Recommended Test Tracks/Recordings Sticky

[Pete Schumacher]

Re: Recommended Test Tracks/Recordings Sticky

Ray LaMontagne - "Be Here Now" from 'Till the Sun Turns Black
Rammstein - "Ich Will" from Mutter
Elton John - "Madman Across the Water"
Dire Straits - "Ride Across the River" from Brothers in Arms
Yello - Touch, the entire CD
Zero 7 - When It Falls, the entire CD

That's enough for now . . .

[Navy Guy]

Re: Recommended Test Tracks/Recordings Sticky

I like to use The Tedeschi Trucks Band to test with. Susan Tedeschi's voice can sound really gritty and harsh on many systems. I've used it to adjust crossover point and slope on my tweeters. Also, Buddy Guy can pick up some of this when he hits high notes. His tracks are very useful because he has a wide vocal range from very low to high pitched squeals. I like to use Nickel Creek for their use of lots of acoustic string instruments and both vocals. I once I have something that I think I like, I listen to some metal like Unearth and hard rock like Breaking Benjamin to see if I want to lower the midrange some. I adjust midrange on the rock albums and then go back to the higher fidelity albums to see if I still like it or want to boost the mids back up a bit. For bass tracks, I use Soja which is like new age reggae/folk.

[zhillsguy]

Re: Recommended Test Tracks/Recordings Sticky

Dream Theater - 6:00 (From "Awake") If you play this as an opening track at a party, people know you are serious.
Porcupine Tree - Anesthetize (From the "Anesthetize" Blu-Ray, DTS-HD)
Joe Satriani - God Is Crying (From the "Satchurated" Blu-Ray, Dolby TrueHD)
Adele - (any track from "Live At The Royal Albert Hall" Blu-Ray, DTS)
Another vote for Dire Straits / Brothers In Arms
Another vote for Pink Floyd / Wish You Were Here (2011 Re-Master Box Set)
Renaissance - Mother Russia (From "Live At Carnegie Hall")
The Eagles - (any track from "When Hell Freezes Over" DVD DTS)
Jeff Beck - Never Alone (From "Emotion & Commotion")
Fleetwood Mac - Silver Spring (From "The Dance" DVD DTS)

[Thumper Tom]

Re: Recommended Test Tracks/Recordings Sticky

The link worked this morning, work must have the firewall blocking the website.

[mikec]

Re: Recommended Test Tracks/Recordings Sticky

I've enjoyed the soundtrack to "Brother Where Art Thou"

Duane Eddy has an instrumental version of "Ghost Riders In The Sky" that sounds like it was played on a bass guitar; really checks out the lower register.

[antisuck]

Re: Recommended Test Tracks/Recordings Sticky

Neat idea Erin. I recently put together something similar for myself but with a strong leaning towards 70s classic rock and prog rock. I'll have to look and see if it is actually any good in the light of day and maybe post it up.

[ErinH]

Re: Recommended Test Tracks/Recordings Sticky

Works fine for me and friends who I just asked to check for me. It takes you to my Dropbox file. Just download that.

[Thumper Tom]

Re: Recommended Test Tracks/Recordings Sticky

Your Link seems to be broken.

Hey, guys. Cool thread, and I've actually got something that ties in with this...

Last weekend I had an audio meet at my house (you can find some details about it here). For the meet, I had put together a sampler disc, consisting of various tracks: both musical and technical. Ninety-three tracks in all!

Since there are so many tracks, I can't easily list them on the forums so I had to post the track list on my site.

http://medleysmusings.com/erins-gtg-sampler-disc-track-list/

As you can see, there's quite a variety... and I managed to throw in some recordings from artists' MFSL-versioned albums.

Here's the breakdown of all 93 tracks:

• All tracks are simply "sampler" tracks. Most clock in at about 1:00 to 1:30. The goal was to pack as much good tunes in to a single CD but without compromising artists' rights. If anything, I'm trying to promote the artist and push folks to go out and buy their music. I chose the number of 'real music' tracks as I did so there would be a good variety. You can take this to a friend's house or a store to demo and pretty much be covered in all aspects. And if the headbanger dude looks at you weird for playing Babyface, skip ahead and play some NIN or RATM. ;)
• The first portion of the disc is intended to be a sampler of various music. I grew up listening to a lot of 80’s music, so I’m an 80’s music nut. More pop and rock than anything. There was some very well recorded music from that era, even though it’s considered cheesy music by some today. Artists then went through a lot of trouble to get it right. Especially since the CD format came in to play then. Bobby McFerrin stuff would get laughed at but when you hear it on a good setup you’re like “wow”. Same for Depeche Mode, Howard Jones, Yes, etc. You hear it on the radio and kind of chuckle at it, but when you hear it on a good system you realize just how awesome it is and it becomes fun to listen to. It’s not listening for the sake of listening to ‘SQ’ music; they’re just some really fun tracks that are really well recorded. That's why I chose some of the more odd ones, as some may say. Then there's some more well known tracks and a mix of some more obscure but recognized tracks. The one thing I tried to stay away from was the “sq” factor. I think you guys know what I mean... those overly technical and clinical tracks. I certainly appreciate those tracks on demo CDs people make, but I often find myself kind of bored with them to tell you the truth. They make systems sound really, really good, but I’m too ADD to sit there and listen to something that I can't rock out to or sing along with. My motivation for the variety was thinking about dudes saying “oh, wow… I haven’t this song in years!” and then just jamming along to it in their driveway or down the road. I definitely chose some oddball ones, but I was surprised that there are so many other oddballs out there like me, based on the feedback thus far.
• The last portion of the disc is intended for tuning purposes. They are all 1/3 octave pink noise, mono. The goal is to use these to help you determine if you have any frequencies that are out of center. If so, you use these to help you adjust that if you have the DSP to do so. After that, there's the narrator from the Chesky Ultimate Demonstration Disc, with him in center, left, left-center, right, and right-center. Use these to help you define stage boundaries and also to see how well your imaging/staging is set up (mainly listening to make sure the left-center and right-center are correctly placed). The final track is a correlated pink noise track you can also use to help set phase and levels between sets of speakers (left mid to left tweeter, left tweeter to right tweeter, etc).

Having said all of that, if you are interested, here's a link to download the disc.

http://bit.ly/1aNO7ol

The file is in .rar (zip) format. You'll have to unzip the file to extract the individual tracks. The tracks are in .m4a, apple lossless, format. Uploading full .wav would take FOOOORRREEEVVVEEEERRRRRR (Sandlot style). If you have iTunes, you're good to go. If you don't then you'll have to figure something out, which shouldn't be too hard to do.


Hopefully you guys get a kick out of it. It's definitely a fun disc and breaks the norm.

- Erin

[ErinH]

Re: Recommended Test Tracks/Recordings Sticky

Hey, guys. Cool thread, and I've actually got something that ties in with this...

Last weekend I had an audio meet at my house (you can find some details about it here). For the meet, I had put together a sampler disc, consisting of various tracks: both musical and technical. Ninety-three tracks in all!

Since there are so many tracks, I can't easily list them on the forums so I had to post the track list on my site.

http://medleysmusings.com/erins-gtg-sampler-disc-track-list/

As you can see, there's quite a variety... and I managed to throw in some recordings from artists' MFSL-versioned albums.

Here's the breakdown of all 93 tracks:

• All tracks are simply "sampler" tracks. Most clock in at about 1:00 to 1:30. The goal was to pack as much good tunes in to a single CD but without compromising artists' rights. If anything, I'm trying to promote the artist and push folks to go out and buy their music. I chose the number of 'real music' tracks as I did so there would be a good variety. You can take this to a friend's house or a store to demo and pretty much be covered in all aspects. And if the headbanger dude looks at you weird for playing Babyface, skip ahead and play some NIN or RATM. ;)
• The first portion of the disc is intended to be a sampler of various music. I grew up listening to a lot of 80’s music, so I’m an 80’s music nut. More pop and rock than anything. There was some very well recorded music from that era, even though it’s considered cheesy music by some today. Artists then went through a lot of trouble to get it right. Especially since the CD format came in to play then. Bobby McFerrin stuff would get laughed at but when you hear it on a good setup you’re like “wow”. Same for Depeche Mode, Howard Jones, Yes, etc. You hear it on the radio and kind of chuckle at it, but when you hear it on a good system you realize just how awesome it is and it becomes fun to listen to. It’s not listening for the sake of listening to ‘SQ’ music; they’re just some really fun tracks that are really well recorded. That's why I chose some of the more odd ones, as some may say. Then there's some more well known tracks and a mix of some more obscure but recognized tracks. The one thing I tried to stay away from was the “sq” factor. I think you guys know what I mean... those overly technical and clinical tracks. I certainly appreciate those tracks on demo CDs people make, but I often find myself kind of bored with them to tell you the truth. They make systems sound really, really good, but I’m too ADD to sit there and listen to something that I can't rock out to or sing along with. My motivation for the variety was thinking about dudes saying “oh, wow… I haven’t this song in years!” and then just jamming along to it in their driveway or down the road. I definitely chose some oddball ones, but I was surprised that there are so many other oddballs out there like me, based on the feedback thus far.
• The last portion of the disc is intended for tuning purposes. They are all 1/3 octave pink noise, mono. The goal is to use these to help you determine if you have any frequencies that are out of center. If so, you use these to help you adjust that if you have the DSP to do so. After that, there's the narrator from the Chesky Ultimate Demonstration Disc, with him in center, left, left-center, right, and right-center. Use these to help you define stage boundaries and also to see how well your imaging/staging is set up (mainly listening to make sure the left-center and right-center are correctly placed). The final track is a correlated pink noise track you can also use to help set phase and levels between sets of speakers (left mid to left tweeter, left tweeter to right tweeter, etc).

Having said all of that, if you are interested, here's a link to download the disc.

http://bit.ly/1aNO7ol

The file is in .rar (zip) format. You'll have to unzip the file to extract the individual tracks. The tracks are in .m4a, apple lossless, format. Uploading full .wav would take FOOOORRREEEVVVEEEERRRRRR (Sandlot style). If you have iTunes, you're good to go. If you don't then you'll have to figure something out, which shouldn't be too hard to do.


Hopefully you guys get a kick out of it. It's definitely a fun disc and breaks the norm.

- Erin

[jerryanderson]

Re: Recommended Test Tracks/Recordings Sticky

Jeff Golub w/Brian Auger~trk.6/ How Long~Train Keeps Rolling
Matt Marshak~trk.10/I'm On Fire~On The Rocks
Phil Cassagrande~trk.4/Manhattan Vibe~Manhattan Vibe
Wayne Jones~trk.2/Feeling Playful~Closed For The Holidays
Vincent Ingala~trk.4/Wish I Was There~Can't Stop Now
Wild Nothing~trk.3/Nocturne~Nocturne
Rippingtons~trk.5/Cougars & Giggolos~Built To Last
Foals~trk.3/My Number~Holy Fire

[johnastockman]

Re: Recommended Test Tracks/Recordings Sticky

Great thread! My suggestions:

Al DiMeola - Elegant Gypsy (whole album is great, "Mediterranean Sundance" stands out)

Mike Oldfield - The Songs Of Distant Earth (great dynamics, speaker-testing low frequencies)

Michael Stanley Band - Stage Pass (one of the better-recorded live albums, even for the time, "Lets Get The Show On The Road" could be the best track)

Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms (excellently engineered/mastered, every song sounds terrific)

Scorpions - Tokyo Tapes (another best-ever live recording, last release with the stellar Uli Jon Roth on lead guitar)

Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries (another whole-album-is-great one, amazing guitar work, listen to the half-speed mastered vinyl version, better than the CD)

Alan Parsons Project - Gaudi (the usual engineering excellence from Parsons, terrific imaging/soundfield presentation)

Riot - Fire Down Under ("Feel The Same" is a stand-out, completely over-looked by mainstream radio and hard rock fans, not a me-too chick-metal band, the "Reale" deal)

Al Stewart - Past, Present and Future (well-recorded, "Roads To Moscow" & "Nostradamus" are some of his best work)

Queensryche - Queensryche (their first release, a 4-song EP on 206 Records, incredible vocals and musicianship, made subsequent albums pale in comparison, CD re-issue sounds pretty good, but the added "bonus" tracks take away from those incredible first 4 songs)



John A.

[6thplanet]

Re: Recommended Test Tracks/Recordings Sticky

I think "Nightfly" is a bit better recording, as well as "Morph the Cat" for Fagen fans. Sunken Condos isn't to bad either...the last two being a bit more bass heavy.

[JasonP]

Re: Recommended Test Tracks/Recordings Sticky

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Facing Future

[tc]

Re: Recommended Test Tracks/Recordings Sticky

+1

For Steely Dan lovers: Donald Fagen, "Kamakiriad"

[Tin_Ears]

Re: Recommended Test Tracks/Recordings Sticky

For Steely Dan lovers: Donald Fagen, "Kamakiriad"