Betty Cantor-Jackson and the Grateful Dead's "Wall of Sound"

[KeninDC]

I'm reading Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann's book, Deal, and he notes he was glad to see the Wall of Sound go. Technical difficulties were the norm. The Dead also experienced this with their early shows in the late 60s where Bear (Owsley) was the sound man. Put a perfectionist on LSD and things could take time. Sound was great, but usually the show was delayed for hours. Some of these Bear-recorded shows are staring to appear on the market (both legit and as boots). The band fired Bear as sound man and that's why we have the perfection which is a Betty Board (like Cornell '77).

The Chris Robinson Band are using Betty these days for recording with tremendous results.

 

[nbndtrain]

These spring 77 tapes were auctioned off in the 80's and just surfaced after being very poorly stored in a barn since. There was one shot at baking and digitizing, which I believe was done by Rob Eaton, who's previous mastered version was linked above. So yes, these are from a digitized source, both CD and vinyl. HDCD versions should be great, but they probably won't use peak extension which is kind of the whole point. I expect the vinyl to be top notch as all other GD vinyl releases have been over the last few years.

 

[damacman]

I'm reading Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann's book, Deal, and he notes he was glad to see the Wall of Sound go. Technical difficulties were the norm. The Dead also experienced this with their early shows in the late 60s where Bear (Owsley) was the sound man. Put a perfectionist on LSD and things could take time. Sound was great, but usually the show was delayed for hours. Some of these Bear-recorded shows are staring to appear on the market (both legit and as boots). The band fired Bear as sound man and that's why we have the perfection which is a Betty Board (like Cornell '77).

The Chris Robinson Band are using Betty these days for recording with tremendous results.

Bear once told me that LSD allowed him to see the sound coming out of the speakers. Different times for sure.

 

[chef free]

As someone who is not well versed in this band or their catalog. Is this a good entry point?

Yes, this is a very good entry point for live Grateful Dead. It is accessible, without the "gotta-be-high-on-acid-to-get-it" psychedelic jams, but still a peak experience type of show. I also agree with the recommendations of American Beauty and Working Man's Dead for studio work. These two albums contain songs played for the rest of their career.

Thanks for this. I ordered my CD copy from Amazon as well.

I would prefer this be a higher-res (than CD) formatted file or vinyl and I see also a vinyl version on Amazon for $120. But I am leery of the quality of new vinyl releases - I have a few that aren't very good and so I don't want to spring $120 for poorly done vinyl. So if anyone has any idea about how well this vinyl release has be mastered and pressed, I would be interested to know.

Thanks,

So far most Grateful Dead CDs are HDCD (if that makes a difference to you...)

 

[TSmith8605]

So far most Grateful Dead CDs are HDCD (if that makes a difference to you...)

Turns out my circa-2000 Arcam DVD player, that has been in storage since about 2007, decodes HDCD but none of the other players I have do that. So maybe it matters - I would have to reinstall the Arcam somewhere.

But this Hi-Res download just showed up on HDTracks from Rhino: http://www.hdtracks.com/cornell-5-8-77-live?format=AIFF

So now I wonder if these 192/24 hi-res files were mastered directly from the analog tape or are just up-conversions from 44/16 digital formats (which my MCD500 does on playback of CD anyway).