Grateful Dead

Regarding Brent and Big River 3/14, I'm thinking Brent may have had a little midi switch that links the synth to the piano, so he plays the piano and it also triggers the synth.

I also thought the playing on 3/14 was super-hot. I think that it and 4/1 have the hottest playing in this box. The 3/14 show is hot from the beginning, but it was at the Big River where I really began to realize how hot this show was getting, and couldn't keep still. Brent's playing is inspired, prominent and FUN, and they're all listening well, as they are playing off of each other brilliantly throughout the show, kicking musical ideas off of each other in a polyphonic blaze of glory. The Loose Lucy the follows the Big River is the hardest rocking of them, Dylan's SIOMWTMBA and then Jimmy are sublime (check out Phil in both of them) and in Let it Grow checkout the interplay between Jerry, Bob, Phil and Brent. Of course, the Rhythm Devils are just exactly perfect. The second set take the energy level a notch higher and in a different way. Fingers is a treat, but it is in Playing that you find yourself again in a creative wonderland of sound. Uncle John is beautiful and I LOVE the little jam section that follows it. Drums and Space are both creative and different than what they were doing in '89 - takes you to some very enjoyable places. I've never been a huge Miracle fan, but this one cooks and is a perfect foil for Peter, where we get a VERY intense rendition of this song - if they always played Peter with this much umph I would have looked forward to it more throughout the years. Lovelight to close and Muddy River to end are sweet icing. This show will get many plays.

I have quite a few SACD's and DVD-A. My favorites are SACD of Dark Side of the Moon, DVD-A of Blood on the Tracks, and lots of my classical music SACD's. They sound absolutely fantastic. However, they aren't really like HD tracks. Although they are "high resolution" like HD tracks, I found that in each case, with my SACD's and DVD-A's, they actually did different mixes from the original masters that highlight sounds in different ways AND most of them have more than two playback trakcs, like 5.1, which my system plays back beautifully. In several of the studies I referenced in the below posts, many of the test subjects involved were musicians, audio professionals, and other audiophiles (along with lots of other people), and in EVERY scientifically conducted study to date, when placed in a double-blind study where they didn't know before-hand which recording was which, and where the "high resolution" music tracks used were made from the EXACT same masters, mixes, volume levels, etc. it turns out that NONE could distinguish which were high resolution files versus CD (16/44.1) at anything over chance (50%). I LOVE SACD (I have more of those than DVD-A) - I love surround sound (my car plays these as well) - they sound deeper, and richer, etc. But, don't make the mistake that high resolution is the reason. It's all the other factors. The high resolution alone is apparently not distinguishable from 16/44.1. Please see the studies I referenced below. Those audiophiles were sure they would be able to tell the difference also. If you try to do testing home YOU NEED TO START WITH HIGH RES (24/96 OR 24/192) FILES, have them PROFESSIONALLY BROUGHT DOWN TO 16/44.1 by a professional who knows how to properly dither due to bit size drop and who knows how to determine that the final result is identical in playback volume. THEN, you need to design a way (which will be much easier with assistants) to test listening to each of them at least a couple of hundred times in a double-blind fashion where NEITHER YOU NOR THE ASSISTANT has ANY way of knowing which recording is which when you listen to them - you should only be able to see which was which AFTER the testing. You can't just go back and forth between them - which one you are listening to each time needs to be entirely RANDOM. There are lots of other factors I'm leaving out. You can read about the many other pitfalls that people run into during testing that will bias the results as well. Until that is done, you don't really KNOW whether you can tell the difference because comparing an SACD to the CD is NOT the same. I'm assuming that the HD downloads of the 1990 box are from the same master recordings, so you could test using those. However, you would need to get BOTH the CD quality downloads (or make your own) and the HD downloads AND (this is critical) you would need to use professional quality software to bring the files to the same playback volume (it is VERY unlikely that they are the same in this regard as the process used to bring 24-bit files to 16-bit files changes the volume level a little). Again, without doing all this and then ensuring a truly unbiased style scientific double-blind testing process and setting, you're not really comparing apples to apples and you won't KNOW that you can tell the difference. In scientific studies to date, NO ONE has been able to.

I am about halfway thru this set-I'm taking my time and not going for a marathon binge. I am really impressed with this box-the sound is amazing and the playing is the apex of late era Dead, IMHO. It was a different band in those days as many have commented upon-the exploratory jams are gone but the nuance/detail epiphanies are still certainly there and the presentation is more "pop"-but a good "pop".You know, that eclectic, Dead style take on all things musical in a more accessible way, I guess. I also love the Jerry Band stuff during this time period. He is articulate in his vocals, has thoughtful delivery and some really tasty solos. On SACD, HDCD, etc-my opinion is that it all goes back to the original mix and recording. I don't think hi-res will improve bad source material-it will just make more transparent bad source material. S...in, S...out.

Brent's solo in the middle of the song, he starts playing a really nice piano solo, then halfway through the solo he adds an amazing synth part on top of the awesome piano part. Not sure how he does it, but I love it!

Anyone here have any SACDs or DVD-As? They are similar to HD tracks. MOFI is currently making an SACD of "Workingmans Dead" and "American Beauty". You hear so much more detail on a good SACD. You have to have a player that will play SACDs, they have players that go up to 5,000. I have a 200 dollar multidisc player that plays DVDs, DVD-As, SACDs and HDCD. Anyways, I just reviewed a MTB release, the one where they opened for the Dead on 9/3/77 , sound is just plain bad. DPs 15, The Dead on same day sounds awesome.

The post I was specifically referring to has been modified

Its all fun and games until ?This Box Set Flat Out Kicks Ass !

For quite some time I viewed the Without a Net release as showcasing an era I was not that interested in hearing. I was into the 1969-73 version. 90s wasn't entirely lost on me, but I never played it. It took awhile for me to come around. This set makes the case that they were on their game big time.

That's cool you like the box set and the music, but why boast about rushing the stage ?