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"When we began discussing audio projects to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead back in 2012, we knew we wanted to do something completely unprecedented. We could think of nothing more exciting or ambitious than a career-spanning overview of the band's live legacy focused on what best tells the story: complete concerts. Our first criterion was the very best live music to represent any given year in the band’s history. We wanted to make sure that there were not only the tent-pole shows that fans have been demanding for decades but also ones that are slightly more under the radar, but equally excellent. For those who listen to the entire box straight through, chronologically, the narrative of the Grateful Dead's live legacy will be seen as second to none in the pantheon of music history." - David Lemieux
We are more than pleased to announce the Grateful Dead's most ambitious release ever: 30 TRIPS AROUND THE SUN. Available as both an 80-disc boxed set and a custom lightning-bolt USB drive, the collection includes 30 unreleased live shows, one for each year the band was together from 1966 to 1995, along with one track from their earliest recording sessions in 1965. Packed with over 73 hours of music, both the boxed set and the USB drive will be individually numbered limited editions.
The 80-disc boxed set is individually numbered and limited to 6,500 copies, a nod to the band’s formation in 1965. Along with the CDs, it also includes a gold-colored 7-inch vinyl single which bookends the band’s career. The A-side is “Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks)” from the band’s earliest recording session in 1965 with the B-side of the last song the band ever performed together live, “Box Of Rain” recorded during their final encore at Soldier Field in Chicago on July 9, 1995.
The box also comes with a 288-page book that features an extensive, career-spanning essay written by Nick Meriwether, who oversees the Dead archives at the University of California, Santa Cruz, along with special remembrances of the band submitted by fans. Also included is a scroll that offers a visual representation of how the band’s live repertoire has evolved through the years.
The USB drive version* will be shaped like a gold lightning bolt with the Grateful Dead 50th anniversary logo engraved on the side. The drive includes all of the music from the collection in both FLAC (96/24) and MP3 formats and is an individually numbered limited edition of 1,000 copies. Digital version of the book also included on USB.
Shows will NOT be sold individually on CD. This release is sure to sell out quickly so pre-order your copy today and stick around as we will be revealing a mighty fine selection of music, art, and much, much more right here.
(Looking for a smaller 50th Anniversary commemorative keepsake? September 18th will see the release of a four-CD version of the collection titled 30 TRIPS AROUND THE SUN: THE DEFINITIVE LIVE STORY 1965-1995. More on that here.)
ROLLINGSTONE.COM SONG PREMIERE AND EXCLUSIVE DAVID LEMIEUX INTERVIEW
Head on over to Rollingstone.com for the very first listen of "Morning Dew" 9/18/87 Madison Square Garden, David Fricke's exclusive interview with archivist David Lemieux, and the reveal of 30 TRIPS AROUND THE SUN's '69 and '84 shows.
*Helpful hints for using your USB:
Running the 30 Trips Player / Reader program:
On Windows – Navigate to the USB drive and double click the PCStart.exe file to run.
On MacOS – Open the GD 30 Trips drive, and double click the MacStart to run.
Viewing the digital book:
You can either view it within the program that comes on the drive, or by opening the PDF directly.
To view the PDF, open the PDF folder on the drive and the USB_bk_spreads_08-31 file within. Selecting the option within your PDF reading application to view as a “single page” might be preferable to viewing as a continuous document.
Importing music into iTunes and other library programs:
When you import the songs from the USB into your library, the information used to identify the track will likely leave them sorted incorrectly. Please use the song list found here to re-number the songs for each show so that they playback in the correct order.
PDF
Text
Re: Sound quality
Alvarhanso, thank you for your response. Would you or anyone out there mind explaining what determines if a show is mixed from a 2 track, 16 track, 24 track, ect. If 16 track was available for shows as far back as 69 shouldn't it be available for at least some of the other releases of lesser sound quality? For example, why was a 2 track mixed used for Spring 90 1, and a 24 track mix used for Spring 90 2 (The Other One Too) when all the shows were from the same tour. It seems like the 24 track mix should have been available for both boxes. And for the DaP's and RT's were 16 track mixes not available for some reason or did they opt not to use that method? Thanks again just trying to get a good grasp of this process!
RE Watchya gonna listen to first?
Dig the post born cross-eyed. Here's the shows I'm probably going to dive into first.
1) 10/21/83 Worcester, MA - This show is appealing to me since it's a Brent Bday show, and I've never heard this show yet as well. It sounds like it could be a hot one, since it follows the Fall 83' Hartford run.
2) 6/24/85 Cincinnati, OH - Another mid-80's show that I haven't touched base with yet. Should be good since it's June 85' show.
3) 9/18/74 Dijon, France - Wall Of Sound.. I'm ready for some Phil bombs!!
4) 11/28/80 Lakeland, FL - Big fan of anything Fall 80'. This is the only November 80 show that I haven't heard yet.. Looks really good.
5) 3/18/71 St. Louis, MO - Really hot 71 show. It'll be nice to hear a official remastered version of this..
Spring 1990
They could have used the multi-tracks for the first Spring '90 box but shamefully cheaped out on us and did not. They went the extra mile on Spring '90 TOO, probably thinking it would help sales. That didn't work out, as the first box sold out quickly and the second hasn't yet. There is a big difference in sound quality between the two. I sold the bad one after spinning it once.
The 30 Trips box is mostly 2-track, because shows were usually taped in multi-track only if they were being considered for release. So the vast majority of the vault is 2-track tapes. Some of them sound surprisingly good, but I can't think of one that holds a candle to the best of the multi-track mixes.
Listening party 74
Not sure why not here, but there is the UJB from Dijon 74 on Jambase
Why is this website so "old" when the Dead family is based in Silicon Valley , home of a million tech savvy deadheads that would build a killer site for fun and free? Weird
Wall of Sound in Europe in 1974???
Wow - I can't imagine taking WOS there and needing all the different power converters for just 7 shows. That would've cost big bucks...
Couldn't find anything in deadbase or archive, but found this from archive:
"Featuring what has to be considered among the very best first sets ever performed by the band, Dijon is clearly THE show of the tour. It's a brilliant performance, among the very best shows of 1974. Several songs are candidates for best ever renditions; most notably the extraordinarily jammed out show opener of Uncle Johns Band and the terrific stand-alone Scarlet Begonias. Playin' in the Band is also exceptionally well played. The solid second set includes a dynamite performance of Eyes of the World and a unique jam suite featuring the first Caution Jam performed since early 1969. This performance is the creme de la creme of the tour! (99 pts) "
That sounds awesome...
Sound quality redux
One Man pretty well summed it up. The vast majority of tapes were made on from a 2 track mix at the soundboard, and multitrack was used for tours or shows where they were looking to make a live album. Back in the 60s or 70s multitrack recording usually meant using a mobile recording truck outside the venue to record the show and mix it. By the 80s & 90s, multi track recording was easier to accomplish without a mobile unit. Betty Cantor-Jackson is probably the most famous recording engineer the Dead had, she simply had excellent ears & did her mixing live with headphones. Bear was recording while also running sound, so his recordings can suffer from his primary job coming first and taping coming second, though he still made outstanding tapes.
The Dead were the first or at least among the very first bands to use a 16 track recorder in the studio, much less for a live recording, so Fillmore West 69 is an aberration for the time, and we have what we have of that run because they specifically set out to record Live Dead and wanted to do it with the best possible fidelity, hence the 16 track. The use of multitrack allows for each member to have their own channel essentially, so that in mixing, if Bob is playing quietly on St Stephen, it can be boosted a bit, or if Pig's organ is a bit loud, it can be attenuated, and the instruments can be panned so that they don't occupy the same space and muddy the mix. The 2 tracks were made for listening the next day, with no real thought that one day 43 years later it might be released
bohlint / Sound Quality
Expense was a big reason they didn't do more recording with the multi-track in the 70s. I've read that it cost a lot more than two-track, because you have not only the mobile truck business as an added expense, but you also have more expensive tape feeding the multi-track recorders (and a lot more of it - keep in mind, it's like making 8x as many recordings of the same show if you're doing 16 tracks, compared to 2, AND they record faster, which means you go through much more tape per track in a minute than with a two-track machine).
As far as comparing the two (two-track vs. multi-track) -
There are some really good two-track recordings in the vaults. Everything they've released from 1977 is two-track, and it sounds really good; in fact, I would say most of the '77 stuff sounds better than at least one of the Dead's multi-track releases: Live at the Cow Palace New Year's Eve 1976. Cow Palace doesn't sound horrible, but the tape hiss level is extraordinarily higher than usual, and the fidelity extraordinarily lower (not necessarily due to the multi-track process itself, but probably for other reasons - in general, if done properly, you're going to get a better mix out of multi-track masters). Who knows, maybe they ran out of Maxell XLIIS tapes and put low bias tape in the machine that night ;-). Compared to the Winterland June 1977 box set, for example, Cow Palace does not sound as good, (subjectively speaking of course, but trust me on this one:)
Recording. Just a couple points
Multitrack tape in that period was usually a 2 inch wide reel. The cost was quite expensive. It would run typically at a high speed for the quality of the sound. A reel would go say 10-15 minutes.When we refer to a 8/16/24/32 or how many tracks, the concept is simple. The end result will be a stereo recording. That is L/R OR 2 track. The process begins with the multiple track recording. Yes every voice or instrument is given its own track which can be EQed, given any efx, or processing. Back then16-24 track was the norm. In today's digital world there's really no limit. Then it was limited by the size of the tape.
Once a performance was tracked, you would make adjustments to each track, which usually was adjusting the equalization and position in the stereo field. If you want keyboards on the left and guitars more on the right, you dialed that in via the mixing console. The goal of this step was to mix down to a stereo 2 track tape machine. So in essence if you had 24 separate tracks, in the recording phase, you now had the tune mixed to stereo. this is the mixing phase.
Finally that stereo tape would be run thru a console once again and those 2 tracks, would be equalized and in some cases, run thru noise reduction, or compression or other sound processing. This is called Mastering. So you have 3 steps in the process from the initial recording of the performance to the final product we buy as a stereo recording.
Today the main difference is we use computers and a format of digitally recording as opposed to analog magnetic recorders back in the day. You still have to capture the best performance as cleanly as you can. And you still have to have very good ears!
A live 2 track, as said, was simply a stereo copy of the mixing board at a live show to capture the sound of the performance. Most times that tape was used to listen to a performance to evaluate the quality of the performance. 2 track tape is 1/4 inch wide and runs from 7.5-15 inches per second. Called ips. So you will see notes of two track tape at 7.5 ips. Later in the career of the Dead they utilized cassette tapes or DAT ( digital audio tape ) to record the shows. And as stated these weren't recorded to be commercially released. Many bands recorded their shows simply to listen to afterward to see what they sounded like.
A little off-topic
All this talk about the box vs the USB and sounds quality has motivated me to revisit my digitized versions of the GD albums I own. I'm now trying to re-rip all my GD albums to FLAC to archive them. Does anyone know of a site/repository that has hi-res versions of all of the album covers, even box set album covers?
comdata55 / album art
I usually just run a search in Google Chrome under pics...moe often than not I find something in good resolution that I can use. Sometimes I will open them in Paint to resize or change the pixel resolution. I have found some good images on Wikipedia as well as the GD archive here too. Good luck :)
Cover Art
Not sure if these can be copied or downloaded, but here's a very complete selection:
https://picasaweb.google.com/m/viewer#albumlist/titanarch
Cover Art
Not sure if these are high enough resolution or not but I use them.
https://plus.google.com/photos/106465427611350658328/albums/59784616720…
Hi Res Album Art
Gentlemen,
Search no further:
http://www.albumartexchange.com/
FANTASTIC!
This is great guys, exactly what I was looking for! Google works for most covers but some of the box set stuff is extremely hard to find. Thanks for making my night!
Rumor has it....
....that the ptb left Vince's name off the box. Well, my name is Vince as well, and I am offended too. Get it right, or get it not at all....
....first three? Lindley Meadows, Augusta, San Diego....
4/25/77
After reading Weiner's Rise Of Terrapin Nation, I started working my through each and every '77 show in order. I have gotten up to the 4/25/77 show, which is where this trek crosses paths with the 30 trips box. For those not averse to listening to anything that will be soon (we all hope) be appearing on our doorsteps in more pristine sound, there is a soundboard available on the archive.
I've read on these forums more than once how some people frequently skip past Looks Like Rain. Their loss (just my opinion), but for a delightful example of stellar interplay between Jerry and Keith throwing golden notes like candy for your soul, check this one out.
Onward.....
Sound Quality
I was Googling info on the box set and came across this webpage. I don't know where they got their info, but if this is true and 28 of the 30 shows are from two track sources, does this mean that the quality will only be as good as the Spring 1990 (Volume One) Box and not as good as the Spring 1990 (The Other One) Box? I've read reviews where people say that the sound on the Spring 1990 (The Other One) Box is much better because it was remastered using 24 track tapes instead of the 2 track DATs. I don't own either of these box sets, so I don't know if there is really a big difference between the two. I also realize that the time spent remastering would also have a lot to do with the quality. I'm just concerned about comments on some of the tracks on the listening parties which I realize are only crappy MP3s. What can you tell me?
Notes page from a web site called The Best of Website.
http://www.thebestofwebsite.com/Bands/Grateful_Dead/Reviews/30%20Trips%…
Notes: Top of Page
Limited to 6,500 individually numbered copies
Mastering split between
Dave Glasser
Jeffrey Norman
Two shows are multi-track
The rest were from two track sources
Ship Date: September 18, 2015
80 discs
73+ hours of music
30 unreleased live shows, one for each year from 1966 to 1995
1 Gold-colored 7-inch featuring "Caution (Do Not Stop On Tracks)" 1965/"Box Of Rain" Soldier Field, Chicago, 7/9/95
288-page book with an extensive, career-spanning essay by Nicholas Meriwether and special remembrances submitted by fans
A scroll featuring a visual representation of the band's evolution FREE U.S. STANDARD SHIPPING ON PRE-ORDERS ONLY!
Sound quality
Just like almost all the dicks picks, road trips, and daves picks are from two track sources, this box, except for two shows evidently, is from two track sources. However, many other factors come into play. First, the quality of the original mixes made on the fly during the concert. The mixes are usually done to accommodate the sound in the concert hall, which may or may not translate well to direct playback. This is not always the case, as sometimes separate mixes are made on the fly for recording that are separate from the mix being sent to the PA.
Another consideration is what we're the two track recordings being recorded on. Up to some time around 1980 they used reel to reel (the speed in ips also affects quality), which is the best analog taping technology with about the equivalent of 13-bit depth in digital terms. But in the eighties the mostly used cassettes, which are much lower quality, only the equivalent of around 5 to 7 bits in digital terms. Then they switched to DAT, digital audio tape, which was usually using either 16 or 20 bit technology, which is excellent, bit the early digital encoding technology did not always sound great for other reasons,
I expect that they chose shows that all sound relatively good, and they can use modern technology to make them sound as good as possible. But, I also expect that the sound quality will vary quite a bit from show to show, with the early to mid-eighties being the hardest to make sound as full and present as the rest.
I'm not worried. I grew up with crappy audience cassettes and loved them. These will be far far superior to that. I'll be thrilled, without any doubt.
Sound quality
If Dave Glasser has mastered half of the shows then I am right to worry about the sound quality - he was able to take the multi-track masters for the Warlocks show and produce the worst mix ever released by Dead.net (and Crimson White and Indigo was not much better)... the Warlocks shows from the 24 tracks masters should have sounded as good as Spring 90 TOO they don't... if you don't believe me just play a couple of tracks side by side on a hi-fi not as mp3s
@Grateful Dod, 2-tracks
Hey Grateful Dod - wjon nails it. Also see Keithfan's earlier comment about 2-track recordings from '77 sounding better than many multitracks.
Also I'm almost sure the Box has been cleaned up with the Plangent Process, which they use for box releases.
Here are some 2-trackls which sound absolutely glorious - the kind of sound quality that would compel me to listen to musical gibberish just to bathe in the sound:
May 1977 Box
DP 36 (1972)
DP 33 (10/9-10/10/ 76)
Winterland 73 Box
Winterland 77 Box
Dap 8 (1980 - though it is a matrix)
DP 13 (1981)
Terrapin Limited (March 1990 - pretty sure it's 2-track)
Joe Gastwirt
Worth mentioning - it was Joe Gastwirt, not Jeffrey Norman, who mastered Terrapin Limited, 90. Everything I've ever heard Gastwirt do sounds INCREDIBLE.
DaP 15 Great Sounding 2-Track
I was really impressed with the most recent Dave's Picks sound quality. I think DaP 15 may be the best sounding Dave's Picks release (all of which are two-track masters). There is some distortion for a minute or two in Bertha, but beyond that, it's very smooth and dynamic (and mixed well at the board - Keith isn't too high in the mix like I hate to admit he is in DaP 12).
lgreen - what is it that you don't like about the Crimson White & Indigo mix? Just curious.
wjonjd - nice supplementary info on the sound quality discussion, some stuff in there I didn't know.
claney - those are some glorious sounding two-tracks, you've just inspired me to put Winterland '73 on (uggggh, which show to choose, they're all so good...maybe we'll go with show #1 because of Here Comes Sunshine and Race Is On, or show #2 because of the Playing/UJB/Morning Dew sandwich, or should I go #3 for the Loose Lucy and Dark Star....)
crimson white and indigo
KeithFan2112
I think the mix on the DVD of Crimson, White & Indigo is fine but the CD mix sounds very congested and compressed on my hi-fi, a little like Warlocks but not as bad...
most of the rest of the Dead HDCD releases sound varying degrees of greatness (as they should do since i built the hi-fi system around playing them)
Mixes
I think the 2-track DAT mix of the first Spring '90 box is fine. I also believe that if nobody knew it was a 2-track mix, many people wouldn't know the difference. To my ears, the second S'90 box is the best sounding release they've put out. The necessary time and care to dial it in is evident.
Regarding the Warlocks box, the only element that sounds off to me is the overhead drum mics were mixed too hot and the high hat cymbal mics too low. At points, at least one of the drummers ride cymbals are very prominent. Compare the mix of "Feel Like a Stranger" from Without a Net versus the Warlocks box.
I think the E'72 box mixes are fine, though some shows sound fuller and more balanced than others.
Mixes
SPACE BROTHER,
I agree about e72 - I was never sure why it received so much criticism - I think they are almost uniformly excellent sounding but still short of Spring 90 TOO which is amazing. Will agree to disagree re Warlocks - wish it was only the drums but you are right the comparison with how Feel like sounds on Without a net is revelatory but then the direct comparisons between Without a Net and Spring 90 TOO even more revealing of the work they put into Spring 90 TOO - I really don't understand why that never sold out
Spring '90 TOO
We are all agreed that this box sounds phenomenal. I think there are a few reasons that it has not sold out yet:
1 - Downloads were made available immediately - I think they should have sold all of the boxes first
2 - Some folks did not want another '90 box so close to the first release
I myself love the sound of both boxes. I think they catch the band at a really good time. If you are looking for individual shows they are available on ebay.
Rock on
Mixes
I like Spring 1990 vol. 1 a lot. I has a great concert feel to it. Spring TOO is also great, in absolutist terms the audio quality is superior, with a much different conceptualization by the engineer that did the mix. To me, Spring TOO almost sounds like a live in the studio recording. Two different approaches, two great results. I listened to the download versions, don't know about the CD mastering or the effects of the differing sample rates etc.
I have read that Plangent processing was used mastering 30 Trips to eliminate distortion caused by wow & flutter (analog sources) and jitter (digital sources). Between that and any equalization used by the mastering engineers, I'm sure all shows will sound fabulous.
From the book No Simple Highway, Peter Richardson
"At other times, weirdness was thrust upon him. Once when Parish and Garcia were strolling the sidewalks of New York City, a car screeched to a stop near them. A passenger emerged, handed Garcia a shoebox, and said, "Take care of this, man. Please, whatever you do, don't lose it" After he departed, Garcia read the note attached to the shoebox: "This is the lizard god, Chonga-Bonga. Don't let him die." When Garcia opened the shoebox, he found an iguana resting on a bed of grass. "Let's go," Garcia told Parish. "We have our orders." The iguana was part of the entourage for weeks until Cutler accidentally scalded it in a bathtub."
:D
@ muleskinner_blues
That is a great story, I'm glad Richardson included it in the book. I read that segment of the book at night as I was laying in bed, slowly falling to sleep. Not long after I read that passage, I put the book down and went to sleep.
I had a nice dream about that story and I imagined that I had eyewitnessed this transaction and shook both Jerry's & Parish's hands and said something like, "hurry up, we gotta get to sound check!" I also spoke to the passenger saying something like "I love you, Sunflower!" Sunflower was a super cute hippie chick, who just smiled back at me and blew me a kiss. I quickly escorted Jerry & Parish back to the hotel to give the iguana to Candice Brightman who was in the hotel lobby. I then said to Parish, "make sure Jerry sings Morning Dew" and Jerry looks at me and says, only was the last song in the 2nd set."
Then I woke up the next morning.
S90 TOO
Other possible contributing factors to the slower sales of S90 TOO:
Individual sale of the Branford show - I expect many were happy to just get that one. Especially because of...
...the perception that the "best" shows were picked for the first box, and that (except for the Branford show) the second box was "leftovers."
Myself, I'm glad I got the TOO box, and as Spacebro says, it is hard to beat the sound of it. You feel it in your bones.
Keithfan, I know what you mean about Winterland 73. I've probably gone for the Dark Star most of all, but you've inspired me to give the whole thing a listen.
The Iguana story
The better version is in Parrish's book Home Before Daylight, No Simple Highway has many stories culled, with credits, from many GD related books that have been out previously.No Simple Highway was a good read, but breaks little new ground after the 1970's.
Mixes/ TOO/ Winterland
Thank you all so much for your very knowledgeable comments regarding sound quality and mixing! I feel much more informed on this process now.
I have to put in one more plug for the Spring 90 TOO box. If you have even considered buying the FTW box (not this guy) and don't have Spring 90 TOO I believe that it would be a much better investment. One day it will sell out and then people will regret not buying it down the road. I know I feel that way about the Spring 1 box and the 77 Box.
Keithfan I agree that Da15 is the best sounding Dave's Picks I have heard so far. I Would love to see a primal 69 release to end the year. If not 69 then how about some 73!
Last thought, are they ever going to reissue the Winterland 77 release. I can't find anything stating that it was a limited edition release and there are so many people that would love to have a copy?
No Simple Highway
Kayak - Interesting, thanks. I haven't read much of anything on the Dead yet besides Weiner, McNally and this one in progress by Richardson. Love some of the Weiner stuff, though I found McNally's Long Strange Trip kind of dry...need to revisit.
Born Cross-Eyed...love it, thanks for sharing. I wish it had really happened. Or maybe..to unabashedly quote from Harry Potter, one that sticks with me often:
“Tell me one last thing,” said Harry. “Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?”
Dumbledore: “Of course it’s happening inside your head, Harry.... but why on earth should that mean that it isn't real?”
No Simple Highway
No Simple Highway has excellent Notes and Sources sections in the back that make a great list of his original sources, and other books to check out.
Question
I hit the record store today and saw 2CDs I want to ask aboutAmerican Beauty and Workingmans in Hybrid SACD format from 2014
They have the Original Master Recording label on top like the old days from Mobile Fidelity Labs.
Have any of you bought these and do you think they are that much better?
I appreciate the feedback, thanks.
Question
I hit the record store today and saw 2CDs I want to ask aboutAmerican Beauty and Workingmans in Hybrid SACD format from 2014
They have the Original Master Recording label on top like the old days from Mobile Fidelity Labs.
Have any of you bought these and do you think they are that much better?
I appreciate the feedback, thanks.
Mixes/ TOO/ Winterland (& May 77)
Curious to hear from anyone, I have the Winterland 77 box, is there any compelling reason to spring for the May 77 set in addition?
floridabobaloo
I bet they are the same mixes from the dvd-a and high-res downloads. Mickey Hart remixed those years ago and they are different than the originals. I know that Sugar Magnolia sounds really different than the original version...Candyman as well. I like to listen to them at times but the original mixes are part of my DNA by now :)
Ziffle springin??
The St.paul show is solid..... The Tuscaloosa show is big big. Sound is very nice.
Spring 90'Box 2
I brought this up a month or two ago. If your short cash and u want a killer box ...This is it.
3~14~90 is a sonic space between my speakers , right in the middle. Sounds like my fireplace is spewing magic, unreal.
Monitor Audio white gloss towers pushed with Integra stuff, but that Let it Grow makes my set up stand up and bow!
AB and WD on SACD
I have these on DVD-Audio, where they are the Mickey remixes. He started from scratch with the multi-tracks, so you hear all kinds of interesting differences. His idea of the stereo field is unconventional. But the most obvious change is his use of tracks that were muted on the original mixes. Sugar Magnolia features pedal steel guitar, there are backing vocals in New Speedway Boogie you've never heard before, etc. I read them into a WAV editor and bumped them down to CD-Rs for convenience. I think there is a surround mix also, but I don't have a surround system.
That said, I don't know if the SACD versions are the same mixes as the DVD-A. I would definitely find out before investing.
re: AB and WD on SACD
I have the Mobile Fidelity SACDs and the DVD-As and the SACDs are the original mix, and they sound glorious. The Hart remixes are interesting to listen to from time to time, and especially in surround, but I reach for the original mix most of the time.
16 or 100?
I think we will see this number be very fluid until the box actually ships. I'm assuming that dead.net has no way to add canceled items back into the inventory online until it "sells out" on line. This would explain so many sellouts instead of the number of boxes increasing every time someone cancels. Does anyone know if you can cancel after the charge is made but before it ships? Not that I would ever cancel... Just wondering when this will really sell out.
Ziffle
Depends on what compels you. As Dr Shakedown mentioned, Tuscaloosa is big big, (in the top 5 shows on the Spring '77 tour, and St Paul is up there too). 5/12 is a little bit underrated, and is also killer. There are 3 killer Scarlet / Fires on May 1977, including the infamous "quacking duck" version on 5/17 (there does happen to be an audio drop out at the beginning of Jerry's vocals on Winterland June 1977 Scarlet / Fire, so you're getting closer-to-flawless versions here). There is also an incredible Comes A Time from 5/12. In my opinion, you should get it. Even though a high percentage of the songs overlap, like all Grateful Dead, there are nuances within the playing that you don't want to miss, as well as that "whole is greater than the sum of its parts" aspect to all of the shows. You're getting 5 near-perfect shows of the Dead at their peak (why settle for the 3 you have, when you could have 8? :-)
To answer your question literally, these are the songs you get on May 1977, but not Winterland June 1977:
Big River
Comes A Time
Dancin' in the Streets
High Time
Iko Iko
Me and My Uncle
Playing in the Band
Promised Land
Ship Of Fools
Stella Blue
Details?
5/11 St Paul, Minnesota. If it's not enough that they actually play Big River in St. Paul, Minnesota....Awesome Scarlet Fire. There's a killer UJB / Space / Wharf Rat on 5/11, and a wonderful Brokedown Palace I wouldn't want to miss. There's also a great Peggy-O that was my all time favorite until I got my hands on 5/25. Also a Sugaree that would get talked about more if there weren't two other great versions already released in DP 3 (5/22) and To Terrapin (5/28).
5/12, first Chicago show. Awesome Mississippi Half-Step (although the first line of the vocals is indistinct due to technical issue, but it's brief). The "Rio Grandio" coda is one of the best. This one always feels like a Bobby show to me. He comes on strong in the first set with Me & My Uncle, Cassidy, Jack Straw, and New Minglewood Blues, and these are all killer post-hiatus renderings; he continues in the second set with Samson, Estimated, and a killer Playing medley. There's also Jerry's second set highlight, Comes a Time. Also a solid Terrapin Station (not that you don't have a couple of those on Winterland '77). Depending on whether you have the bonus disc for Winterland '77, you may already have some of this show.
5/13, 2nd Chicago show. Opens with the infamous "Calling Dr. Beachwood, calling Dr. Shots" line from Donna (I think she was trying to get Mickey to the stage), and then a great Music Never Stopped. It has a super-energetic (although shorter) Scarlet Begonias. The early jam / Jerry solo leading into "the wind in the willows" line is just over-the-top. Also a solid Jack-A-Roe on here. Also a great 2nd set medley that goes Estimated=> Other One => Stella Blue => Going Down the Road.
5/15, St. Louis has an awesome 2nd set. IMHO the best Estimated / Eyes, and then Ship of Fools is in there, and St. Stephen => Iko => NFA, and then concludes with Sugar Magnolia and Uncle John's Band.
5/17 Tuscaloosa, one of the great set list / near-flawless performances of the tour, up there I think with 5/8 and 5/25. Just look at it:
First set:
New Minglewood Blues
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
El Paso
They Love Each Other
Jack Straw
Jack-a-Roe
Looks Like Rain
Tennessee Jed
Passenger
High Time
Big River
Sunrise
Scarlet Begonias
Fire on the Mountain
Second set:
Samson and Delilah >
Bertha >
Good Lovin'
Brown-Eyed Women
Estimated Prophet
Terrapin Station >
Playing in the Band >
Drums >
Wharf Rat >
Playing in the Band
Encore:
Sugar Magnolia
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