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Phil's FOH signal late 80s/90s

PostPosted:Sun Jan 22, 2017 7:49 pm
by murphbass
Does anyone know if Phil's signal to the house was post preamp for the last stretch of the Dead? I recently viewed a thread that suggested he was miked through the late 70s. For the later years, are we hearing the sound of the SWR preamp or just a DI of the dry bass?

Re: Phil's FOH signal late 80s/90s

PostPosted:Mon Jan 23, 2017 5:05 am
by Searing75
I believe even going direct meant it was post preamp? It was a a preamp out on the back of his pre. So, he would have his preamp to color his tone, then respective rack gear, then out to the house. I'm assuming here.

Re: Phil's FOH signal late 80s/90s

PostPosted:Wed Jan 25, 2017 10:02 pm
by zambiland
I wouldn't be surprised if he had multiple sends going to the PA, pre and post processing. At that point he had worked out a small PA on stage, so a direct line would pretty much sound the same through his amp or through the mains.

My guess is that he has been going direct since at least the mid 70s. When the Alembic input modules, the IN-2, were developed (ca. 1973?), they included DIs, so I'm guessing that they were used for Phil's bass even back then. I know he also went direct on some of the earlier albums, but that may not have much to do with live sound. OTOH, the Wall was definitely direct! :-)

In fact, in the very beginning when Bear started messing with everything in the mid 60s, all the band's instruments went to a central processing system and then were redistributed back out to the amps and speakers (including a big rubber subwoofer), so everyone was direct. With much delay of game and other hilarity ensuing. It was one of the reasons they parted ways with Bear for a while.

Re: Phil's FOH signal late 80s/90s

PostPosted:Thu Jan 26, 2017 3:18 pm
by hieronymous7
murphbass wrote:Does anyone know if Phil's signal to the house was post preamp for the last stretch of the Dead? I recently viewed a thread that suggested he was miked through the late 70s. For the later years, are we hearing the sound of the SWR preamp or just a DI of the dry bass?
Just wondering what the evidence for his being mic'd was - if visual (as in, photos of bass cabs with mics on them), then there's no guarantee that they weren't working with both mic'd & direct signals - that's common in both the studio and live.