What is your favorite track to test on?

[ElCid79]

Hey y'all. when you set up a new system, or are out shopping for parts, what are your favorite tracks to play?

I usually play some classical,
then something with a broad range of sounds, (He Mele No Lilo from lilo and stitch is pretty good.)

Then some of my favorite jam bands. the dead or allman brothers.

 

[j_garcia]

My favorite track is called "try a search first"

Patricia Barber - Cafe Blue SACD - Nardis

 

[zieglj01]

Chris Botti, Live in Boston - The Look of Love

 

[slipperybidness]

Getz/Gilberto

 

[davidtwotrees]

Al Green's Greatest Hits, I'm Still In Love with You on DVD-Audio
The drum track just comes alive on the DVD-A.
Really a stunner on a good rig.
The better the speaker, the more defined the drummer becomes.
For Bass, I like Portishead, Dummy, Track:It Could Be Sweet- also has a killer drum track that pops on good gear.

 

[MinusTheBear]

My favorite right now is Third Eye Blinds Self Titled Album on CD. It is a HUGE sounding record with amazing production and recording quality by the lead singer Stephan Jenkins and recording engineer Eric Valentine. Wicked drum sound. The bass tone on this album is superb and played with such finesse. Kevin Cadogan is a genius on electric guitar.

I particularly like The Background which uses SM57 mics placed under water. The song is supposed to come across as a under water dream sequence and it is pulled of brilliantly by the recording engineer Eric Valentine.

 

[jonnythan]

The Power of Love by Celine Dion. Good musical bass, very clear and textured vocal track. The sounds are all well-separated and simple and has always helped me identify the weaknesses of a system.

 

[Whitey80]

J, always gotta hate! Searching on this site is awful, and it's always fun to kick the conversation around again, since it is always changing.

for my "audiophile" 2 channel system, I use Vivaldi's "Le Quattro Stagioni" the Standage/Pinnock concert recording on period instruments. The scale ranging from silence to full orchestra is impressive on my big Maggies and class A amps, the subtle details of the viola are amazing. Particularly track 10.

for my surround setup in my theater, I use the 5.1 remaster DVD-A of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds album "Murder Ballads" track, "O'Malleys Bar" (don't demo this to your mother, very disturbing and offensive) The twangy, out of tune piano and deep, haunting effect of Cave's voice, combined with the theramin and blue's rythm backing is a particularly effective encompassing sound

 

[darien87]

My favorite right now is Third Eye Blinds Self Titled Album on CD.

Just a side note, the lead singer of 3rd Eye Blind is trying to get his new song to be used as the Occupy movement's theme song. Too bad the song blows. He's trying so hard to be relevant again but unfortunately I think 3rd Eye Blind had an album that resonated with a lot of people at the time and that time won't come again.

 

[j_garcia]

J, always gotta hate! Searching on this site is awful, and it's always fun to kick the conversation around again, since it is always changing.

Not hating...just that this is one of those things that gets asked about every other month. It is just a given that there are already a minimum of dozen of them on every HT forum. If nobody ever searched, then we would just have the same thing posted over and over and over... Why even have search if nobody is going to USE it then?

 

[jonnythan]

Not hating...just that this is one of those things that gets asked about every other month. It is just a given that there are already a minimum of dozen of them on every HT forum. If nobody ever searched, then we would just have the same thing posted over and over and over... Why even have search if nobody is going to USE it then?

You are absolutely correct.

GET RID OF THE SEARCH FUNCTION!

 

[j_garcia]

You are absolutely correct.

GET RID OF THE SEARCH FUNCTION!

No, make it work

 

[MinusTheBear]

Just a side note, the lead singer of 3rd Eye Blind is trying to get his new song to be used as the Occupy movement's theme song. Too bad the song blows. He's trying so hard to be relevant again but unfortunately I think 3rd Eye Blind had an album that resonated with a lot of people at the time and that time won't come again.

Third Eye Blinds first album is a masterpiece. Unfortunately after that album their recording wasn't good IMO and the bad breakup between Jenkins and Cadogan was a HUGE creative loss. They were not the same after that. I think Eric Valentine only worked on the self-titled album. Everything after that was crap.

Their self-titled is a different animal all together. The record company had a huge budget for the album and Stephan Jenkins, Kevin Cadogan and the recording engineer Eric Valentine decided to spare no expense for this album. Eric Valentines goal was to try every theoretical way to make this album sound as big and beautiful as possible. They employed several studios for this album including the Skywalker Ranch.

 

[ElCid79]

Listening to these tracks today has been fun. Although I don't have those discs I am streaming them off of Rhapsody. I know the quality takes a major nose dive, but for just background music while tooling around the house this has been a lot of fun. Anyone else have some recommendations?

 

[hopper12]

any of the transformers movies are a must

 

[ElCid79]

I heard this awesome track today called End Theme by Zero 7. If you havn't heard this track do yourself the favor. It is simply awesome.

 

[timoteo]

Portishead is one of my favorite groups but to me their recordings just plain blow. So i dont use them to demo.

One of my favorite tracks is off the bluray, Chris Botti & Friend, its a cover song called "Pennies from Heaven" sung by a beautiful girl named Renee Olstead. Shes young in the bluray but if you google her HOLYSMOKES!!! Drop dead HOT!!! The track has a nice dynamic intro. The bass, drums & trumpet all sound great in 96/24 PCM.

On CD my favorite female vocal demo is any of Jane Monheit's songs. The recordings of her are comparable or even better than Diana Krall's. Voicewise they are both amazing but i like the quality of Jane's CDs.

Movis: Too many to list & they have all been discussed plenty!

 

[davidtwotrees]

I heard this awesome track today called End Theme by Zero 7. If you havn't heard this track do yourself the favor. It is simply awesome.

Zero 7's work is just awesome. Not sure what they are doing now but tracks off their first two albums are used constantly on TV and radio- I hear them in the background on NPR as well as the PGA. Sia Furler is also cool working with them.

 

[ElCid79]

I ordered a SACD of Dark Side this week from amazon. It came in today. SACD is very very cool. I have a few DVD-A laying around. But I kinda dig this Hybrid-SACD. The fact, that I could throw them in a regular CD player when not at home is really cool.

 

[afterlife2]

Patricia Barber - Cafe Blue SACD - Nardis

JG That one is expensive used WOW. Maybe I'll get it on regular CD. That good eh?
I used The Beatles "A Hard Days Night" on regular DVD. Beautiful audio although it's mono. Fiona Apple and Elvis 60's or 70's stuff. Any Jazz CD like Diana Krall, Spyra Gyra, John Coltrane, etc. Tina Dico with Zero 7 is my fav. Check out her solo stuff. Not a Sia fan.