

In 1973 the band was also experimenting with new ideas like eliminating monitors, stacked vocal mics and having the PA behind the band. Smaller venues allowed them to get away with it. There were problems with feedback and instead of employing mics that were off the shelf, which Owsley Stanley was using in '73, he designed matched pairs in a combined mount, like you see in Wall of Sound pictures. But for bigger venues in '73, they went back to a more conventional setup with monitors and speaker towers flanking the stage. Just to make the matter really confusing, sometimes it looks, at least from photographs, that they were combining both ideas by using a hybrid system, with the smaller system in the center and towers on the sides. But you got to realize rock 'n' roll sound was reinventing itself every night back then.

So, @Chris Schoen, I'm sure you did see a baby version of the '74 PA in Buffalo on 3/31/73 (That's the date of the War Memorial show. In two days, that will be 45 years ago. Feeling old enough yet, Chris? ). Let's call that PA the Half Wall of Sound. The point is the Wall of Sound wasn't created from thin air. It evolved from earlier PAs. Owsley and his cohorts, which included John Meyer (of Meyer Sound) and John Curl (of Mark Levinson, Vendetta Research and Parasound fame), were trying a multitude of ideas on their way to creating the Wall of Sound.

 

Awesome recap thanks for sharing and it’s cool to think about opening acts using that PA. I’ll have to dig it up but I think the WOS was used for a bluegrass fest that year; that must have been pretty wild. Phil had the ability to bounce each string through four separate channels; I wonder if that’s something you heard on the day. It’s tough to pick up on tape in my estimation anyway.

 

Owsley FTW. RIP.

 

I did some rooting around on the interwebs and I’m not the only one who doesn’t remember Elvin Bishop at the UCSB show.

 

Not sure I recall that particular feature but I do recall, or at least we thought we heard the panning of Jerry’s guitar. Hard to be sure all these year later.

 

Hi everyone.



I am a university student from the UK. For my final year of a Music Production Degree at university I am writing a dissertation on the influence of speaker technology from the Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound, on the sound reinforcement industry.

I have written a short survey to accompany my secondary research and am looking to reach anyone with experience or interest in the sound reinforcement field.

Here is the link:

Live sound pioneers of the 1970's

If anyone has any further information on either the Wall of Sound, or experiences in working in sound reinforcement it would be really useful, It has been great fun researching this and drawing up a discussion, but has at times been a case of really digging deep but there are some great historical archives out there which I wasn't expecting.


Cheers everyone.

Ethics Disclaimer

The aim of this survey is to obtain real world insight to support secondary research in to what extent the Wall of Sound has had on the sound reinforcement industry.All data gathered in this survey will be kept securely and remain confidential. This survey is being used entirely for academic purposes and is in no way being used to market or sell any brands.

 

Good luck with your project - other than being at the USCB concert, if I knew any technical details beyond what I've learned just reading this thread I'd be happy to share them with you.

You might consider looking up Ron and Susan Wickersham of Alembic Musical Instruments, which is the successor entity to Owsley's Alembic sound company and also Rick Turner of Turner Guitars in LA, who I believe was with Alembic in those days. Beyond that I'm not sure where to point you.

 

McIntosh still has a lot of the old guard around, there might be somebody there who could comment.

 

I'd venture that all of the band members have some degree of hearing loss, at this point. I know that it's been a problem for Bob Weir, and Phil Lesh also has some hearing loss, according to what I've read. Fortunately, the severity of it evidently hasn't resulted in consequences as severe as the notched hearing loss and tinnitus that Pete Townshend has been coping with for the past 35-40 years. But continued exposure to high-volume sound is one of those occupational hazards to which no one is immune. Even classical musicians can suffer from the problem. Fortunately, ear protection is available to prevent the problem; unfortunately, loss of inner-ear sound transmission hair cells is still a form of damage for which there is no cure.

I remember Garcia and Weir joking about it in response to a TV interviewer's question as far back as the early 1980s. I'd venture that they had noticed some hearing loss at that point, but it was minor enough that they could joke about it. And then they went and played another 1000 gigs or so. By around 1990, the band had gone to expensive customized in-the-ear monitors, for both ear protection and increased ability to hear each other onstage. That's become the norm for stage performers of arena gigs with high-volume sound reinforcement these days.

 

Townshend was also once quoted as saying that he willfully aggravated the problem: "One of the things I liked about it was that it hurt!" Eardrum pain was how he knew it was sufficiently loud to be a real Who gig.

I tell you, genomic hair cell restoration therapy cannot get here quickly enough.

 

Read Jeff Greenfield's Owsley biography; there's a lot of information in there pertaining to Owsley's ideas about audio and sound reproduction. You'll also get to find out about one of the most singularly amazing life stories of the last century.

 

Robert Greenfield - Jeff Greenfield is the ex-ABC journalist.

https://www.amazon.com/Bear-Times-A...73296&sr=8-1&keywords=augustus+stanley+owsley