Dick's / Dave's picks

ifmywormsdidglow (tee-hee) I totally get that. The vibe of the crowd, which city, what decade, these things are definitely compromised.
 

excellent points! ifmywordsdidglow & goofyfoot.

Happy Listening!

After over 45 years of listening to live Dead recordings, I'm not in the whole show camp at all (and actually haven't been for a long time!).  There are whole shows I listen to, of course, but probably less than half the time even if I have the whole show available.

JMO of course

There are some people doing some very nice stuff with matrixing aka adding crowd noises back in to great sounding soundboards.

ifmywordsdidglow, 
"It bothers me that the Dick's Picks releases do not include full shows."
Out of 36 volumes of Dicks Picks there are only a few that are not complete full shows... OR are you saying, you wish they were "un-cut", meaning still having the sometimes long breaks and tuning between the songs? I love that on the un-cut boards that are out there.

jond,
Not to get picky here or miss your "generalizing", but --and info for those that may not know-- a matrix recording (AUD and SDB mixed to varying percentages) does much more than just adds crowd noise. A good well done matrix can compleatly change the sound and feel of a show recording.

rbbert,
I kind of agree, as there is magic to be heard in every single Dead show [release] (to keep it with the thread subject)... Personally I am generally a 'one set at a time' listener but often just choose a run of songs to play at a time.