text:
Wall of Sound (Grateful Dead)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The Wall of Sound was an enormous public address system designed specifically for the Grateful Dead's live performances in 1974. It was the brainchild of audio engineer Owsley "Bear" Stanley. The Wall of Sound fulfilled Owsley's desire for a distortion-free sound system that could also serve as its own monitoring system.[1] The Wall of Sound was the largest concert sound system built at that time.[2]
Contents
1 History
2 Technical challenges
3 Retirement
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
History[edit]
After Stanley got out of prison in late 1972, he, Dan Healy and Mark Raizene of the Grateful Dead's sound crew, in collaboration with Ron Wickersham, Rick Turner, and John Curl of Alembic, combined six independent sound systems using eleven separate channels, in an effort to deliver high-quality sound to audiences. Vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, and piano each had their own channel and set of speakers. Phil Lesh's bass was piped through a quadraphonic encoder that sent signals from each of the four strings to a separate channel and set of speakers for each string. Another channel amplified the bass drum, and two more channels carried the snares, tom-toms, and cymbals. Because each speaker carried just one instrument or vocalist, the sound was exceptionally clear and free of intermodulation distortion.
Several setups have been reported for The Wall of Sound:
89 300-watt solid-state and three 350-watt vacuum tube amplifiers generating a total of 26,400 watts of audio power. 604 speakers total.[3]
586 JBL speakers and 54 Electrovoice tweeters powered by 48 McIntosh MC-2300 Amps (48 × 600 = 28,800 watts of continuous (RMS) power).[4][5]
This system projected high-quality playback at six hundred feet with an acceptable sound projected for a quarter mile, at which point wind interference degraded it. The Wall of Sound was the first large-scale line array used in modern sound reinforcement systems,[6] although it was not called a line array at the time. The Wall of Sound was perhaps the second-largest non-permanent sound system ever built. The Wall of Sound can be seen in The Grateful Dead Movie, a documentation of the series of shows played October 16–20, 1974 at the Winterland Ballroom.
There were multiple sets of staging and scaffolding that toured with the Grateful Dead. In order to accommodate the time needed to set up and tear down the system, the band would perform with one set while another would "leapfrog" to the next show. According to band historian Dennis McNally, there were two sets of scaffolding.[7] According to Stanley, there were three sets.[8] Four semi-trailers and 21 crew members were required to haul and set up the 75-ton Wall.
Though the initial framework and a rudimentary form of the system was unveiled at Stanford University's Roscoe Maples Pavilion on February 9, 1973 (every tweeter blew as the band began their first number), the Grateful Dead did not begin to tour with the full system until a year later. The completed Wall of Sound made its touring debut on March 23, 1974, at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California. A recording of the performance was released in 2002 as Dick's Picks Volume 24.
As Stanley described it,
"The Wall of Sound is the name some people gave to a super powerful, extremely accurate PA system that I designed and supervised the building of in 1973 for the Grateful Dead. It was a massive wall of speaker arrays set behind the musicians, which they themselves controlled without a front of house mixer. It did not need any delay towers to reach a distance of half a mile from the stage without degradation."[9]
Technical challenges[edit]
The Wall of Sound acted as its own monitor system, and it was therefore assembled behind the band so the members could hear exactly what their audience was hearing. Because of this, Stanley and Alembic designed a special microphone system to prevent feedback. This placed matched pairs of condenser microphones spaced 60 mm apart and run out of phase. The vocalist sang into the top microphone, and the lower mic picked up whatever other sound was present in the stage environment. The signals were added together using a differential summing amp so that the sound common to both mics (the sound from the Wall) was canceled, and only the vocals were amplified.[10]
The Wall was very efficient for its day, but suffered from more drawbacks than its sheer size. Frequent guest keyboardist Ned Lagin (best known for performing experimental interludes with various permutations of Lesh, Jerry Garcia and drummer Bill Kreutzmann throughout 1974 set breaks) preferred to play through the powerful vocal subsystem (considered to be "the best part of the entire... PA"); however, the group's sound crew often neglected to switch between his quadrophonic input and the vocal input during long sequences, resulting in few of his contributions being recorded.[11] Additionally, as many as two channels of his input would still be lost in the mix when the system was working properly.[12] The Wall's quadraphonic format did not translate well to soundboard tapes made during the period, as the sound was compressed into an unnatural stereo format and suffered from a pronounced tinniness.
Retirement[edit]
The rising cost of fuel and personnel, as well as friction among many of the newer crew members and associated hangers-on, contributed to the band's October 1974 "retirement." The Wall of Sound was disassembled, and when the Dead began touring again in 1976, it was replaced with a more logistically practical sound system.
See also[edit]
Grateful Dead portal
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Long Strange Trip on IMDb .
Jump up ^ Grushkin, Paul (2006). Rockin' Down the Highway: The Cars and People that Made Rock Roll. Voyageur Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-7603-2292-5.
Jump up ^ "1974: Wall of Sound Technical Specs: The Grateful Dead's Sound System (Hollywood Bowl – July 1974)". Grateful Dead Sources. December 23, 2012.
Jump up ^ "Grateful Dead and the Wall of Sound".
Jump up ^ "An Insider's Look at the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound". Audio Junkies. October 29, 2007.
Jump up ^ Michie, Chris (March 1, 2001). "Line Arrays". Mix. Retrieved December 31, 2011.
Jump up ^ McNally, Dennis (2002). A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead. New York: Broadway Books. p. 472. ISBN 0-7679-1185-7. The Wall of Sound required two stages, which leapfrogged each other, alternating shows, so that as one was being set up, the other was traveling to the next show.
Jump up ^ Stanley, Owsley (December 15, 2001). Liner notes for Dick's Picks Volume 24, GDCD 4044. "We had three complete staging rigs and crews. One was being torn down, one was being erected and one was in use at any given time during the tour."
Jump up ^ Stanley, Owsley (April 5, 2006). Description of the Wall of Sound, lowcarber.org. Retrieved December 31, 2011.
Jump up ^ "The Wall of Sound: The Grateful Dead Sound System", dozin.com. Retrieved December 31, 2011.
Jump up ^ http://nedbase.blogspot.com/
Jump up ^ http://nedbase.blogspot.com/
External links[edit]
An Insider's Look at the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound
Photograph of the Wall of Sound's JBL Professional speakers
Grateful Dead Listening Guide
The Grateful Dead & The Wall of Sound video
show
v
t
e
Grateful Dead
Tom Constanten
Jerry Garcia
Donna Jean Godchaux
Keith Godchaux
Mickey Hart
Robert Hunter
Bill Kreutzmann
Phil Lesh
Ron "Pigpen" McKernan
Brent Mydland
Bob Weir
Vince Welnick
Studio albums
The Grateful Dead
Anthem of the Sun
Aoxomoxoa
Workingman's Dead
American Beauty
Wake of the Flood
From the Mars Hotel
Blues for Allah
Terrapin Station
Shakedown Street
Go to Heaven
In the Dark
Built to Last
Live albums
Live/Dead
Vintage Dead
Historic Dead
Grateful Dead
Europe '72
History of the Grateful Dead, Volume One (Bear's Choice)
Steal Your Face
Reckoning
Dead Set
Dylan & the Dead
Without a Net
One from the Vault
Infrared Roses
Two from the Vault
Grayfolded
Hundred Year Hall
Dozin' at the Knick
Fallout from the Phil Zone
Terrapin Station (Limited Edition)
Live at the Fillmore East 2-11-69
Ladies and Gentlemen... the Grateful Dead
Nightfall of Diamonds
Postcards of the Hanging
Steppin' Out with the Grateful Dead: England '72
Go to Nassau
Birth of the Dead
The Closing of Winterland
Rockin' the Rhein with the Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack
Rare Cuts and Oddities 1966
Truckin' Up to Buffalo
Fillmore West 1969: The Complete Recordings
Fillmore West 1969
Live at the Cow Palace
Three from the Vault
Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings
Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978
To Terrapin: Hartford '77
Winterland June 1977: The Complete Recordings
Crimson White & Indigo
Formerly the Warlocks
Europe '72: The Complete Recordings
Europe '72 Volume 2
Dark Star
Spring 1990
Spring 1990: So Glad You Made It
Winterland: May 30th 1971
May 1977
Sunshine Daydream
Family Dog at the Great Highway, San Francisco, CA 4/18/70
Live at Hampton Coliseum
Spring 1990 (The Other One)
Wake Up to Find Out
Houston, Texas 11-18-1972
30 Trips Around the Sun: The Definitive Live Story 1965–1995
30 Trips Around the Sun
Shrine Exposition Hall, Los Angeles, CA 11/10/1967
Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ, 4/25/77
July 1978: The Complete Recordings
Red Rocks: 7/8/78
July 29 1966, P.N.E. Garden Aud., Vancouver Canada
May 1977: Get Shown the Light
Cornell 5/8/77
Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, Washington, D.C., July 12 & 13, 1989
Fillmore West 1969: February 27th
Pacific Northwest '73–'74: The Complete Recordings
Pacific Northwest '73–'74: Believe It If You Need It
View from the Vault
1
2
3
4
Dick's Picks
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
Road Trips
Vol 1 No 1
Vol 1 No 2
Vol 1 No 3
Vol 1 No 4
Vol 2 No 1
Vol 2 No 2
Vol 2 No 3
Vol 2 No 4
Vol 3 No 1
Vol 3 No 2
Vol 3 No 3
Vol 3 No 4
Vol 4 No 1
Vol 4 No 2
Vol 4 No 3
Vol 4 No 4
Vol 4 No 5
Dave's Picks
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
Digital Download Series
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Family Dog at the Great Highway
9
10
11
12
Spectrum 11/5/79
Spectrum 11/6/79
Compilations
Skeletons from the Closet: The Best of Grateful Dead
What a Long Strange Trip It's Been
The Arista Years
Selections from the Arista Years
The Very Best of Grateful Dead
Flashback with the Grateful Dead
The Best of the Grateful Dead
Long Strange Trip
The Best of the Grateful Dead Live
Box sets
Dead Zone: The Grateful Dead CD Collection (1977–1987)
So Many Roads (1965–1995)
The Golden Road (1965–1973)
Beyond Description (1973–1989)
The Warner Bros. Studio Albums
All the Years Combine: The DVD Collection
Videography
The Grateful Dead Movie
Dead Ahead
So Far
Dead Ringers: The Making of Touch of Grey
Backstage Pass
Infrared Sightings
Ticket to New Year's
Downhill from Here
Anthem to Beauty
Sunshine Daydream
Long Strange Trip
Side projects and
spin-off bands
The Other Ones
The Dead
Furthur
Dead & Company
2015 tour
Summer 2016 tour
Summer 2017 tour
Fall 2017 tour
Summer 2018 tour
Jerry Garcia Band
RatDog
Phil Lesh and Friends
Rhythm Devils
Donna Jean Godchaux Band
Heart of Gold Band
Missing Man Formation
New Riders of the Purple Sage
Old & In the Way
Legion of Mary
Reconstruction
Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band
JGB
Kingfish
Bobby and the Midnites
SerialPod
BK3
7 Walkers
Billy & the Kids
Related
Discography
Band members
Acid Tests
Eric Andersen
John Perry Barlow
Bill Graham v. Dorling Kindersley
Dark Star Orchestra
Day of the Dead
Deadhead
Deadheads for Obama
Deadicated: A Tribute to the Grateful Dead
Bob Dylan
Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead (album)
Festival Express
Bill Graham
Gerrit Graham
Grateful dead (folklore)
Grateful Dead Archive
The Grateful Dead Channel
The Grateful Dead Family Album
Grateful Dead Meet-Up at the Movies
Grateful Dead Records
Rick Griffin
David Grisman
Lenny Hart
Dan Healy
Bruce Hornsby
Jazz Is Dead
Alton Kelley
Steve Kimock
Ned Lagin
Dick Latvala
David Lemieux
Branford Marsalis
Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions
Stanley Mouse
The Music Never Stopped
The Music Never Stopped: Roots of the Grateful Dead
Pickin' on the Grateful Dead: A Tribute
Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra
Relix
Reunions of the Grateful Dead
Rex Foundation
Merl Saunders
Rock Scully
Bob Seidemann
Shakedown Street (vending area)
Laurence Shurtliff
Owsley Stanley
Summer Jam at Watkins Glen
Unfinished Grateful Dead album
Howard Wales
Wall of Sound
Wharf Rats
Categories
Grateful Dead
Albums
Members
Songs
Book
Category
Portal
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wall_of_Sound_(Grateful_Dead)&oldid=856084202"
Categories:
Grateful Dead
Sound production technology
1974 in music
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Namespaces
Article
Talk
Variants
Views
Read
Edit
View history
More
Search
Navigation
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
Languages
Add links
This page was last edited on 22 August 2018, at 19:17 (UTC).
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Cookie statement
Mobile view
Enable previews

values: mw-page-base noprint

values: mw-head-base noprint

values: firstHeading firstHeading en

values: siteSub noprint

attrs: class href

values: mw-jump-link #mw-head

values: mw-jump-link #p-search

value: b

values:
/wiki/Public_address
mw-redirect
Public address

values:
/wiki/Audio_engineering
mw-redirect
Audio engineering

values:
/wiki/Foldback_(sound_engineering)
mw-redirect
Foldback (sound engineering)

value: sup

value: p

value: input

attrs: type role id class style

values: checkbox button toctogglecheckbox toctogglecheckbox display:none

value: label

attrs: class for

values: toctogglelabel toctogglecheckbox

values:
/wiki/Solid_state_(electronics)
mw-redirect
Solid state (electronics)

values:
/wiki/Condenser_microphone
mw-redirect
Condenser microphone

values:
/wiki/Out_of_phase
mw-redirect
Out of phase

values:
/wiki/Soundboard_tapes
mw-redirect
Soundboard tapes

values:
nofollow
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4143508/
external text

values:
nofollow
http://www.wallofsound.ws/
external text

values:
nofollow
http://nedbase.blogspot.com/
external free

values:
nofollow
external text
http://deadlistening.blogspot.com

values:
Grateful_Dead
fn org
font-size:114%;margin:0 4em

values:
*_Tom_Constanten
*_Jerry_Garcia
*_Donna_Jean_Godchaux
*_Keith_Godchaux
*_Mickey_Hart
*_Robert_Hunter
*_Bill_Kreutzmann
*_Phil_Lesh
*_Ron_"Pigpen"_McKernan
*_Brent_Mydland
*_Bob_Weir
*_Vince_Welnick

values:
navbox-abovebelow
2
background: #EEEEEE;

values:
row
navbox-group
width:1%;background: #EEEEEE;

values: Grateful Dead Download Series: Family Dog at the Great Highway

values: Bill Graham Archives v. Dorling Kindersley, Ltd.

values: Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions (album)

values: nowraplinks vcard hlist collapsible collapsed navbox-inner mw-collapsible mw-collapsed mw-made-collapsible

values:
catlinks mw-normal-catlinks
catlinks mw-normal-catlinks
interface

values: Discussion about edits from this IP address [ctrl-alt-n]

values: A list of edits made from this IP address [ctrl-alt-y]

values: You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory

values: You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [ctrl-alt-o]

values:
/wiki/Wall_of_Sound_(Grateful_Dead)
View the content page [ctrl-alt-c]
c

values: Discussion about the content page [ctrl-alt-t]

values: p-namespaces navigation vectorTabs p-namespaces-label

values:
p-variants
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-variants-label

values: Past revisions of this page [ctrl-alt-h]

values: p-views navigation vectorTabs p-views-label

values:
p-cactions
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-cactions-label

values:
mw-wiki-logo
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page

values:
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page [ctrl-alt-z]
z

values: Featured content – the best of Wikipedia

values: Find background information on current events

values: A list of recent changes in the wiki [ctrl-alt-r]

values: portal navigation p-interaction p-interaction-label

values: List of all English Wikipedia pages containing links to this page [ctrl-alt-j]

values: Recent changes in pages linked from this page [ctrl-alt-k]

values:
/wiki/Wikipedia:File_Upload_Wizard
Upload files [ctrl-alt-u]
u

values: mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-Wall_of_Sound_Grateful_Dead rootpage-Wall_of_Sound_Grateful_Dead skin-vector action-view