[Lindy]

Any Grateful Dead "Dick's Picks" fans out there? I'm looking for some recommendations on which ones to order next. I like #10 very much (12/29/77 Winterland Arena). Also #23 (9/17/72 Baltimore Civic Center) has kind of grown on me. I'd have to say that #16 (11/8/69 Fillmore Auditorium) is not one of my favorites so far. Maybe I just need to give it more time?

I've spent a lot of time surfing Head-Fi listening to this music on the amp you see in my avatar (asl mg-head).

OK so maybe Dick's Picks aren't the ultimate in high-end sound quality headphone music, it's just the SPIRIT of this music that keeps me coming back and back...

 

[Andrew Pielet]

Actually, I think Dicks Picks are unbelievable quality. I don't have any idea what kind of shows YOU like, but you can be sure that the quality of any dead recording (Soundboard) will be acceptable. I suggest the new GDM CD, Go To Nassau. It is remarkable sounding, HDCD. It is funny how some people really dislike some shows for the most petty reasons: Flubbed lyrics, Jerry "carrying" the band (what people say for this particular show) But seriously, for how many shows they played, all Dicks Picks truly shine. Later dates will have a more crisp sound, but all shows were recorded on top 'o the line equipment.

 

[Lindy]

Please don't get me wrong. I love the DP's I have and would never go without them. I think I'll eventually buy them all. I'm still pretty much a GD newbie, so experienced advice / recommendations are appreciated.

Thanks for the "Go to Nassau" recommendation. I'll check it out.

Andrew Pielet said Quote:

I don't have any idea what kind of shows YOU like

If you mean GD shows in particular, my favorite period is the early 70's to late 70's. But I'm still learning and reserve the right to change my opinion as I have the opportunity to hear more shows. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to see them live

I understand what you mean by the "petty reasons" you list for some people disliking certain shows. I've heard all of them in the few GD DP's I have. Those things don't bother me at all. Actually, I think those things ADD to the charm and uniqueness of each individual performance. I love the fact that I can get 20 different extended versions of the same song -- all a little bit (sometimes very much) different, sometimes perfect and sometimes not so perfect.

Regarding the sound quality - my statement about them "not being the ultimate in sound quality" was meant to be a 2002 technology vs 1960's - 1980's technology statement. That being said, I still have to say that DP #16 is really hard for me to listen to on headphones. There's a lot of WOW or flutter (don't know the exact proper term) going on that makes headphone listening really difficult - almost makes me dizzy. Maybe I just got a bad copy. The other DP's I have are fine for their time.

 

[Hirsch]

The Baltimore Civic Center Show on Dick's Picks is one of my favorites, as are the Boston Music Hall shows from 1973, as I was at those concerts, and have a great time listening shows I saw live.

If you have access to usenet and a high speed internet connection, try the newgroups alt.binaries.gdead or alt.binaries.gdead.highspeed. The quality is much more variable than Dick's Picks, but there's a lot of good music out there.

NOTE: The Grateful Dead (and its heirs) have explicitly granted permission for tapes of their music to be made and distributed, as long as it is not material that they have provided for sale commercially, and no money exchanges hands. Downloading the binaries is not illegal or immoral in any way.

 

[revan]

Love DP's - have the first half of the releases and plan on getting all of them - since they are going to continue them indefinitely (wonder if they'll still be called Dick's Picks).
The only problem is that now other bands are starting to copy the format - talking about Phish here. Now I have to collect those too. Geesh.



Revan

 

[Andrew Pielet]

Give DP 16 more time. It is said it is Dicks favorite show.

 

[redshifter]

i don't have any dp's yet, but i do have a 4 disc hdcd set called "ladies and gentlemen, the grateful dead", filmore east 1970. the sound quality is very good, and i also happen to own the bootleg of this show on tape, and to hear it on cd for the first time was glorious. especially the "dark star" with tom constantin on keyboards (the dead's previous keyboardist). one thing about having it on cd, you can hear everything... including jerry's nose-whistle on "bird song".

now if they would just release that 1971 filmore east show where jerry brings the house down with his solo on "hard to handle"... some other favorites are st. paul 1981, and miami 1969; i'll have to check my tapes.. i haven't listen to them in years.

my advice for pure musicality, choose shows from when pigpen was still alive. the pigpen years are my favorite era for the dead.

 

[Musiclover4]

wow, fellow Grateful Dead fans. I'm a huge fan of Phish, the Dead, ABB, and other jambands and I've been trading and downloading shows for about a year.

There is an amazing amount of Grateful Dead live material to trade and download. I would recommend checking out gdlive.com and a program called furthur from furthurnet.com. If you get overwhelmed by the ridiculous amount of shows to download, email me at dividedsky14@hotmail.com or im me at dividedsky14. I also have a webpage over at a site called phishhook at www.phishhook.com/lists/Musiclover4. All of this stuff is completely legal to trade and complies with the Dead's taping policy.

This is all well worth the effort in my opinion. I have a lot of fantastic shows by these bands that rival the quality of the Dick's Picks or livephish releases.

 

[gloco]

I'm sure you can find dead shows on Direct Connect++

Check this place out: www.nancies.org

If you're not a Dave Matthews Band fan...no worries, there's a lot of dead, phish, etc fans in there. It's almost a guarantee you will be able to get some freebies to get you started onto your bootleg ways...welcome!

Just request a freebie in trading forum.

 

[Andrew Pielet]

Musiclover4, just a note.... all of those recordings you are downloading are not there to "rival" all of the studio remastered CD's. Hopefully there are still a few jamband fans who actually BUY CD's to support the recording industry. I firmly believe that store bought will always be better than downloading, especially for HDCD's (which most new GD releases are), since you can utilize the HDCD decoding. I just hope you aren't talking your friends (or yourself) out of buying the new releases. You would surely be missing out. Oh yeah, I have heard 1 Phish show that actually can hold a candle up to any of the Live Phish releases, it is the 12-7-97 that was just released (NOT commercially mind you). Otherwise, you are going back to the empty room shows of the Early 90's. If you do have some Phish you would like to brag to me about, BRING 'EM ON!! I wanna hear them!

 

[Musiclover4]

Andrew,
No, I fully appreciate the generosity of bands like Phish, the Dead, and many other jambands who allow taping and even better those who actively take part in distributing the board recordings of their shows. And don't worry, I own plenty of commerical cds (in excess of 300 or so).

I think the Dicks Picks generally do sound excellent, but I would not entirely attribute this to hdcd encodiing. Just like all mastering processes, hdcd is sometimes hit or miss and largely depends on implementation and good mastering techniques. The Dead's material often sounds good because it was well recorded and they have good people working on their vault recordings, hdcd is just one way of doing this well.

You are totally right up 12-7-97 though. It may be the best show to ever circulate outside of a livephish release (11-17-97 is probably my fav show). I think the multitrack run of the early 90s, specifically 11-3-90 and 3-16-91 sound excellent. 11-2-96 prefm soundboard is very good, cliffords ball day 1 and 2, 3-1-97 full slip stitch and pass show, 7-24-98, 7-25-92, and many other excellent shows. Oh, and I don't know if you've downloaded many dead shows, but the Eaton remasters of 5-5-77 and 5-8-77 sound perfect. well anyway, send me an email or im me if you want to talk more about this.

 

[Andrew Pielet]

Musiclover, thanks for the dates. I don't own a computer, so I have never downloaded, only friends give me bootlegs. I agree w/ your HDCD stance, a concert can only be as good as it was recorded, and the Dead were the best. HDCD encoding is sweet, but it doesn't "change" the sound by encoding the cd HDCD. It just adds bits. I say we agree on that. But wouldn't it be sweet if it did just that- improved badly recorded shows? For the 11-17-97, I had a soundboard of that before the Live Phish was released. It has always been a favorte of all fans. For your Dead pick- 5-8-77, do you have any other choices that every single dead fan on earth has NOT heard of? Seriously, I got that tape when I was 13yo at camp, and it has always been the most circulated tape/cd.

 

[Musiclover4]

5-8-77 is so well circulated because it sounds AMAZING! And it only got better with the Eaton Remaster. Anyway, yeah I have a ton of Dead shows and Phish shows. Check out my list at www.phishhook.com/lists/Musiclover4 if you want to see what I have. I need to update, but if you're wondering about sound quality the whole 77 run sounds pretty good and generally Betty Boards sound pretty good. Just type in Betty Boards in google and you'll quickly find a list. Oh yeah, and I didn't JUST say 5-8-77, I mentioned the other show Eaton remastered, 5-5-77 as an exceptional sounding one. My fav. Dead show is probably 6-11-76 though, d3 with sugaree, sugar mags > eyes, stella is sweet.