Deadicated collectors and careful listeners are already familiar with Hunter’s Trix matrixes, but even those Deadheads who do not know what this type of mix is have probably enjoyed the incredible sound of one of his 100+ releases. Mixing together soundboards and audience recordings, the matrixes Hunter creates put the listeners in the sweetest seat in the house with the crispest, most complete sound possible.
While many of Hunter’s matrixes are available for streaming on Archive, featured on Grateful Dead of the Day, and in regular rotation on Heads’ tape decks and digital systems around the world, some of the recordings are no longer seeded on etree, the ultimate peer-to-peer live music trading site. Over the course of the next eight months, Hunter will be reseeding sixteen of his 2008 matrixes, giving new collectors and fans, as well as others who missed the opportunity to pick up these recordings in the past, a chance to add them to their collection. Here at Grateful Dead of the Day, we are working with Hunter to get these awesome sonic experiences into as many hands as possible by bringing attention to the project and highlighting the fantastic shows that the matrixes capture.
The “matrix” recording is something that the Dead pioneered themselves with Anthem of the Sun and used again on Reckoning and Dead Set, eventually leading to the Dan Healy “Ultramatrix” recordings in the late ’80s. As Jerry explained in 1968, “When we recorded some of those [sections for Anthem of the Sun], we recorded them using an 8-track machine for the band and a 4-track machine for the room, so that we had four tracks of the room—various parts of the perspective of the room, you know, like, one corner of it over here, one corner of it here, one in the middle, done at lots of different places, some at the Carousel, some on tours that we were on. Then we’d do things, like, in mastering we had the 8-track and the 4-track playing simultaneously. We’d be mixing them together and cross-fading them, so as to get partly the sound of the band and partly the sound of the hall reverberating. It’s extremely subtle, and the only thing it does is give you a sense of an enfolding space.”
For his part, Hunter put his first matrix together in 2007 – of August 10, 1982 at the University of Iowa Fieldhouse – after getting turned on to the process by Chris Chappell’s Sick Bits series. Hunter explains that he “generally makes soundboard heavy matrixes with just enough audience mixed in to create the immersive, atmospheric live experience that people have come to enjoy about them. There is something really enlivening and synergistic about the SBD/AUD relationship when mixed well.” And Hunter’s matrixes are definitely mixed well. His recordings have been shared by the thousands and played many times more over the years. Don’t miss the opportunity to get a copy of one of Hunter’s matrixes, starting tomorrow with the first reseed. In the meantime, check out the Hunter’s Trix Facebook page and stay tuned to Grateful Dead of the Day.
Below we will add the torrents for the reseed as Hunter makes them available:
March 20, 1992 – Copps Coliseum – Hamilton, Ontario: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?torrentId=608965
March 28, 1985 – Nassau Coliseum – Uniondale, New York: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?torrentId=609060
April 8, 1991 – Orlando Arena – Orlando, Florida: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?torrentId=609168
April 19, 1978 – Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium – Columbus, Ohio: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?torrentId=609334
June 8, 1977 – Winterland Arena – San Francisco, California: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?torrentId=609861
June 24, 1985 – River Bend Music Center – Cincinnati, Ohio: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?torrentId=609960
June 26, 1976 – Auditorium Theatre – Chicago, Illinois: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?torrentId=609977
June 30, 1985 – Merriweather Post Pavilion – Colombia, Maryland: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?torrentId=610012
July 1, 1979 – Seattle Center Coliseum – Seattle, Washington: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?torrentId=610022
July 1, 1985 – Merriweather Post Pavilion – Colombia, Maryland: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?torrentId=610021
September 3, 1985 – Starlight Theater – Kansas City, Missouri: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?torrentId=610379
September 4, 1980 – Providence Civic Center – Providence, Rhode Island: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?torrentId=610395
September 6, 1983 – Red Rocks Amphitheater – Morrison, Colorado: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?torrentId=610404
September 26, 1991 – Boston Garden – Boston, Massachusetts: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?torrentId=610559
October 1, 1994 – Boston Garden – Boston, Massachusetts: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?torrentId=610618
November 11, 1985 – Brendan Byrne Arena – East Rutherford, New Jersey: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?torrentId=611078
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