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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.)


128x128otherone
otherone's avatar
otherone OP
66 posts
 

This Box Set is a cleaner transfer of the Master tapes, clarity all around (IMO).

The bass region is much cleaner and tighter with really nice extension through the subwoofer. Middle range has tremendous depth and phase accuracy, and the top end shines! 

Probably would guess the Plangent Processing helped, big time.

I'm listening to the New Haven Surgaree over and over again... can't get enough.... and the Lazy Lightning>Supplication from that set is really going out there...

...and Row Jimmy (Cornell) check it out.  Yummy.

I was under the impression that the Minglewood opener from Cornell was un-patched.  But after catching something my 2nd or 3rd time through, I can hear a slight "sound change" at the 10-11 second mark.  Anyone else hear that?  I tried it on my ATH-M50 headphones too, and I can definitely hear "some sort of change" (to me... IMO), Maybe a patch from another show?

Loving this Box so far

snackeyp's avatar
snackeyp
455 posts
 
I believe the Cornell show sounds better than the other shows in the box set.  Has anyone else noticed this?
This is not to say the other shows don't sound really good, but Cornell sounds a lot better to me.  This makes sense considering its significance. I'm sure they went to great lengths to clean it up and make it perfect.

raymonda
855 posts
 
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?

raymonda
855 posts
 
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.


otherone's avatar
otherone OP
66 posts
 

Wow @raymonda never even knew there was and LP release of 10-14-83? I always felt it could sound better. (missing some life)

Will need to check into that.

Thanks for the info and happy LP listening!

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