Music for testing Audio Equipment

[NipperDog]

Rebecca Pigeon's version of Spanish Harlem from her The Raven album.

[elcorso]

2 hours ago, christian u said:

one more Mare recording;

 

 

listening to the sample, it is well recorded but the bass is all the way to the left making the left channel a bit "heavy".

Seems that everything is recorded direct to a korg Dsd recorder with a stereo microphone, a refreshing approach.

 

Got no bass problems with the DL.

 

Roch

[oso]

I have had a listen to the Mare recording as well. I find it very well recorded. I don't have a problem with the bass either but I do agree that  it is placed to the left, as is the tabla. This does make the left side a bit ...''full'' compared to the right, while on e.g.. the Carmen Gomes DXD recording, that christian u also likes, the bass is placed straight down the middle, which does make for a more even load on your speakers, here the kick drum is placed slightly to the right.

But both albums are having a clear placement which I love.

On 2017-6-16 at 7:11 PM, elcorso said:

 

Got no bass problems with the DL.

 

Roch

On 2017-5-2 at 9:00 PM, christian u said:

 

The Carmen Gomes Blues album is superb. The SQ is amazing. It sounds marvelous on my HD800s.

 

 

On 2017-5-6 at 10:15 PM, Milan said:

Carmen Gomes sings the Blues is a perfect combination of what sounds to me as old fashioned recording technique paired with modern recording equipment.

Like all the Sound Liaison albums it uses real placement in the stereo field but this one reminds me more than the previous albums of a recording from the golden age. I mean recordings from 1958 to 1962 more or less. Back in the day when they would record three tracks to a 2 inch tape. This seems to be recorded in 352khz and somehow this extreme high resolution sounds warmer, maybe more analogue than other digital recordings I have heard.

  On the site there is a blog which says that: 

source: Sound Liaison DXD

If the coming albums all have this kind of quality there really is something to look forward to.

 

 

 

 

[oso]

On 2017-6-16 at 7:11 PM, elcorso said:

 

Got no bass problems with the DL.

 

Roch

Btw on one of the previous Carmen Gomes recordings, Thousand Shades of Blue, the double bass is placed to the right, and here the drums are in the middle with the kick dead center.

[Johnseye]

Here are my go to recordings for testing any piece of equipment.  I will use both digital and analog sources, having both for some of these titles.  I know them all fairly intimately which I think is critical in identifying differences.

 

Avashi Cohen (trumpet) - Flood.  Tracks - First Drops, Heavy Water: Prologue, Heavy Water

 

Beck - Morning Phase. Tracks - Morning, Heart Is A Drum

Radiohead - In Rainbows. Tracks: Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, Reckoner, House of Cards

 

Bela Fleck - Flight of the Cosmic Hippo. Track - title

 

Patricia Baber - Cafe Blue.  Tracks - What A Shame, Mourning Grace

 

Stevie Ray Vaughn - Couldn't Stand The Weather.  Track - Tin Pan Alley

 

Bob Dylan - Oh Mercy. Track - Man In The Long Black Coat

 

Jacintha - Autumn Leaves. Track - Moon River

 

Hadouk Trio - Baldamore. Tracks - All of them.

 

Mickey Heart - Planet Drum. Track - Temple Caves

 

Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue. Tracks - All of them.

 

Herbie Hancock - Empyrean Isles - Tracks - All of them

 

Grateful Dead - Anything live as a live music reference. Unbroken Chain from Mars Hotel is good to use as a studio recording.  Workingman's Dead as a studio recording.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ralf11]

Thx John - I copied almost all of yours - and together with a LOT of the other posts, I now have so much test music I will never be able to actually run thru a test...

 

(Mickey Hart, no e)

 

also, for Dead live tunes that are not regular releases, the latest ones (Dave's Picks) are likely to have better SQ than the really early ones (even the early Dick's Picks - not just your cousin's mix tape from his spot in the audience with cassette deck mics strapped to his headband in Spokane '78) 

[sphinxsix]

14 hours ago, Johnseye said:

Stevie Ray Vaughn - Couldn't Stand The Weather.  Track - Tin Pan Alley

 

14 hours ago, Johnseye said:

Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue.

+1 I use them for testing too.

[Johnseye]

15 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

 

(Mickey Hart, no e)

 

Doh!  Thanks.

 

 

15 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

 

also, for Dead live tunes that are not regular releases, the latest ones (Dave's Picks) are likely to have better SQ than the really early ones (even the early Dick's Picks - not just your cousin's mix tape from his spot in the audience with cassette deck mics strapped to his headband in Spokane '78) 

 

If you head over to bt.etree.org you can find just about any show.  You'll find multiple variations of audience recordings, usually depending on mic used.  You'll find boards that were cleaned up and patched with different sources to fill any gaps from people like Charlie Miller, Sir Mick and the Green Mountain Boys.  I find those to be the best.

 

The Dead's sound engineers kept improving things over the years as technology advanced.  Those engineers were pioneers in the live music realm.  Check out Bob McCarthy's book: Sound Systems Design and Optimization.  They also inspired companies like Furman who had their roots with the Dead.

 

While the stuff the Dead cleaned up for sale under Dicks, Daves and Road Trips are the best sounding releases out there, the other stuff's not bad either.  What several people have done is to create matrix (mtx) mixes, combining the boards with audience recordings.  This gives the listener excellent quality of the music, while keeping that live concert sound or feel to the recording.

[pkane2001]

Very realistic, deep sound stage and excellent, precise instrument/voice placement in all directions, enveloping sound.  I use the You and Your Friend track to test with the most, although all tracks are good. This is perhaps one album where I can clearly see myself in the audience, even with my eyes open and without trying

 

The first track Rumble is great for pace, soundstage, natural piano attack/decay sound and punchy bass. Other tracks are good, but the first one I can never get enough of

 

+1 on the Miles Davis, Kind of Blue. Definitely one of my goto references.

[rando]

*cough*   testing   *cough*  

 

This one has proven to be an anomaly.  In the lab hooked up to testing equipment the recording has an incredibly low noise floor and near perfect tune that doesn't pan out in real world interactions,  No doubt this will lead to endless heated conversations between two prominent camps,  Musically, I question that anyone could listen to this for an extended amount of time or derive pleasure from it in the first place.  Testing, on the other hand, could prove to be of great importance to understanding how we as a group relate to our environment.   

 

 

 

[Ralf11]

I just want to add the "Betty boards" to John's list a few posts above.

 

Some people like different sound mixes & etc.

[NipperDog]

Another one I really like for testing bass and imaging is the old Robert Johnson song Come On In My Kitchen done by The Allman Bothers Band, from their album - Shades of Two Worlds.

[PAP]

On 6/23/2017 at 11:18 PM, Ralf11 said:

Thx John - I copied almost all of yours - and together with a LOT of the other posts, I now have so much test music I will never be able to actually run thru a test...

+1

But this is fun...

[Ralf11]

speaking of tests - we all know about piano, female vocals, etc.

 

but one thing I find is that drums are often not sounding good - I am pretty sure it is a source material issue, as Stereopile test tracks sound fine, as does Mickey Hart's Dafos album

[PAP]

I tend to agree. Drums often sounds very boxed in, and spread out over the whole stereo field and the snare sounding like something from outer space.

I love the drum sound on the Carmen Gomes album mentioned above. It is very real. Maybe it has to do with the A/B recording technique.

Check the kick drum on ''A Fool for You'' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf_S2l3Y_lM

and the sound of the whole kit on the drum feature ''Cottonfields''.

 carmen-gomes-sings-the-blues samples

 

I mean even the mp3 samples sounds decent. The DXD download is fabulous.

 

 

 

[fas42]

Talking of such, this has been mentioned many times - a goody ...

 

 

[elcorso]

If you want to test bass response...

 

 

http://www.qobuz.com/fr-fr/album/china-hok-man-yim-poems-of-thunder-percussion-hok-man-yim/0636943760222?qref=dpa

 

Roch

[PAP]

Dave Brubeck Live at the Carnegie Hall, same thing, that completely natural drum sound just as the Carmen Gomes download.

                   soundliaison.com                                                                       Elusivedisc.com

 

I guess that my preferences are moving towards minimal set up live recordings

 

[jaaptina]

Getting tired of Carmen Gomes plugs every other post! 

 

Will try Yim Hok Man 

[sphinxsix]

A piece of advice from Gil Scott-Heron not on WHAT but HOW to listen. Taken from his 'I'm New Here' album. I agree with him in 100%. IMO the way you listen to a new album in particular for the first time really matters.

 

[semente]

10 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

A piece of advice from Gil Scott-Heron not on WHAT but HOW to listen. Taken from his 'I'm New Here' album. I agree with him in 100%. IMO the way you listen to a new album in particular for the first time really matters.

 

 

Slightly out of the topic of "audio equipment test music" but a good suggestion nonetheless.

[jaaptina]

On 26-6-2017 at 4:50 AM, elcorso said:

If you want to test bass response...

 

 

http://www.qobuz.com/fr-fr/album/china-hok-man-yim-poems-of-thunder-percussion-hok-man-yim/0636943760222?qref=dpa

 

Roch

The first two tracks are great. The first one has very deep bass. A drum as wide as my speaker placement ?. Second track is like a radio play with only cymbals and the like. Very audiophile but also very entertaining ?

[elcorso]

10 minutes ago, jaaptina said:

The first two tracks are great. The first one has very deep bass. A drum as wide as my speaker placement ?. Second track is like a radio play with only cymbals and the like. Very audiophile but also very entertaining ?

 

It is great to subwoofer burn in.

 

I only play it now to drive away the roaches and rats in the neighborhood 

 

Roch

[fas42]

 

This whole soundtrack album is a fabulous "stress test" for overall competence - huge dynamic swings, tremendously high impact tracks; dense, dense, complex and intensely rich mixes. Most systems would fail dismally, would collapse at the knees trying to project the energy of this music - amazing to listen to if the rig is up to it ...

[oso]

1 DXD file converted to various DSD, PCM and Flac formats so you can test what sounds  best on your DAC , very handy, I always wanted to test this.

http://www.soundliaison.com/all-categories/6-compare-formats