Grateful Dead

Wow, lol, this is all over the place.
I’ve tried twice to go through with the intention of noting precise instances with pad and paper, but didn’t because I didn’t want to waste a whole day on this but it obviously needs to be done lol. The situation is the boss!
It’s a dirty job but somebody needs to do it, so guess that’s what I’m doing today lol.
First, a few reply’s in an attempt to clear some things up or perhaps get more of us on the same page?

- FIRST THE SOUND: there is nothing wrong with the “sound” of this, it’s some kind of production anomaly that hurts the “sound”
- THE LEVELS TOO HIGH: I don’t believe this is the problems since the peak level is at -1db, which is perfect. You’ll notice on discs that are over mastered set at 0db with hard compression to make them LOUDER. IMHO this style of mastering is obnoxious and sucks! There has been much discussion on this the last ten years or so about this elsewhere if your interested. I stopped buying “remastered” stuff after getting some Floyd and Stones Some Girls since they sound like shit. All their doing is compressing the hell out of the mix to make it louder, but that ruins the dynamic range, which is one of the most important elements of good music I.e., see the GD! Luckily, the GOGD folks don’t do this!
- BAD COMPRESSION: sometimes if the recording levels were too low there can be a bad signal to noise ratio. You’ve all probably heard this with a beloved tape that you have to turn up extra loud to hear, which then makes tape noise and hiss super noticeable. BITD sometimes folks would use a compressor. This cuts off some of the level peaks but boosts some of the quieter sounds, hopefully making the ratio of noise to sound more tolerable. But there are limits to how much you can use this method without causing hard compression or limiting which can cause the processor to distort.
This is referring to all analog too, digital is even more unforgiving about clipping etc. I wouldn’t think they’d use this methodology on a distributed piece of professional work, but it could be possible? If they wanted this show released bad enough and the tape was noisy...? And/or If they felt that the vast majority of people would never notice it, who knows?
- TYPICAL 73: agree, besides these issues, and perhaps some differences in the mix I.e., Bob is really nicely present, this sounds very 73...
- THE MIX: this is not the mix. Whatever your feelings are on the mix, that isn’t the problem
- THE USUAL: yes there are the “usual” “dropouts”, “unevenness”, etc, but none of these or the usual stuff people comment on, are the problem, this is different. In all my years I’ve never experienced this!
- WASHY: not sure what that means, but I doubt that’s it either. Washy sounds like more of the “normal” idiosyncrasies found on 50 year old non professionally recorded tape.
- WOBBLY: : same with this, not sure exactly what is meant as I’ve never heard it used in professional audio terms before lol, but I’m guessing it’s same as above in that it’s a “normal” item that occasionally is noticeable? If it’s meant in regards to variable tape speed issues, that is not the problem we’re referring to here.
-“IN THE BEGINNING”: this problem has nothing to do with the often occurrence of the mix taking awhile to be dialed in by the mixer etc.
DARK-STAR: though there is definitely a clipping factor here, I can assure you it’s not due to amplifier clipping. My MC 601 mono blocks have circuitry to prevent clipping, plus, I don’t push them that loud. That’s the whole point of having 600 watt amps, headroom! It’s all about phat tone, not volume! I don’t like super loud anymore, so I find around 90 db peaks or so at the listening position of about 7-8’ is plenty loud. At that volume, the amp meters usually are registering 60 watt peaks, so no where near clipping.
I’m curious what you mean about your equalizer “evening” out the sound besides the eq? I’m assuming you have some kind of limiter in the unit? I’m curious what unit your using? EQ itself has nothing to do with this problem.

A little info on EQ though: it is usually used for 1 of 2 reasons; professionally, it is used as little as possible to tune a room, like a studio or dedicated listening room using sophisticated analyzers and testing equipment.
The second general use is for preference; the way many of you use it to suit your personal taste influenced by the gear, and speakers/headphones your using. It is also used similarly to mix individual sources for live and recorded music. Though live EQ is also used for room issues, it is more often used to “color” sound to preference, not to make things accurate. Whole nother thing there that the reader can look up about accurate vs “good” sound...
But research increasingly shows that phase/timing issues are the biggest negative factor on sound and unfortunately EQ can cause unwanted phase issues. If you ever wondered why Mickeys studio stuff is the gold standard it’s because he doesn’t use EQ but instead painstakingly uses appropriate mics and mic placement. If you must use EQ, you should try to cut prominent frequency’s instead of boosting others. Like turn down the bass versus turning up the treble. You should never boost if possible. The little op amps in the knobs were not intended to be used as amplifiers, but that’s what your doing when you boost! Sorry, I don’t explain this stuff vert well. So if your having to boost all those upper frequencies, no offense, but you might have bad sounding speakers and/or significant hearing loss, something more common in us older folks than most might be aware of. Like you could have hearing loss and not even realize it unless you get tested! Of course all that really matters is if your happy with your rig, no matter how much or how little it costs etc, the only thing that matters is if your happy with it!
- SMALL BATCHES: I disagree that it’s not possible for damaged small batches. Yes their using the same master, that’s why it’s called a master, but that doesn’t mean that batches of blank/raw discs couldn’t be flawed or that somehow a setting got changed during the master transferring. I don’t think it’s the former but could be the latter?
It could be something as esoteric as there were weird power issues on the grid at the plant during part of the run? Again, I don’t think that’d be the case as any real professional facility would have isolated, professionally treated power, but it’s an example of the many weird things that can happen with electronics and electricity that most folks have no idea about.
HOW PEOPLE ARE LISTENING: what your listening on may well be a factor if your not hearing it, but I doubt this is caused by what your listening on. This is definitely a production issue, either on the original tape, or during the subsequent production.
I’m still wondering if they ever used a limiter and/or compressor on the original recording? It would make sense to have one since Kidd et el can’t be sitting there the whole time riding the mix like that. These guys had other responsibilities, so to ensure that something/someone doesn’t occasionally clip the recording, using a soft limit could smooth out those occasional peaks. But there are limits to this (no pun intended), if someone turns up significantly louder, it’ll still clip and can cause audible distortion by overdriving the limiter/compressor etc.
This to me would explain the phenomena. If your sharing a unit via a aux mix on a mixing console, that means everything, all sources potentially get bussed through that unit. If the unit isn’t set just right, any time anything engages the unit, there could be audible artifacts caused by this. That’s why I think this may be it, since it’s not effecting only one source, and it’s not everything all the time. It’s effecting most sources but not all the time...

LOL, being such an audio nut, not knowing what’s going on is more annoying to me than the actual problem, though I think it’s bad enough that I’ll need to look into replacements. It is definitely very interesting, at least to this geek!
Anyway, I’ll go through song by song and document as much as I can and report back.

play on
play on
play on

Jeffrey Norman walks into a bar, and orders a beer. The bartender takes one look at him, and says, “Ok!! But I don’t want to hear any problems from you!!”

Please read the caveat emptor for Dick's Pick's.

We now return to our regularly scheduled program.

I hear some loud hi-hat in places. Like the beginning of Jack Straw. If you get a chance can tell me if you hear the same kind of loud symbols on the "Big Railroad Blues" on PNW boxed set June 24, 1973 Portland? I sure do.

That is pretty much what I currently have.

About 6-7 years ago, I was looking for a new car. Well, new to me. Buying a new car is one of the biggest rip-offs known to mankind. You are much better off purchasing a slightly used one for a 1/3 or more less. Anyway, I went about my search by bringing a copy of DaP1 to the dealerships. The whole point was that since I spend so much time in the car, I wanted a nice sound system. I would simply turn on the car and listen to the music. After a minute or so, the salesperson would ask if I was ready for a drive. "Not needed" I would reply to a perplexed look. "Thank you for your time." Most wanted thousands more for an upgraded sound system. I wound up going with Acura because the sound was excellent and the price was significantly lower.

Jim, you had me at "There is really only one solution". I sensed some chortle-worthy shenanigans on the way.

Awesome Version Alert -

My favorite part of Casey Jones is the finale where they repeat the chorus a bunch of times and everyone joins in and plays "denser" I guess you would say. The combo of Pigpen's Hammond, Jerry and Bobby laying it on thick, and Keith's piano gradually building in tempo - it's just fantastic on this night.

I think Pigpen was really wielding that Hammond with some exceptional skill at that point. Never flashy, but he could play fast at need, was always on time, and always picked his spots with musical know-how. That was quite a period when they had both Keith and Pigpen playing together.

Edit - whoops - would help if I provided a date - 5/18/72. I'm still rummaging through that show.

went to bed early
had my phone on archive 5/13/83 set two
she comes up later
I am asleep
Space is full steam
She hisses: "THIS IS THE WORST MUSIC I HAVE EVER HEARD!! THIS IS THE WORST MUSIC I HAVE EVER HEARD!!"

uh, ok. I'll just turn it off....

Clearly you need the Wall of Sound Mobile Edition T (C) (R).

https://fi.pinterest.com/pin/382735668306627856/

Pimp up your ride.

(......honey, I got us a new car!)

So, I listened to the release in the car this morning. Now I am more baffled by the fact that most folks can't seem to hear the distortion. The best way I can describe it, as I stated in my initial post, is that the cymbals are way to high in the mix. It's quite a nuisance. I also recant my earlier comment on the problem not being on the 9/7 release. It is very evident on HCS. Hell, even our dog can hear it.

It's a shame because it detracts from an otherwise fine release.