I head the Wall of Sound system three times, Winterland and the Cow Palace. I also heard Pink Floyd at CW a year later. The WOS to this day is one one the cleanest systems I have ever heard.  The bass player had a quad pickup on his ax, so each string had eight cabinets out of a 32 cabinet bass array.  I spoke with Ron Wickersham about certain aspects of the WOS system.  Two items most people miss these days, One, the differential mics, were one really use for feedback as for eliminating the ambit sound re-entering the sound system. (the same problem Dave found.) Two, the system was designed and used like a giant pipe organ, and the length of each element was tuned to provide vertical control.

Interesting to see that the ^Wall of Sound’ still arouses interest!

The concept of at least dual systems - vocals and instruments - always seemed like common sense to me and the first time that I used it was with the “Woodstock in Europe” tour in 1979. OK, I have to add ‘when possible’ as we were using a variety of systems along the way. The times I was able to use it was with a Martin system - 12kW for instruments and 8kW for vocals.

The first comment was often ” it will never be loud enough” but - no! The increase in clarity and dynamics far outweighed any level issues and we never ran out of steam. If you can do it, do it!

Best, TN

This concept is used and deployed commonly in theatrical sound systems - different speaker layout, but same concept.  We have been designing true 100% coverage L-C-R systems (each cluster on its own covers every seat) for use in mixed venue and theatrical applications for several years now.  The mixing approach is to have all the vocals only in the center cluster and use the L/R clusters for a more traditional stereo mix.  Works really well when mixed correctly, but not so well if the mix engineer puts the same instrument or vocal in all three clusters.  The system gets muddy and you lose all of the vocal intelligibility.  I always love to hear what cool, out of the box concepts Dave is working on.  Thanks for documenting it and keep the articles coming.

I had the priviledge of working with the creator of the original WOS for the Dead on several occasions…  His name was Joe Corchoran from San Francisco.  His dad, at the time, had the largest Sound reinforcement company in the area.  The Dead found out Joe’s dad had the biggest PA around.

He built the first WOS for the Dead. I believe it was originally because the stage was built too small and they were problem solving so the PA would not sit in the mud.  They loved it and made it a trademark look.

Joe: “I’m not a druggy. The first time you spike my food with acid, I’m taking all my toys home!” 

They never messed with him…

Dave mentions the differences in amplification between then and now. A bit of amplifier trivia -Some of the amps used for the Dead systems were McIntosh designs, MI-350(or MC3500) 125lb, 350W RMS fan cooled mono tube units, which were rated to handle loads down to 1 ohm, in 1968! I have also seen reference to the Dead using similar looking McIntosh MC2300 solid state stereo units -rated 300W/ch or 600W mono, usable down to 0.5 ohm - for their Wall of sound at Woodstock. I have seen these amps in use on stage as late as the 1980s. Not sure if any are still in use by touring bands.

The MI-350 was a derivation of a 1949 McIntosh design by an engineer named Mile Nestorovic, who later formed his own company and marketed primarily home audio components. He may have also had a hand in the MC2300, though I am unsure of that.

Early high power transistor amps were not true complementary designs, as high power pnp output devices were not readily available and manufacturers used quasi-complementary designs based on npn transistors. When these failed they would often take the loudspeaker with them so protection circuits needed to be incorporated to protect the speakers. To my knowledge the tube units did not have such issues and the output transformers also permitted a wide range of load impedances to be connected. I suspect these are some of the reasons tube amps continued to be used for PA and FOH applications for many years,
not to mention a possible preference for the sound quality over early solid state designs. Of course by the late 70s-early 80s technology was changing. Who would lug around a truck load of 125lb amps to get 300-350W/channel today ?

McIntosh is note worthy for producing high power, high quality, reliable tube amps. Today the Manley 500 is available, though I don’t know if anyone has taken these on tour. Does anyone know ?

thanks for the info, I like the idea of 2 systems for FOH i will try that 1 for sure

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