Grateful Dead

You got that right.

I am noticing more and more my mind struggling some. Not sure if it is age, partying, or maybe a sign of damage done with the covid vaccine. Just can tell my short term memory is starting to suffer. I am starting to believe it might be the vaccine. Of course, with appendix rupturing and living thru it, a little memory loss aint to bad.

Thanks for the correction! Sorta, a year in my life got shortened (?) by having the wrong year. D'oh.

G

the Meyer sound article on fare the well. Just copy and paste instead of a lync.

The Grateful Dead Bids "Fare Thee Well" at Levi's Stadium with Meyer Sound LEO

Derek FeatherstoneDerek FeatherstonePhoto: Jay Blakesberg

4 of 8
July 3, 2015
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John Meyer's 1100-LFC loudspeakers empower the rhythmic voice and enable percussionists to manifest new ideas. They are sonic tools for reliably transmitting vibrations that affect neurologic function in a special way we are only beginning to understand, enabling us to explore healing properties embedded in low-frequency sound—a dream come true for us all.”

Mickey HartDrummer/Percussionist, The Grateful Dead
Featured Products
1100‑LFC, 700-HP, CQ-1, Galileo Callisto 616, LEO, LYON, MICA, MILO, MJF-212A, UPJ‑1P

Fifty years after forming their band at a Palo Alto music store, the surviving founders of the Grateful Dead kicked off their end-of-an-era “Fare Thee Well” mini-tour at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. with a Meyer Sound LEO linear large-scale sound reinforcement system driving a quadraphonic surround setup.

The two Silicon Valley shows were a landmark occasion with more than the 60,000 devoted Deadheads in attendance each evening. It was also a milestone in the band’s decades-long association with Meyer Sound CEO John Meyer, a relationship spawned from a shared passion for audio experimentation and audience experience. The Grateful Dead’s original sound engineer, Owsley “Bear” Stanley, first tapped Meyer to create acoustic solutions for the legendary “Wall of Sound” system in the 1970s.

The Meyer Sound LEO system with its accompanying 1100‑LFC low-frequency control element delivered an immersive fan experience in the large football stadium and supported an experimental segment devised by drummer/percussionist Mickey Hart. Using the Meyer Sound system to transmit ultra-low frequencies in surround sound, Hart probed how the brain perceived audible and below-audible rhythms.

“John Meyer’s 1100-LFC loudspeakers empower the rhythmic voice and enable percussionists to manifest new ideas,” says Mickey Hart. “They are sonic tools for reliably transmitting vibrations that affect neurologic function in a special way we are only beginning to understand, enabling us to explore healing properties embedded in low-frequency sound—a dream come true for us all.”

The Meyer Sound system comprised four front arrays of 17 LEO-M and three MICA line array loudspeakers each, with dual side columns of 14-each 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements and a center column of 22 700-HP subwoofers in an end-fire pattern. Side and offstage coverage was supplied by 32 LYON and 32 MILO line array loudspeakers, respectively, with an additional 30 MICA loudspeakers providing behind-stage coverage.

Filling in the far ends of the stadiums were four delay towers with a total of 56 MILO loudspeakers and eight 700-HP subwoofers. Two additional towers of eight LYON loudspeakers each faced the stage for quad surround effects, with six CQ-1 and four LYON loudspeakers providing front fill. A Galileo Callisto loudspeaker management system handled drive and optimization, and 16 MJF-212A stage monitors provided onstage foldback.

Following the Levi’s Stadium shows, Grateful Dead continues its tour at Soldier Field in Chicago over 4th of July weekend, using a nearly identical LEO system for three shows. Audio requirements for the shows are handled by Martinez, Calif.-based Pro Media / UltraSound, with system design accomplished by the company’s Derek Featherstone, vice president of touring and rental and the band’s FOH engineer since 2005.

Additional equipment support for the five shows comes from Blackhawk Audio, Rainbow Production Services, Show Systems, and Solotech.

“The LEO and 1100-LFC system can handle everything we put into it,” says Featherstone. “We are also very impressed with the quality control of the Meyer Sound self-powered equipment. Being able to acquire 650 loudspeakers from several different vendors located in multiple states, assemble the large system on site, and have it work seamlessly is no small feat.”

Matt Haasch, audio crew chief for Pro Media / Ultrasound adds: “I was impressed with how well the LEO system handled the physical acoustics of a big stadium. Coverage was smooth and practically seamless, with precise imaging for all seating areas.”

John Meyer’s work with the Grateful Dead extends to the mid-1970s when the band’s concerts were heard through McCune Sound Service’s JM-10 systems designed by Meyer. The relationship continued through the band’s last tour with Jerry Garcia in 1995, supported by Meyer Sound MSL-10 loudspeakers. Meyer Sound systems have been a staple for tours of reunion and spin-off bands during the interim, including the 2005 and 2009 tours equipped with a Meyer Sound MILO system when the core members were known as The Dead. In 2011, the band’s Bob Weir installed a Meyer Sound Constellation acoustic system in his Tamalpais Research Institute (TRI).
Copyright © 1979-2022
Meyer Sound Laboratories, Incorporated

Gary----

I think you misunderstood, you're thinking of 4/21/1972, while I think of 4/21/71. And other 71s, of course...........

Doc
We are infected by our own misunderstanding of how our own minds work.............

great write up. Guess I need to go back thru that video. Havent watched in a few years. When was the meet up with the movies for this show? Of course, going by memory may have things confused.

Found yesterday on archive forum, then to a posted new video of 1976-08-04 Roosevelt Stadium. Posted about 3 weeks ago. It is not complete, made of form multiple sources, SB plus video. Looks like they have almost all video when I ran thru. Video goes to 3 hour plus marker but did not do but a cursory review, under 3 minutes or so.

So youtube, then GD, then date should allow you to find. Got a lot of music building on my plate.

G

Hey rockers!!

I said I wouldn't be posting about 71s for a while, but I shall make an exception for April 21, 1971. And what a fine exception it is...............

No bells & whistles, no frills, no midi. Lacking subtlety, bacon greasy, crunchy, hard edged, a thunderous example of the "sledgehammer approach" on display in April 1971. Rock and roll, Grateful Dead.................

Oh, the shows I missed growing up!!!

It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder; we need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.

Doc
I am a being of Heaven and Earth, of thunder and lightning, of rain and wind, of the galaxies...........

4/19/82
Baptism by fire?
I forget, first dead AND ?
Great story, I can’t imagine, well, actually I can lol.

Pretty darn good first show eh!
Starts out a tad slow as can be the case, but built up nice throughout the set, with a nice set list: On the Road, Roses, Women Are, Might As Well, AND! It has both a Cumberland, and a PEGGY O!
Stranger perhaps not the beast it would become, but nice opener here directly into Franks, Nice Estimated, but then into Terrapin instead of status quo eyes. Were you familiar with the music yet?
yeah sweet first show, but wait kids, there’s more!
That wonderful crazy space, man I remember getting a tape of that set, and Hartford, played the hell outta em, rents probably knew for sure then we’d gone nuts lol.
But yeah, slides back to earth on The Wheel, with a interesting Truckin’ for lack of better term, and a very nice Stella.
Then a double shot of Bobster and a fine end of tour Brokedown.

Sound was good except the vocals were out front a tad for my preference, and the usual splice or three, but totally enjoyable, best version I’ve heard. Also, it was nice to hear the whole space segment, I’d only ever heard it in progress, so that was cool, no tank here but some tasty, potent Golden Goat had me laughing on the inside.
Made for a needed, very nice, relaxing afternoon after a couple weird days, including no tunes : (

That is another interesting story in their history. I spent a little time on archive today. Haven't done that in a long time. Amazing the amount of stuff that shows up over there. A totally different subset of heads. I am just now getting to understand that there may be more than I can image to come out yet. Got on a discussion board there and it was an eye opener.

Any way, I plan to watch the 42 discussion. I actually prefer being hidden back here. Of course everything in public domain. We are everywhere. Or is it, we are the marketing department.

I was close... if you google it you will get an answer pretty quick. Here is a quick quote from my first google land.

Rosie McGee was cracking up at her desk when Dennis "Wiz" Leonard walked in from lunch.

"What's the story?" Wiz asked McGee, then a receptionist and bookkeeper at Alembic, a California-based custom electric guitar, bass, and pre-amp company where Wiz worked as an audio engineer.

"Well, the Department of Defense just called me," she told him. "They were asking if we could defer the purchase of our next four 3500s, so they could get four."

Those amps were in high demand at Alembic. The 3500s, in particular, would be used in the Wall of Sound's vocal array tweeters, drum tweeters, and for Jerry Garcia's guitars. But was it just Alembic buying them up? A rumor was going around—a "urban myth," Wiz told me—that the US military was using Mac 3500s for sonar, specifically to listen for Soviet submarines.

Isn't the goal here to be lighthearted? I try my best to not let the craziness of the world/media not get to me here? Isn't the goal here to be a kind prankster? They ask, "Are you kind?" Most of the flamers I look like as children, either actual age or not. Many are so deep in social media and issues that result thereof, they cannot see what it is doing to them. They are being handled, manipulated, and unwittingly abused by the profiteers. I try to stay away.

Jim, had no idea of the McIntosh amp issues. Thanks for that piece of info. As much as I love the music, it is just how they were. So real and fun which someone wrote, "creating their own iconography." The richness of their traditions and internal musical dialog that we love is an unending source of comfort as they lived it everyday for 30 years. I wish I had a shot at hearing even 50% of their music, but as I have written before, my OCD makes me wear out a great jam over and over instead of looking for the next one. Need to work on that for sure.

So Jim and Oro and many others, thanks for passing the test.

G

You are kind soul.. I appreciate all you provide here. Same goes to Oro. I think it would take a face to face to catch me up on all the technology (old or new) that the two of you bring for me to truly understand. As for old.. and I am sure you both know.. in either late 73 or early 74 (I think 73).. the GD got into a scuffle with DOD over equipment they were ordering that was desperately needed for national security. Apparently, the Macintosh amps they were buying in unprecedented numbers were needed both in general and more specifically by special, top secret subs that needed the clean sound and amplification to either detect enemy interference or better hear and make stealth the noise they were making. So they called the GD and tried to work out a way to either stall, postpone or barter a purchasing arrangement that would not jeopardize national security.

I think this is well known, and I apologize in advance for going on memory and surely confusing some of the information listed above as fact. ..but what is written is pretty close, if someone can clarify and correct it would not offend me in the least.

Hope I didn't write anything that was incorrect or in any way interpreted as insulting or offensive.

As for chainsaws and sawzaws to clear way for our living room WOS.. what could possibly be more fun.