question about the Dead's WALL Of Sound

leftwinger57

Hi guys , I've been more of a Dead gear head than actually a fanatic about thier music because when ther'er good they are the best at what they do but when the're bad they are horrible and there have been to many of those shows for me to call them one of the best bands ever.However they have always strived to get the best sound for a specific venue which eventually included racetracks,stadiums and Cow Palaces and arenas.The WOS was a mutli system what would now be called a line array system w/ 89 McIntosh MC2300s powering some 500 speakers of every dimension from15'' JBL and GAUSS to 12'' to a fantastic tweeter array that was hung above the drummers in the middle and another array to handle the piano.Added to this were fill speakers but no monitors.The idea was to use 2 mics out of phase 1 picking up the vocals and 1 cancelling out the background noise. My question is how were the speakers wired into their respective amps were they parralled ,in series or someother way of wireing that is so far over me I just cannot get it. I was fortunate to hear this system a few times and it was both looks and sound wise very very impressive. It became way to big to transport and they needed leapfrogging sets in following cities to keep up.I did google the thing but in respect to wiring the speakers there was no mention at all on how it was done.So any guesses on how to wire that many stacks of speakers and make then work both in stereo and for Phil's bass it was set up for quad w/ each string/pickup coming from a difeerent stack.Finding out later that they used alarm mats as switches for the mikes stand on the mat the mic is on and vice verce.

F1nut

Out of the hundreds and hundreds of rock/blues/whatever concerts I've seen, the Dead's WOS was hands down the best concert sound system, period. No idea on the wiring, sorry.

decal

Unless someone from the Dead's road crew posts to this site , all you're gonna get are useless guesses. Why even ask such a question here?

newrival

decal wrote: »

Unless someone from the Dead's road crew posts to this site , all you're gonna get are useless guesses. Why even ask such a question here?

why not ask the question? The worst that could happen is that the question goes unanswered. Or I guess worse than that would be a thread of undeserved, snide responses :rolleyes:

To the point, I do know that PA/pro equipment is VERY efficient, and it seems to me that 89 amplifiers (probably running in mono, or maybe 178 stereo channels?) shouldn't have a problem with 500 drivers. As you mentioned, the speakers would likely be run in parallel to maximize output. I'm sure there was a complex network of wiring, but the actual electric connections, I imagine, were fairly straight forward. In my mind, It would all come down to driver/line impedances.

I think it's pretty interesting. I've heard mention of the WOS, but never knew all that went into it. I think I can foresee how I'm going to waste the next hour of my night... off to bing.

george daniel

I would say ask Owsley,,but he died about a year ago. I know some folks that are familar with the WOS--I'll ask the next time I speak with them

nooshinjohn

There may be some insight here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_of_Sound_(Grateful_Dead)

Dennis Gardner

It was even more involved than you would imagine. Phil Lesh's bass had a pickup for each string of his bass running into its own amp and then on to an individual speaker for each string. Easily the most complicated system ever engineered given the level of of trial and error involved.

As far as parallel vs serial wiring, my thought would be that they used whatever would give them the desired load for each amp. Isn't that the only reason to wire one vs the other, to match the amps needs? Those Macs could most likely handle anything that they put through them since most of them handled specific chores. None of them handled the entire band or crazy overloading.

The beauty/complexity of the system itself was its downfall as redundancy was sacrificed for pinpoint imaging. When something went wrong, you lost a member of the band and the loss could be anywhere between player and speaker. In a redundant system, a simple throw of a switch or plug swap is an easy fix. When the WOS went down, it was sometimes hours before they were up and running.

mhardy6647

You might want to read the section on the Wall of Sound in this book. I don't recall that it's extremely detailed, but definitely some info therein.

skrol

I started a thread about the Wall Of Sound a while back. There are some links to information in the thread.
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?99784-Wall-Of-Sound&highlight=Wall+Sound

rromeo923

Unfortunately

rromeo923

Unfortunately I didnt see the dead until 81

However I was often disappointed with the sound. I was usually cussing healy.

Then every once in awhile they got it perfect! Actually better than perfect.

vstarkwell

Check out Skrol's thread and you'll find this link http://dozin.com/wallofsound/index.html# I'm not sure if it answers your question but it might. Speaking of WOS this is a great album from their vintage June 74 run. If I remember correctly there was some interesting tidbits about the wall in the liner notes.

Selected songs from Grateful Dead shows at Des Moines, IA on June 16, 1974 and Louisville, KY on June 18, 1974

falconcry72

rromeo923 wrote: »

..Then every once in awhile they got it perfect! Actually better than perfect.

Just exactly perfect...

falconcry72

vstarkwell wrote: »

...this is a great album from their vintage June 74 run. If I remember correctly there was some interesting tidbits about the wall in the liner notes.

Selected songs from Grateful Dead shows at Des Moines, IA on June 16, 1974 and Louisville, KY on June 18, 1974

That show is a must have. I had bootleg copies long before the RT release.

This jam sequence is one for the books:

"Weather Report Suite" (Bob Weir, Eric Andersen, John Perry Barlow) > – 16:19
"Jam" (Grateful Dead) > – 9:28
"The Other One" (Weir) > – 15:46
"It's a Sin Jam" (Grateful Dead) > – 3:18
"Stella Blue" (Garcia, Hunter) – 8:27