thomgun_lc said:How about Test CD???
Does any one know a CD which consist of several song and each song has a special function to test stereo,imaging, depth?
ULTIMATE DEMONSTRATION DISC - CHESKY'S GUIDE TO CRITICAL LISTENING ( TEST CD ) Chesky Records
Before every pieces of music the narrator give you every detail what you must to hear.... / if not something wrong with your equipment /
I used to do a bit of band mixing, so my criteria might be a bit different...
Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child -not the slight return version, the full length blues thing from electric ladyland.
Massive Attack - Angel - the amp and speaker torture test, if they can do the bass from this without falling over they are doing well. I've had real wind at 2 metres out of 2kW subs with this.
Almost anything from the black album by Metallica, one of the best recorded rock albums ever, I think the band is full of idiots, but there is some good music here. The crispness and dynamics are incredible.
Song to the Siren - This Mortal Coil, beautiful female vocals.
Fast Car - Tracy Chapman.
The mission soundtrack - Ennio Morricone
Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child -not the slight return version, the full length blues thing from electric ladyland.
Massive Attack - Angel - the amp and speaker torture test, if they can do the bass from this without falling over they are doing well. I've had real wind at 2 metres out of 2kW subs with this.
Almost anything from the black album by Metallica, one of the best recorded rock albums ever, I think the band is full of idiots, but there is some good music here. The crispness and dynamics are incredible.
Song to the Siren - This Mortal Coil, beautiful female vocals.
Fast Car - Tracy Chapman.
The mission soundtrack - Ennio Morricone
Aphex Twin - Flim, IZ-US, Ventolin (careful with that last one)
Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra
Mahler - Symphony no. 6
Yes - Roundabout
Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots pt. 1, and a new addition, My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion (excellent track)
Holst - the Planets (listen to the col legno "click-click-click-click" on Mars!)
Beethoven - Quartet Op 18, No 6 (Cleveland Quartet's recording is amazing)
-kwantam
Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra
Mahler - Symphony no. 6
Yes - Roundabout
Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots pt. 1, and a new addition, My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion (excellent track)
Holst - the Planets (listen to the col legno "click-click-click-click" on Mars!)
Beethoven - Quartet Op 18, No 6 (Cleveland Quartet's recording is amazing)
-kwantam
I just made an uncompressed CD for auditioning speakers.
Some of the tracks (test songs)
Dan Fogleberg & Tim Weisberg – Twin Sons of Different Mothers – Lazy Susan
(Great strings & Flute)
Dianna Krall – Peal Me a Grape
(Excellent recording)
Fourplay – Bali Run
(fast & furious – my favorite ski mp3 song)
Spyro Gyra – Catching the Sun
(Killer Sax)
Paul Simon – Diamonds of The Soles of Her Shoes
(Male African voices in the intro – fantastic)
Led Zeppelin – Whole Lotta Love – re-mastered
(lots of dynamics – Base, Mids, and Robert Plants voice)
(the salesmen usually keep my disk)
Mike
Some of the tracks (test songs)
Dan Fogleberg & Tim Weisberg – Twin Sons of Different Mothers – Lazy Susan
(Great strings & Flute)
Dianna Krall – Peal Me a Grape
(Excellent recording)
Fourplay – Bali Run
(fast & furious – my favorite ski mp3 song)
Spyro Gyra – Catching the Sun
(Killer Sax)
Paul Simon – Diamonds of The Soles of Her Shoes
(Male African voices in the intro – fantastic)
Led Zeppelin – Whole Lotta Love – re-mastered
(lots of dynamics – Base, Mids, and Robert Plants voice)
(the salesmen usually keep my disk)
Mike
test stuff
dead can dance, ¨The Ubiquitous Mr Lovegrove ¨, is a tour de force for dynamics...
a David Lindley CD called ¨El Rayo-X¨ (1981): is an old cd pressing of surprisingly analog sound...
Some Patricia Barber stuff is really very well recorded; checkout ¨a fortnight in Paris¨cd, various tracks.
On vinyl: Dissidents, from Thomas Dolby`s ¨Flat Earth¨
dead can dance, ¨The Ubiquitous Mr Lovegrove ¨, is a tour de force for dynamics...
a David Lindley CD called ¨El Rayo-X¨ (1981): is an old cd pressing of surprisingly analog sound...
Some Patricia Barber stuff is really very well recorded; checkout ¨a fortnight in Paris¨cd, various tracks.
On vinyl: Dissidents, from Thomas Dolby`s ¨Flat Earth¨
Bass
Enya's "Watermark" album, The Longships track has a bass drum note of 33Hz. May not look much on paper but sounds pretty low and solid. good for impressing your friends. IIRC the theme music from Donkey Kong country has a bit of 22Hz in it. A bit low for me; my system really boogies at 28Hz, the point of minimum cone excursion and maximum port "activity".
Enya's "Watermark" album, The Longships track has a bass drum note of 33Hz. May not look much on paper but sounds pretty low and solid. good for impressing your friends. IIRC the theme music from Donkey Kong country has a bit of 22Hz in it. A bit low for me; my system really boogies at 28Hz, the point of minimum cone excursion and maximum port "activity".
please checkout...
http://digido.com/portal/pmodule_id=11/pmdmode=fullscreen/pageadder_page_id=93/
I haven`t got the time to check it entirely yet, but appears to be interesting
Cheers
http://digido.com/portal/pmodule_id=11/pmdmode=fullscreen/pageadder_page_id=93/
I haven`t got the time to check it entirely yet, but appears to be interesting
Cheers
Earlier on here, sam9 referred to Imaginary Day- Pat Methany. I used to be a very big fan.
(Side note - i used to race bicycles, and Methany is just amazingly good headphone stuff while training.)
I haven't listened to him in a while, so sam9 piqued my interest. I went a'searchin the web for info and, ironically, since it was this thread which set me off, I found the following...
"...the result is absolutely fascinating, absorbing and memorable listening that is likely to become a real milestone in the career of this always innovative group.
Sonically, the CD unfortunately has a problem. The recording and mix by Rob Eaton are excellent, capturing the subtleties of the almost dizzying number of instruments and added sounds going on. But the sound was ruined in the CD mastering process where mastering engineer Ted Jenson added an absolutely inexcusable amount of sonic compression, almost completely killing the dynamic range of this music that uses dynamics so effectively. Looking for a reason why this CD sounded so sonically squashed, I found, upon examining its digital audio levels, that for many of the tracks, including those with a musical ebb and flow, the sound level spent close to 90% of its time confined within the top 3 db available on a CD, out of an available dynamic range of over 90 CD. So the CD becomes a big disappointment on a good stereo system. The lousy mastering job also makes the recording sound cold and a bit shrill. This CD should definitely be recalled for remastering -- it won't be the first time this kind of thing has happened."
What reason would the sound engineer have for doing this? Are we really so completely at the mercy of this process? Sam9, do you know if the album was ever remastered?
(Side note - i used to race bicycles, and Methany is just amazingly good headphone stuff while training.)
I haven't listened to him in a while, so sam9 piqued my interest. I went a'searchin the web for info and, ironically, since it was this thread which set me off, I found the following...
"...the result is absolutely fascinating, absorbing and memorable listening that is likely to become a real milestone in the career of this always innovative group.
Sonically, the CD unfortunately has a problem. The recording and mix by Rob Eaton are excellent, capturing the subtleties of the almost dizzying number of instruments and added sounds going on. But the sound was ruined in the CD mastering process where mastering engineer Ted Jenson added an absolutely inexcusable amount of sonic compression, almost completely killing the dynamic range of this music that uses dynamics so effectively. Looking for a reason why this CD sounded so sonically squashed, I found, upon examining its digital audio levels, that for many of the tracks, including those with a musical ebb and flow, the sound level spent close to 90% of its time confined within the top 3 db available on a CD, out of an available dynamic range of over 90 CD. So the CD becomes a big disappointment on a good stereo system. The lousy mastering job also makes the recording sound cold and a bit shrill. This CD should definitely be recalled for remastering -- it won't be the first time this kind of thing has happened."
What reason would the sound engineer have for doing this? Are we really so completely at the mercy of this process? Sam9, do you know if the album was ever remastered?
The best and the real recording I ever heard is an amateur recordingl, with just one mic and portable DAT recorder to catch some acoustic traditional performance........ can believe my ear!!
I've almost been there!!
Many of major label are good, but not realistic as we can get, as from the recording session like above, too many process, as a DIYer, do you believe sound good from a big mixer table in studio, IMHO let we thinked twice
I also have some demo tape of not "star" band, even they recording, as just record some is very good recording!! never hear the hi-hat and vocal so real!!
need one thomgun_lc?
I've almost been there!!
Many of major label are good, but not realistic as we can get, as from the recording session like above, too many process, as a DIYer, do you believe sound good from a big mixer table in studio, IMHO let we thinked twice
I also have some demo tape of not "star" band, even they recording, as just record some is very good recording!! never hear the hi-hat and vocal so real!!
need one thomgun_lc?
A'af said:The best and the real recording I ever heard is an amateur recordingl, with just one mic and portable DAT recorder to catch some acoustic traditional performance........ can believe my ear!!
I've almost been there!!
I believe your ears without having heard the recording. Most modern recordings are done with far too many microphones which are mixed into some artificial mess which doesn't sound very real at all. At the same time there are many old mono recordings done with just one microphone which capture the acoustics so realistically that one can hardly believe it is mono. Using the same method with modern recording equipment should be able to give a very good result. Still, a stereo recording can of course be much better, if they can just keep it down to two or maybe three microphones and do minimal mixing, as was done with many of the early stereo recordings. Some still do it that way, but not many.
There are many modern recordings that people, or at least the companies, claim to have captured the acoustics so well. But when I listen to them I find that yes, there is a lot of acoustics, around each instrument/voice, but it doesn't fit together as a whole. It isn't an orchesta or a band playing in a hall. It is a number of instruments and singers which are all isolated in their own little hall of acoustics. One good such example is a Diana Krall recording I heard at a friends house. Yes, it is very good for testing resolution of systems and yes there is acoustics. But it is this kind of manufactured sound with each instrument and voice in its own acoustic bubble. It might be acceptable for music which is never performed without electronics on stage, but it doesn't work for purely acoustic music, like a symphony orchesta.
Don't get me wrong now, I am not saying that the old recordings have better sound than the modern ones. I am saying that in some ways many of them do, but of course they don't in other ways. We do after all have much better equipment today, so we can record without all the noise and distorsion of the old recordings. It is just the art of recording that seems to have get lost, or rather it got lost at the moment they started to think about it and try to improve it.