More than a Century of Innovation in P.A. Loudspeaker Drivers
In the second of this multi-part series, author David K. Kennedy provides a detailed timeline of the creation, development and refinement of PA loudspeaker drivers and systems. Part 2’s timeline takes us from the growing popularity of the electric guitar and rock ‘n’ roll music in the late 1950s, through the 1960s, including the Beatles Stadium concerts, to Woodstock in 1969.
Welcome back to of our chronology of the “History of P.A. Loudspeakers”. After polling dozens of veteran audio engineers and reviewing many published sources, I have listed many of the famous innovators, and events, that were historical highlights of PA loudspeaker history – with a particular emphasis on how leading engineers rapidly improved performance and durability of loudspeakers – for the emerging rock concert tours.
- PAs in the late 1950s
1957 – Brothers Bill – and the much younger Terry – formed Hanley Sound – later in a storefront on Salem St. – in Medford MA. In the early 1960s, Bill opened an office in New York City. Hanley pioneered techniques in sound reinforcement loudspeaker design– providing sound for the Newport Jazz & Folk Festivals, the Beatles – and many other events. Bill was the first to coin the term, “sound reinforcement” and was credited by Woodstock promoter Michael Lang for his determination, sense of humor, and for being “the father of festival sound.” Hanley also handled President Johnson’s inaugural ceremony. Bill Hanley’s social conscience led him to do work on several anti-war protest rallies and send a sound system to South Africa for their Anti-Apartheid Movement, among many other (volunteer) causes.
The Hanley brothers both explained by phone – how they built Rebels – simplified corner bass-horns – “from plans Klipsch published – because we didn’t have enough money to buy speakers”. “Neil Young later laid the angled Rebels in front of a stage – for use as their stage monitors” – before you could buy stage monitors. By then they were using large-surplus Altec A4 2-way fully-horn-loaded loudspeakers – they had bought from closed cinemas – as their main-concert loudspeakers. See most notably – their custom and upsized PA system for the 1969 Woodstock music festival – later in this article.
1958 – George L. Augspurger received his M.A. degree from UCLA and did postgraduate work at Northwestern University. After working in sound contracting and television production he joined James B. Lansing Sound, Inc. where he served as Technical Service Manager and later as Manager of the newly formed Professional Products Division. In 1968 he was appointed JBL’s Technical Director. 1970 Mr. Augspurger left JBL to devote full time to Perception Inc., a consulting office specializing in architectural acoustics and sound system design.
Mr. Augspurger’s name is familiar as the author of numerous articles and technical papers. He contributes regularly to the Patent Reviews published by JASA. In addition, he teaches a course in Loudspeaker System Design at USC. Mr. Augspurger is a fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, a member of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology and a fellow of the Audio Engineering Society. Perception Inc. maintains membership in the National Council of Acoustical Consultants and SPARS.
1958 – Fabbrica Italiana Altoparlanti S.p.A. was founded in Milan, Italy. Faital initially manufactures drivers for radios and later introduces its products into the market for television amplifier systems. Faital, decades later, starts the Professional Audio Division and the FaitalPRO brand of PA loudspeaker drivers.
1958 – Selenium (based in Nova Santa Rita, Brazil) was founded for the production of speakers for radio and TV applications. Quickly they became specialized in loudspeaker components for professional and high-quality music reproduction. In 2010 they were acquired by Harman International (owners of JBL).
1958 – Fane Acoustics was founded by Arthur E. Falkus and Dennis A. Newbold, hence the FANE name, from the first two letters of the last names. 10 years later Arthur Barnes joined them in the press shop; he did a great job and became managing director. The company was sold to Wharfedale group in 1989. Barnes left. The Barnes family bought Fane back in 2007. Many of the old staff, who had left in 1989, rejoined and a new factory was built in Castleford, West Yorkshire UK.
1958 – Jaffe and Paul Kleinman founded Stagecraft Corporation, which later became JaffeHolden Acoustics. The light-weight demountable shells designed by him were the first engineered to use selective transmission of energy into the stage house and stage-house coupling to enhance on-stage and audience-area acoustics. He likewise was among the first to use electroacoustic enhancement systems and is the inventor of the Electronic Reflected-Energy System (ERES). Later Jaffe left JaffeHolden Acoustics and in 2009 he joined Acentech Studio A.
1959 – Celestion Chief Engineer Les Ward created a specially toughened version of the G12 to withstand more heat and mechanical vibration. This speaker evolved into the T530 Alnico Blue: the world’s first speaker designed specifically for use with guitar amplifiers. The G12 was used by Marshall Amplification.
1950s – Don Davis’s audio career began as a field rep for Altec Lansing. He then realized the need for technical training for Altec’s contractors. So, Davis later began organizing and teaching seminars covering topics such as: equalization, gain, phase, alignment, feedback suppression, and more — all of which proved extremely popular. While at Altec, Davis worked with Dr. C. Paul Boner (known as the “father of equalization”) equalizing sound reinforcement systems and was instrumental in the design of the Altec Lansing Acoustavoice system, and the design and use of real-time analyzers to equalize PA systems in large rooms.
1960 – Laurie Fincham had a storied career in loudspeaker engineering, that began in England, when he joined Goodmans Loudspeakers (founded in the 20s to manufacture loudspeakers for public address systems.), then Celestion (MI), and later KEF (Hi-Fi). By night he played stand-up bass in a jazz group. While at KEF, he co-developed the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) system for measuring loudspeakers. In ’93, he moved to the U.S. to work for Infinity, before directing THX technology, for Lucasfilm, in 1998 (and several years to follow). [direct confirmation]
- The early 60’s – the birth of Pro-Sound
1960 – Bart N. Locanthi became the Vice President of Engineering at JBL. Bart, who as a consultant, had been the primary technical resource to JBL since 1950. In the late 1960s, he developed the “T circuit”, for power amplifiers. He received three US patents for his pioneering work on transistor amplifiers. Over the next decade, Bart worked closely with Ed May, on several JBL loudspeaker developments, according to Don McRitchie.
1960 – John Benson was an Australian engineer who advanced loudspeaker development. His electrically tapered column loudspeaker design won a Duke of Edinburgh prize in 1972. Benson was editor of the Australian AWA Technical Review journal in the 50s and 60s. Papers published in AWA journals, clearly created a single mathematical loudspeaker enclosure model. Benson was the examiner for the 1972 PhD Thesis of Richard H. Small, of Thiele/Small parameters. Small also published in the JAES in the early 1970s. In 1996, Benson’s 1968–1972 three-part paper on loudspeaker cabinet design was published, with an introduction by Don and Carolyn Davis, as: “Theory and Design of Loudspeaker Enclosures”.
1960s – Don Davis wrote articles for Audio Magazine, AES and SMPTE journals, and authored the industry-standard texts Acoustical Tests & Measurements (1964) and How to Build Speaker Enclosures (1966, with Alex Badmaieff). Our Editor wrote about reading the book, “Soon after, I was hooked on designing sound systems, which I owe in large part to the late, great Don Davis”. The author had a similar reaction to the book, and technical training, in the ‘70s. (see Fig. 1)
1961 – Although AWA first published A. Neville Thiele’s 1961 papers on vented box loudspeakers, Thiele’s papers were not well known until reprinted in the JAES (Journal of the Audio Engineering Society) in 1971. Richard Small published a series of papers – that expanded Neville Thiele’s papers – and made them much more understandable and useful. Over the half century, they have been used universally – to characterize loudspeaker drivers – and thus facilitate the design of loudspeaker systems.
1961 – Dr. Eugene T. Patronis, Jr. acquired his PhD in Physics, and had a wide range of interests that ranged from nuclear physics to practical solutions to architectural acoustics issues; however, he seemingly also had a particular interest in the design of loudspeakers. He was a major contributor to The New Audio Cyclopedia, 2nd Edition and a coauthor, with Don Davis, in the many Sound System Engineering textbook revisions. His list of publications, papers and seminars is lengthy.
1962 – Rudy Bozak introduced a bi-amped columnar loudspeaker for commercial sound reinforcement. 1963, the newly established commercial loudspeaker division was employing about 60 people dedicated to manufacturing the columnar model which was proving a great success. (In 1964, for the New York World’s Fair, Bozak designed a new loudspeaker; for the Vatican Pavilion, with great success reported).
1962 — After running a mobile recording operation, sound engineer Stan Miller opened a retail audio store in Kearney, Nebraska. Later serving as FOH engineer and sound designer for Neil Diamond and other artists including John Denver, Johnny Cash, Sonny & Cher and Bob Dylan, Miller, the recipient of the Parnelli Audio Innovator award (2009) is credited with touring innovations ranging from flown speaker systems to multi-core snakes and being the first to take a graphic EQ with third-octave Altec passive filters on the road.
1963 – Jim Long first began work at Electro-Voice. Over the next 45 years Long enjoyed a wide range of roles in EV marketing and sales over the years, most recently as a member of the product marketing management team and contributed his technical know-how and communication skills to many aspects of the company’s success, including the development of the ‘PA Bible’.
1963 – Gene and Roy Clair purchased a loudspeaker re-coning business, leading to them provide the sound system for regular headline acts. Their first show was for Dionne Warwick in late 1965, and the brothers used column speakers. Afterward, it was decided they needed more firepower, leading to the acquisition of Altec-Lansing A7 components. 1966 was the company’s official beginning. The brothers provided sound reinforcement for Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons at F&M. The concert sparked a chain of events that gave the Clairs an opportunity to turn their hobby into a viable, touring audio business. For that gig, they used Altec A7’s built by Roy.
Altec’s “compact” A7 loudspeaker was actually intended for home & studio uses (see Fig. 2). But it was not compact enough for most studios. So, JBL’s truly compact monitors soon took over the studio market. See Part 1 for the origin and early history of Altec, Lancing, the Altec-Lancing merger and JBL.
1960s – According to the Lansing Heritage Website (www.audioheritage.org), Les Paul originally sought out Jim Lansing to supply drivers for use with his solid body electric guitar. But as the electric guitar rose in popularity, demand for JBL speakers grew. By the early 1960s, Leo Fender became an OEM supplier for JBL’s entire line of guitar amplifiers, starting with the same “D” series components as in their domestic line. But by 1963, with some of these components getting destroyed by high-powered amplified music, JBL product designer Harvey Gerst got approval from JBL president William Thomas to develop a more rugged series of drivers for musical instruments. This led to the company’s successful “F” series of drivers for MI applications, which combined tougher suspension designs with slightly larger voice coil gaps.
- 3-way Rock Concert Loudspeakers
Almost every live-sound veteran in the industry is familiar with the best-selling PA loudspeakers of the early 1960s – such as the 2-way Altec A7 – and Klipsch’s 3-way La Scala in the South. But by the mid-60s, Altec was losing their lead in the pro-sound market – as several innovators were starting to market music-quality loudspeakers – to better survive loud-trending rock ‘n’ roll concerts.
1963 — Audio pioneer Paul W. Klipsch develops the Klipsch La Scala (see Fig. 3) to serve as a PA system for Winthrop Rockefeller’s first campaign to become governor of Arkansas. (Rockefeller, a grandson of Standard Oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, was not elected, but ran again and succeeded in 1966). The three-way La Scala speaker became known as a more compact and affordable version of the Klipschorn, which was introduced in 1946. Richard A Honeycutt suggested the La Scala “was inspired by the larger MGM Shearer System (from the 30s). These were used by a number of bands and larger churches and served as the design basis for later Peavey FH-1, and some Electro-Voice Eliminator models”
1963 – The Kingsmen had a huge hit with the song “Louie, Louie”. Because the band was used to playing small hops and school dances, they were ill-equipped to play the large venues of a nationwide tour. The lack of suitable amplification was a well-known issue at the time with bands such as the Beatles and The Rolling Stones frequently playing shows where the audience were completely unable to hear the music. Kingsmen bassist Norm Sundholm enlisted the help of his brother Conrad to help solve his problem. So, the Sundholm brothers designed a high-powered concert bass amplifier, including two Dynaco Hi-Fi amp kits stacked together.
1964 – The Sunn Musical Equipment Company was founded by the Sundholm brothers. The bass amplifiers filled a void in the concert space and became wildly popular among such high-profile performers as Jimi Hendrix, The Who, and Jefferson Airplane. Guitar amplifiers and PA systems were offered next. The 3-way “coliseum sound system” with “Golden lenses” became Sunn’s premium PA offering; with higher-power drivers from JBL. (see Fig. 4) Conrad remained with the company until 1971, when he sold Sunn to Hartzell Manufacturing. Biamp founding, and Sundholm electronics followed later.
Mid-1960s – The late John Judnich has been credited – in modern online stories/posts – as having developed a first “hi-fi concert system” for rock ‘n’ roll – soon becoming the basis for the similar – but upgraded 3-way modular –Tycobrahe touring system (much more in Part 3) – with the similar JBL drivers – at about the same late-60s time-frame as the 3-way Sunn Coliseum System was sold. Jim Chase, formerly GM of Tycobrahe and later Mgr. of JBL, explained that both included: “dual 15-inch woofers, 375 2-inch exit mid. freq. compression driver, and bullet tweeter” (1 or 2), all from JBL. Both have been credited by various online (unconfirmed) individuals as having provided such a 3-way loudspeaker system – with the same JBL drivers – for Beach Boys concert touring use.
- The late 60s – Stadium Concert Sound
1965 – When Bob Dylan went electric – at the Newport Folk Festival – Hanley Sound plugged him into the PA – and Bill brought a ‘scope to the show – “to monitor distortion”.
1965 – The Beatles had played stadium concerts previously – but the Shea Stadium concert was a milestone in popular musical history – as their largest stadium concert. The Beatles performed to about 55,000 fans at Shea Stadium, New York. Since this year is the 60th anniversary of The Beatles’ concert at Shea Stadium, we were reminded of one of the often-repeated misconceptions about that concert. Roger Stormo, of The Daily Beatle blog, wrote “In the Beatles’ Anthology, Ringo repeats that the sound of the concert was brought to the audience through the stadium’s regular PA”. McCartney also got this Shea PA fact wrong.) What is true though, is that this was hardly sufficient for an audience 55,000 screaming fans! The Beatles’ historic-second American concert tour, marked the beginning of large stadium rock concerts. So, it was a milestone in popular musical history. Although this event was a defining moment in the world of live sound, the sound system used for that first NY stadium concert was not adequate. Even with the band’s big-onstage 100W instrument amplifiers – and vocals through 28 in-field column speakers – they could rarely be heard by the stadium audience – and even worse – the band couldn’t hear themselves playing over the fans’ constant screams (no stage monitors).
For most Beatles concerts, the local PA was strictly for vocals – the guitar amps and drums were considered adequate in those days for any audience to hear – something obviously disproven in later practice. The concert PA mix was not run through the stadium’s audio system, as is often described; the vocal mix instead played through an array of slender column PA speakers that were splayed about the field toward the fans.
“The delay, combining those field speakers and the screaming house speakers, would have been atrocious; it would have been a horror show,” says Hanley, who did not support the audio for the first Beatles concert in 1965, but did so for their second concert there in 1966, and three years later would provide the audio for Woodstock. And without the screaming fans, George Harrison says, “The Beatles would have found it even harder to sing, because the slap-back from the curved stadium would have been tremendous. Andy Coules explained “The incident at Shea Stadium was a sign of many issues that needed to be addressed if we wanted to enjoy live music at the level of stadium and arena concerts. The pioneers of modern live sound began working to build new systems that were bigger, better, and louder.”
“My understanding was it was only in the late sixties (after the Beatles had stopped playing live) that PAs started to get to the point where they could deal with the size required to do an arena. It just wasn’t really something that was required previously. Rock shows were generally small affairs, and the shows put on at fairgrounds, were more about atmosphere than sound. From what I understand about the developments, for example, Woodstock would not have been possible in 1965” wrote Mark Winstanley.
1966 – Bill Hanley did the sound for the Eastern part of The Beatles third US tour. So, Hanley next found himself behind the board at the second Beatles concert at Shea Stadium (along with a few other Beatles concerts); he adapted as he went. For the second-1966 Beatles concert at Shea Stadium, Bill Hanley explained, by phone, how he clustered four of his larger Altec 210 bass horns and several-various Altec HF horns – in each of two locations – on each side of the platform – “to increase output” {due to mutual coupling} – rather than spreading them out – as had been done previously. (see Fig. 5) “But it was going against 135 dB of screaming. I couldn’t approach that” Hanley recalled. So, little more than the names of the songs were heard. The Beatles asked Hanley to go to London with them, but he declined. A similar story played out after the Beatles concert sound went well in Atlanta.
1966 – The Beatles’ final paid concert of their career took place at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California. The band played to a smaller audience of 25,000. McCune Sound, of San Francisco, provided the sound system for the concert. The company’s log-book entry for the job reportedly included a note: “Bring everything you can find!”. Apparently, they didn’t find much. As the Candlestick concert photos show two small arrays – by modern standards – consisting of a few Altec HF horns and a couple small Altec LF boxes – on each short riser – in front of the platform. The fold-back monitors, at the stage corners were of little help, with so much screaming from the crowd.
McCune’s Mort Field – who mixed the sound from a dugout at the venue – recalled that “the Beatles were unconcerned about sound quality”. At one point, Ringo Starr sang into the counterweight of the boom stand. Reported Maloney, Patrick. Fortunately for everyone – since these early attempts at sound for large/stadium concerts – many people – such as Bill Hanley – worked hard to raise the bar of sound quality expectation – for the even more massive concerts to follow – just a few years later.
1966 – The Gauss Speaker Company, later known as Cetec Gauss, was founded in the Los Angeles area. Endorsed by Fender, the company’s products gained popularity among rock musicians from the 1960s to 1990s. Ed May, who left JBL in 1969, would go on to design a complete range of Gauss and Cetec Gauss loudspeakers including bass drivers, ring radiators and compression drivers. The MI bass drivers were unique in their use of twin spiders and heat sinks cast into the magnet structures. They gained a reputation for power handling and quality that kept them in production for decades before being acquired by SWR Sound in 1999.
1966 – Heil Sound was founded by inventor, organist, and amateur radio fan Bob Heil (more in the 70s).
1966 – Eminence Speakers was founded by Bob Gault. It started as a small company producing three 18″ speakers per day for Ampeg. By 1972, Eminence had expanded to thirty employees and moved to a new location in Eminence, KY, where it is still based. By the 1990s it had become the largest transducer manufacturer in the world, producing over 10,000 woofers a day.
1966 – Bob Goldstein started Maryland Sound Inc. when doing sound for clubs. Maryland Sound was quick to adopt paradigm-shifting gear. Years later, they were one of the first companies to use TAD beryllium high-freq. drivers. MSI filed multiple patents and later created an entirely new structural test method approved by NASA.
1966 – Invention of the ‘Slave’ P.A. System. As noted in 2000, by the late Charlie Watkins, this was “possibly the most rewarding and personally satisfying development.” He noted how the lack of adequate sound systems relegated so many promising bands to “small venues and pubs or whatever size a couple of lashed up Marshall 100 or Hi Watt Guitar stacks could handle. “For the next 5 or 6 years any group or Band who were serious about their sound HAD to use my WEM Slave P.A. System and they beat a path to my door,” he wrote. “This basic system is still used universally to this day by all the P.A. producers (except that the powers are 50 time greater than mine were in those days).”
1967 – A decade after Shure moved its corporate headquarters to Evanston, Illinois, they developed their premium and wildly-popular stereophonic cartridges, and many microphones, including the SM series. Shure created a small sound system, that became widely used by musicians, religious institutions, schools, auditoriums, etc. The Shure Vocal Master, integrated an amplifier, mixer, and column speakers into a compact package – maybe the first “portable total sound system.” (See Fig. 6) Soon every guitar amp. brand made column speakers for sale.
1967 – With annual sales of almost $20 million, EV is acquired by Gulton.
1967 – Charlie Watkins of Watkins Electric Music (WEM) connects a main amplifier to an array of gain-matched amplifiers. When a WEM PA providing 1,000W power capacity was deployed at the National Jazz & Blues Festival in Windsor, UK, it alarmed residents, made headlines in the local newspaper and created a stir with the local authorities. Watkins is also credited for introducing side-fills and wedge monitors to the Camden Festival in 1968.
1967 – Pink Floyd performs the first-ever quadraphonic sound concert at “Games for May” staged at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. The tech breakthrough left attendees alternately amazed and confused.
1968 – Celestion started production in Ipswich, Suffolk, UK; moving all manufacturing there by 1975. The firm merged with a clothing company in 1970, and the result was named Celestion Industries, which in turn became Celestion International Ltd. in 1979.
1968 – The JBL Professional Division was launched (to separate from their home audio products).
1968 – Some rock bands started to include pre-qualified concert sound companies on their band riders. Qualified sound companies at that time included McCune Sound from San Francisco; Swanson sound from Oakland, CA; Clair Brothers from Lititz PA; Hanley Sound from Boston; and Kiernan Sound from New York.
1968 – HH Electronics is founded by Mike Harrison, Malcolm Green and Graham Lowes near Cambridge, UK, producing solid-state TPA and MA amplifiers. HH was one of the early technology innovators for modern professional audio. Today, HH’s range of live sound and audio installation products is sold globally and has been owned by the Headstock Group since 1989.
1968 – Bruce Howze founds Community Light and Sound, later renamed Community Professional Loudspeakers, in the Philadelphia area before the company moved to Chester, PA. Howze’s company, known for its fiberglass weather-resistant loudspeaker horns and PA enclosures, claims more than 20 pioneering loudspeaker advances.
1969 – Acústica Beyma is established, initially focusing on the audio market in Spain before expanding internationally in the early 1970s. Along with compression and pleated diaphragm tweeters, Beyma is now known for its proprietary “maltcross” cooling system for woofers, developed in 2018.
1969 – Yamaha, founded in 1887, makes its first big move in pro audio with the company’s VA120 and VA180 Vocal Amp Systems, which leveraged technology developed for the company’s home audio products. Each system consisted of a vocal mixer and speakers.
1969 – The Who perform at the Isle of Wight Festival using an even more powerful WEM PA than the 1,000W system used two years earlier in Windsor. Using up to 16 WEM slave columns at each side of the stage, the 2500W system (built with Celestion cone drivers and HF horn-loaded pressure units) was billed as the loudest sound system in the world, with warnings to keep at least 15 feet away (see Fig. 7). But observers noted that the Isle of Wight setup, which included a WEM Audiomaster mixing desk and varying numbers of WEM speaker columns, was unable to provide ample coverage to the farthest reaches of the biggest events with tens of thousands of fans.
1969 – Bill and Terry Hanley did the sound for Led Zeppelin. Hanley did sound for the Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden. At the Atlanta Pop Festival, Terry and Bill Hanley did sound for Jimi Hendrix, Sly & The Family Stone, BB King, Johnny Winter, The Allman Brothers, Jethro Tull, Bob Seger and many others.
1969 – Terry Hanley – the much younger brother of Bill – struck out on his own. He had started doing sound gigs, together with Bill, in his pre-teen years, as Hanley Sound. Terry explained that he was doing sound for the Beach Boys tour, when Bill was doing sound for others, including the Beatles NYC Shea Stadium concert. Terry advanced some of Bill’s ideas – like using 3-way tri-amped loudspeakers. Terry explained how he later bought several of the better sounding, SA (Stage Accompany) Compact Ribbon HF drivers. When Areosmith began headlining major venues and needed a pro sound company, they called Terry Hanley Audio.
Some other highlights for Terry Hanley, were the several occasions he provided sound for Jimi Hendrix, such as at the Denver Pop Festival in, and events featuring The Rolling Stones, Big Mama Thornton and Bob Marley. In a NAMM interview, it was reported that “Terry has a keen understanding of the ever-changing technology and always sought to provide state-of-the-art equipment to his work. He helped improve many of the processes now standard in live sound, including how the teams communicated with each other. To that end, he designed and sold many of the THAS Headset Intercom System, that proved invaluable in large arenas and [high-SPL] outdoor events”.
- The Woodstock Rock Festival
1969 — Altec and JBL components deliver sound at Woodstock and many other rock festivals to follow. Sidney Harman acquires JBL, which established its pro division in 1968.
1969 – The Woodstock music festival took place from Aug. 15-18 on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in Bethel, NY (which is about 40 miles from the actual town of Woodstock, NY.) Billed as “an Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music” it more than 460,000. A total of 32 acts performed. (The number might have been higher but some opted out and others reportedly could not get through the crowd.) The event became synonymous with the counterculture of the 1960s. As noted by FOH contributor and author John Kane (See “Woodstock: 50 Years After,” FOH, Feb. 2019), Staff at nearby Stewart Air Force Base helped to ensure order and air-lifted performers to the site.
Woodstock’s significance was reinforced by a 1970 film and accompanying soundtrack album. Along with the original event in 1969, there was Woodstock ’94, Woodstock ’99, and Woodstock 50, which was planned for Aug. 2019 but cancelled. For the original event, Bill Hanley served as head sound engineer. “It worked very well,” he said. “I built special speaker columns on the hills and had 16 loudspeaker arrays in a square platform, going up to the hill on 70-foot towers. We set it up for 100,000 to 200,000 people. But, about, 500,000 showed up.” Hanley designed/built marine plywood bass cabinets that weighed half a ton apiece and were over 6 feet long. “Each of these bass bins housed four 15-inch JBL D130 or D140 woofers. The mid-high-freq. components included Hanley 4×2-cell & Altec 2×10-cell horns and Altec 290 HF drivers.”
For many years these custom Hanley loudspeakers were referred to as the Woodstock Bins. The live performances were captured on two 8-track Scully recorders in a tractor trailer backstage by Edwin Kramer and Lee Osbourne on 1-inch Scotch recording tape, then mixed at the Record Plant studio in New York. Hanley’s work on the designing, building and running the sound system for Woodstock was the subject of a book and film: The Last Seat in the House: The Story of Hanley Sound, by John Kane, published in 2020 by University Press of Mississippi.
The festival planners expected “something in the tens of thousands and 400,000 showed up,” with a whole lot of drugs, says Maria O’Donovan, an archaeologist who conducted surveys on the Woodstock site. “Things got out of hand.” The American Red Cross arrived with potable water and Governor Nelson Rockefeller debated deploying the National Guard.
By ‘69 Bill Hanley said that he owned more live sound gear, and trucks, than anyone else in the business, So, he and his crew could handle multiple concert tours and festival dates at one time. But Bill reported that “several festivals that were planned to follow were canceled, due to political issues” – after Woodstock many municipalities out-lawed the planned music festivals to follow – costing him multiple sound event contracts.
In a phone interview, Hanley also claimed (and was cited by third parties) to be “the first to set-up sound control/mixing in the audience area” – now known as front of house.” To better facilitate their innovative-new front of house sound-mix position, the Hanley brothers built long-custom-microphone snakes, from multicore Belden cable, to simplify and speed set-up and tear-down of their portable concert systems (see Fig. 8).
When concert promoters wanted to sell more seats and open up sightlines, Bill Hanley modified CM chain winches to hoist large loudspeaker clusters overhead in concert halls, such as Madison Square Garden. The current “CM Lodestar” self-climbing chain motor is based on Hanley‘s 1969 modification, and widely considered one of the most innovative developments in concert sound touring [according to Rusty Brutsche, cofounder of Showco, and John Kane, in his book, The Last Seat in the House].
Bill and Terry Hanley also started experimenting with adding HF tweeters, to their higher-output bass and MF horns. But Hanley Sound competitors soon developed even higher-performing and louder sound systems than Hanley’s modified cinema loudspeakers (as outlined in our next Part 3).
1969 – The Rolling Stones’ American tour, which hit the road two months after Woodstock, is credited for setting the standard for the future of rock ‘n’ roll concerts (even as Woodstock retains its status as “the musical event that defined a generation,” according to observers such as Guitar Player’s Christopher Scapelliti.)
Although Bill Hanley did sound for the Rolling Stones at Madison Square Garden, and a few other Eastern locations in 1969; he did not do sound for the Rolling Stones at their Western concerts. So, for many of the other 1969 US tour concerts, the Rolling Stones brought their own P.A. system and mixing board.
The Rolling Stones would also headline what was initially thought of as the “West Coast Woodstock,” the Altamonte Free Concert, which drew some 300,000 fans to Altamonte Speedway in California on Dec. 6, 1969. Along with the Stones, the headliners included the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Santana Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Unburdened by the constant screaming of fans that made the Beatles’ shows hard to listen to, the Rolling Stones’ audiences kept the decibels down enough for their music to have a chance of being heard.
A more adequate sound system also helped. Taking place at the end of the 1969 Rolling Stones tour, at the massive Altamont Free Festival, concert industry veteran David Scheirman observed that “the promoter allowed a ‘mix’ of speakers/systems to be set up, due to strong & conflicting opinions voiced by some of the bands, consisting of scaffolding towers with stacks of several rather large early-cinema bass-horn/bin loudspeakers, with a mix of several long and short-throw MH horns and drivers.” (See Fig 9)
There were also large-custom loudspeaker columns flanking the stage, along with added Sunn loudspeakers, stacked and angled in for frontal-audience center-fill coverage, and stage fold-back. Some of the sound at Altamont was provided by Alembic, the Grateful Dead’s sound company, and some by The Family Dog. The Dead’s soundman Dan Healy, can be seen setting up the system arrays, in the Altamont movie Gimme Shelter.
But instead of the peaceful vibe on Yasgur’s Farm four months earlier, the event erupted with violence, leaving three attendees dead. Those tragic circumstances cast a shadow over the festival industry, drawing closer government scrutiny. Other challenges, including the traffic chaos, lack of infrastructure and ease of gaining free admission, led to promoters backing arena and stadium events rather than open-field festivals after 1969.
Author’s Commentary – Why were The Beatles staff unconcerned about sound quality?
Almost half a century ago, I was recruited to do sound for a couple smaller outdoor pro-bono faith-based events. I had no knowledge of the above events, a decade later. Even as a rookie – I warned event leaders that using only one pair of small-vented Altec (single-15” +HF horn) loudspeakers – would be very risky – nothing like using the same loudspeakers inside smaller venues. So, I have to wonder why The Beatles – and most of the professionals involved with them – knew they could not be heard – but were so “unconcerned about sound quality”?
I have carefully studied the many photos and written accounts of the loudspeaker systems setups for the Beatles largest 1965 concert at Shea Stadium, the 1966 concert at Shea Stadium, and the last 1966 stadium Candlestick concert, that The Beatles performed. And although “hindsight is 20-20” – as a loudspeaker specialist of half a century – I have to wonder what was worse: the 28 slim (Atlas or Electro-Voice) column speakers distributed along the base lines (in ’65), or the two small Altec arrays in front of the Candlestick Stadium platform (in ’66) – w/higher efficiency and power-handling – but much smaller quantity and double the distance away from listeners?
Bill Hanley thinks that the two clusters of four Altec 210 larger-dual bass horns – and various Altec HF horns he had on each side of the platform – for the second-1966 Beatles’ concert at Shea Stadium – were likely noticeably higher output – than his earlier Beatles’ concerts – where he spread the loudspeakers out – and the two other systems discussed, just above.
For more on live-sound design in large spaces see David Kennedy’s consulting sound design web site at www.D-K-A.com.
