Grateful Dead

I still can't figure out why they'd leave one side blank on disc 2. Now that's what I call 'dead air'!

So, given the jams and the track timings, what other arrangement would you propose? Side 1 1. Dark Star / Jam – 23:14 Side 2 2. Sugar Magnolia – 6:33 3. St. Stephen – 7:10 Side 3 4. Not Fade Away – 7:25 5. Going Down the Road Feeling Bad – 10:38 6. Not Fade Away – 3:19

I'd just rather see it filled with music.

great idea, too bad they cost so much.

Wow. I like CDs because you don't have to flip the disc every 15 minutes or so. goes to show you don't ever know. you know it's gonna get stranger...

to release the whole set of DPs on vinyl. The cost will scare a lot of customers away-the new vinyl issues are all pretty expensive propositions. These are mastered from the cds which may dismay the analog purists as well. But, I wish them well-I love vinyl but I'm usually too, ER, frugal to spring for the new reissues-I like the used bins. But the ones who can afford this stuff will be all over it, I think.

... I would spend it on much better things than he does. Things like these records. Drool. Wonder how many how much DP29 will cost? oy!

Well, considering that the LP's are handnumbered & mastered from the original CD it must be worth $150 all in with tax plus shipping for both sets. not!!!!!! this is just pure insanity. Here is some good news: I am announcing that the cassette tape version will be released as well. The details are that it will be mastered directly from the itunes program on my 2005 computer at the lower bit rate that I originally ripped it on. Each cassette will be either a TDK D60, Maxell Ur 90 or Sony HF 90. The great thing about the cassettes used is that they were originally filled with other GD concerts. Reusing is good for the environment & just imagine the karma of Dick's Picks 1 recorded over a previous recording of GD at Red Rocks 1982, wow. I will limit the run to 1000 units & will hand number each cassette with a silver sharpie. Graphics will be printed out from my 1988 Brother P touch label maker. DP 1 (two 60 minute tapes) will sell for $69.95 & DP 2 (a single 90 minute cassette) will sell for $33.95 Shipping in a heavy duty bubble envelope for only $9.95 so PRE-ORDER now. I do anticipate these selling out.

I must admit I still much prefer vinyl - and so i am really pleased to see the brave step being taken by Brookvale - well done folks. I also must agree with the points being made by others - why mastered from the CD? however a 1000 brownie points for being honest! but on the face of it is feels wrong and a short cut - why is this? Is there a good sound reason? is the decision based on comparing sources? I have pre-ordered to support the venture and will take a view on the benefits of a record from CD vs the CD on this first batch and hope that i am wrong.

Splurge - in the Brookvale site he says that the Dead lost - yes lost! - the masters for these first DP releases. D'oh! So they had no choice but to use the CD's. But he says most of the other DP's have the masters, which they will use.

Thanks for replying - i must have been tired or something when I checked Brookvale web site - cheers

Hey Guys I wanted to share this info for you. Please reach out if you have any questions about these releases. Morning All, My name is Karl Groeger and I am the owner of Brookvale Records and Looney Tunes. I am the one putting out the Dick’s Picks series on vinyl. We have been working very closely with The Dead on these releases and I welcome your questions and concerns. As a fan first, I knew there would be challenges going into this project and I think we are doing an amazing job with them. I would like to address 2 concerns I see brought up here. Sound source and side splits. Of course these are critical. While we want of course the source tapes to every show, we are at the mercy of The Dead for masters for both ART and MUSIC. For the first shows the Dead simply does not have the original masters for them. We had no choice except to go from the CD. My first reaction was, thats impossible, how do they not have the masters? Well after about 6 months of searching they just do not have them. It looks like though for future releases they have about 90% of the masters on all the volumes. OK so we don’t have the masters. Can we go from the CD? How is that going to sound? Well they sound great! (Check out the reviews on brookvalerecords.com). We had a choice to use anyone we wanted to master this vinyl from the CD. We were suggested to use Rainbo pressing. I decided not to. I have been a HUGE face of both RTI and GOTTA GROOVE RECORDS. I think both plants have been making some great QUIET records. After about another 6 months of discussions, we choose Gotta Groove to re master and manufacture the vinyl on 1 and 2. And I could not be happier. Although YES the CD is not ideal to go with. BUT I think it came out EXCELLENT! Or I would not put my name on it. I have actually made LPS from masters on another project that did not sound half as good as these dead records do. I hope you will enjoy them. SIDE SPLITS. Yes this is going to be another challenge for sure. With vol 2 you notice that it is a 3 sided record???? WHY ??? I decided to not make a side 4 because I could keep the JAM going on side 3. Where ever possible I will also keep the jam and do our very best with track listings and side splits. It will be a challenge YES. BUT I DO NOT THINK that its a reason NOT to do these. I love vinyl. I think it is the perfect way to listen to The Dead. I welcome your comments. (crap…ha ha). Thank you for your time guys I hope this addresses some concerns. Best, Karl

Reijo29's comment is hilarious... absolutely the funniest thing I've ever read here!! And speaking of absolutes: Is there any way anyone could possibly come up with a more ridiculous musical release? Vinyl mastered from CDs mastered from two-track reels (that you already have on CD). Wow! DP2 is sonically inferior to begin with… Maybe Dave hid the masters in hopes this project would never come to be! This just further confirms that there are some Dead supporters out there with some SERIOUS disposable income. Hey, good for them… Enjoy! Frankly, I can’t think of a better word to express the thought of having any of these DP vinyl issues in my collection than ‘embarrassing’. On the flipside, Dave’s Picks #4!! Woohoo… I’ll take 1976 all day!

Well looks like this Chritmas will be a Dead vinyl one - i see "Spring 90 - So glad You Made it" and a RSD "Winterland 31/05/71" are also imminent.

As the owner of over 4000 vinyl records, I am a huge advocate. That said, why this? DP-2 is one of my top 5 DPs. That is because it is like a freight train - starts off slowly and picks up speed until it's almost out of control. I found myself driving along listening to it and by the time we got to GDTRFB I was breaking all kinds of speed limits. How the heck are we supposed to get that feeling when we have to turn the record over after every song? Gonna have to sit these ones out. But kudos for keeping vinyl alive!

As the owner of over 4000 vinyl records, I am a huge advocate. That said, why this? DP-2 is one of my top 5 DPs. That is because it is like a freight train - starts off slowly and picks up speed until it's almost out of control. I found myself driving along listening to it and by the time we got to GDTRFB I was breaking all kinds of speed limits. How the heck are we supposed to get that feeling when we have to turn the record over after every song? Gonna have to sit these ones out. But kudos for keeping vinyl alive!

Hey now, Splurge: where'd you hear about this? I can't find any mentions.

I commend the fine folks at Brookvale Records for such an auspicious undertaking, but I think this is one vinyl re-issue series on which I'll have to pass. DP 1 at $80? That's a tough one to justify, not to mention the cost of shipping those records. I'll save my money and put it towards next year's subscription to Dave's Picks.

CDs are mastered from Wave files which take a sampling of the original Analog recording, yes? and that sample rate is 44.1 kHz, yes? which has been discovered to be inadequate for getting the full spectrum of the 20-20 frequency range, yes? So mastering Vinyl from CDs will not improve the tonal quality of the music. Sure you can "cheat" with EQs and Noise reductions, etct. but you'll never get back what was lost in the original A-D conversion, yes? and $80?! You are high, yes?

CDs are mastered from Wave files which take a sampling of the original Analog recording, yes? and that sample rate is 44.1 kHz, yes? which has been discovered to be inadequate for getting the full spectrum of the 20-20 frequency range, yes? So mastering Vinyl from CDs will not improve the tonal quality of the music. Sure you can "cheat" with EQs and Noise reductions, etc. but you'll never get back what was lost in the original A-D conversion, yes? and $80?! You are high, yes?

Like

It's always been about the music. When I was a young lad, all my favorite music artists produced studio recordings to sell to their fans. When those artists came to town, they would play the songs from their studio recordings as close to the studio recordings as they could so it was like listening to the artists while they were making the studio recording. Everything had to be exactly perfect. Then came the Grateful Dead. I first heard them at the Miami Pop Festival, they were nothing like the other bands. They started playing music and didn't stop for an hour. One song melted into the next and in the process melted my mind and I got on the bus. When I found their first studio album it didn't sound the same as their live preformance. When I next saw them they played some of the same songs but differently. The Grateful Dead live was very different than the Grateful Dead studio. More shows and more albums and finally in the late 70's early 80's tapes of live shows began to circulate, rare, multigeneration, muddy, incomplete shows that I treasured and listened to again and again to catch that musical magic. Vinyl albums gave way to digital CDs and we made to switch mainly due to the fact that CDs didn't have those clicks and pops that vinyl aquired after repeated plays. The price of CD players came down while the price of highend audiophile turntables, stylus, and preamps went up along with the price of concert tickets. Then the Dead did a wonderful thing when. They opened up the Vault and started to release shows on CD. Individual multitrack shows, the Vault series, Dick's Picks, Download series, rare early material, Road Trips, Box Sets, and now Dave's Picks. And the tape trading community has stepped up to the plate as well with many fine and kind people digitizing first generation audience and sound board shows, taking care to correct levels and tape speeds and provide the best representation possible of the material. And who can leave out the Matrix recordings taking the best soundboard and mixing the best audience recording to produce wonderfully sounding recordings of complete shows. All done because of the love of the music. Now we have the next level with high end 180 gram vinyl. I won't be able to join this part of the circus simply because I know that to correctly play these jems I would need a 500 dollar turntable, a 250 dollar stylus, 300 dollar preamp, and a 500 watt amp with several thousand spent on reference speakers set up in an acoustically perfect room and the time to spend sitting back just listening to each disk seperately. I might be getting long in the tooth, but I ain't dead yet. I'm too busy to sit around a highend system to listen to music. I've got my favorite 500+ shows loaded into my 160 gig iPod classic that I take everywhere. I can listen when I'm at work, at the park, walking through the mall, I can plug the iPod into my car stereo and listen while I drive, or even at home I can plug it into my adequately good sounding stereo to listen while I'm busy around the house. I may not have the pristine sounds the vinyl and highend electronics can give but it is 1000% better than those old tapes, that I still have (~);}, ever sounded. So it's just about the music, it's always been about the music and this old head is very happy with the wonderful music of the Grateful Dead that I've been fortunate enough to collect. To those few who are able to purchase and correctly play these fine recordings, enjoy and have fun!! Everyone have a most Happy, Enjoyable, and Very Grateful Day. And keep listening to the Music. Mato Wacipiwa (Bear that Dances)

If the LP master is created by playing the CD on a player that is far superior to one's own, and if one has a decent turntable, the LP could well sound better than the CD in practice. (The difference between a typical CD player and a truly great one is vast.)

The difference between a typical CD player and a truly great one is not detectable by most listeners in a blind test. Fixed that for ya!

You can use the best CD player in the world, ya ain't gonna get back the stuff that was lost in the sampling from Analog to Digital. Analog is just that Analagous, Digital is a sampling (think of a potato - then if you slice the potato very thinly into 100 slices and remove every 3rd slice you still have most of it, but not all of it... http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Analog_digital_serie… analog in blue, digital in red.

The difference between a typical CD player and a truly great one is detectable by anyone apart from those poor unfortunates who have the hearing resolution of a clam. Believe me. And I offer my most sincere apologies to clams - I do not normally discriminate against molluscs. It is also true, however, that ya ain't gonna get back what has already been lost.