what's your favorite song/songs to test speakers with

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There are a few albums i listen to.  Each with a couple highlights for getting to know speakers.

Jimmy Eat World - Clarity.  The one just before they broke through to the masses.  Also, the album that broke their contract with Capitol. 

The Black Crowes - Amorica.  Some great tones and songs captured by J.J.P. 

Mr. Bungle - self titled debut.  Umm, if you're not familiar with this album by 2009, you'll probably never get it. 

Can't wait to check out those Barefoot MicroMains.
 
MikoKensington said:
Mr. Bungle - self titled debut.  Umm, if you're not familiar with this album by 2009, you'll probably never get it. 

Mr Bungle spent too long listening to Mr Zappa  !!!

.......... and it's now where near as good either :)

MM.
 
Dark Side of the Moon was always a standard.

Leo Kottke, Great Big Boy or Peculiaroso

wait... I need to look at my CDs, OK I had to put on Aja.  too f-ing slick  Thanks Pucho

Abbey Road

the Benz

Gomez

Jeff Buckley, Grace

If I have 30 minutes I would put on Meeting by the River, Ry Cooder and VM Bhatt
(if you don't know this, please try.  One the best Blumlein micing and performance, hands down.)

I mostly go by vibe and don't sit there and think of every range of frequencies that are or not there.
 
If you like the Shawn Colvin [ I do ] then some of the Rosanne Cash
should do it for you too , Allot of the same Ananlog / tube basic tracks
, much of it from Sear Sound

bit like the word reference monitors , whatever you get used to [ and know ]
becomes your reference
 
Outkast - Liberation

It has lots of details and a very balanced mix so it'll ruthlessly reveal any room and monitoring flaw. Doesn't sound good in my current set up.  :( My fault obviously.
 
Kid Charlemagne - Steely Dan

If the bass sounds flabby with this song, that speaker gets the boot.

Any of the early 70's Elton John records/tracks.

I gauge for harshness in the mids and highs with these lush sounding cuts.
 
lassoharp said:
Any of the early 70's Elton John records/tracks

Too bad they screwed up with the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road SACD remaster. The hi resolution stereo version has severe bass cut (what an earth for?) and severe 2-5khz range boost. What SACD owner would listen through 1 inch computer speakers?  ::)
 
grace jones - slave to the rythm
Minnie Riperton for her presence and "tessiture" (don't know the word in english)
Arvo Part - berliner mess

instrumental

Fred wesley and the horny horns - four play
high level rythm and horn sections
symphony dances Op45 - Rachmaninov - directed by Vladimir ashkenazy - decca records
 
Kingston said:
lassoharp said:
Any of the early 70's Elton John records/tracks

Too bad they screwed up with the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road SACD remaster. The hi resolution stereo version has severe bass cut (what an earth for?) and severe 2-5khz range boost. What SACD owner would listen through 1 inch computer speakers?  ::)

That's a shame with the SACD.  I was actually thinking of getting some of those for my favorite records.  Thanks for the tip.  ;)

Glad my vinyl's still in good shape
 
I work in radio and tv, so I quite like a bit of Jeff Wayne's Musical version of War of The Worlds (to give it more or less it's full Sunday name). Richard Burton's vocal intro is good for checking speech reproduction (ok, it's processed to within an inch of its life, but I know it fairly well), and the orchestral intro (dahh dahh daaaaahhhhh) certainly exercises most speaker systems pretty well.

I also like "Sailing to Philadelphia" by Mark Knopfler, an excellent contemporary-classical guitar recording.

Teardrop by Massive Attack is great, but the vinyl-esque scratchiness at the start is less than ideal. Better option in my opinion is Angel, not quite as musically interesting, but the sub-bass intro will separate the men from the boys in the bass response department.

 
ColinS said:
I work in radio and tv, so I quite like a bit of Jeff Wayne's Musical version of War of The Worlds (to give it more or less it's full Sunday name). Richard Burton's vocal intro is good for checking speech reproduction (ok, it's processed to within an inch of its life, but I know it fairly well), and the orchestral intro (dahh dahh daaaaahhhhh) certainly exercises most speaker systems pretty well.

+1 ;D Told the family that if i get socks and not another copy of this on sunday theres a divorce looming (lent it to the eldest 3 weeks ago and its now dead - bloody students)

the floyd DSotM

Hall of the mountain king

I dont get to try decent speakers very often, so like to abuse the chance when it comes

Iain

 
Paul Simon - 50 ways to leave your lover
Lou Reed - New York (album)
Lou Reed & John Cale - Songs for drella (album)
Laid Back - Bakerman
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Dave Brubeck - Blue rondo a la turk
 
TomWaterman said:
I think Dave Reitzas tracked that. Here is the orchestra session:

Kashmir-orch-setup1998.jpg


Listen to it on his website, top corner skip to kashmir godzilla strings... sounds much better without puffys filtered ramblings over the top!

http://www.reitzas.com

-T



Thanks guys for mentioning this track. I was so proud of the work that I did for this song but I ended up getting screwed on the credits by Diddy's engineer. He was pissed that they didn't ask him to do the orchestra session so he was a major d*ck to me and stole my credit.

Anyway, this was a great session. The arranger Jeremy Lubbock wanted to do a double orchestra arrangement- so that explains the strange setup with 2 orchestras. I tried to explain that we could have made 2 passes with 1 orchestra and then I could just pan them accordingly, but the budget was big enough to be extravagant and we went for it. There was so much buzz about this project at the time that maybe Puff was trying to set the record for the most money spent on one track.

Glad you like it Kevin and thanks for posting the link to my website Tom.


Best,

Dave Reitzas
www.reitzas.com

(Recording Industry Poker Tournament, July 19th, 2009) www.ri-pt.net

 
Reitzas said:
Thanks guys...

Dave! Thank you for joining up here! Amazing, thanks for the response and story. Sorry to hear you got screwed over on that one...

I love the sonics you get on all the records you work on! Need an asssitant? ;-)

So what do you use to audition monitors or a new room out with?

Cheers Tom
 

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