What do you listen to to test you new creations?

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I use the same CD that I tuned my PA system back in the 90's

Mariah Carey MTV unplugged. Her range really let me know if I got the vocals right and she has quite a few breathy sounds.

For male voices, Dire Straits and for everything else (not PA) the Telarc version of the 1812 Overture. Throw in a little Johnny Cash to get the feel of the plucking strings and all is well.

My son uses "Bass, I Love You" so my genetic quirk was not passed down. :dunno:
 
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Another Dire straights vote here :) specifically love over gold, private investigations.

Also "Ella and Louis" (verve remaster)
Nick Cave "the boatmans call"
Jenifer Warne "famous Blue Raincoat"
White stripes "elephant" This seems to reveal all sorts of shortcomings, I'm still trying to get this to sound good, perhaps my CD is bad ;)

Tony.
 
I use a variety of stuff that generally mimics my musical tastes at the time I'm evaluating, but there are a few tracks that pretty much always get a listen. These tracks are not necessarily the genres I normally listen to on a day-to-day basis, but are ones that are familiar to me (very important ... so choose music you know well and have heard on a variety of systems ... feel free to audition a track I mention but you should really choose your own).

In my case these are tracks I've been listening to since the late 70's where my quest for HiFi began and have heard on hundreds if not thousands of systems.

They are not necessarily outstanding tracks for sound quality ... I like to include a track or two that are congested or with limited dynamic range, for example ... but they do tell me something about the system.

Key: Artist - Track - 'Album'

Rikkie Lee Jones - My Funny Valentine (live) - 'Girl At Her Volcano'
Rikkie Lee Jones - Last Chance Texaco - 'Rikkie Lee Jones'

Joan Armatrading - Opportunity - 'Show Some Emotion'

Stevie Wonder - Living For The City - 'Innervisions'

Tom Waits - Romeo Is Bleeding - 'Blue Valentine'

The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations - 'Endless Summer'
Todd Rungren - Good Vibrations - 'Faithful'

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Lucky Man - 'Emerson, Lake & Palmer'

Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street - 'Baker Street'

Howlin' Wolf - Red Rooster - 'London Sessions'

J. Geils Band - Hard Drivin' Man - 'Live'

Joe Jackson - Fools In Love - 'Look Sharp!'

AC/DC - Hell's Bells - 'Back In Black'

Aretha Franklin - Natural Woman - 'The Big Chill [soundtrack]'

Blind Faith - Can't Find My Way Home - 'Blind Faith'

Blondie - Hangin' On The Telephone - 'Parallel Lines'

Bobbie Gentry - Ode To Billy Joe - [single]

Count Baise & Joe Turner - The Honeydripper - 'The Bosses'

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Our House - 'So Far'

Eagles - Bitter Creek - 'Desperado'

Etta james - At Last - 'At Last'

Glenn Gould - One or more of the 3 Bach tracks - 'Handel: Suites for Harpsichord / Back: Well Tempered Clavier'

Norman Greenbaum - Spirit In The Sky - 'Spirit In The Sky'

Patsy Cline - Crazy - [multiple albums] (this one's got a strange click track that's very revealing)

Rory Block - Terraplane Blues / Sing Good News - 'Mama's Blues'
Rory Block - Uncloudy Day - 'High Heeled Blues'

There are (many) more modern artists I'll listen to as well, but these are tracks that have been used for years, so they always get a listen.
 
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Breath in the mic may not be a good thing: close mic'd singers, while creating an intimate-sounding environment, doesn't sound natural at all.

Has anyone listened to Bob Geldof's album Sex, Age and Death?
Some good stuff there - mainly Bob + guitar, but on some of the tracks there's some low frequency stuff too (as in sub 30Hz low - you don't always notice it playing, until you turn it up and wonder why everything's shaking).
The Supernatural album by Santana is good - listen to the last track (the Calling). It's a long track, but plenty of dynamic range when the drums get going. Nearer the start (dynamic drum bit is the second part, there's a quiet bit seperating the two), the bass should be deep, but still have "texture" (for lack of a better word), not just a thump/rumble.
While its not to everyone's taste, some well-recorded choir music is a slightly extreme test of imaging. I've heard a system once that put 8 people in their own place next to each other between the speakers. You could point directly to each one.
Paul Weller - Stanley Road
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon - last few tracks in particular get rather complex: a system's ability to seperate all the instruments to be distinguishable and easy to follow individually is a decent sign. You'll know it's set up right when he says "I can't think of anything to say" (track 8/9), and he's just behind you. Scary when done right.
Steeleye Span - (seen these guys live in a school hall) very nice, natural sounding recordings - music might not be to everyone's taste though.

Chris
 
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I use mp3's because I only have one CD... :O

I guess I could see if the speakers can reveal the artifacts of a 320kbps file vs other speakers...The speakers that I currently listen to don't reveal much difference in quality at 160kbps or greater, either that or I myself can't tell the difference... :) Let me get my song list ready, they are just songs I like and not songs where you will be able to "hear the orchestra", "feel like the acoustic guitar is right in front of you" in most cases, as a lot are made more electronically. I'll have to look into some better test material when I start more damanding projects :)
 
Yet another Dire Straits fan, the album with "Money for Nothin'".
Also, Robbie Roberson's first solo album and Warren Zevon's "Excitable Boy".

For females, Joni Michell, of course, as well as Patti LaBelle, and the Eurythmics.

Acoustic instruments, John Williams (guitar) and John O'Conner (piano).

Oh, and Trevor Pinnock. Lots of Trevor Pinnock.
 
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Man, this is really a difficult subject. But I normally go through lots of different types of music, listen at different levels. Hear are a few things that I have learned from others.
1. Vocals. I never thought I'd put this up first, but vocals have much more detail, emotions, and skills involved. If you learn to appreciate these of specific performers, then these are really the most obvious, and don't change too much with recording methods. They are effected by how they are processed though.

2. Low level detail. The obviousness of recorded room acoustics is a give away. Recordings in dead rooms will sound different from recordings in rooms that are more live and of different sizes. The echo of the room is quite difficult to reproduce since it gets mixed with the systems own stored energy release.

I could go on and on, but the others are really too hair splitting to list out.
 
Vocals for sure, and almost entirely recording done by people whose voices I know well from live interaction. "Lonesome on the Ground" by Steve Edmunds. "The Great Re-arranger" by Robert Ellis. "The Cruelty of Teenage Girls" by Southpaw Jones. "The Barbers" by Lee Barber. "Animal Boy" by Matt the Electrician.
 
I use a variety of recordings but if I had to choose a single one, it would be something with a wide range of acoustical instruments and operatic voices. These are sounds I'm familiar with in the real world and can often tell where the distortions are. The CD release of the 1962 recording of Von Karajan conducting the Beethoven's 9th symphony comes to mind. I'll also try a range of recordings where I know the inherent spectral balance from one to the other is at extremes. This tells me where the speaker falls as far as general overall balance is concerned.
 
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