LA2a at Woodstock

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CJ

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Jun 3, 2004
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all these years wondering where they got that fabulous sound, i should have known,
 

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Cool.  Recorded on Scully 1" 8 track and, I think I've seen a couple of pictures which show Langevin AM16's were the main desk amplifiers. 
 
All of your answers can be found here:

https://fohonline.com/articles/milestones/woodstock-50-years-after/

I'm pretty sure there were several LA2A's in the signal path. McIntosh power.

It's funny. I think they had something like 12 or 15,000 watts total for FOH. I have friends who were there and were far away and said you could hear the music OK. It definitely sounded like it was in the distance a bit, but it could be heard.

Now contrast that with today. Dave Rat from Rat Sound has a special subwoofer cabinet that he designed just for Coachella. EACH cabinet is 16,000 watts.

Some years ago I worked for a company that would send us to trade shows, and I was at AES in NY City at the Javitz center. I managed to get a ticket to a party that was being thrown for Eddie Kramer. It was in an art studio. So Eddie is also an amateur photographer, and he always took pics from the sessions he did. They ended up blowing up 30 or 40 of his shots to poster size, and there were pics from Hendrix, Led Zep, and KISS sessions all over the walls. We talked about Woodstock a bit, but he was more excited to talk about baseball. Turns out he's a big Yankees fan.
 
Thanks.  I only skimmed the article but, from other sources, the desk that Hanley intended to use for live sound ended up being appropriated  for recording purposes.  I think the plethora of Shure mixers was a hasty lash up but I wasn't there so... ?

Serveral years ago I got to hear quite a few sections of recorded audio straight from the 1" master tapes as a friend at the time was going through the whole lot and mixing them for a massive box set.  I can't say the fidelity was stunning (I heard other studio master tapes from the period that certainly were) but it had energy and caught the overall feeling.
If Eddie Kramer was fed sub feeds from those Shure mixers (and given that there were only 6 tracks for band audio after a crowd track and camera sync it makes sense) prior to going to the recording desk and then tape, it would certainly explain the distortion splats I heard on peaks.
All part of the overall vibe though so 👍
 
You probably get the fact sheet when you sign up for Eddies 1200 a day sEminars ,
Wasnt Helios one of the prime ingredients in the Zeplin sound
 
Looking at the specs of the altec drivers used on the hf horns...they only went up to 8k according to the datasheet. Bet the entire show had a pretty dark top end.  :eek:
 
Bet the entire show had a pretty dark top end.  :eek:

I would think most of the highs would be gone at those kind of distances just by air absorption anyway.  But yes 8 k roll off.

I remember there was a JBL driver developed as a warning siren for fires and such outdoor use.  Later they released it as their highest output midrange driver.  Seems like it went to 4K or so.   
 

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