What is your reference recording?

[blaked]

Here are some of my go-to demo tracks.

Steven Wilson, "King Ghost"


Led Zeppelin, "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" - A surprisingly intimate recording, you can actually hear Robert Plant's lips parting and his tongue coming away from the roof of his mouth in spots.


Genesis, "Squonk"


Jerry Goldsmith, "The Force Field" (from the "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" soundtrack)


Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, 1st movement (Bruno Walter conducting the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, 1958) - My personal favorite recording of this piece. It's fun to listen closely for the sound of something probably hitting the floor at about the 3:29 mark.


I have more, but this list is probably getting too long already.

 

[jonathan c]

[Sheffield Labs: 1976]

 

[coburn]

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Autumn in Seattle
The engineering of the recording was outstanding

This recording is piano, bass and drums. I listen for the brush work on the cymbals. How well I can distinguish those and the placement in the sound stage

 

[Steve999]

. . .

 

[gammi]

Basically any track off of Alice in Chains Unplugged is a go to for me. That's such a well produced live album and really nails that "the band is playing in the room with me" sensation on a proper setup. I'm listening for things like the "zing" of the strings, the sound of the room/crowd, the breath of the vocals, all those small things that add up to it feeling live instead of recorded.


For some vocals, Caroline Polachek is amazing. Her tiny desk session is such an incredible display, I don't know how she gets her voice to do the things it does.


The drum hits in the beginning of Take the Power Back are good for testing impact.