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    clayv
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    During the mid-1970s, the Grateful Dead saga was unfolding like a Greek classic. The Sisyphean Wall Of Sound had nearly broken the band. From it spawned a Medusa head of countless side projects, all deliciously fruitful but woefully not the same as the whole. The chorus lay in wait, pondering the reemergence of their heroes, and wondering if "THE LAST ONE" had really been it...

    But in early 1976, Apollonian light and healing would shine upon our intrepid wanderers once again. No more epic battles for the people with cops and lines and tightness, the Dead would return triumphant in smallness, playing intimate theaters and renting equipment along the way. No more ticket scams and greedy promoters, they'd give back with first ever mail-order ticket program, one that had a few kinks to work out but eventually served the fans well.

    Musically, June 1976 signaled a Golden Age of harmony and prosperity for the Dead. It marked an Odysseusian-like return for Mickey Hart. Donna Jean was in lock-step with the sirens' call. Jerry and Bob delivered orphic delight with solo musings like "Mission In The Rain" (the only tour they ever played it on), "The Wheel," and "Cassidy," emboldened by group effort. There was fresh repertoire from Blues For Allah, breathing new life to the Dead's continually morphing sound - as Weir once said of the '76 tour, they wanted to play "a little bit of all of it." Old favorites were re-envisioned with cascading tempos and unique sequencing, making the crowd question if they'd ever heard these songs before. And there was comfort and joy in the familiarity of watching the band make it up as they went along. By all means, it was clear that the bacchanalia of live Dead would reign on.

    And now the revelry from this epoch, evidenced by the near-studio quality sound captured on two-track live recordings by Betty Cantor-Jackson, lives on, bolstered by Jeffrey Norman's HDCD mastering. It's housed for posterity in a handsome box featuring original art work by Justin Helton. It’s documented in liners by Jesse Jarnow and photos by Grant Gouldon. And it’s ready for a spot on your shelf. 

    As part of our pre-order for this Dead.net exclusive boxed set, we'll be delivering downloads of each listening party - one for each show included in JUNE 1976 - to purchasers from now until the March 20th release. Order at any time before release and you'll receive all the listening parties to date.

    Individually Numbered, Limited Edition of 12,000

    What's Inside:

    • 5 Previously Unreleased Complete Shows On 15 Discs
    • Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA 6/10/76
    • Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA 6/11/76
    • Beacon Theatre, New York, NY 6/14/76
    • Beacon Theatre, New York, NY 6/15/76
    • Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ 6/19/76
    • Sourced from Two-Track Master Tapes, Recorded By Betty Cantor-Jackson
    • Mastered in HDCD by Jeffrey Norman
    • Restoration and Speed Correction by Plangent Processes

     

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  • Sixtus_
    Joined:
    re: Eleven

    Thanks Alvarhanso for that very interesting breakdown of the boys' thoughts on The Eleven. I had definitely read that before but it's interesting to hear it again with Jerry and Phil's take on the tune. When they do it well, it creates this swirling dervish of sound serpents wrapping around each other upwards, upwards, upwards in a mad frenzy. Phil tows the line but Jerry offsets the pounding with his own double-helix jamming which creates the lush tapestry we all love so much. The FW69 shows really highlight this exceptionally.

    I also need to go find the 'very last eleven' someone else referenced, I don't believe I've ever heard it (or if I did, I never knew it was the last one played).

    Sixtus

  • Dennis
    Joined:
    listening parties

    Has anyone gotten links for the second & third party? I got a link for the first one.

  • billy the kid
    Joined:
    Bootlegs

    If Rhino released that same box set of shows, the fm shows from fall of 71, and I already had a bootleg copy, I don't , I would buy a copy from Rhino because they would certainly have a much better sound quality. I have tons and tons of tapes and bootleg records, but that would not stop me from buying an official release from Rhino just because I already had a copy , as their product would have far superior sound quality . I think most people feel the same way. But Rhino, seems very reluctant to release box sets from 1967 - 1971, for whatever reason. Ok, Dave and Rhino, let's start working on the Complete Recordings of April 1971, every show. Please.

  • daverock
    Joined:
    Lets get physical

    Thing is I don't listen to downloads or streaming or anything like that. Just vinyl and cds now. So the FM recordings are cheap and cheerful presents to myself. I don't buy them all, by any means. Just cherry pick from the years I like. Not controversial at all...I've done worse things! I bought all the cds issued by deadnet up to about a year ago. As has been discussed before on here, they ain't cheap if you live in Europe. So I've got a bit more selective of late. I would prefer to buy 1966-1974 shows with the superior sound as issued by deadnet...but I would rather listen to one with inferior sound from that timespan to a super duper box set from a year I am not so keen on.

    There has always been something attractive about bootlegs. I got my first in about 1973. They have lost much of their glamour over the years, but I still don't turn my nose up.

  • JimInMD
    Joined:
    Yellow Box Bootleg

    I'm not weighing in on the '71 bootleg controversy one way or the other.

    But I think it's a fair offer.. simply because it's free. The source material from these shows is FM broadcasts which circulate freely. I'd send them to regular, semi-regular and infrequent posters here for free.. basically anyone that is not a Russian Bot or Count Vlad himself.

    The music was presented free in crisp wonderful soundboard quality 49 years ago complements of GD management.. so why pay someone from Europe to package and send it to you now? Never made sense to me, these are the exact same recordings. Funny thing is.. I expect exactly one PM.. No one will take me up, yet people buy the Yellow Box for essentially a bean of hard earned currency.

    Just PM me. #FreeTheReels

    Edit: Trapped in a rhythm trip. That's the 11 in a nutshell. Love that tune and New Potato Caboose from 68/69.. wonderful stuff. Thanks Alvarhanso. Great post.

  • alvarhanso
    Joined:
    RSD

    Thanks icecrmcnkid! You had me at those Who albums, though I have the original 1st pressing of Odds and Sods already (Put the Money Down is hands down the greatest Who song hardly anybody has heard, and Little Billy is pure genius anti-smoking ad for the American Cancer Society!) But intrigued at A Quick Live One, maybe the one from Rolling Stones Rock n Roll Circus where their single song performance outshone the Stones set and John Lennon's supergroup, or maybe a live EP?

    The Ramones It's Alive II will probably be picked up, interested in the Hawkwind stuff, never had any, but Lemmy does British spacerock? Sure! I assume the Phish release not mentioned will be Farmhouse, which I wouldn't want. I missed out on Billy Breathes, and Story of the Ghost is probably sold out, too, those are the 2 studio ones I'd really want. Buffalo will be gotten, but not right away. More interested in when 3/1/69 comes out. The Zappa release You Can't Do That Onstage Anymore would be nice, I have it on cd somewhere.

    Reminds me, I need to get a copy of that Seattle Playing in the Band, pretty good deal 20 bucks...

    Speaking of good deals, Deal of the Day at Amazon, almost over, is for storage devices, hard drives, usb drives, etc. 12 TB monster for 175 bucks. That cartoon idiot that paid 439 for 2 TB at Best Buy would have almost all the room he needed, especially since 6/22/73 is now available in 24/192, and the whole box set is 48GB.

    A return to the transition from St Stephen> The Eleven from 3/1/69 started the day of right. Then I started up 3/2/69 Dark Star... Got some great (loud) Dark Star action at lunch then finished it on ride home along with> St Stephen> 3 min of The Eleven for the end journey. Great out of the gate Dark Star, St Stephen is flying along and The Eleven thunders in a bit less than the night before, but they start to hit dynamics and take their time after rushing through just 6 glorious minutes of The Eleven the night before, so I failed to pull a keithfan and remain through the next 10-12 min, I decided it shall be tomorrow morning's jolt to awaken me prior to facing the day. I think Phil really really liked playing St Stephen and The Eleven. I think precisely what made him love them so much, their rhythmic complexity, is what made Jerry not want to play St Stephen at least. Who knows why The Eleven was dropped. Was it because Billy thought they needed Mickey?

    Did a search and how wrong was I?
    Garcia, 1988: “‘The Eleven’ was successful because it had a great groove…but you’re really stuck in that chord pattern – we used to go into E-minor out of that A-D-E [riff], which is like ‘La Bamba.’ ‘The Eleven’ is like ‘La Bamba,’ it really is… ‘La Bamba’ is a trap too, just like ‘The Eleven’ is, because you’re trapped harmonically in this very fast-moving little chord pattern which is tough to play through. It’s tough to play gracefully through except for the most obvious shit, which is what I did on ‘The Eleven.’ When we went into the E-minor [section], then it started to get weird. We used to do these revolving patterns against each other where we would play 11 against 33 – so one part of the band was playing a big thing that revolved in 33 beats, or 66 beats, and the other part of the band would be tying into that 11 figure. That’s what made those things sound like, ‘Whoa, what the hell is going on?’ It was thrilling. But we used to rehearse a lot to get that effect. It sounded like chaos, but it was in reality hard rehearsal.” (Golden Road, Fall 1988)
    Lesh, 1990: “It was really too restrictive; and the vocal part, the song part, was dumb. [Garcia said it was a hard tune to play through] because of the three-chord structure. When we put that together with a drone it was much easier. How was it we used to do it – Dark Star/St Stephen/The Eleven/Lovelight? It fit well in there, I guess… It was really designed to be a rhythm trip. It wasn’t designed to be a song. That more or less came later as a way to give it more justification or something to work in a rock ‘n’ roll set. We could’ve used it just as a transition, which is what it was, really.” (Golden Road, Summer 1990)

    Thanks, Interwebs! Well, song, or not song, or just an excuse to confuse people musically, I plan to rock out to the final Eleven of the Fillmore West run. May have to pull out 1/2/70 for the evening, that's a really good Dark Star and 2 smoking TIFTOO's the next night and that Dancin'. Can't wait for Workingman's and American Beauty and the accompanying 1970 sets!
    Garcia, 1988: “‘The Eleven’ was successful because it had a great groove…but you’re really stuck in that chord pattern – we used to go into E-minor out of that A-D-E [riff], which is like ‘La Bamba.’ ‘The Eleven’ is like ‘La Bamba,’ it really is… ‘La Bamba’ is a trap too, just like ‘The Eleven’ is, because you’re trapped harmonically in this very fast-moving little chord pattern which is tough to play through. It’s tough to play gracefully through except for the most obvious shit, which is what I did on ‘The Eleven.’ When we went into the E-minor [section], then it started to get weird. We used to do these revolving patterns against each other where we would play 11 against 33 – so one part of the band was playing a big thing that revolved in 33 beats, or 66 beats, and the other part of the band would be tying into that 11 figure. That’s what made those things sound like, ‘Whoa, what the hell is going on?’ It was thrilling. But we used to rehearse a lot to get that effect. It sounded like chaos, but it was in reality hard rehearsal.” (Golden Road, Fall 1988)
    Lesh, 1990: “It was really too restrictive; and the vocal part, the song part, was dumb. [Garcia said it was a hard tune to play through] because of the three-chord structure. When we put that together with a drone it was much easier. How was it we used to do it – Dark Star/St Stephen/The Eleven/Lovelight? It fit well in there, I guess… It was really designed to be a rhythm trip. It wasn’t designed to be a song. That more or less came later as a way to give it more justification or something to work in a rock ‘n’ roll set. We could’ve used it just as a transition, which is what it was, really.” (Golden Road, Summer 1990)

  • carlo13
    Joined:
    Veneta/giants

    Love the veneta show someone here gave me. Real old school. I can taste the free yogurt as i listen. I was also playing the giants box 87'-89'-91' shows my friends and I used to go to along with a few on this site. That june 17th 1991 first set eyes was great.

  • JimInMD
    Joined:
    Ha..

    Welcome Shadeguy. I've seen that van!!

    Don't let these guys wreck your political career. What happened in the van, well.. never mind.

    So the Senate might be out but I think you still have a good shot for a seat in the house. Those guys all seem to drive vans with no windows with little or no repercussions, fear not.. your future is bright..

    Freak freely..

  • Shadeyguy
    Joined:
    Van

    You mean the one with no windows? Sure do=)

  • Roguedeadguy
    Joined:
    Shadeyguy

    I think I bought a fake ID and some weed from you back in high school.

    You still have that van?

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6 years 7 months

During the mid-1970s, the Grateful Dead saga was unfolding like a Greek classic. The Sisyphean Wall Of Sound had nearly broken the band. From it spawned a Medusa head of countless side projects, all deliciously fruitful but woefully not the same as the whole. The chorus lay in wait, pondering the reemergence of their heroes, and wondering if "THE LAST ONE" had really been it...

But in early 1976, Apollonian light and healing would shine upon our intrepid wanderers once again. No more epic battles for the people with cops and lines and tightness, the Dead would return triumphant in smallness, playing intimate theaters and renting equipment along the way. No more ticket scams and greedy promoters, they'd give back with first ever mail-order ticket program, one that had a few kinks to work out but eventually served the fans well.

Musically, June 1976 signaled a Golden Age of harmony and prosperity for the Dead. It marked an Odysseusian-like return for Mickey Hart. Donna Jean was in lock-step with the sirens' call. Jerry and Bob delivered orphic delight with solo musings like "Mission In The Rain" (the only tour they ever played it on), "The Wheel," and "Cassidy," emboldened by group effort. There was fresh repertoire from Blues For Allah, breathing new life to the Dead's continually morphing sound - as Weir once said of the '76 tour, they wanted to play "a little bit of all of it." Old favorites were re-envisioned with cascading tempos and unique sequencing, making the crowd question if they'd ever heard these songs before. And there was comfort and joy in the familiarity of watching the band make it up as they went along. By all means, it was clear that the bacchanalia of live Dead would reign on.

And now the revelry from this epoch, evidenced by the near-studio quality sound captured on two-track live recordings by Betty Cantor-Jackson, lives on, bolstered by Jeffrey Norman's HDCD mastering. It's housed for posterity in a handsome box featuring original art work by Justin Helton. It’s documented in liners by Jesse Jarnow and photos by Grant Gouldon. And it’s ready for a spot on your shelf. 

As part of our pre-order for this Dead.net exclusive boxed set, we'll be delivering downloads of each listening party - one for each show included in JUNE 1976 - to purchasers from now until the March 20th release. Order at any time before release and you'll receive all the listening parties to date.

Individually Numbered, Limited Edition of 12,000

What's Inside:

  • 5 Previously Unreleased Complete Shows On 15 Discs
  • Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA 6/10/76
  • Boston Music Hall, Boston, MA 6/11/76
  • Beacon Theatre, New York, NY 6/14/76
  • Beacon Theatre, New York, NY 6/15/76
  • Capitol Theatre, Passaic, NJ 6/19/76
  • Sourced from Two-Track Master Tapes, Recorded By Betty Cantor-Jackson
  • Mastered in HDCD by Jeffrey Norman
  • Restoration and Speed Correction by Plangent Processes

 

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Some periods have setlists that didn't vary much, but it would be a crime not to release box sets from those periods simply because there is significant repetition in the setlists. So sez I.

It still hasn’t arrived, so Dead Net customer service has now offered me a replacement. I am told that it will be at least six weeks before it arrives here. I will pay customs fees on the first one that turns up! I am not entirely sure how a box this size goes AWOL, and this is the first time I’ve ever had issues with a delivery from the USA, having been buying stuff from across the pond for nearly 40 years now. It had better be worth it!!!!😀

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Looking most forward to the anniversary day run through of this set.

Starting with Road Trips Vol 4 N 5 into the Boston Music Hall run.

I like that Dave put this out. Same kind of energy from '77. A little more exploring and raw with less predictable segways and setlist slot placements.

What a great era. I used to kind of gloss past this to the more known and widely circulated. What a treat.

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17 years 5 months
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Segue is sometimes confused with Segway. Segue is a verb that means "to move without stopping from one topic, song, etc., to another." Segway, on the other hand, is a trademarked name for an electric transportation device.

Grammar police, Segway division.

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I read somewhere once that the inventor of the Segway died after his malfunctioned and went off the side of a cliff (with him riding it) :-O

-edit- Cursory google research shows it was the owner of the company, not the inventor that passed away in this unfortunate fashion. But still, :-O

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9 years
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My current cd player has finally given its all to rock and roll. Anyone has recommendation for a HDCD player? Preferably multi-discs function??

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11 years 4 months

In reply to by simonrob

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Hi SimonRob,

The package arrived in Finland at 27.5 and I paid custom duties immediately but Finnish Post Company needed another (new) fee, which I was not aware of. Anyway, I got the 76 package yesterday and I am currently listening to it. Wonderful, I am really very happy of the music and how the Dead sounds. I would recommend the 76 package to anybody.

Regards, Juha Pekka

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Good to hear you finally received it, Juha. Getting hit for both customs and postal charges is a bit much but nothing to be done about it but to pay up. Now you can sit back and enjoy it.

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14 years 9 months
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My best advice to you is to forget about HDCD capability and purchase a quality CD player that fits your budget. I have spent hours agonizing over HDCD possibilities the past few years, but have discovered that I don't hear a difference. I finally got a Cambridge Blu-Ray player with HDCD capability, but that decoding can be turned off. I went back and forth with one of the RFK box shows one day, using HDCD, then not. I didn't notice a difference, and in my hours of research found few people who thought HDCD was still a good thing, given the better DACs and mastering processes available to sound engineers these days.

Very few manufacturers are bothering with HDCD any longer, so the quest to find a player gets more difficult every year. You end up spending tons or purchasing a very old player. Or, you could just pick up a nice changer that fits your budget, then use the time you WOULD have spent agonizing over finding an HDCD player listening to the Good Ol' Grateful Dead! :) My most recent CD player purchase does NOT have HDCD. Honestly, I would pick up an inexpensive Onkyo CD changer, then run the digital out through a nice DAC, like the Maverick Tube Magic D2.

BTW--I no longer believe in or care about SACD capability either. And I don't purchase hi-rez music files.

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12 years 2 months

In reply to by jpkamari

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My box set has finally arrived in Manchester UK, almost three months to the day from posting. I must have gotten lucky cos I didn’t pay any customs fees at all (unlike Dave’s Picks 34, which is a fraction of the size and weight - go figure!) Thanks are due to Dead Net Customer Service in their help in getting this resolved. Yay!

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9 years

In reply to by Deadheadbrewer

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Thank you for the advice! I ended up getting a Sharp bookshelf 5-cd changer to save on space. Nice little setup but hope to upgrade in the future.

My ears aren't cut out to be an audiophile. So this will do for now.

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Send me a private message if you want some help setting up an inexpensive stereo system. For not much, one can get some very good sound.

And the easiest and cheapest way to reach 80% of audio perfection is to simply get a good set of open-back headphones, like the Grado 80s. For that $100, plus maybe $15 more for an extension cable, you will be receiving nearly everything audio has to offer, in my opinion. CAN you spend more on all kinds of gadgets and trickery? Certainly. Will all that spending improve your sound in an appreciable manner? Questionable. Those Grados through your new Sharp system will be nearly the equivalent of a pair of $300 speakers hooked to a $200 amp.

Now, sometimes you do want to listen without the headphones, and that's where we should talk, if you start wanting to upgrade . . .

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*Listen back to Bob Dylan and The Grateful Dead’s mammoth 74 track rehearsal session, 1987!
...if anyone remembers, I posted about this when the ‘Giants Boxset’ Boxset was first released. 🙏❤️💀🌹

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/bob-dylan-the-grateful-dead-rehearsal-sess…
*** https://archive.org/details/gd1987-06-01.sbd-rehearsals.fraser.97489.sh…

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I see this forum has grown quiet, but I just want to say I LOVE THIS BOX! I've more or less finished two passes on it and it will be a go to box for many years to come. One of my favorite things is Jerry's guitar sound, which is sometimes sweet and rich, and sometimes kinda snakey.

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Agree with the sentiment Nitecat, there is a lot to love about this box, the sound quality is fantastic and the playing is sublime. I dig that '76 sound. The Help - Slip - Franklin's from these shows are all top shelf, they just keep pulling me back into another listen. Currently spinning the 6/19/76 show again, and once again it does not disappoint.

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4 years 9 months
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The packaging and booklet are very well done, The CD cases have cool artwork on them.

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11 years 3 months

In reply to by MadDoc

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I ordered this recently, since there are less than 1K to go, and I have to say, I'm really pleased with the appearance of this set. It showed up quickly, having avoided the initial rush to get it, and it's a beautiful package. Sounds good so far. I know I'll get much enjoyment out of these tunes, of course.

For those who wondered about the booklet: this is not a defect. I'm in the publishing business, and I know that most paperbacks these days are what's called "perfect bound," which means the pages are glued in. Open the book completely, crease the spine, and you'll leave a mark; open and close it enough, and the pages will start to fall out.

This booklet is more like a very slim version of an old paperback, where the pages are held by string. That means you can open it up and flip through it many times for years to come, with no worries that the pages will fall out. It's both an aesthetic decision and a practical one. So it may look weird on the spine--it's not a paperback?--but it's a quality move. Very nice, and much appreciated on my end.

Looking forward to cranking up that Crazy Fingers!

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13 years 11 months
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Just surpised it hasn't sold out yet. It is much much better than I was anticipating - really getting 1976 now.

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i just received my copy. it came in an outer box that had clearly been reused. some of the old labels were torn off, others were partially covered by newer labels. the tape was poorly replaced, but worst of all, the inner box had the cellophane torn and the box was scratched.

i’m so disappointed. for $150 i expect a better product.

these are the first CDs i’ve ordered from this site...if they all come like this, i don’t know that i’ll order again.

i’ve emailed the fulfillment company. hopefully i’ll hear back soon.

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17 years 5 months
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send me a PM with your order details and I'll see what the Doc can do about this.
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Testing with Lossless Audio Checker shows the June 1976 FLAC download in 24/192 format
( https://store.dead.net/music/digital/june-1976-flac-192-24-1.html )

and the Pacific Northwest '73-'74- The Complete Recordings FLAC download in 24/192
( https://store.dead.net/music/boxed-sets/pacific-northwest-73-74-the-com… ) to be "Upsampled."

I have notified Jeffrey Norman and Rhino. I sent Jeffrey the logs of the LAC test results showing 80% of the June 76 files being upsampled. While he was very nice in his response, he had no explanation for the finding. Rhino has not responded to any e-mails. It is important to note that the files on both test “Clean” after downsampling to 24/96, which, likely, means the files, were originally digitized at 24/96 or digitized at 24/192 and downsampled to 24/96 for mastering. Whatever the case Rhino needs to disclose this fact on their web site or change the files for sale to 24/96.

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I am a relatively new deadhead (5 years or so) and had never really focused on 1976 because in some ways it seemed like it was a warm up for the greatness of 1977. At first listen to the box set, I thought there were some great moments, but it really didn’t change my opinion (I admit likely because of my bias going in). However, I put the June 14 Beacon show in the regular rotation and found myself coming back to it regularly, so I decided to re-listen to the whole set and my goodness, what a great batch of shows this is. Every show is very well played and every night had greatness as well. Several of these shows are in the regular rotation now and even as a newbie, I can see how the band was progressing from these shows, to the early 77 shows (I love the Swing show), which then progress to the spring and fall 77 shows.

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