25 minutes to audition equipment, what music do you use?

[dhwilkin]

I know we've done threads on what music you use to evaluate equipment, and they're pretty useful. Ideally, you'd use all that music and have plenty of time to evaluate something. But, let's say you're at a distant meet, or you drop by somebody's place for a very quick visit. At this place there is some piece of equipment you've never heard before, and you won't get the chance to hear again for a very long time. Let's say you have a hard limit of 25 minutes of listening time, no more. That averages to 5 or 6 songs. I want to know what songs you would use to do the best evaluation possible during that time, and why you would choose those songs.

1) Eyes on Me (Final Fantasy VIII - OST) : This is a very good recording, and it tests three things: Palpability/presence of female vocals, ability to retrieve room ambience, microdetail (hearing Faye Wong's words clearly fading in the echos).

2) Gotta Get Away (Offspring - Smash) : This song tests if the system would be too laid-back for my tastes, as such a system would lose the impact and urgency necessary for this song to sound great. As an extra benefit, it also tests whether male vocals have enough warmth and presence.

3) Infinity (Rina Aiuchi - A.I.R.) : Something of a combination of the first two songs' tests, but this time there's alot more going on in the background. Drums, guitars, synths... can the system pass the previous tests while also not turning the sonic background into a blur?

4) The Demon God II - The Lost Mountains (Princess Mononoke - OST) : Going to the instrumental side of things here. This song is for testing all things bass (extension, clarity, visceral impact) and brass (bite, presence, and texture). Also a decent macrodynamics test.

5) Tonight (Charlotte Church - Enchantment) : Something of a combination of the previous four tests, as well as testing the soundstage and imaging.

6) Give a Reason (Slayers - Best of TV and Radio) : Finally, time to see how the system does w/ a not-so-great recording. If it still manages to sound fun and rhythmic, it's a winner.

As a final note, I may very well be replacing "Tonight" soon w/ one of Nick Cave's songs that I just heard recently, for a better test of male and female vocals at once. It's not in my list at the moment, since I'm not familiar enough w/ it yet.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Cool thread idea, I'll see what I can come up with off the cuff:

Einstürzende Neubauten, "Sabrina" -- tests bass, and a certain amount of organic realism

One of the tracks from the Harmonia Mundi recording of Costanzo Festa: La Spagna -- tests ... oh, I forget the name of the distortion, but it's the one when two frequencies are really close...not THD, the other one...inter-something...anyway, this has the added benefit of also being available in SACD.

One of the tracks from Hindle Wakes by In The Nursery...again, this is just because I'm familiar with it.

One of the tracks from Nine Inch Nails, Broken -- tests the component's/system's ability to rock, and also its ability to handle "busy" music.

I would need a piano piece of some sort -- perhaps something from Rubinstein...perhaps a movement from Schubert's second piano trio in E flat...that way it also tests violin and cello also at the same time, plus has the benefit of being something with which I am somewhat familiar.

One of the versions of "Mars, Bringer of War" from Holst's The Planets -- tests dynamic range, "busy-ness" on an orchestral level -- this includes isolation of instruments (not quite the same thing as imaging).

One of the versions of "Solvejg's Song" from one of the versions of Incidental music from Peer Gynt. I specifically mention the Incidental music, because then it's sung by a soprano, rather than being played on violins -- tests female vocals, noise floor.

I think that gets me through most everything I'd want to hear about it.

EDIT: Oh, perhaps something from that Weavers DAD that Hirsch has, to test imaging.

EDIT #2: strohmie's post reminded me that I often use the first track off the original Ghost in the Shell soundtrack -- there's a sequence of four slow synth-notes just before the theme repeats itself that are usually washes of noise on most systems. The system needs to have a lot of resolution in order to carry it off musically.

Also, I thought I needed an HDCD track -- perhaps something off of Stabbing Westward's Darkest Days album, or Blue Man Group's Audio or The Complex (just because they get percussion so right).

 

[strohmie]

25 minutes, hmm...I have yet to find a rock track that I really would like to use for auditioning, but I'll find a good one eventually...so for now this list is lacking a touch in that area.

Norihiro Tsuru: Heroic Legend of Arslan OST 1, track 4 -- Sadly I don't know the name of this track (listing is in Japanese), but it's undoubtedly one of my favorites to audition systems with. Tsuru himself is a composer/violinist, and performs some of these tracks himself. This particular one features some Asian-influenced instrumentation behind a beautiful violin melody played by Tsuru himself. Rhythmic deep bass hits add to the dynamics of the piece...fantastic. Twice I've been listening to this track through a multiple-output amp connected to other headphones, and I've had people pick up the other attached pair and listen attentively.

Yoko Kanno: Ghost in the Shell ~ Stand Alone Complex OST1, "Fish ~ Silent Cruise" -- I always endorse this track around here but I'd be shocked if more than two other people have heard it. It starts off with a solo female singer above melancholic strings, giving way about 2:30 into the song to ambient electronics mixed with the same strings. The strings gradually take command and the combination builds and builds to an epic machine-beat climax.

Massive Attack: Mezzanine, "Angel" -- This is one of those classic tracks to test the lower-end dynamics of your system...some of the best the trip-hop genre has to offer. It features Horace Andy singing falscetto, which may not be for everyone, but his unique voice fits the track perfectly.

Shpongle: Are You Shpongled?, "Behind Closed Eyelids" -- Easily one of my favorite tracks of all time, lots of dynamics and a nice deep bass line as well. One section in the last couple minutes of the track has some impressive channel panning effects. Long, long track, half of the 25 minutes in itself, and can be shortened if need be, but great all the way through (like the rest of the album).

 

[dhwilkin]

[stealth-bump]So, only three people here have actually given this some thought? Gee, and people wonder why meet impressions aren't always the most reliable...

[/stealth-bump]

Good point, Dusty, w/ the piano selection. I really should figure out a way to get one of those in my list.

strohmie, I've read that all the Arslan cds are excellent recordings. I regret I haven't heard them yet. Though, I do have a few of the excellent vocal songs from them, forget the artists name at the moment.

 

[strohmie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dhwilkin strohmie, I've read that all the Arslan cds are excellent recordings. I regret I haven't heard them yet. Though, I do have a few of the excellent vocal songs from them, forget the artists name at the moment.

I own the first and third/fourth (combined onto one CD) soundtracks to the series, and while the third one is probably the better recorded one, I prefer the first overall. The recording on the third is some of the best I've heard from any soundtrack, though, so it's one that I almost always test when trying out new equipment.

Tsuru has a number of other CDs, many of which aren't anime related, that I'm going to have to check out sometime. Now if only I had the money to import them.

 

[dave-the-rave]

1. Lucinda Williams - "Essence" Virtually any track will do. They're all beautifully recorded. You've got earthy female vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and a band of about 5 musicians to see how it all holds together.

2. Allman Brothers Band - The Fillmore Concerts - "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" "The Fillmore Concerts" is an expanded, remastered version of "Live at the Fillmore East." This is an amazing track, the way the energy builds and builds. Again, there's a lot to keep track of: Keyboards, two electric guitars, bass, drums and two additional percussionists. How's the air around each instrument? Do you get a sense of the space they're playing in? Does whatever equipment you're listening to let you connect emotionally to this amazing music??? (And isn't that the ultimate question?)

3. Radiohead - OK Computer - "Paranoid Android" This track helped me choose my current CDP— I could hear details in this song on a Cary 303/200 that I could not hear on other players. The way this track morphs as it moves along lets you hear a lot of different sounds and styles. The acoustic guitar at the beginning, the punked out electic guitar blasts later on, the massed voices in the latter stages. And again, a great track, but are ya feelin' it?!?

 

[Ivion]

Well, because 25 minutes isn't much time and I'm such a big Steely Dan fan, I present to you; Ivion's super-deluxe-special-25-min-uber Steely Dan audition!

We kick in with Aja! With this song we'll test the synergy of the system, if it's liquid, harsh, fluffy, smushy, whatever.

This song has got guitars, nice drums and of course the incredible sax-solo. Because of all the different elements it is a perfect song the test the overal quality and 'sound-feel' of the equipment, so you can get adjusted to it's sound.

Moving on we've got Show Biz Kids. This song has alot of guitars, so if guitars are your thing (yeah!

), this song will test the system on that. Also there's always something going on this song, it's multi-layered; you've got the lead singer, the background singers, the always prominent guitar, the drums. The only sad thing about the song is that isn't really a bass-tester, but the solution to that is...

The Fez, which is our next song. As you might've guessed, this song is our bass-tester. Before I got my CD3000 I thought this song to be boring and lifeless, but when I heard this song again on my CD3000 I discovered the incredible bass, so therefore this is out bass-tester. This song also got some guitars, but the previous song is much better in that aspect.

And we close the line with The Royal Scam. I like a big soundstage, luckily the CD3000 has plenty of that; its soundstage is humongous!

Anyway, this song needs a large soundstage to really shine, it needs to be 'grand-sounding'. All the sounds have to be perfectly seperated and you need to able to pinpoint everything to an exact degree. Only when this is achieved the song becomes epic and you'll get shivers down your spine of its sheer grandness!

Hope you enjoyed reading this, and remember to listen some Steely Dan on your equipment. Steely Dan recordings are always top-notch quality, there're only a few arists which recordings match Steely Dans quality.

 

[KR...]

Everyone should only choose the recordings that they know like the back of their hand. The songs that you heard countless times. The reason being is because you will be able to notice any difference in sound with these songs rather than a really well recorded tracks that you barely ever listen to.

 

[KenW]

Stevie Ray Vaughn-Texas Flood