Grateful Dead Warlocks Box and RT3-4

To be honest I never really looked too much at the credits (they were featured in a folding piece of paper in the box) as I didn't want to ruin the ton of extras in the box.

I really only opened the package long enuff to import the CDS into my Itunes

And listened to all 6 CD's once (trying hard not to wince) on my Stereo.

Listened to it today when I was out in the car driving around (from my IPOD).

 

{EDIT} Ok looking at the credits it says:

Produced by David Lemieux
Recording by John Cutler
Mixed by Michael McGinn at Tamalpais Research Institute, San Rafael, CA, assisted by Brad Dollar
24-Track tape transfer and restoration by Jamie Howarth and John K. Chester at Plangent Processes

and yes IT IS A BOX! It is made out of wood and the top slides on a wooden track by pulling and pushing it back in to close it with a fake "sticker" of a bill to seal up the top.

Lots of great goodies from the quick look of the set (many of them mentioned a few posts back.) Each disc has it's on sleeve (and not those that make that CD's stick inside)

For my money it was really only worth the neat packaging. Sound quality to my ears is too "in your face". But I'll let others be the judge when they get theirs. Just my opinion and I'm not a real "audiophile" so I don't know much of the terminology

 

What happened to Jeffrey Norman? I'm a big fan of what he did with the GD releases.

 

I'm curious about this too. Norman did a great job with the GD sound and I can't imagine why they wouldn't continue using him. The only thing I can think of is that maybe McGinn in salaried anyway since he works all the Ratdog, Furthur, Dead tours these days so maybe they didn't have to pay him anything extra to do it in between tours vs. paying Norman some money.

Mike McGinn has done the cds you purchase at the show of Ratdog, The Dead, Furthur, etc. Now, I know mixing on the fly and having them available twenty minutes after the show doesn't give you the advantages you would normally want for sound quality but I've never been that impressed with the sound he gets. The Phish downloads that are available only hours after the show sound MUCH better. Hard to say how much of that is them having a better mixing guy vs. him having a few extra hours to work on it but at any rate McGinn's work hasn't impressed me before.

 

I totally agree. Norman had done a great job with the Dead's catalog, in fact, many their live releases he has mastered are some of the best sounding CD I own.

 

Norman was terrible with multitracks, he always screwed up Jerry's guitar making him sound distant. Listen to VTF3 (mixed by Healy) and compare it to any thing Norman mixed and you will understand what Jerry's Guitar sounded like and what it didn't sound like.

 

However Norman was an excellent mastering engineer, never used digital limiting, over compression, digital eq, none of that garbage.

They should have kept him to master these new mixdowns as even with an HDCD DAC the overcompression is unbearable on Crimson, White and Indigo (philly 89.)

 

Sorry, I'm slightly dyslexic, I caught that but the edit button was gone!, it is "From the Vault 3." Listen to how well Jerry's guitar sounds on this, it just reverberates your soul you are right there with him. It was mixed by Healy, all the Norman mixdowns have Jerry's guitar in the background which was not like the concert experience IMO. This new guy seems as bad or worse than Norman going by the Phila '89 release, haven't heard the new box yet but it is on the way.

 

I'm enjoying the new box set despite some of the “negative” comments. Audiophiles are a picky bunch, but Deadhead audiophiles - picky to the nth degree! The box presentation and goodies are super cool but I'm not sure that they’re truly worth the premium expense. Maybe if I was "there" I'd value them more. The liner notes written by long time Grateful Dead scholar Blair Jackson are great. I'm amazed at how after so many releases the liner notes remain vital, fresh, and interesting. On to the music...

So far, I've only listened to discs 1 and 2 - the 1st set and pre-drums set 2 of 10/8. I won't comment on the performance except to say that both shows are consistently solid with the stronger definitely being 10/9. I've previously heard these shows as audience, soundboard, and matrix recordings, and they are favorites. Perhaps sentimentality skews my perspective slightly. On my stereo (Rega Apollo/Mira/Paradigm Studio 20) the sound is crisp and clear and the instruments and vocals are well balanced in the mix. Bass definition is clear and just right. I do agree that there is a flatness to the sound and it doesn't breathe like Truckin' Up To Buffalo or Nightfall of Diamonds. When I played them on my Rotel with HDCD decoding, they opened up a little more. There is sparkle but they're light on depth and space. So clean, almost clinical. The sound is familiar to many '89 and '90 soundboards I've heard over the years. I would rate the sound a solid 8.5 out of 10.

I am very psyched to have this release in my collection and I look forward to enjoying the rest of the set this weekend and for a long time to come. These are spectacular examples of latter day Grateful Dead. If this was 1990 and I received recordings of these shows in this quality in my mailbox in a padded envelope on Maxell XL-IIS 90 cassettes I would be ecstatic! I hope that even though “everyone” has great recordings of the classic shows, Rhino continues to release the well known vault shows in this kind of presentation along with the Road Trips series. Having every Grateful Dead release – box sets, vault, Dick’s Picks, Road Trips, JGB, studio, LPs, etc., I would be first in line to buy 5/7,8,9/77, 8/27/72, 11/6/77, more Europe ’72 shows, 5/26/73, 6/10/73, 4/2/73, 2/24/74, etc. I want it all!

 

I was just listening to Picks Pick's 29 this morning and I don't think Jerry's guitar is mixed in the background.

 

I, too, pulled this out and have been listening to DP29 the last two nights. If the new release is this good, I will be satisfied. DP29 is terrific, IMO.

 

Okay, so some posters have their box sets ... anyone else get it yet?

I. Can't. Wait.

 

Expect the same kind of sound that was on Crimson White and Indigo.

 

I'm slowing starting to enjoy the new RT's. I've never heard the 5/6 but had a sbd of the 5/7.

Slight pitch issue (slower) but overall it's pretty damn good performance-wise.

 

I noticed last night as I was perusing through the liner notes of the "Warlocks" box set is that you have to be careful....as they are perferlated (sp?) so that it can easily rip. (the other side of each fold in the liner note section were like 4-5 photos from what were taken from the shows)

Very nice though overall. Ticket stubs, newspaper clipping, nice liner notes from Blair Jackson, a button Package definately was really nice at least.

 

Dick's Picks 29 isn't from multitrack (almost none of the Dick's Picks are).

However, I listened to part of Steppin' Out this morning and I wouldn't say the guitar is in the background there either.

 

Good point, I'll have to give Rockin' The Rhein a spin and see If I can hear what he is talking about.

 

I can't believe that some of the more famous shows won't get a major release at some point. I still have an old issue of Dupree's Diamond News of Dick Latvala holding the multi-track tapes of 8/27/72!

 

So, who mastered the new Road Trips release from 1980? Jeffrey Norman or some other guy(s)?

 

My problem with Norman was adding digital delay and reverb to Garcia's guitar on the Fillmore West box and the Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack. I mean it sounds nice and all, but it is, to say the least, historically inaccurate.

 

Why does there need to be any mastering involved. Just give us flat transfers of the best available sources.

 

Just download (legally) the Charlie Miller sources for the Hampton shows.

I can't see that run sounding too much better than those sources...minus the pretty outer box and silkscreened discs and all.

 

Still waiting on mine - bundled w/Road Trips

 

Exactly my only beef with Jeff Norman on the FW box set. There was also guitar (or was it piano) panning on "The Grateful Dead Movie Soundtrack" during the 10/16 "Playing In The Band" as well as on "Dark Star" from "Rockin' The Rhein"