Kind of Blue
The reasons I believe this album are quintessential in evaluating an entire system are:
the production is minimal; the quality of the production has never been questioned; the instruments are all acoustic; and the amount of detail heard and felt only increases as the audio system performance increases.
When "Blue" sounds good, everything else will fall right in line.
I own 180gr vinyl and you are right.
bass test
hi op,
i think there are 2 ways you can go about this...
a) finding acoustic music which tests the bass in your system
b) finding electronic music which tests the ability of your system
i think for A) ...anything...works, as the closer your system is to flat and the better your amp/speaker damping the more realism will be juiced out of your system...and also the more you will be able to hear texture in your bass. Low resolving systems tend to resolve bass guitar pedal distortion poorly as well as general texture in lower octaves.
for B) however, there are lots of tunes where the bass simply comes in...very basic and easy...what you want are tunes where the bass goes everywhere..has LFO's on it, goes low as hell.
for B)...my suggestions;
EPROM - Honey Badger (awesome almost arpeggiated ultra low bass - i dont think i've heard any of my systems resolve this properly)
Bass Mekanik discography - music designed to test car bass.
pick anything...the subs will be clean...and will be moving around...you'll be able to see if your system can play notes fast and if your woofers suffer from port turbulence and so on.
there are loads of things in this department, but that should keep you busy! 🙂
hi op,
i think there are 2 ways you can go about this...
a) finding acoustic music which tests the bass in your system
b) finding electronic music which tests the ability of your system
i think for A) ...anything...works, as the closer your system is to flat and the better your amp/speaker damping the more realism will be juiced out of your system...and also the more you will be able to hear texture in your bass. Low resolving systems tend to resolve bass guitar pedal distortion poorly as well as general texture in lower octaves.
for B) however, there are lots of tunes where the bass simply comes in...very basic and easy...what you want are tunes where the bass goes everywhere..has LFO's on it, goes low as hell.
for B)...my suggestions;
EPROM - Honey Badger (awesome almost arpeggiated ultra low bass - i dont think i've heard any of my systems resolve this properly)
Bass Mekanik discography - music designed to test car bass.
pick anything...the subs will be clean...and will be moving around...you'll be able to see if your system can play notes fast and if your woofers suffer from port turbulence and so on.
there are loads of things in this department, but that should keep you busy! 🙂
I built some subs and dsp amps and tuning by ear for now, works just fine enough for me.
Cycle through some acoustic, rock, pop and electronic music and think twice before going to dsp, small adjustments or reset.
Tune in some slam from rock, check that nick drake is not muddy. Try to dance few edm favourites. feels better than in the local nightclub? if not, tweak away. Then some stan getz or neil young or what ever. If no feelings, check the dsp. Another night, try to get some adrenaline from heavy metal. No adrenaline? drink a beer and go to dsp 🙂 you get it. lots of fun 🙂
Cycle through some acoustic, rock, pop and electronic music and think twice before going to dsp, small adjustments or reset.
Tune in some slam from rock, check that nick drake is not muddy. Try to dance few edm favourites. feels better than in the local nightclub? if not, tweak away. Then some stan getz or neil young or what ever. If no feelings, check the dsp. Another night, try to get some adrenaline from heavy metal. No adrenaline? drink a beer and go to dsp 🙂 you get it. lots of fun 🙂
Portishead - Numb. Lots of low dub style bass mixed with some high notes, good workout.
Lou Reed - Walk on the wild side. Nice string bass, listen out for the strings rattling the finger board, good recording showing the small club venue.
Bella fleck and the fecktones - flight of the cosmic hippo. Listen and you will see why.
Blue man group - piano smasher.
Club for five - brother in arms. Monster bass male vocals, listen out at around 2 mins for a bass note that will stand out.
Finally, anything by skrellex. Heavy dub.
Lou Reed - Walk on the wild side. Nice string bass, listen out for the strings rattling the finger board, good recording showing the small club venue.
Bella fleck and the fecktones - flight of the cosmic hippo. Listen and you will see why.
Blue man group - piano smasher.
Club for five - brother in arms. Monster bass male vocals, listen out at around 2 mins for a bass note that will stand out.
Finally, anything by skrellex. Heavy dub.
I'd forget LP, sounds great but .. anyway, test with lossless quality (digital) music only (when testing stereo).
Check these out (careful with volume!!), they also useable via Youtube but of course bought online in lossless is the best (e.g. flac):
Some REAL dubstep:
Vaun - Listen
Vaun - Comatose
D-Cult - Inner Peace 😱
Kryptic Minds - Six Degrees and Rule of Language
Biome - The Raven
Well, his name doesn't need any explanations:
Tipper - Cuckoo
Let this track just run, it changes so cool.. Check out this whole album (title: upper left corner). Freakin' amazing and great for complete system testing too if you're bored of Chesky Records 😎 (I love them but not all day) 😀
Another style again:
DJ Krush - Jaku
And again:
Krafty Kuts 🙄
Boris Brejcha - Thunderstorm and pretty much all tracks from Boris .. those deep synths are awesome (rhythm too) .. Hashtag..
Madonna - Substitute for Love You might smile first but better try out and look at the spectrum analyzer .. same for Frozen, maybe even better example.
Lil Wayne - Pass The Dutch
And a final one for now: OMFG - Hello 😀😀😀
Check these out (careful with volume!!), they also useable via Youtube but of course bought online in lossless is the best (e.g. flac):
Some REAL dubstep:
Vaun - Listen
Vaun - Comatose
D-Cult - Inner Peace 😱
Kryptic Minds - Six Degrees and Rule of Language
Biome - The Raven
Well, his name doesn't need any explanations:
Tipper - Cuckoo
Let this track just run, it changes so cool.. Check out this whole album (title: upper left corner). Freakin' amazing and great for complete system testing too if you're bored of Chesky Records 😎 (I love them but not all day) 😀
Another style again:
DJ Krush - Jaku
And again:
Krafty Kuts 🙄
Boris Brejcha - Thunderstorm and pretty much all tracks from Boris .. those deep synths are awesome (rhythm too) .. Hashtag..
Madonna - Substitute for Love You might smile first but better try out and look at the spectrum analyzer .. same for Frozen, maybe even better example.
Lil Wayne - Pass The Dutch
And a final one for now: OMFG - Hello 😀😀😀
Well, LP can actually go even deeper than anything when you knock the needle 😀 😉 but normally for music it simply cannot beat digital. But for testing it might be enough too (opposed to my first statement here - at least for music LP is great, for subs of course not).
Song "Time" from "The Dark side of the moon" Pink Floyd 1973. The best is vinyl, if unavailable - decent sampling from vinyl, not from official labels.
For example, my own sampling:
"Time" Pink Floyd (1973) "The Dark Side of the Moon". HD audio, Vinyl (LP). - YouTube
Also on YouTube:
= Thilo Wolf "Caravan" - drums and his orchestra
Caravan (Ellington) - Drum-Battle Charly Antolini, Wolfram Kellner, Paul Hochstadter, Thilo Wolf - YouTube
= my other HD audio samplings from vinyl:
Ben Webster (1977) "Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams", HD audio, (LP) vinyl - YouTube
"White Christmas" BoneyM 1981 HD audio, Vinyl (LP) - YouTube
Playlist of HD audio to test equipment:
Caravan (Ellington) - Drum-Battle Charly Antolini, Wolfram Kellner, Paul Hochstadter, Thilo Wolf - YouTube
For example, my own sampling:
"Time" Pink Floyd (1973) "The Dark Side of the Moon". HD audio, Vinyl (LP). - YouTube
Also on YouTube:
= Thilo Wolf "Caravan" - drums and his orchestra
Caravan (Ellington) - Drum-Battle Charly Antolini, Wolfram Kellner, Paul Hochstadter, Thilo Wolf - YouTube
= my other HD audio samplings from vinyl:
Ben Webster (1977) "Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams", HD audio, (LP) vinyl - YouTube
"White Christmas" BoneyM 1981 HD audio, Vinyl (LP) - YouTube
Playlist of HD audio to test equipment:
Caravan (Ellington) - Drum-Battle Charly Antolini, Wolfram Kellner, Paul Hochstadter, Thilo Wolf - YouTube
Last edited:
I used a track of Mary Black singing "A Woman's Heart" to demonstrate to David Clark Company head how my 10/S DC stereo headset had a blown driver.
The set was several years past the 5 year warranty and had a driver that distorted badly on one side. I sent it in asking for a replacement driver (which I would pay for). They tested the set and returned it with a finding of "no trouble found". After some communication, I sent it in again, this time with a CD with one track on it to demonstrate the problem. The technician responded by email. He heard the problem with the provided track and then duplicated it with some tracks of his own (metal?). David Clark replaced the driver and returned the set to me with no charge.
The set was several years past the 5 year warranty and had a driver that distorted badly on one side. I sent it in asking for a replacement driver (which I would pay for). They tested the set and returned it with a finding of "no trouble found". After some communication, I sent it in again, this time with a CD with one track on it to demonstrate the problem. The technician responded by email. He heard the problem with the provided track and then duplicated it with some tracks of his own (metal?). David Clark replaced the driver and returned the set to me with no charge.
My 1.3 carburetor system doesn't bass much, except some groovy bass guitar. Saint Vitus - Born Too Late performs great. Saint Vitus - Born Too Late (HD) - YouTube
Early +/-5V distortion doesn't do harm on this one.
Early +/-5V distortion doesn't do harm on this one.
There is a heavy bass drum part in Englishman in New York on Sting's _Nothing Like The Sun_ album I've used. Holst The Planets has some good tracks as well, e.g. Mars and Uranus.
Try these tracks:
Modern Talking: Youre my heart, youre my soul
Kraftwerk: The robots
Snow: Girl Ive been hurt
Groovezone: Eisbaer
Felix: It makes me crazy
Modern Talking: Youre my heart, youre my soul
Kraftwerk: The robots
Snow: Girl Ive been hurt
Groovezone: Eisbaer
Felix: It makes me crazy
For me it's simply essential to listen to a decently produced acoustic bass. My fundamental question is 'Is that guy playing the bass here, right in front of me?' instead of purely 'How deep does it go?'.
Therefore my main reference is Ray Brown & Laurindo Almeida: Moonlight Serenade (Bell Records). Just acoustic bass and classical guitar, a superb recording.
If I'm heading for some deeper and louder tones, a good organ recording is fine, like Michael Murray: Bach at First Congregational Church in Los Angeles by TELARC. Great to evaluate the purity of mid and bass reproduction.
For some harder, electric bass tones, Marcus Miller: M2 is really fine.
Therefore my main reference is Ray Brown & Laurindo Almeida: Moonlight Serenade (Bell Records). Just acoustic bass and classical guitar, a superb recording.
If I'm heading for some deeper and louder tones, a good organ recording is fine, like Michael Murray: Bach at First Congregational Church in Los Angeles by TELARC. Great to evaluate the purity of mid and bass reproduction.
For some harder, electric bass tones, Marcus Miller: M2 is really fine.
Attachments
Andreas Vollenweider: Summer Rain, at about 3.5min (just after the flute solo). Ultra low bass but very subtle.
Last edited:
For acoustically produced bass - Dies Irae of Verdi's Requiem. I once attended live performance - St. Louis Symphony with Leonard Slatkin conducting. The percussionist plays the big orchestral drum as if trying hard to destroy it: the drum positioned horizontally, and the player striking it with the biggest club, holding it with both hands, as one would do splitting firewood.
My favorite recording is Bernstein with London Symphony.
My favorite recording is Bernstein with London Symphony.
Some more tracks with heavy bass:
Nik Bärtsch's Ronin Live
Nik Bartsch's RONIN - jazz baltica 2011 fragm. 3 - YouTube
Michel Jonasz le temps passé
Le temps passe Michel Jonasz - YouTube
Ave Maria en Plein Air Tarja Turunen
Ave Maria - YouTube
Nik Bärtsch's Ronin Live
Nik Bartsch's RONIN - jazz baltica 2011 fragm. 3 - YouTube
Michel Jonasz le temps passé
Le temps passe Michel Jonasz - YouTube
Ave Maria en Plein Air Tarja Turunen
Ave Maria - YouTube
- Home
- General Interest
- Music
- What CD or Music file YOU USE to test bass???