What are your favorite test tracks?

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#3
YouTube - ‪Dire Straits - News + lyrics‬‏
Dire straits - News.
Well, actualy just about anyhting off the Communique CD.

Also
Portishead - The Rip off the albumm Third.
You realy need to look at a wave plot of the track, to see how the dynamic levels are layered
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBOaLjtR4mw
At about 2:15 into the song, on a well tuned system, it is like a 3D projection is suddenly turned on, and the sound moves forward out from the speakers, the youtube track doesn't quite do it as well, or maybe its just my PC speakers...

Enya - Watermark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiFTXckh0zU
Features oodles of loud content in the 20 to sub 20Hz area, including a 19Hz note that is 6dB louder than the highest level anywhere else on the disc
 
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#4
#6
No worries! I can be hard to find these things if you haven't seen them. The forum software does an auto-suggest, but it's not always smart.

Continue to post here, I'll look into combining some of these.
 
#7
Well whenever I fiddle with my bass solutions I play Up on cripple creek by The Band. The whole album (The Band - The Band) has nicely textured bass by the way which can point you to any problems or whatever is lacking in that department. Also I use Coming in from the cold by Bob Marley from the album Uprising for the same thing. Especially the first few bars.
 
#11
Ah yes, fair point. 😉

You should be able to pick out the acoustic guitar (not always easy).
The bass drum should be distinguishable in the mix of low notes from the piano (another test for this here, 'cept with bass guitar). I have heard systems obscure this in favour of LF rumble. Not good.
The lower notes of the piano should be "right" - if you're using a crossover in the lower mids, you'll find out if it's right or not..
Listen out for imaging of the backing singers toward the end. Impressive if done right.

YouTube - ‪Cornflake Girl (UK Version) - Tori Amos‬‏

Chris
 
#12
Youtube sounds crap. For real. It just shows you can fool most of the people most of the time. No quality there. Everything gets re compressed. Nice description though. You got me curious.

Edit. I'll stop hijacking now. Sorry had to get it off my chest.
 
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#14
For showing off I use LA Woman by the doors. First I play the Red Book version, after that I play the 24/88.2 2.0 and wow the lot. The same is possible using for instance Sugar Magnolia by the Grateful Dead, Red Book first, DVDA later. A world of difference.
 
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#15
SY said:
Show off tracks or test tracks? Very different!
Click to expand...

Therefore, shaking down prototypes, I prefer tracks which I know well and which sound OK at best, but shitty on most systems. Actually, it's these songs I love so very much which drive me ahead to build better speakers. Some recordings are actually quite flawed, and as soon as you recognize what went wrong in the studio, you know you can take the system out of the equation. Some recordings continue to get better with every improvement of the reproductive system.

Roxy Music: If there is something. High notes on sax are very difficult to render.

Traffic: Forty thousand headmen, Crying to be heard. On a mediocre system, there appears to be a lot of clipping in these recordings. A good system lets the voices really come through. A superb system reveals that some instruments really are clipped, like the flute.

Almost anything by Van Morrison: Only good systems don't round of his voice and reveal it's texture.

Little Feat: Skin it Back. I know how this should sound on a large PA, because this song was used often for settings.

Lou Reed: Everything on Transformer, with Just a perfect Day my favorite. Violins, Large piano, brass, wood, close miked voice, fine dry bass, everything recorded and mixed with great finesse. My number one rating song, since all of this can be garbled up in different degrees. Still, whatever the system does to it, the song remains great.
 
#16
The Firebird Suite - Telarc Digital, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (dynamic range!)

Jupiter, The Planets - A. Dutoit, Montreal Symphony Orchestra

Into The Fire - Sarah McLaughlin

Everybody's got something to Hide (except for me and my monkey), The Beatles White Album. McCartney's subtle double-time bass line only becomes apparent when you have accurate bass.

Actually, any of the remastered Beatles albums. I especially like the earlier records where Ringo is recorded with a single mic. Drums don't get much better sounding than that.
 
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