[carmatic]

guys, i am an electronic dance music kind of guy, listening to anything produced electronically for the sole purpose of dancing between 120bpm and 180bpm ....

and i have noticed a trend, some genres of music seem to proliferate in the physical location where i live, on the internet it seems that a completely different set of genres dominate the scene... i would explain this in terms of the quality of the sound equipment used in the local clubs (generally quite bad), vs desktop audio solutions of music lovers online (generally quite good) ... on my physical location, the music tends to be simple, dirty and electro with an in-your-face feel, whereas online the music is deeper, more melodic, complicated and progressive

which brings me to the point im trying to make, what in your experience has been the genre or subgenre of music most tolerant of the quality of your sound equipment, and conversely which has been the least... did you also find that the music has evolved to be this way out of necessity? for example, on my yet-to-be-burnt-in pair of ultrasone 750's, most of the music on my computer sound horrible yet there are some tracks , the ones which get played at my physical location, which actually sound better somehow in the current state of my setup, it makes me think that they have been produced to bypass certain limitations which are fundemental to all sound equipment, its just that good sound equipment would have higher limits than their inferior counterparts

 

[MeanWillieGreen]

old school punk rock - Sex Pistols . . . Bollocks, Dead Kennedys, New York Dolls, Sham 69, etc - are all immune to bad music systems; i have gone to many parties with suspect to no-fi music systems, and barking along to punk rock is never diminished because of a bad system, for me

I have a hard time enjoying solo acoustic music on anything but a great system

is that what you are seeking to know?

 

[rei_yano]

agreed. almost all the punk grunge hardcore underground indie stuff tends to sound decent almost anywhere specifically oldschool punk music. I could listen to dead kennedys or crass on any system. that has a lot to do with messy DIY and as you put it "no-fi" attitude. I enjoy it because its an aesthetic that has a redeaming value to me; an emotional response to its in your faceness maybe? I get a jolt when I hear the simple thump of the drums with the messy strumming one riff guitars and the dogish barking vocals. i get excited but whether I listen with my sr60s koss ksc75s or my ms2is I hear little difference. however give me something more intricate and recorded with care and I can hear a huuuuge difference between all my phones. sufjan stevens can bring me even deeper into sadness with his song about john wayne gacy when I listen to the ms2is but the effect is not as hard hitting with the other phones.

as far as electronica I totally get what you mean. locals play it hard and to the point. they just want to get people on thier feet. however online artists and other studio artists tend to have a larger soundstage and more everything from lows to highs. Underworld is a band that sounds awesome on the ms2is but alot of early animal collective when they were using alot of electronics sounds the same everywhere I play it. except maybe stock earbuds lol.

 

[carmatic]

interesting, i have little experience outside electronica so knowing about old school punk rock is quite enlightening... perhaps the 'no-fi' approach can be quite a refreshing one, although it would kind of have no place being discussed in a forum like this
personally, i kind of enjoy hearing every single quirk and oddity in these in-your-face type of songs, in my electronica music i can hear stuff like when they used a vinyl recording as a sample, or the seperation between every different sound they mixed together, and things which are meant to be in the 'background' are brought to the forefront... mostly however its jarring cuts and silence between the sounds from the cheap and to-the-point production methods which characterizes my experience with this music, its not an unpleasant one for me but i can definitely see why lots of people do not enjoy this type of music

 

[rei_yano]

hey recomend me a good list of stuff to look up. I am interested in what you are describing!

 

[erasmus]

noise rock, noise music in general

merzbow
lightning bolt
melt banana
venetian snares
lovesliescrushing

you know.... stuff that's supposed to sound like a trainwreck and give you as big a headache as possible.

 

[Assorted]

I find rock music to sound bad regardless of quality equipment, but maybe that's because I only have access to the "remastered" albums.

I have several guitar albums which sound good on almost all of my equipment. Piano music on the other hand, can sound very off on any cheaper equipment.

 

[DavidMahler]

I'm a believer that a fan of any specific type of music looks for something very specific in the sound signature of their audio equipment if they have sensitive or discriminating ears. My friend is a big fan of Electronica.....which I do not really appreciate. No matter what system I listen to them on, it doesn't move me, yet he looks for very distinctive sound signatures.......

I do think however, that hip hop listeners tend to be pleased as long as the bass is full. I don't know if that means that its not sensitive to audio set up, but from my experience (and this does not speak of the head-fi hip hop fans), hip hop fans that I know in my personal life are quite pleased with whatever headphone or speaker they have as long as they can turn on the bass boost and play it loud!

 

[rei_yano]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavidMahler /img/forum/go_quote.gif I'm a believer that a fan of any specific type of music looks for something very specific in the sound signature of their audio equipment if they have sensitive or discriminating ears. My friend is a big fan of Electronica.....which I do not really appreciate. No matter what system I listen to them on, it doesn't move me, yet he looks for very distinctive sound signatures....... I do think however, that hip hop listeners tend to be pleased as long as the bass is full. I don't know if that means that its not sensitive to audio set up, but from my experience (and this does not speak of the head-fi hip hop fans), hip hop fans that I know in my personal life are quite pleased with whatever headphone or speaker they have as long as they can turn on the bass boost and play it loud!

tell me about it........

 

[carmatic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by rei_yano /img/forum/go_quote.gif hey recomend me a good list of stuff to look up. I am interested in what you are describing!

off the top of my head, the dirty breaks genre comes first and foremost... the 2 tracks i can think of right now are
autobots vs screwface - apocalypse
dj mutiny - soul runner

i'll ask more about it when i next meet the local dj guys... someone on the internet is interested in the music theyre playing!


about those hip hop listeners... all i can associate them with, is their cars and the bass coming out of them... doesnt matter that the rattling from the body or chassis is drowning the vocals, as long as their subwoofer has more power than their engine they're happy

 

[bigshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by carmatic /img/forum/go_quote.gif what in your experience has been the genre or subgenre of music most tolerant of the quality of your sound equipment, and conversely which has been the least.

I'm not sure what you're getting at in the rest of your post, but I can answer this question...

The most tolerant sort of music is typical electric guitar rock music, and the least tolerant is classical chamber music. There are two reasons for that... rock music usually has a synthetic soundstage, so just about any speaker setup will work, while chamber music depends on precise positioning of the instruments in the soundstage. The second reason is the response curve... distorted guitars and futzed vocals don't need to be precisely balanced like acoustic music does. If a violin has too much or not enough treble, it can be very irritating. But the same degree of imbalance on a distorted guitar makes very little difference.

As someone else mentioned, solo piano music is very hard to record and play back realistically too.

See ya
Steve

 

[progo]

Everything that's compressed to 0dB fits the bill. :<