McIntosh amplifiers at Woodstock 1969

Well that IS cool! Neat being able to see behind the curtain at such an historical show. Thanks to the OP and to brtech.
 
I actually don't remember what the crossover's were, sorry.

The picture is showing the amps for the towers, not the monitors. Monitor power was on the stage. The smaller amps would have driven the horns.

Nothing special about the monitors other than, for this event, final monitor mix was on the stage side. Usually, we fed the monitors from a separate mix off the main board, but for this event, for some reason, the monitor mix was separate. It may have had to do with the splitters we used for the recording, and the fact that we used those small Shure mixers for the main mix. My memory is not great on this.

Commercial boards of the day overloaded. The concept of an adjustable pad ahead of the pre-amp wasn't common. Those small mixers did have switchable pads, so we could get a lot cleaner sound out of them then a big board. Eventually, we built our own board with pads.

Fact - Janis could get 1 V P-P out of a Shure mic. I measured it (with that HP o'scope), although not at this event. You had to hold the golf ball with your hand and yell into it, but it could output a full volt.

Yup, we used those golf ball Shures pretty much exclusively. Condenser mics weren't rugged enough. Sound quality was actually pretty good out of them, and they would take a lot of abuse, but it wasn't uncommon for one or more of them to get smashed and break at the plastic part where the golf ball threaded on to the handle.
 
I actually don't remember what the crossover's were, sorry.

The picture is showing the amps for the towers, not the monitors. Monitor power was on the stage. The smaller amps would have driven the horns.

Nothing special about the monitors other than, for this event, final monitor mix was on the stage side. Usually, we fed the monitors from a separate mix off the main board, but for this event, for some reason, the monitor mix was separate. It may have had to do with the splitters we used for the recording, and the fact that we used those small Shure mixers for the main mix. My memory is not great on this.

Commercial boards of the day overloaded. The concept of an adjustable pad ahead of the pre-amp wasn't common. Those small mixers did have switchable pads, so we could get a lot cleaner sound out of them then a big board. Eventually, we built our own board with pads.

Fact - Janis could get 1 V P-P out of a Shure mic. I measured it (with that HP o'scope), although not at this event. You had to hold the golf ball with your hand and yell into it, but it could output a full volt.

Yup, we used those golf ball Shures pretty much exclusively. Condenser mics weren't rugged enough. Sound quality was actually pretty good out of them, and they would take a lot of abuse, but it wasn't uncommon for one or more of them to get smashed and break at the plastic part where the golf ball threaded on to the handle.

Thanks for the information, no problems if you can't remember....was a long time ago...!!

I have stared at those pictures for hours (the ones under the stage)....

Impressive back then you were using multi-pin type connectors....a three way split must have also been impressive back then....
We use 56way split racks now, and sometimes we run out of channels!! They have one direct split and two transformer isolated splits, were the ones you had just direct or were there transformer isolated options?

I am an Audio and systems engineer for a sound company here in New Zealand, I started in the 1980's, even then we had a lot of home made stuff due to importation laws, we managed to get our JBL's in though on a technicality...
The last big show I deployed a system for was the Rolling Stones, we have done a lot of smaller ones since then, but the Stones was the biggest last year...

I asked about the crossovers because even back in the 80's there weren't many options and if you wanted something a bit customised you had to make it yourself...
So we were very proud of our 4 way crossovers... 18db/oct L-R filters......

You said something about a high and lo pass filters on the system between the horns and the bass, so were they what essentially the crossovers were? So its possible they were passive?

Yeah condensor mics, even now they're fragile.....we do use them though, but yeah for sure, the Shure unidine 565 (there was a 545 too which was like a SM57) was a great mic, the other one which was popular in the early 70's was the Shure 548 I notice Showco seemed to use those a lot....
Then the SM57/58 cam along and became the standard....
Interesting what you say about non pads and too much gain......that would have been a problem for condenser mics in any case......
That must have been a pain, especially for those loud singers, and mic'ing up Bass drums, snare drums and guitar amps....
We also built our own consoles, they were 24ch (20db pad on the mic input!!) 8 mono groups.
4 aux sends, 2 pre-fade for doing monitors from FOH on small shows and the other two were post fade for effects.....
We built two of those consoles......used them for years......

I read an interview with Eddie Kramer about recording Woodstock, he never said what console he used, but he must have had some way to buss groups of mics together, because he was only recording to 7 tracks, the 8th track was the time code for the cameras.....
I wonder if there are any pics around of that setup somewhere??

Well, thanks for all the info, and if anything comes to mind or you have any pictures, not even necessarily of Woodstock, I know I am interested in seeing them, and hearing first hand accounts of sound reinforcement back in the day....
 
The Grateful Dead used these amps for their road shows for many years. They did not do rental equipment because they needed their own stuff so Mac it was.

They didn't use MI350's though, they used MC2300's in their Arsenal......

Problem with them Mc's though despite their fantastic sound, was the weight, it wasn't too long before companies like Crown and Crest got their act together and got better power to weight ratio....
With live sound reinforcement, sound is important, but so is weight.....our racks these days have 3 x 4ch amps with processing onboard. each amp channel puts out 2800 watts, so thats 12 channels of 2800 watts in a rack you can almost pick up on your own....thats 33,600watts!!
efficiency has come a long way!!
 
It's possible the crossovers were passive. I just don't remember what they looked like.

The splitters were transformer based. We built them.

I don't recall much about the recording. We provided the equipment, and it was, I believe, a Scully 8 track. We would have had mixing for the tracks. There were a lot of problems with the recording equipment, I remember that, but not much about what they were. Grounding issues for sure, but that wasn't all of it.

I know Eddie Kramer is credited with recording it, but I don't remember him at all. He wasn't our guy. I was plenty busy with the sound system, and didn't have time to look at what the recording system was doing. I actually remember more about the film makers than the recording, because they were always around. There was a 4 x 8 piece of plywood on sawhorses set up under the stage. At all times, day and night, while the music was happening, there were between 4 and 6 people changing film in black velvet bags.

A memory from another event - 2nd Atlanta Music festival. We had done the first one, although I wasn't there, but we had had a lot of trouble with the heat and the amps. They kept tripping the breakers from overheating. Bill Hanley was determined to fix that, and he did, in typical Bill Hanley fashion. Remember, we had our own tractors and trailers. He had a reefer (air chiller) installed in one of the trailers, and we built a rack to hold the amps in the front of it. It was an impressive wall of amps. It was COLD in there, not just cool, but cold. No problems with breaker tripping on that gig.
 
The Tektronix limiter evolved into the famous UREI limiters, LA-3 and 4. The Altec was a 1567 tube unit using 4722 input mic transformers and probably a 15095 out put transformer for balanced out put. The Shure MR mixers were just barley adequate over the years. I was using Ampex MX35 Mixers using Altec passive graphic tone controls if necessary with White passive 1/3 or 1 octave EQs for voicing and to control feedback with Altec 1566 single line pre-amps to restore the levels to +8 db to drive the Mac 3500's and 275's. For small jobs I used Ampex monitors with 8" JBL driver and tweeter on stage. Other times I used JBL floor monitors. We used Altec 210 or stacked 825 enclosures with all variety of Multicells, but preferred the 203, with 288 and later 291 drivers. We used White passive 500 Hz filters at first when bi-amping.
 
This thread just went from super awesome to epic. I mean, to have a guy that worked the PA at Woodstock find this thread and then fill in some of the blanks . . . whodathunkit?

Just wow . . .

brtech - by chance do you have any photos that you could share with us? I mean even a photo of your staff pass would be way cool.
 
OK, one shot of more amps and other gear running in the trailer...

Ron-C
 

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I wonder if any people own those units now and have any idea of their history.
 
OK, one shot of more amps and other gear running in the trailer...

Ron-C

I'd want a more comfortable chair if I was stuck there for three days recording all that......
When we do festivals I have a nice comfortable boardroom chair......long hours, you need somewhere to park which is comfortable.....

Great shot, very piecemeal looking, fantastic!! Now when I listen to the recordings of Woodstock, I can think if what we can see in this image....
 
This thread just went from super awesome to epic. I mean, to have a guy that worked the PA at Woodstock find this thread and then fill in some of the blanks . . . whodathunkit?

Just wow . . .

brtech - by chance do you have any photos that you could share with us? I mean even a photo of your staff pass would be way cool.

Yep, its gone epic for sure..........

What else do we want to know?

I don't believe I saw in any of the pictures, any kind of system EQ......
 
So how many AKers were actually THERE? Hell, I was just born in '69 so I wasn't . . .

I was fourteen, so I didn't go. My neighbor's brother went. I think he was about 18 at the time.

A friend I met later in life went with a friend. He was 17. Went there on a motorcycle I believe. He said his parents were not happy with him when he got back, since he really didn't ask permission to go in the first place. :)
 
The Tektronix limiter evolved into the famous UREI limiters, LA-3 and 4. The Altec was a 1567 tube unit using 4722 input mic transformers and probably a 15095 out put transformer for balanced out put. The Shure MR mixers were just barley adequate over the years. I was using Ampex MX35 Mixers using Altec passive graphic tone controls if necessary with White passive 1/3 or 1 octave EQs for voicing and to control feedback with Altec 1566 single line pre-amps to restore the levels to +8 db to drive the Mac 3500's and 275's. For small jobs I used Ampex monitors with 8" JBL driver and tweeter on stage. Other times I used JBL floor monitors. We used Altec 210 or stacked 825 enclosures with all variety of Multicells, but preferred the 203, with 288 and later 291 drivers. We used White passive 500 Hz filters at first when bi-amping.

Don't you mean the Teletronix LA2A?
You can see there are two above the mixing console there in the truck....

Looks like there may have been a backup 8 track as well?

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I was fourteen, so I didn't go. My neighbor's brother went. I think he was about 18 at the time.

I tried to hitchhike to the festival since it was only about an hour and a half away. It was too late. The roads were closed, and being 15 years old, I didn't have a car.
I might as well have been 10,000 miles away.....
 
I was fourteen, so I didn't go. My neighbor's brother went. I think he was about 18 at the time.

A friend I met later in life went with a friend. He was 17. Went there on a motorcycle I believe. He said his parents were not happy with him when he got back, since he really didn't ask permission to go in the first place. :)
Almost only counts in horseshoes but I was working my first job after graduating as an EE in in 1969 in New London, CT. Cousin Brucie was constantly advertising Woodstock on WABC. One of my three "house-mates" went. I loved rock but was never a concert person. I paid the price for my reluctance. I was a perfectionist and always thought a good studio LP sounded better than live music with applause and noise.
 
Cousin Brucie had a country place about 10 miles away in Forestburgh NY.
I grew up in Monticello and a friend in high school used to watch his kids.

At the time I was 14 and managed to get into White Lake a few miles from the concert site under the guise of working for the local civil defense.
 
Interesting. Thanks for the post, OP. Well, Woodstock and Binghamton are not that far apart, so it doesn't surprise me that Mac was used at Woodstock, but I don't think I knew that for sure until I read your post.

Much appreciated.
 
Steve has 3 MI-350s and 2 3500's for sale at Audio Classics if any one wants to recreate Woodstock levels at home with his 5.1 system.
 
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