Anyone hear the "wall of sound"?


It was before my time but the Grateful Dead experimented with a system 35 years ago comprised of nearly 650 loudspeakers powered by 89 300-watt Mcintosh MC2300 amplifiers and and three 350-watt McIntosh MC3500 tube amps. Unlike traditional left-right P.A. systems, this behemoth gave each instrument its own vertical array, and vocals emanated mostly from a center honeycomb cluster above the band.

Vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, and piano each had its own channel and speaker array. Phil Lesh's bass guitar was piped through a quadraphonic encoder that sent a separate signal from each of the four strings to its own channel and set of speakers. 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 reportedly exceptionally clear and free of intermodulation distortion.

It projected high quality playback at six hundred feet with acceptable sound & projected for a quarter of a mile without degradation or delay speakers. Speakers sat behind the band so it was the monitors. It filled 4 semi trailers.

I find modern computerized eq and pa systems, for the most part, blow away the mostly muddy sound I remember from the late 70's and 80's (except for really good halls). I am too young to have heard the wall. Any A-goners remember the sound?
stearnsn

Showing 1 response by slipknot1

The DMB purchased the Grateful Dead's final touring PA system in late 1995. This system was designed, sourced and built by Ultra Systems. This system was not the Wall 'o Sound.

The WoS was so large, complex, and costly to transport and maintain, it saw only a very limited life cycle. It would take an entire day (or more) to erect the scaffolding, arrays and de-bug the system prior to a show. At one point early on, Bear tried to convince the band that they really need two complete systems, in order to leap-frog over each other during tours. If you watch "The Grateful Dead Movie" shot during the Dead's October 1974 run,this was the swan song for the system, leading up to their hiatus from performing. Their self-imposed, slightly more than a year off, was the result of near financial ruin for the band, brought on by the Wall of Sound and an accounting scandal involving Mickey's father. When the band returned to performing live again, they did so without the Wall of Sound.

In addition to McIntosh amps, they also employed a number of Bob Carver's Phase Linear 400s. Jerry was partial to this amp in his guitar stack.