@ danager - apology accepted! It's noble of you to do so.
Songs you use when auditioning gear
What are some of your favorite songs to play when auditioning gear? I often listen to Dreams by Fleetwood Mac. Just about anything off of Gaucho or Aja by Steely Dan or Joni Mitchell’s Hejira or Hissing of Summer Lawns usually gets spun up too. Dreams, in particular, is such a great song and is recorded with the balance I really like as well as a full and wide soundstage. Wondering what some of yours are to see what I’m missing.
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@yoyoyaya Damn I hate being wrong but I will admit that I spoke out of turn and you are correct that Gaucho was recorded on tape. Please accept my apologies |
@danager With due respect you, are wrong. Aaurally, it clear that the source for Gaucho is not digital. There is confusion because of their use of the Wendel digital drum machine/sampler. For one reference source regarding the recording, see the following from Sound on Sound (Recording industry magazine) "When working on Gaucho (1980), they pioneered the use of engineer Roger Nichols' freshly developed Wendel sampling drum machine and audio sampler (12.5kHz/12-bit) for drums and percussion. An indication of the amount of overdubbing, splicing, and re-recording that went into their quest for perfection was that Nichols and Scheiner used up 360 rolls of tape recording Gaucho." The Sony, Soundstream and Mitsubishi digital multitracks used in the early eighties have a very distinctive sound - see Donald Fagen's The Nightfly, Ry Cooder' Bop Till You Drop and Pat Benatar's Tropico albums for examples. They sound different to recordings that were made on Studer and Otari 24/48 track analogue even where those recordings were mastered to digital - for example Rush's Moving Pictures which was recorded on a Studer A800 but mastered on to a Sony PCM 1610.
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@blue-magoo Ok Computer is a great album. I just spun up Jellyfish Spilt Milk that’s on the list from your link. I haven’t listened to that album in ages. |
@jastralfu Right on! |
@veerossi love Marcus Miller. Amazing bassist, both tracks you mentioned sound outstanding. |
@troutstreamnm definitely Yes and ELP. Starship Trooper is a great song to use as is From the Beginning. @signaforce absolutely so many great suggestions. I’m having trouble keeping up with them! |
I like to take progressive jazz like Spyro Gyro, Kit Walker, Weather Report or smooth jazz like Fourplay. Excellent engineered recordings that really let you evaluate depth and soundstage. i also like to use progressive rock like Yes; Close to the Edge and ELP for more dynamics and power. BTW, I love Karla Bonoff too! |
The songs below are from the band Yello. These songs will test your speaker setup and gear. I have tried a lot of songs and haven't found anything to top these. Turn it up and be prepared for awesomeness. In case you're wondering, it's not jazz or classical. More electronic. Band: Yello Album: Toy Songs: Electrified II, Kiss The Cloud, Pacific AM
Album: Point Song: Rush for Joe
Let me know what you think |
Since I previously talked about what I look for in a good recording, and why; here are a few examples. These first few are mid to late 20th and 21st century classical, and tend to be atonal, angular, and kind of "thorny" sounding, so musically, YMMV. But the recordings have a soundstage that you can easily imagine, you can walk into among the musicians. Ernst Krenek - Static and Ecstatic (there is also a fairly recent digital recording of this piece by the Cleveland Chamber orchestra, that is also great).
Charles Wuorinen and Donald Martino
Einar Torfi Einarsson - Quanta But I could list almost anything on the Kairos classical label. Everything I've bought on Kairos has been great sounding. Quite avant-garde stuff.
Here are some great recordings on the ECM jazz label. ECM has always been known for their great sounding jazz recordings, from their dead quiet vinyl, to their current releases on CD. Expect to hear each musician occupying their own space in the acoustic space, and the air around them. Some people say ECM's 80's output had too much echo on percussion. The nice thing is, that since they've always had the reputation among audio enthusiasts of good sound, their albums tended to be collected by people who took care of them, so finding good sounding copies in used stores is not that tough. Gallery - S/T / wonderful chamber-jazz, with open 3d soundstage.
Azimuth with ralph Towner - Depart Great ensemble playing, with the wonderful wordless vocals by Norma Winstone.
Craig Taborn - Daylight Ghosts
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GREAT post. Got a bunch of recommendations for music to listen to. Loved the thoughts of Simonmoon. Interesting some mentioned a good system would calm some recordings. I thought a good system would reveal recordings, with all it’s warts. |
I have three. School/Bloody Well Right from Crime of the Century by Supertramp on MoFi vinyl to check for inner detail and turntable isolation, Temptation from Girl in the Other Room by Diana Krall on vinyl to check for small group ensemble cleanliness, soundstaging, upright bass, female vocals, and turntable speed, and Sexy M.F. by Prince on CD to check the digital side, instrument separation, and funk level. :-) |
Here is a short list of tracks I use when auditioning gear. Hopefully you use at least CD quality to get the full impact of these tracks. Enjoy! Steve Gadd Band - 70 Strong CD - Blues for..., Desu, Sly Boots, Dukes Anthem. Michael Hedges - Strings of Steel CD - Ragamuffin. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Couldn't Stand the Weather CD - Tin Pan Alley |
LP unless otherwise indicated. The list has grown over the years, but the constants are: Dire Straits - "Ride Across the River" - Brothers In Arms Dire Straits - "Telegraph Road" - Love Over Gold Pink Floyd - "Time" - Dark Side of the Moon (Harvest) Yello - "Oh Yeah" - Stella Muddy Waters - "Long Distance" - Folk Singer Grateful Dead - "Ripple" - American Beauty Ricky Skaggs - "Country Boy" - Country Boy Ismael Lo - "Nafantav" - Jammu Africa (CD) Patricia Barber - "Bye, Bye Blackbird" - Night Club Harry Connick, Jr - "Don’t Get Around Much Anymore" - When Harry Met Sally OST The Buffalo Bills - "Sincere" - The Music Man OST KD Lang - "Halleluiah" - Hymns of the 49th Parallel Disturbed - "The Sounds of Silence" - Immortalized Robert Shaw & Atlanta Symphony - Orff: "O, Fortuna" - Carmina Burana John Williams - "Theme from Superman" - Superman, The Movie Sir Colin Davis, London Symphony - Handel: "Halleluiah Chorus" - The Messiah Trevor Pinnock - "Alla Hornpipe" - Handel: Water Music, Suite in D/G Major George Solti, LA Philharmonic - "Jupiter" Holst, The Planets Vanska, Minnesota Orchestra - "Ode to Joy" - Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (SACD)
This list allows me to hear every type of music. Not all systems play all types of music well, but since I literally listen to everything, this list represents the best sounding songs I have for each genre, plus, they are really solid songs!
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very interesting ... Thanks for the information...
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Using familiar recordings is the key. You might be taken with the latest Taylor Swift Ode To A Tight End, but if you haven’t heard the piece on a variety of systems it may not be the best piece to asses new equipment. I listen to Classical and I have 3 pieces that I use: The first is a recording of Sibelius Fourth Symphony , released originally on EMI (now Warner), with the Berlin PO and Herbert von Karajan. I use the slow movement (writen when the composer was being treated for throat cancer), which has deep string choirs, an oboes that goes fromm very soft to very load in the space of 16 bars and back again, and ominous, menacing brass. I have had more than one stereo salesman inquire "What is that music?" in admiration. The other is a recording of Didos Lament ("When I am Laid In The Earth") featuring Emma Kirkby. It starts off very quiet, and Kirkby doesn’t have the biggest voice compared to others that have recorded it (Jessye Norman, etc) but the volume and intensity ramp up and Kirkby has laser like intonation; I have found that systems that get this right will do well by vocal recordings The third piece I use is actaully a poor recording, because it is important to hear how a system treats poor recordings. The Pianist Wilhelm Kempff recorded Beethoven Piano Sonatas several times, but the one I use is from the sterreo set made on DG in the sixties. The treble on the digital transfer is awful-make your ears bleed on a system that accentuates brightness. So while it is far from a favored recording, it is useful for auditioning equipment
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"Chrome" by Joe Jackson - specifically to test whether a system preserves timing information. Shelby Lynne's Just A Little Lovin' for ambience recovery. Regarding Steely Dan, I don't find Gaucho to be particularly useful as a test disc. The parts on that album were overdubbed and re-recorded so many times - on analogue tape - that it's lacking a lot of harmonic information. I do love the album musically, however. |
Fleetwood Mac "Dreams" for the cymbal attacks and decays, and the hi-hat 8th note work. Osamu Kitajima "Golden Mean" off the Masterless Samurai album for soundstage and high-frequencies (bells). "Aja" for the incredible balancing act between the electric piano and Steve Gadd’s drum kit. Andreas Vollenweider’s "Caverna Magica" album for the sonic landscapes Dire Straits "In the Gallery" -- if your system is set up well, you’ll know it. Eva Cassidy’s cover of "Songbird", for the voice, for the guitar, and the excellent production values. |
Sting - Russians from the Blue Turtles album. Steve Winwood - Low Spark from Greatest Hits Live Patty Griffin - Mama’s Worried from the self titled album for acoustic guitar and of course her voice. Led Zeppelin - No Quarter from early Houses of the Holy Robert Ludwig Lacquer. Dire Straits - Six Blade Knife from the self titled album. Bruce - New York City Serenade from the Wild, The Innocent album.
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Curious (and amusing!) take, @clustrocasual . However, the OP question was re: songs for auditioning gear, not tuning it (I’m also assuming we mean hifi kit and not pro-audio live kit). I think I get where you’re coming from, but if gear can’t get produced music to sound right to your liking, then the gear better be used specifically for playback of your elements + guitar recordings, no? If it’s any kit upstream of speakers being auditioned, and said kit’s not being auditioned through your speakers in a very similar room, I tend to think high accuracy impressions will be unlikely, due to lacking end-chain replication of moving + reflecting parts. Still chuckling over the kaleidoscope analogy 😀 And enjoying the posts that give reason(s) for their track selections. These threads always seem to me a great way to learn music by happy accident. |
I make my own recordings and play them back. I record metal, water, wood, ceramic, voice, animals, guitar. These are the elements which all musical instruments are based on. Using produced music to tune a system is a recipe for disaster. It’s like trying to drive a car while looking through a kaleidoscope.
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I don't listen to songs I enjoy, I listen to what's really hard to get right. Borderline bad recordings. You would think that Jeff Lynne was a perfectionist but I find that maybe he aimed too high in the 70s and the technology just wasn't there. His catchy, rich and sweet melodies sound good on the radio but on high-level equipment, it's more like too many kids in the choir and some out of tune. Maybe I have yet to hear it on real good gear |
I'm currently testing my new Clayton Shaw Caladans, and these are the first dics I played Poi Dog Pondering “Wishing Like a Mountain and Thinking Like a Sea” & “Pomegranate” – Eagles “One of These Nights” – Nirvana “MTV Unplugged” – Chris Isaak “Heart Shaped World” – Gorillaz “Demon Days” – Talking Heads “Stop Making Sense Remastered” – Chris Stapleton “Traveler” – 10,000 Maniacs “MTV Unplugged” – Johnny Cash American IV - Supertramp “Crime of the Century” |
@deecee I haven't gone thru your entire list yet but I did spin up Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock, great recordings! |
@hikerneil Love Over Gold is a fantastic album! |
I ripped a series of songs to a CD that I use for auditions: Shirley Horn - The Music That Makes Me Dance They test various musical qualities, impact, sound staging, etc. |
@kairosman love it ... I might add "Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section." |
I like Roger Waters the Ballad of Bill Hubbard, the dogs barking way off the the right and slightly behind me and the conversation floating in front and out side the left speaker always amazes me. Traffic, Dear Mr. Fantasy is a great one for me, Steve Winwood’s voice sings almost directly in my right ear and literally makes earlobe tingle. Led Zeppelin Whole Lotta Love, a lot of action high above and slightly behind my head. Dave Brubeck Take 5 Madonna’s Vogue is well done and good to test 3D IMO, not my style, but pretty cool. Stuart Copeland’s drumming on The Police Zenyatta Mondatta. Speaker are Kii Audio Three and Steamer is Auralic Aries.
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Hunter’s & Collectors - Betty’s Worry or, the slab (bass, vocals, horns) El Ten Eleven - Fanshawe (bass, harmonics, picking, “fret work”) Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool (RVG ed) BUDO. Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries. I saw him live a week before his fatal accident, sitting 3 rows back. Every time I listen to that song I can hear and see in my mind’s eye the intense amount of work he put into that guitar. Gives idea of soundstage, highs, mids.
King Crimson - Court of the Crimson King , “I Talk to the Wind.” Vocal harmonies, flute, cymbal shimmer Crimson Jazz Trio - same song. Piano.
But I can get a LOT out of just Hedges’ work. |
