Dan Healy is an
audio engineer who often worked with the American rock band the
Grateful Dead.[1][2] He succeeded
Alembic and
Owsley "Bear" Stanley as the group's chief sound man after the
Wall Of Sound in 1974 and subsequent band hiatus through 1975. A favorite amongst
Deadheads for many years, he helped to introduce a tapers section at Grateful Dead concert to allow audience recording of live concerts. Healy would often provide direct output from the soundboard for the tapers to directly patch into their recorders.
He was a pioneer in rock
sound system innovation, and helped Bear along with Ron Wickersham of Alembic design the Dead's "
Wall of Sound" concert sound system.[2] He also helped perfect the ultra-matrix soundboard setup which was used by the Dead from 1986 through 1990. Some fans and collectors of the band's live recordings deem this setup to be the band's best-sounding, and most practical.
Healy has also undertaken
record production duties on occasion, such as when he produced the 1960s
San Franciscopsychedelic band
The Charlatans' eponymous
debut album. He is listed as co-producer and engineer on
Mother Earth's debut album Living with the Animals (1968). Healy was also the bass player for Hoffman's Bicycle (later Bycycle) that played the Bay Area for 18 months from the Summer of 1968.