Grateful Dead May 77 Box Set Announced


Just a half hour ago dead.net announced they are releasing the new Betty Board Box Set from 1977 :-)

May 5 New Haven, CT

May 7 Boston, MA

May 8 Ithaca, NY

May 9 Buffalo, NY

... and will be transferred by Jeffery Norman using Plangent Processing (WOW that's great news)

Get Shown the Light, limited to 15,000 individually numbered copies, is available to pre-order exclusively from the Dead site. The Cornell set will also be available as a digital download in Apple Lossless and FLAC formats beginning May 5th. The Barton Hall concert will also be available in three-CD, limited-edition five-LP, digital download and streaming formats.

The full Light set will come in an elaborate box constructed by Masaki Koike, featuring a book by Peter Conners, Cornell '77: The Music, the Myth and the Legend of the Grateful Dead's Concert at Barton Hall, and an essay by Dead scholar Nicholas G. Meriwether. (Conners' book will also be available for purchase separately.)


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Showing 5 responses by raymonda

Living in ithaca and being a Dead Head, I went to the State Theater for the 40th anniversary show. The city has dubbed 5/8 Grateful Dead day and many friends and fans showed up for the event.

It was kinda cool, with a combination of book release, "Cornell 77", fundraiser for the Theater, and celebration of the day. I was a bit disappointed that Rhino did not attend, although they were invited. Instead they had their record release the same night but in NJ, at the Capitol Theater. WHAT'S WITH THAT? Therefore, my plans to by the vinyl there was thwarted.

The event opened with a cover act, "Terrapin Station", doing 2 short acoustic sets. Nicely played and done. Followed by Peter, the author of " Cornell 77" introducing his book and a few thoughts. Prior to the playing of the show, Dan, legislator gave a proclamation and the show pursued, starting with "Dancin".

I had to leave a but early, my 8 year old daughter call and wanted me home, but in all is was a well attended event. The show being played back through a concert PA was loud and appeared to have a different sonic signature than my prior dbx decoded, reference. Either the sound system was highly eq'ed or the mastering deviants from the reel to reel. Not that it is bad thing. 

I'm in process of waiting on my ebay order to come through so I can compare at home on a more civilized system. I could have compared tonight if only Rhino would have joined the party and released the show in the city the show actually happened in. Again, what's up with that?

Anyway, I'm interested in hearing what others think of the release. For now I'll have to wait until my copies make their way to my listening den to form a real judgement.
Well, I stand corrected as, apparently, Rhino did sponsor the event in Ithaca. You would have never known, as I did not see any of their CDS being sold. Neither was there a mention of them and nor did they give out prizes, as they promoted they were doing in NJ. Not that free stuff mattered to me. I just wanted to by the recording but since they didn't make them available, I was shut out.

We'll, my personal struggles with that should distract from a great event and we'll deserved celebration. Thank you Grateful Dead, ithaca and Cornell for making history and doing it right!

I obtained my copy of the show in around 1995 and it came from the master reel (DBX decoded) to PCM Beta. I personally transfered the PCM Beta to DAT, along with many others I did on a 24 hour transfer binge. 

To date that has always been my reference and, to my knowledge came from the first DBX decoded transfers of the show. All priors were not decoded and had more tape noise, as well as, unbalanced frequency response.

It will be interesting to compare the two and hear directly what the plangent processing did to improve the prior transfers.

One thing of note is that there has always been an intermittent low rumble for a few songs earlier in the first set. It was low in level but there for anyone who listened closely. It will be interesting to see how the handled that. I'm sure cutting out anything below 40hz could manage it but at what expense?

I just pulled the trigger on the vinyl, which came up as a BIN of $90.00 with free shipping. Saved myself a good $30.00-40.00.

I know that this did not come from the analog masters directly but given the processing that went into the restoration and mastering, that seems like a null point given that digital was used for all the work. Anyway, I guess I can compare for myself when I get all copies.

I do know that the vinyl of Hartford 83 sounds significantly better than the CD, They are not even close, with the cymbals having natural timbre qualities on the vinyl and hashy on the CD. I don't imagine there to be that much difference in these since, I assume, they were cut from the same master. Where as, Hartford was years apart from the CD and vinyl release.