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There's no feedback?



My old band, Redhead, in Chicago at the Clark Street Fair, sometime around 1977. In front, L to R, Rich Clark, Betsy Redhed, myself, and Norm "MadDawg" Siegel. On drums is Kevin Dooley, and on guitar in the back is legendary songwriter Michael Smith.

Line arrays!!

Wow! Look at the wall of sound! Thanks for sharing Mike.

Nope, no foot remarks this time (I'm biting my lip).

John

Wow...now I know why they call it the windy city....

It was the 1977 Roadies Jenga Convention

You need more speakers! Uh, maybe you are too far from the nearest object to get any feedback. Don't you get feedback when you yell into a canyon? I think they do in Switzerland.

Nothing's plugged in.

You are just posing in front of a rig belonging to the Grateful Dead?

And afterwards, they gave away the speakers.

Dear Mike, you'd probably get more feedback if you posted this in the Music Video Forum. But first, get the link fixed because I can't get the video to play.

Midnite

Kevin, not really line arrays like we use these days with full range speaker arrays, these were a combination of hi, mid and low speakers.

John, notice that I'm wearing flip flops? I'm also playing a Fender Esquire that I bought for about a hundred bucks. Nowdays they sell for around $20,000. Wish I still had it, LOL.

Z. We always pushed a lot of air.

Nigel, back then it was the groupies convention.

Ray, in Australia, the echo comes first.

Ben, we were really a mime troupe.

Colin, the Grateful Dead really did use this system.

Ben, the speakers came on at the end of the rally.

Midnite, hard to get sound from a photograph. My question should have been: from looking at this photo and noticing there are no monitor speakers in front of us, and give that we were very LOUD, how did we not get any feedback?

Thanks All,
Mike

Ok, assuming it’s not a trick question like you weren’t using that rig, you were miming or not even using the mics.

I’ll throw a few things into the hat:

There was some seriously judicious e.q.ing going on (unlikely)

Or

Some heavy gating on the mics (possible)

Or

The players were blocking the speaker sound (possible, but a risky strategy)

Or

Mics were wired out of phase?!!

Or

Mr Behringer lent you his prototype Feedback Destroyer made from cardboard and twigs

My guess... the photo has been doctored. = ) -Brian

PS: Or most of the speakers were only for show/stage props/fake.

No, it's real, all the speakers work, and it was LOUD.

Nigel got it.Notice that we have two microphones per singer. The technique, one that the Grateful Dead used, is to space two microphones 60mm apart and have the singer use the top one. The two mics are run out of phase with each other ( when one microphones signal makes the speaker cones move out, the other mics signal make the speaker cones move in ) That way the sound that both mics get at the same time get cancelled out. The singer just goes in one mic, so doesn't get cancelled, the sound from the speakers hit both mics the same, so the speaker sounds get cancelled out.

It worked beautifully, we didn't have monitors in front of us, heard exactly what the audience heard, and no feedback. I've often wondered why the technique was not used more, possibly because the two mics look unusual, or because one flip of the phase switch and you'll fry every speaker and eardrum in the area.

I've experienced that sort of "accident" and have the hearing loss to prove it and that was just in a small club with a small set up. I actually had blood in the exposed ear afterwards. JPF tours with inexperienced people doing sound at the venues we used were hazardous. I can't imagine a mistake like that with a huge system like yours in that pic so I bet your thought is correct in that the legal liability to setting up like that is just too risky and safety of all concerned is far more valuable than any benefit to using that type of set up.

Ingenious though. Thanks for sharing that... very cool photo!

Brian

Before I read through I guessed No monitors? ... the out of phase stuff is beyond my IQ is one of you guys a chiropractor now?!