London Session Orchestra - Reflections of Earth
Amazon.com: Epcot - Tapestry of Dreams: Various: Music
Fireworks music for EPCOT.
Amazon.com: Epcot - Tapestry of Dreams: Various: Music
Fireworks music for EPCOT.
The Reverend Horton Heat : "One time for me", and "Some Nig*ers", as it makes everyone cringe.
Juno Reactor: Pistolero
If you like making people cringe, try the Last Poets;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Poets_(album))
John
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For serious Hi-Fi system test:artist Son Kite-album Colours(think 2002).excelent studio production and cool Music,very dynamic pasages,style Psytrance-Minimal. several diferent pasages with no pause(or beatyfool interpasages,remind me on Pink Floyd litle beat).Wery demanding piece of music for Audio Equipment.Good luck
equipment test tracks
I like to listen to pop music, rock & roll etc, but there is no telling what it sounded like in the studio. I test equipment with piano that is hard to do correctly, Rudolf Serkin Beethoven Sonata's Colombia MYK 37219 or LP MS6181. Track 3, Moonlight Presto, is great on treble and power handing (woogedy woogedy POW!!!!) but the bass parts are pianissimo. So I supplement with ZZ Top Eliminator and Afterburner albums, that have hard hitting drums and deep bass. The top octave of the piano is exercised repeatedly, also there is some cymbal, on Peter Nero LSP2484 Warm & Wonderful, the "Secret Love" track. For calibration, I have a Sohmer & Steinway pianos, that I play on the same Moonlight movement. You can calibrate your ears at the local music school concerts. Steinways, Baldwin, Sohmer, Bechstein, Yamaha grands all have fine sounds. Per Conrad's post, accurate voice is a good mid-range test, but I don't know what any of the artists sound like live, so I have no sense of what is proper electronically. I've never bought any equipment more expensive than a car radio that sounded honky or cardboard on lyrics, however.
I like to listen to pop music, rock & roll etc, but there is no telling what it sounded like in the studio. I test equipment with piano that is hard to do correctly, Rudolf Serkin Beethoven Sonata's Colombia MYK 37219 or LP MS6181. Track 3, Moonlight Presto, is great on treble and power handing (woogedy woogedy POW!!!!) but the bass parts are pianissimo. So I supplement with ZZ Top Eliminator and Afterburner albums, that have hard hitting drums and deep bass. The top octave of the piano is exercised repeatedly, also there is some cymbal, on Peter Nero LSP2484 Warm & Wonderful, the "Secret Love" track. For calibration, I have a Sohmer & Steinway pianos, that I play on the same Moonlight movement. You can calibrate your ears at the local music school concerts. Steinways, Baldwin, Sohmer, Bechstein, Yamaha grands all have fine sounds. Per Conrad's post, accurate voice is a good mid-range test, but I don't know what any of the artists sound like live, so I have no sense of what is proper electronically. I've never bought any equipment more expensive than a car radio that sounded honky or cardboard on lyrics, however.
Here's mine, with what I listen for:
1. Spanish Harlem, Rebecca Pidgeon - female vocal texture
2. Love over Gold - Dire Straits - bass guitar, piano
3. Far More Blue - Dave Brubeck - ambience and sax tone
4. Argyle Bridge - Steve Strauss - thick male vocals
5. Into the Fire - Sarah MacLachlan - fretless bass, female vocal
6. The Blood & Tears - Steve Vai - guitar tone
7. Diamonds and Rust - Joan Baez - below average recording, but use it to check how bad the system sounds with poor recordings
8. Temptation - Diana Krall - pretty much everything
9. Old Love - From Eric Clapton Unplugged - Bass impact, imaging, piano tone and soundstage width
10. Never as good as the first time - Sade - dynamic impact, midbass and midrange 'speed'.
1. Spanish Harlem, Rebecca Pidgeon - female vocal texture
2. Love over Gold - Dire Straits - bass guitar, piano
3. Far More Blue - Dave Brubeck - ambience and sax tone
4. Argyle Bridge - Steve Strauss - thick male vocals
5. Into the Fire - Sarah MacLachlan - fretless bass, female vocal
6. The Blood & Tears - Steve Vai - guitar tone
7. Diamonds and Rust - Joan Baez - below average recording, but use it to check how bad the system sounds with poor recordings
8. Temptation - Diana Krall - pretty much everything
9. Old Love - From Eric Clapton Unplugged - Bass impact, imaging, piano tone and soundstage width
10. Never as good as the first time - Sade - dynamic impact, midbass and midrange 'speed'.
Or maybe the 'Live at Glastonbury' Version, complete with computer malfunctions........
Muddy Waters Folk Singer, MoFi
High Compression, James Cotton
Harp Attack
Luc And the Locomotives, Robert Lucas
Cheap Thrills, Big Brother and the Holding Company
Baby, Yellow
Sssssssh!, Ten Years After
Axis Bold as Love, Hendrix mono re-issue
Just for FUN, and original UK pressing of FIRE!, Arthur Brown
High Compression, James Cotton
Harp Attack
Luc And the Locomotives, Robert Lucas
Cheap Thrills, Big Brother and the Holding Company
Baby, Yellow
Sssssssh!, Ten Years After
Axis Bold as Love, Hendrix mono re-issue
Just for FUN, and original UK pressing of FIRE!, Arthur Brown
I usually try things out the first time with Bluezeum, Portrait Of A Groove, track 2 "Can I Get That Funk"
It really dynamic, plenty of bass, and a pretty good recording. And it´s fun!
Portrait Of A Groove : Bluezeum : Concord Music Group
And second I play Patricia Barber, Cafe Blue, "To Rich for my Blood" That song is a whole journey from calm, to crescendo, to a drumming afterglow. Great for vocal and a long drum period.
For ambiance I will listen to Kleive & Reiersrud´s Blue Coral. Electric guitar and church organ with the church room playing as the third member!
http://www.knutreiersrud.no/main_music_blaa_koral.html
It really dynamic, plenty of bass, and a pretty good recording. And it´s fun!
Portrait Of A Groove : Bluezeum : Concord Music Group
And second I play Patricia Barber, Cafe Blue, "To Rich for my Blood" That song is a whole journey from calm, to crescendo, to a drumming afterglow. Great for vocal and a long drum period.
For ambiance I will listen to Kleive & Reiersrud´s Blue Coral. Electric guitar and church organ with the church room playing as the third member!
http://www.knutreiersrud.no/main_music_blaa_koral.html
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A track call Audio_Test_-_Boston_Acoustics_Bass_Test_Cd_-Woofer_Cooker__This_Track_Can_Smoke_Woofers_.mp3 that floats about on the net, usualy easily bottoms out subs (asin hard against the suspension) contains large amounts of subsonic bass and is far more effective than pure sine waves at the same amplitude making a building vibrate. That and the Telarc 1812 with "digital" cannons, I also think it's a good recording in addition to its INSANE dynamic range, I can do a funny trick with one of my amps where I turn that up full and half way through the first cannon shot the amp is garunteed to cut out due to its protection circuit.
But my all time most used has to be logrithmicly swept sine 10Hz - 500Hz
But my all time most used has to be logrithmicly swept sine 10Hz - 500Hz
lol the exploding egg trick sounds fun , but the equivalent in speaker test terms: the sub bass cd, really doesnt tell you much, apart from how noisy the suspension can be....swept sines are useful but boring as hell. im sure most people have a favourite track they know sounds good on a sorted system, and i dont believe ANYONE loves sines that much! not me at any rate
If you want to test a system, get a decent, high quality mic, and a sound recorder.
Then put an egg in the microwave, press start.
Be careful that you don't turn it up, when you're playing it back.
I find sine sweeps useless - they vary so much room to room that they're irrelevant.
For those that want to watch speakers flap around, download "Bass I Love You". That's got some weird stuff, including some <10Hz stuff.
Then put an egg in the microwave, press start.
Be careful that you don't turn it up, when you're playing it back.
I find sine sweeps useless - they vary so much room to room that they're irrelevant.
For those that want to watch speakers flap around, download "Bass I Love You". That's got some weird stuff, including some <10Hz stuff.
This was played a lot at LSAF this year. Victor Wooten rules!
I often haul around the Alison Krause cut "Down to the River to Pray" from Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? Just voices. Amazing how different this sounds on different systems. Even swapping amps will change the sound of the choir.
voice testing
Panomania said "I often haul around the Alison Krause cut "Down to the River to Pray" from Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?". Conrad says he test speakers with voice. Cool, I've heard Alison's voice from 6 feet away live as she walked down a dirt path and complained to her band about something. Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom festival, 198? I'll have to use that track for speaker tests.
Panomania said "I often haul around the Alison Krause cut "Down to the River to Pray" from Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?". Conrad says he test speakers with voice. Cool, I've heard Alison's voice from 6 feet away live as she walked down a dirt path and complained to her band about something. Bill Monroe's Bean Blossom festival, 198? I'll have to use that track for speaker tests.
I don't really use CDs to test speakers. I use the CDs to enjoy the music. You know, once you get the speaker "right" (or better than previous prototype) you will know it right away and you will start wanting to play all your CD collection.
Testing speaker using CDs may be useful when the speaker is designed with certain objective based on personal taste (or we're trying to get the lowest possible octave where box design software cannot simulate it perfectly).
Most speakers have compromises so it is fine if you want to tune it based on certain non technical requirement, even tho this means a "wrong" reproduction. Well, that's why we have a lot of speakers out there, reviewed differently, sound differently, but no-one cares or knows which one is right or wrong.
If you want a sweet vocal, you can make your speaker to reproduce vocal much sweeter than they really should
If you want a good image/sound-stage, you can do it too, sometimes better than it should.
What I mean here is, it is not correct to assume that a speaker is "right" (by my own definition at least) just because it can play certain music most beautifully.
If you judge speakers based on taste you will not be able to decide which speaker is "better" than which (especially because speaker is only part of a complete audio chain). Your decision may change once you change the amplifier, or even an input capacitor somewhere.
So for me, I know if the speaker is better by my own definition without having to use test CD, just play any music I know. The drivers should blend perfectly and the distortion is acceptable. The perfect blend is mandatory, and the distortion level is where improvement is sought after.
The best material for "test" is vocal. Not that it has to be sweet, but there should be fine details in the vocal that you should be able to "hear", such as emotion, change in tone, inhale, or whatever it is. Yes, Diana Krall vocal is unique for this purpose because there is something there that makes her voice so sexy if reproduced "correctly"
Testing speaker using CDs may be useful when the speaker is designed with certain objective based on personal taste (or we're trying to get the lowest possible octave where box design software cannot simulate it perfectly).
Most speakers have compromises so it is fine if you want to tune it based on certain non technical requirement, even tho this means a "wrong" reproduction. Well, that's why we have a lot of speakers out there, reviewed differently, sound differently, but no-one cares or knows which one is right or wrong.
If you want a sweet vocal, you can make your speaker to reproduce vocal much sweeter than they really should
If you want a good image/sound-stage, you can do it too, sometimes better than it should.
What I mean here is, it is not correct to assume that a speaker is "right" (by my own definition at least) just because it can play certain music most beautifully.
If you judge speakers based on taste you will not be able to decide which speaker is "better" than which (especially because speaker is only part of a complete audio chain). Your decision may change once you change the amplifier, or even an input capacitor somewhere.
So for me, I know if the speaker is better by my own definition without having to use test CD, just play any music I know. The drivers should blend perfectly and the distortion is acceptable. The perfect blend is mandatory, and the distortion level is where improvement is sought after.
The best material for "test" is vocal. Not that it has to be sweet, but there should be fine details in the vocal that you should be able to "hear", such as emotion, change in tone, inhale, or whatever it is. Yes, Diana Krall vocal is unique for this purpose because there is something there that makes her voice so sexy if reproduced "correctly"
i just couldn't resist to post ...
few of my favorite ones for testing and listening:
Howard Shore - [The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring #08] Flight to the Ford
Shpongle - [Tales Of The Inexpressible #01] Dorset Perception
To Zucchabar - [OST - Gladiator #06]
Ayo - [Focal Number 7 #01] Down On My Knees
Edward Sheamur - [K-Pax #01] Grand Central
Celtic Cross - [Hicksville #08] Louden
for vocals its usually Enya or Celine Dion.
IMO the best music to test speakers/amps is the music that gives you emotions. than you can better recognize whats suits you the best.
few of my favorite ones for testing and listening:
Howard Shore - [The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring #08] Flight to the Ford
Shpongle - [Tales Of The Inexpressible #01] Dorset Perception
To Zucchabar - [OST - Gladiator #06]
Ayo - [Focal Number 7 #01] Down On My Knees
Edward Sheamur - [K-Pax #01] Grand Central
Celtic Cross - [Hicksville #08] Louden
for vocals its usually Enya or Celine Dion.
IMO the best music to test speakers/amps is the music that gives you emotions. than you can better recognize whats suits you the best.
In 1957, I bought the Pop Science Magazine test record with a band of repeating sweeps from 300 to 20 with cricket markers at 50 Hz intervals. I've heard that sweep at least 1000 times. Very helpful today in setting my sub-woofer parametric equalizer with two modules.
My favorite test record, Frederick Fennel, cond. Holst Band Suites. Band 3 has enormous drum crash and band 6, I think, has an anvil being struck with a hammer of some kind.
I can't believe people are proposing over-produced pop crap for test purposes.
Woofer_Cooker__This_Track_Can_Smoke_Woofers_.mp3
which was mentioned above has a few "artificial" features in the course of 4:07.
Starts with a sweep sine tone then has low frequency notes sustained for the duration. Mostly what's called "16 foot pitch" (about 32 Hz) that is pretty strong and runs most of the length. Also, a strong 8-footer.
I'm doubtful if the musical value exceeds the pure and sweet tones of my Heath audio oscillator.
One organ-oriented subwoofer thread sometimes talk about demo recordings and their interest is stuff below 16 foot, for sure. Lots of recordings that go to 32 but recordings or music that goes below.
See the Ruffatti Organ thread which also includes a discussion of using a freeware spectrum analyzer to look at what is playing.
(Please, spare us smart-asked replies about how little you value that approach, your ears are your meter, you despise the mechanization of sound, etc.. We know, we know.... and agree to some degree)
which was mentioned above has a few "artificial" features in the course of 4:07.
Starts with a sweep sine tone then has low frequency notes sustained for the duration. Mostly what's called "16 foot pitch" (about 32 Hz) that is pretty strong and runs most of the length. Also, a strong 8-footer.
I'm doubtful if the musical value exceeds the pure and sweet tones of my Heath audio oscillator.
One organ-oriented subwoofer thread sometimes talk about demo recordings and their interest is stuff below 16 foot, for sure. Lots of recordings that go to 32 but recordings or music that goes below.
See the Ruffatti Organ thread which also includes a discussion of using a freeware spectrum analyzer to look at what is playing.
(Please, spare us smart-asked replies about how little you value that approach, your ears are your meter, you despise the mechanization of sound, etc.. We know, we know.... and agree to some degree)