The Wall of Sound used 26,400 watts of continuous power divided between 6 electronically distinct systems, each dedicated to either vocals, piano, drums, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, or bass. The result was an incredibly ambitious and ground-breaking loudspeaker construction called “The Wall of Sound” which made its touring debut on March 23rd 1974 at Cow Palace in Daly City, California. Studios at an estimated cost of over a quarter million dollars. This they did along with audio engineer Dan Healy and Alembic Inc.
Compounding the problem was the fact that by the early 70s, the typical audience size and venue had also grown substantially, and it was becoming clear to the group that if they were ever going to have a proper sound system for live performances, they would have to design it themselves. None of them could do justice to their freely improvised sound which promised live audiences a truly unique experience at each venue. With a unique style of improvised music and a culture of playing live to devoted “deadhead” fans, it’s not surprising that The Grateful Dead was unhappy with the sound systems they used in their early tours. Rejecting the simple and tight song structure that defined early rock, The Grateful Dead established a style of “psychedelic music” that was less-structured and more complex. Musical genres as disparate as reggae, folk, country, and jazz were all united by founding members Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Phil Lesh, and Bill Kreutzmann. Grateful Dead open air concerts and the need for better soundįorming literally in the middle of the 1960s in California, the centre of the musical and cultural revolution, The Grateful Dead represented a new style of music that set no limits in terms of influences or even structure. This was a major challenge for live performances considering the speaker systems of the day. Yet a looser, more complex style of music became popular in the latter half of the 60s – think Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Association, and The Byrds. The Beatles are a good example of a band that learned to play together on stages with poor audio, developing highly structured, short songs held together by a strong beat.
#WALL OF SOUND GRATEFUL DEAD FULL#
The often cobbled together amp and speaker combinations were not designed to render a full frequency range and produced a sound image marred by frequency gaps and distortion.Īn additional problem was that the musicians could often not properly hear themselves on stage, a basic requirement for any group playing together. Later artists like Jimi Hendrix and The Kinks continued to do this well into the 1960s as the speakers used during concerts remained little more than repurposed public address systems. This “rock ‘n’ roll” style developed as many guitarists like Chuck Berry and Ike Turner pioneered an approach that made distortion a style element in their songs. Low-fidelity amps and speakers at the time limited and guided popular music forms which were simple, loud, and often distorted. Concert sound systems have evolved quite a bit since the 1950s and 60s.