You should find the sound-check bootleg from Great Society, her earlier group. Recording is very funky. So is the playing. I think Grace was in the ladies room powdering her nose for the first 4 minutes. But when she finally reaches the stage.... on Amazon with snips
If you want your guests to leave: It was also covered by the Austin Lounge Lizards. Texas-style. With banjos.
Most they play the classics for this which is Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, Tom Petty, Diana Krall, Miles Davis... Not the most demanding music.
Often when i come with my reference tracks (Stevie Wonder, Fela Kuti, Tony Allen, King Tubby, Bush Chemists, Sun Ra, Ornette Coleman) their setup falls true as they can't handle it on high volume. And when i take out some heavy classic stuff (Carmina Burana from Karl Orf or some Bach piano sonates so) it gets even worse as many can't handle the dynamics of these pieces... And those are not even the most demanding. I think if i would come with some Wagner opera's (wich i don't like) or so, it would even be much worse...
Ornette Coleman, now you're talking 🙂 It's interesting though, what you say re Dub and Sun Ra, I'm a fan, but Sun Ra's recordings are notoriously poor quality, that isn't the important factor though, it's the sonic complexity? For me, Zappa is a good reference, complex, well recorded and I'm familiar.
There can be a huge gap between "good music" and "well mastered/recorded". Plenty of examples that hit one mark, but not the other. Plenty of examples that get both wrong.
So while I completely agree that "what the guest likes" is possibly a decent choice, I vigorously disagree if their choice is "Wonderwall".
Speaking of....
Really hate to honk my own horn, and it's not necessarily something people like. But the music I've made is intended for mainly two things:
1. Something I would like to listen to myself.
2. Help provoke differences in the system.
A problem I've discovered is that I tried very hard to master the sound so it sounds ok on small speakers, in the car, and on a bigger setup, with everything set to flat. But when I adjust the same setups to sound averagely half decent on the averagely mixed vast majority of recordings, it really does not suit my mix at all.
Usually sounds half decent just about anywhere on flat settings though.
You don't have to like it, and it's not the most complex music since I'm just a single individual struggling, but it is well suited for testing systems IMO. Especially bass articulation and dynamics. Falls apart and sounds strained/blurred/muddy if you got issues.
/Horn honkin'
Sun Ra is not so well recorded, i agree, but the combo of not so well recorded and very complex music is very demanding for a speaker, most just give an audio soup of the recording, good still can give it detailed so you still can hear the different instruments placed in the space.
And King Tubby is also not well recorded. Most of that music is recorded in a rough ghetto studio somewhere in Kingston in very primitive conditions and mixed all in an other ghetto studio on a MCI416 that is heavy modified by King Tubby. But it's mainly to test how the speakers can handle that, and the in/out dropping heavy basslines. And sonicly it can also be very busy with all the phaser, reverb and delay effects used in the mix. This music does not has the standard sonic structure, and that is always a good test for speakers.
The Bush Chemists are mainly for the extreme deep synthbass (often between 20 and 30Hz roottone) that they use in their electronic dub.
I've found as my system has improved poor recordings have sounded better despite their flaws. Many say the opposite which I've never quite understood, I think it must be a perception issue, they find it hard to hear past the flaws which have been more exposed?
Yes, I find the "In the End" medley to be handy or some songs of them where the stratocaster is fine as in the naked album... Paul's voice has something "inimitable" when played acuratly by a good hifi system. Why my guitar gently etc works also well, while there is something wrong in the reccording of it (at least in CD).
But the usual Dire Straits and Tracy Chapman 's 'Bout the revolution song that fulled the pocket of the hifi vendors in the 80s, the one that is often pleasing people whatever their tastes is the Wish you were here song.
Someone above talked about Louis & Ella.... the Porgy&Bess album is stuning and people are always focussed on the two voices of this reccording at home I noticed 😎
Bach Cello Suits by Rostropovitch works fine and a direct windows to emotion for me and some people around... as Kind of Blue !
When I see a "younger sun of" asking to fire up the system, Led Zep Star way to heaven also works : clean, dynamic, great solo guitar tht keep the attention of young males and London Gramar for teens 🙄 !
what ever the tune, It seems than the playback has to open a direct window towards emotion & motion... and of course tastes differs.... ah forgott : Antonio Forcione guitar from Naim reccords 🙂... good 3d behavior that grab the attention...often...!
Whish you were here rules them all as far I'm concerned !
Last edited:
I'd play some acoustic music. From CD - Track #1 of this:
La Tarantella — L'Arpeggiata - Christina Pluhar
And from LP - something from 1960, just to cause some surprise:
Sketches Of Spain | Miles Davis
La Tarantella — L'Arpeggiata - Christina Pluhar
And from LP - something from 1960, just to cause some surprise:
Sketches Of Spain | Miles Davis
Last edited:
Joni Mitchell - A case of you, since it is a beautiful song. If the hifi are great, any song* would suffice. Unless the demo is for the hifi owners ego, ask for a song the neighbor loves and they (might) get impacted!
*If I try to search hifi music from Youtube, for example, all purpose made songs seem to be very boring. Hifi is supposed to be fun, not boring! Listen what you love. Peace!😀
*If I try to search hifi music from Youtube, for example, all purpose made songs seem to be very boring. Hifi is supposed to be fun, not boring! Listen what you love. Peace!😀
Last edited:
As a side note, have you noticed the mania around certain specific recordings? For extreme example, the mania about AC/DC's Back in Black is just insane. The fan analysis of every LP pressing or CD batch is just unbelievable if you Google the right music forum. Similarly the research of Angus Young's sound chain to create a couple of pedals is unmatched. I know there are other examples of this kind of thing, but nothing that matches the DEGREE in this case.
