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best recordings for a sense of scale

One of the main things that facsinates me about high end audio is it's ability to convey a sense of space. Play one album and your in a small jazz club with a very intimate feel, play a different album and you can very well be transported to a huge capacious expanse.

in this months Stereophile, one of the writers wrote, audiophiles at their best are custodians of many libraries.

That got me thinking it might be a good idea to open the question up:

What are the best songs you could recommend to best illustrate a sense of scale?

I'm personally not real interested in classical and opera which would be the obviouse choices.

Thanks for any help.
hahnzie

Showing 1 response by martykl

martykl
3,578 posts
 
Many of the Duke Ellington recordings on Pablo might be a good choice, as will his "Far East Suite", which features a larger ensemble than does most of the Pablo material. The Sinatra "Live At The Sands" with Count Basie is similar in "scale" to Far East Suite, though the music is quite different.

In pop music, Alejandro Escovedo's "With These Hands" isn't a great recording, but there's a lot of percussion spread about. Lindsey Buckingham plays with massed voices in space on "Under The Skin" and the original soundtrack of "Theme From Shaft" uses pan potting to emphasize spacial elements within in a pretty dense orchestration.

Good Luck

Marty
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