Taken as a whole, the collection neatly illustrates the California band’s enduring impact on American culture, ready to seed intersecting museum wings dedicated to fashion, high-fidelity audio, high-end instruments, industrial design, and cutting-edge drug technology. Available for auction at Sotheby’s on October 7-14 are three decades of sound gear, merchandise, and ephemera that might also double as a starter kit for a Grateful Dead museum, should a heady multi-millionaire decide to grab it all.
#Wall of sound grateful dead pdf#
So, download a PDF of this document and read for yourself what the Wall of Sound was all about.The Grateful Dead are having a warehouse sale and nearly everything must go. It was a monster, and, according to those who heard it, offered near-perfect sound, even several hundred feet away. You see the trucks that are carrying the equipment, and you see some pre-concert footage showing the road crew setting it up.
#Wall of sound grateful dead movie#
You can see the Wall of Sound in the Grateful Dead Movie (, Amazon UK), which was recorded during the band’s pre-hiatus run at Winterland in October, 1974. The Dead was spending a fortune on this sound system, requiring more concerts in bigger venues, but still not leaving much profit. The Wall of Sound was so unwieldy that it required a huge, expensive crew, and lots of trucks. If you’re just a fan, you may still find it interesting, since it determined how important the Dead – and, notably, Owsley Stanley – considered their sound, but also led to the Dead’s hiatus from late 1974 to mid-1976. If you’re a recording engineer or audio geek, you’ll find this all very enlightening. This is a technical report from the standpoint of the ideas on sound reproduction incorporated into its design, and with a description of its sub-systems.”
“Recently there have been major changes in the Dead’s sound system, bringing it a step closer to the ancient ideal of the perfect sound system. The document begins discussing “THE GRATEFUL DEAD’S SOUND SYSTEM, HOLLYWOOD BOWL – JULY 1974.” It says: ( Download a larger version of the image.) I’d like to share this document, because it is very interesting, offering a detailed explanation of the Wall of Sound.įirst, here’s a schematic of the Wall of Sound, showing which instrument each column of speakers was for. I mentioned it because, since all the speakers were behind the musicians, it required noise-canceling microphones to prevent feedback.Ī reader was kind enough to send me a document he got from the Grateful Dead organization back in 1974, explaining how the Wall of Sound was set up, and how everything functioned.
A few months ago, I wrote an article explaining how noise-canceling headphones work, and, in it, I referenced the Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound, their huge sound system.
0 kommentar(er)
