Good Music for testing Audio Equipment

[Ron Resnick]

Hi Ron, what is an example of a track that you use for that purpose? Or just the one song you put on after adding or tweaking something. With your great audio experience, I'd be most curious to know. (And Thanks once again for the great job you do with this forum.)

Test Tracks

“Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley, Grace (Columbia)

“Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac, Fleetwood Mac (MFSL)

“Send in the Clowns" by Bill Henderson, Live at the Times (Jazz Planet Records/Classic Records)

”I've Got the Music in Me" by Thelma Houston, I've Got the Music in Me(Sheffield Lab 2)

“Great Gate of Kiev" of “Pictures at an Exhibition,” The Power of the Orchestra, Rene Leibowitz, RPO (Chesky RC30)

“Walk on the Wild Side” by Lou Reed, Transformer (Speakers Corner)

"First We Take Manhattan,” "Bird on a Wire" and “Famous Blue Raincoat” by Jennifer Warnes, Famous Blue Raincoat (Rock the House Records/Classic Records)

 

[stehno]

Gotta' crank it.

 

[DasguteOhr]

Sigi schwab-rondo a tre lp( machu picchú song)
Amazing for soundstage , dynamic and details

 

[the_nines]

Here's a few:

Dead Can Dance - Into the Labyrinth (4AD, Mobile Fidelity) ***
Sam Cooke - Night Beat (RCA Victor, Analogue Productions, 45rpm)
Willy Nelson - Stardust (Columbia, Classic Records, 45rpm, single-sided, translucent vinyl)
Frank Sinatra - Live at the Sands, with Count Basie Orchestra (Reprise, Mobile Fidelity)
Peter Gabriel - Passion (Real World Records, 45rpm)
Ry Cooder, V.M. Bhatt - A Meeting by the River (Water Lily Acoustics, Analogue Productions, 45rpm) ***
Rickie Lee Jones - It's Like This (Artemis Records, Analogue Productions, 45rpm)
Steely Dan - Aja (ABC Records, Cisco)
Al Di Meola John McLaughlin Paco De Lucia - Friday Night In San Francisco (Columbia, Impex)
Melody Gardot - My One and Only Thrill (Verve, ORG 45rpm)
Ella Fitzgerald / Louis Armstrong - Porgy & Bess (Verve)
Hans Zimmer / Lisa Gerrard - Gladiator Soundtrack (Decca, ORG, 45rpm)
Janos Starker - Bach / Suites For Unaccompanied Cello Complete (Mercury, Speakers Corner)
Ravel - Bolero, Charles Munch, BSO (RCA Victor)
Fritz Reiner Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade (RCA Victor, Analogue Productions, 45rpm)
Muddy Waters - Folk Singer (Chess, Analogue Productions, 45rpm) ***

*** : Outstanding

Cheers.

 

[APP]

The RedBook CD sounds pretty good too Ray! Limited Edition Compact Disc.

If anyone wants to test if their DAC can handle 764kHz then there is one song from the new
Carmen Gomes album Ray! available as a free test song in that extreme sample rate.

The album is nominated for album of the year at 2022 Album of the Year – Nominations voting ends Saturday.

One of the year’s best-selling albums at NativeDSD this year, Ray! rocketed up our Top Selling DSD Best Sellers chart in days and dominated the best sellers list for weeks and weeks. The album stars the popular and talented Carmen Gomes and her ensemble. Gomes uses the album to put her distinctive vocals and style on favorites including The Sun Is Gonna Shine Again, Georgia On My Mind, Willow Weep For Me and Makin’ Whoopee. Recorded in Stereo DXD and mastered to Analog Tape, this album is one you will savor again and again.
– Brian Moura

 

[APP]

The winner is an well deserved:

 

[stehno]

The winner is an well deserved:View attachment 103334

Hey, App. I remember you responding a few years ago to one of my posts saying that the 80's was not a good decade for engineering and/or perhaps talent.

Anyway, I suspect that if one wanted to cut to the chase what a given system can and cannot do, there's enough in this one track that could do just that. But you have to be willing to listen at elevated volume levels. Just as you should here.

Sure listening to a single track (like this one from the 80's) at elevated volume levels can cause some suffering. But also, the more your ears tell you to stay seated for pleasure or the more your bleeding ears tell you to run from the room, well... either can be a very quick and efficient way to discern what we're really hearing. BTW, I actually think the 80's put out some intriguing stuff. Even this piece.

 

[Hi-FiGuy]

Hey, App. I remember you responding a few years ago to one of my posts saying that the 80's was not a good decade for engineering and/or perhaps talent.

With the exception of Metal, he was not wrong!

 

[stehno]

With the exception of Metal, he was not wrong!

Funny, besides these two middle-of-the-road performances I can think of perhaps hundreds of 80's recordings that might indicate otherwise. Saying somebody is not wrong sometimes only asserts that more than one can be wrong. Right?

 

[Hi-FiGuy]

Saying somebody is not wrong sometimes only asserts that more than one can be wrong. Right?

absolutely and why did you post the same song twice...

 

[APP]

Hey, App. I remember you responding a few years ago to one of my posts saying that the 80's was not a good decade for engineering and/or perhaps talent.

Anyway, I suspect that if one wanted to cut to the chase what a given system can and cannot do, there's enough in this one track that could do just that. But you have to be willing to listen at elevated volume levels. Just as you should here.

Sure listening to a single track (like this one from the 80's) at elevated volume levels can cause some suffering. But also, the more your ears tell you to stay seated for pleasure or the more your bleeding ears tell you to run from the room, well... either can be a very quick and efficient way to discern what we're really hearing. BTW, I actually think the 80's put out some intriguing stuff. Even this piece.

Thanks for posting! I like lots of music from the '80. But I do think that the pop music tended to have the same gated reverb sound on the snare drum and the constant use of keyboards with a limited dynamic range as well as heavy compression sonically did not help the sound. But I like Frankie Goes to Hollywood, it's a great tune. I just wish they also had used the inventiveness that has gone into arranging the music on the sound production as well.
But that gated reverb and washed-out keyboards.....even Donald Fagan and Bob Katz used it ;

 

[stehno]

Thanks for posting! I like lots of music from the '80. But I do think that the pop music tended to have the same gated reverb sound on the snare drum and the constant use of keyboards with a limited dynamic range as well as heavy compression sonically did not help the sound. But I like Frankie Goes to Hollywood, it's a great tune. I just wish they also had used the inventiveness that has gone into arranging the music on the sound production as well.
But that gated reverb and washed-out keyboards.....even Donald Fagan and Bob Katz used it ;

Yeah, I get that. But I'm perhaps a bit more all over the map as I'm always looking for good piece of most any genre that might or should induce some form of stress somewhere within the playback presentation. On the other side of the fence, I'd be just as content using a piece like this one above. Gotta' give it at least some juice though.

 

[AMR / iFi audio]

I love using Billy Idol's "Eyes Without a Face" to evaluate my gear's timbre, dynamics, separation, and detail. Also, the way this track is mastered and built overall can put a tear in one's eye.

 

[24bit]

Here is a link to some Chesky recordings; https://theaudiophilesociety.com/products/the-audiophile-society-welcome-sampler-wav-download

 

[TRHH]

Have a look here:

Great Sound Quality - High-End - Playlist​

Qobuz

Listen to your music in high quality

play.qobuz.com

Torben

 

[24bit]

ONE Microphone recordings

The advantages of the One Microphone approach to recording are obvious; phase coherence, perfect imaging, great sense of depth, superior realism. Another advantage is that it forces the band being recorded to really play. There is nowhere to hide, no fixing it in the mix. Our ears are much more sensitive to phase errors than we are aware of. The obvious solution to avoid phase errors is to record the whole band from one point. But until recently we didn't experienced a microphone that was up to the task. Drums and piano sounded too distant and the sound stage did not reflect what I heard standing in front of the band. The first thing that impressed me about the Josephson C700S was the natural sound of the mic and the sound off axis. This is what makes the difference between a good microphone and an average microphone. Secondly the microphone is quite unique, it has three capsules instead of the more common two.
So when recording with the Josephson C700S, instead of placing microphones at the instruments we now place the instruments around the microphone. Mixing is no longer possible. We have to create the complete sound stage at the spot by carefully moving each instrument closer or further away as well as left and right in relation to the microphone. The benefits of this way of working is that the result is completely free of phase errors and that the sound is very natural with a wide deep soundstage. So far all musicians have been struck by the incredible authenticity of the recordings and commented that they never heard their instrument sound so real and lively.

Frans

 

[24bit]

Bought the 24bit hi-res download at the SOUND LIAISON WEBSITE I think the Flac at the CARMEN GOMES BAND CAMP WEBSITE is 16bit just like the CD or ? But anyhow it's a superb album. And it is so much more than a tribute album. They really make the songs their own. A blues album with an ECM vibe. Well done! and that low 27hz A note from the bass in the beginning...whew...makes my .......rattle

I love the small pieces of music leading into each song, sonically very interesting, check Rosedale leading into Up Jumped the devil. Rosedale

 

[APP]

Here is a link to some Chesky recordings; https://theaudiophilesociety.com/products/the-audiophile-society-welcome-sampler-wav-download

The Jimmy Cobb album Jazz in Blue is nice.

 

[cjf]

 

[24bit]

Superb review of the album in Positive Feedback Creative Forum for the Audio Arts;

The 2nd release in the discovering the music of Robert Johnson series is here and it is fantastic. It even surpasses Up jumped The Devil, imo.
But RedBook Cd only, I don't see it on the Sound Liaison or Native DSD sites.