What song for demonstrating an audio system / stereo?
Grab the Tron Legacy soundtrack. Get it on CD so you get the best quality version out there. The film on Blu Ray is also reference but for audio purposes get the CD. It will push and test your system extremely well. Disney paid for and built Daft Punk a million dollar studio to do the score for the film. I was in audio and the music business for 25 years and spent much of that producing so I’m always up for a reference disc to test a system to its’ limit. Enjoy.
What am I doing? I'm talking to an empty telephone
July 13, 2019, 04:31 PM
CPD SIG
I honestly don't think you can do this with just 1 song.
There's so much diverse and great music out there that can show off a sound system.
Led Zeppelin- Ramble On... The part in the song where the music shifts from the right channel, to the left, back to the right...
More Led Zeppelin- Rock and Roll, Moby Dick, or When the Levey Breaks. The Who- Won't get fooled again
Move over to to some Jazz Drummers: Gene Krupa, Steve Gadd I'd probably toss in "Take 5" by Brubeck
Include Phill Collins- In the air tonight
Show off some drums.
Guitars- Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Clapton Move over to some acoustic guitar- Clapton, Crosby, Stills & Nash. Neil Young Look at some Rodrigo y Gaberela.
You need that big, fat sound... That means a horn section. Chicago, Vehicle by the Ides of March, Spinning Wheel, Let it Roll by Little Feat.
Then some Classical Music! Kkina brings up a phenomenal suggestion: Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Beethoven, Back, Mozart, Chopin, Tchaikovsky... There's always John Phillips Sousa.
Throw in some Eletronic Music- Daft Punk, Depeche Mode Maybe some Dub Step
Or you can be simple... Play the beginning of Apocalypse Now. The End, by The Doors. However, you can hear the rotor blades of the helicopters and the explosions. Star Wars, but the scenes with the light sabers, Return of the Jedi, the scene where they are racing thru the forest
The chase scene from Bullitt.
______________________________________________________________________ "When its time to shoot, shoot. Dont talk!"
“What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It’s not good at much else.” —Author Tom Clancy
July 13, 2019, 05:17 PM
dlc444
Rush YYZ.
Lots of high pitch and plenty of bass
-.---.----.. -.---.----.. -.---.----.. It seems to me that any law that is not enforced and can't be enforced weakens all other laws.
July 13, 2019, 05:45 PM
mttaylor1066
I used the Blu Ray version of "The Fellowship of the Ring" when I auditioned the Golden Ear Triton 2+ speakers.
The scene with Balrog and the escape from the mines of Moria is what I used. There is bass, low frequency effects, a male chorus, shrieks, growls, whispers, strings and finally a female soprano solo... the female solo is when I said to myself "I am going to buy these speakers."
I would also recommend any Pixar movie, their sound design is fantastic. The Incredibles has everything you will need to put a speaker through its paces.
___________________
Company, villainous company hath been the spoil of me.
July 13, 2019, 07:15 PM
just1tym
quote:
Originally posted by Oz_Shadow: Hotel California from the Eagles Hell Freezes Over Live version. One of the absolute best for a demo even if you do not like the Eagles.
Absolutely..This was going to be my first suggestion. The first time I heard it on my home system when the drum breaks in after the initial guitar is just amazing!
Regards, Will G.
July 13, 2019, 07:29 PM
Sig Dale
Shine on you Crazy Diamond ...Floyd Motherless Children...Clapton Stranglehold...Nugent
July 13, 2019, 07:39 PM
erj_pilot
We would always plug in Top Gun and watch/listen to the first 10 minutes or so while the Tomcats were being launched. LOTS of low end...
"If you’re a leader, you lead the way. Not just on the easy ones; you take the tough ones too…” – MAJ Richard D. Winters (1918-2011), E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil... Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel." - Isaiah 5:20,24
July 13, 2019, 08:01 PM
jhe888
You should use the music you like for a demo. Some systems sound are better suited to some kinds of music.
The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything.
July 13, 2019, 10:39 PM
TMats
quote:
Move over to to some Jazz Drummers: Gene Krupa, Steve Gadd.
Steve Gadd has played drums in many genres, including jazz. He’s toured with Clapton for years.
_______________________________________________________ despite them
July 14, 2019, 02:01 AM
konata88
I usually use one vocalist, one guitar, one piano and one quartet or symphony.
I like to test for dynamics, accuracy and sound stage. Pick something that was recorded well that is very familiar to you.
"Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it." L.Tolstoy "A government is just a body of people, usually, notably, ungoverned." Shepherd Book
July 14, 2019, 02:14 AM
Aeteocles
quote:
Originally posted by Oz_Shadow: Hotel California from the Eagles Hell Freezes Over Live version. One of the absolute best for a demo even if you do not like the Eagles.
I was going to say exactly this.
I have the DVD-audio version with dts.
July 14, 2019, 05:11 AM
fpuhan
Every time I've tested an audio system (mostly in automobiles, but I have a Bang & Olufsen home system as well as several Bose systems) I bring with me a copy of Fourplay's debut album. The opening track, "Bali Run" has everything needed: quiet high-hat cymbals, rumbling bass, sparkling guitar work, and deft keyboard work.
You can't truly call yourself "peaceful" unless you are capable of great violence. If you're not capable of great violence, you're not peaceful, you're harmless.
Going vinyl, then the original MFSL pressing of Dark Side of the Moon, of course. I don't expect anyone needs a link for that.
July 14, 2019, 01:02 PM
MRBTX
July 14, 2019, 02:17 PM
JasonEuc
Listen to what you like.
I’ve also got send Rusted Root’s “When I Woke” album for a good mix and the dynamics.
July 14, 2019, 02:37 PM
mr kablammo
Mozart, Flute Concerto No 1, K 313, or his Haffner symphony; or a Bach flute/harp/piano/violin concerto- Op 61, D major is a favorite.
Mannheim Steamroller, Fresh Aire II.
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye". The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, pilot and author, lost on mission, July 1944, Med Theatre.
July 14, 2019, 06:10 PM
Butch 2340
I'd use something like this myself.
****************************************************************************** Never shoot a large caliber man with a small caliber bullet . . .
July 14, 2019, 06:24 PM
LS1 GTO
Opening two songs from Metallica's S&M discs
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
"If dogs don't go to Heaven, I want to go where they go" Will Rogers
The definition of the words we used, carry a meaning of their own...
July 14, 2019, 06:50 PM
Balzé Halzé
I'd probably play a few scores from John Williams, particularly the theme from Jurassic Park.
~Alan Acta Non Verba NRA Life Member (Patron) God, Family, Guns, Country
Men will fight and die to protect women... because women protect everything else. ~Andrew Klavan
"Once there was only dark. If you ask me, light is winning." ~Rust Cohle
