I'm in the process of evaluating my system's high end frequencies. Particularly, I'd like to analyse how it resolves cymbals. Can anyone recommend any CD's to do this? I like listen to all styles (i.e. jazz, classical, classic rock, 80-90's alternative, even some good pop)
Jazz guitarist Mark Whitfield's album True Blue not only has excellent cymbals, but it’s also one of the finest recordings I own. Both in terms of musicality and quality of sound.
Tom Petty Wildflowers is a well recorded album. Ferrone on drums with Sabian cymbals.
George Bensen, Weekend in LA, On Broadway, Live - good natural sounding recording of Harvey Mason on drums.
CDBaby has a good album, "More Head", Steve Ferrone again on drums with friends from Stone Temple Pilots, also recorded live and very natural sounding.
Tower of Power, Soul Vaccination, another good live recording with very natural drum sounds.
All the above suggestions have great dynamics and plenty of transients - well suited to judging the high end, spotting tell tale signs of tweeter compression and appropriate tweeter integration with the other drivers.
Manu Katche -- NEIGHBORHOOD....especially dynamic, using brushes, sticks, wooden routs (bundles)on splashes, rides and chinas. Plenty of space. Will give you goosebumps.
Try Thelonius Monk's Monk's Music. It's not the most exiting cymbal sound, but Art Blakey uses the high-hat to keep an amazingly rock steady 4/4 time while playing a completely a-rythmic solo around it. Great drumming.
Ramsey Lewis & Nancy Wilson on "Meant To Be" will fit the bill in every way...I use it for the same purpose as I evaluate various tubes. Sonics & music are VERY good. The cymbals 'sparkle'. Amazon.com or half.com will have used copies cheap.
So I picked up Monk's Monk (remastered), JVC's XRCD of Bill Evan's Trio was hard to track down but was able to order a used copy, the Patricia Barber red book Cafe Blue disk, and the Manu Katche red book Neighborhood CD...
Some of your recommendations I already have... I'll be looking into the others later this week... If you have any others, by all means...
Phish-"A Picture of Nectar". Some of the best recorded rock & roll cymbals I have ever heard. Some of the crash cymbals decay for around ten seconds or more while the rest of the music just continues. It's almost creepy hearing a single crash fade away in it's own space. It is the first thing I notice about this cd. You will not be dissappointed.
David Hazeltine,Classic Trio and Alan Broadbent,Personal Standards both are excellent cd sound quality,with good cymbal sounds.Also the HDCD version of Dave Brubeck,Take Five has good cymbal sound quality.
Gomez, Bring it On. Excellent, excellent recording. Track 6 has some of the best cymbal crashes Ive ever heard recorded. Also, several tracks feature excellent hi-hat and splash cymbal work. You wont be disappointed by the deep toms and bass drum either.
Patricia Barber Companion cd track 7 "black magic woman". Good track to evaluate the system in general. Drums, cymbals, bass, vocals, hammond B3, bongos. Very dynamic music. Patricia Barber's Nardis on Cafe Blue is good too, but I think the recording on Companion is better.
The newest cd in my posession,Dick Hyman-From the Age of Swing has the best cymbal sounds of any of my collection.It is on Reference Recordings,is HDCD,and also the best recording quality overall of all of my cd,s.Even on other recordings when the ride,and or swish sound good,the hi-hat may not really sound very good,or be prominent enough to appreciate. On this one even the hi-hat is very prominent,and sounds excellent.IMHO,an excellent cd for determining cymbal quality sound of your sysdtem.
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