The most dynamic, well recorded music you have heard to date....

treitz3

I'm beginning to feel like some of you do not know what dynamic range is and that you are basing things on the frequencies offered. Here's some notes I made on Madonna's "music" CD...

Song 3 sounds like a cross between Delerium and transe with a DJ mixed in but the bass is pure electronics. Most of it is between an estimated 25-35Hz. This may be why some of you think it's dynamic. It's just electronically generated lower registers. Song 2 has some very nice 3-D sound that envelops you and in a way, I wish more recordings were done this way but this is on the top end only.

Song 4 sounds like it would be great on a car stereo or a two way speaker that can't quite dig down as low as my rig can. Even with the two subs off. Probably [my guess] what the entire album was geared toward. Song 7 is annoying as hell with the sound coming in and out sharply. Not in a good way either. Just stupid, If you ask me. Song 9 is cool as hell!

Overall, you can clearly tell that the music was compressed and recorded hot. I mean hot. That may mean detail to some and it may mean dynamics to some others when paired with the lower electronic frequencies mixed in but it is far from dynamic. The bass is overpondering throughout the CD and it sounds as if the same recording engineers did Lady Antebellum's "Need you now" album.

This CD will most likely be in the CD rack for years to come and will only be played again for song #9. That is, unless I listen to it in my truck or other sub-par system. I will not be purchasing any other Madonna CD, even if it does sound "better", if it is anything like this. Holy crap, gentlemen. Throw me a bone.

heiney9

I will say I never recomended Music and Ray of Light is great for SDA's, not nec for dynamic range. In fact Ray of Light is the only Madonna cd that is listenable.

gudnoyez

I have to agree Steely Dans Aja is the one to show off your system with

Polkie2009

I was never a big fan of MJ, but remember the "Thriller" cd sounding fairly well mixed??? Anyone have the SACD that can chime in? Someone correct me please if I'm wrong.

leftwinger57

I'lll also throw in Steeley Dan and most Mark Knopler solo efforts were beautifuly recorded.Also I just got a Diana Krall cd from the library and it too is recored very well.

kappclark

JimAckley wrote: »

Try the Apollo 13 score by James Horner. It will put any system's dynamic capability and LF extention at its limits.

How about Titanic (James Horner) ?? Incredible dynamics !

While we're at it, I always use the soundtrack to Wyatt Erp by James Newton Howard as a good reference..the guys at the stereo store always say " what is this - it's great !"

indyhawg

Steely Dan Aja
Stevie Ray Vaughn- Tin Pan Alley

CoolJazz

treitz3 wrote: »

Mark, I'll try to look and see if I can get this one...soon



This is the right one, correct?

That's it Tom!

Everyone here was astonished at this one. The realism is amazing! That takes an accurate soundstage and dynamics to pull off! And this one has it in spades due to his simple setup. Mic pair...into his pre....and then straight into a preliminary Sony DSD recorder. Nothing else!

About as real piano on several cuts as you'll ever hear. Some fun blues kind of cuts. Chico Freeman plays a sax on a couple with as real, raw sax breathiness as you can find. Kenny Rankin plays guitar and sings solo on one. A violin cut on one.

Among a couple he must have recorded at home is, as weird as it sounds, is his (then) mother-in-law reading the 23rd Psalm verse, while he hits some gongs! Talk about dynamics, clear voice reading and then 'WHANGGG"!! Then the next cut is his (now ex) wife reading a poem while Levinson himself plays an upright bass strongly along with it. Just the two of them with real crickets outside chirping in the background. Good stuff!

CJ

PS...after somebody brought it over and we heard it, I must have had it on order within 10 minutes after they all left! I wanted it that much!

treitz3

CJ, PM me your #. I can't find it anywhere [your# or the CD]. I've been meaning to chat with you for a while about 20fold.

treitz3

So, has anybody had the chance to listen to my suggestion on post #1 yet? I just plopped it in again this morning and I tell ya'.....that song is growing on me. It just takes you to another place on Earth. The dynamics will give you the goose bumps and at times scare the living crap out yo' britches.

Once you hear it, you'll know what I'm talking about.

mhardy6647

Best recorded and most dynamic? Even at this late date, in my experience it is still Volumes 1 and 2 of the direct to disk (the vinyl kind, not the polycarbonate/aluminum kind) Sonic Fireworks albums on Crystal Clear Records. It's what I like to call "boom-boom" music (prelude from Also Sprach Zarathustra, Copeland's Fanfare for the Common Man, stuff like that), and the musicanship is meh, but the recording quality, space, and dynamics are astounding. Also extremely good is Crystal Clear's 45 rpm direct to disk eponymous Charlie Byrd album - best recorded drums that I have ever heard, to date.

H9, et al. on the topic of Patty Larkin... virtually all of her recordings are excellent in quality (both sonically and musically). I've always wondered why she never became a "big star"... on the bright side, it means I've gotten to see her several times in tiny venues! For a one-stop shopping intro to Patty Larkin, which is excellent in every way, seek out her live solo acoustic album a gogo. It is superb. Several of its tracks are standard references for me to use for hifi evaluations. www.pattylarkin.com

One more exceptional-in-every-way recording I'll mention: The Wailin Jennys Live at Mauch Chunk Opera House. Superb in every way; again an excellent one-stop-shopping intro to this fantastic group (and it sounds great, too). www.thewailinjennys.com


EDIT: gonna throw in a few honorable mentions:
Best live rock and roll album (performance and recording), for me, is Little Feat's Waiting for Columbus. The late-1970s MoFi Stan Riker hald-speed remastered LP is my reference, but the fairly recent Rhino 2-CD remaster is also very good. Haven't heard the new MoFi (is it from the same source as the original MoFi?).

One outstanding woofer torture-test track (also a great, sultry song, and beautifully recorded and mastered) - Jennifer Warnes' Way Down Deep from her album The Hunter. I'd give up mission-critical body parts for an original vinyl copy of this :-)

HTH.

SCompRacer

mhardy6647 wrote: »

One outstanding woofer torture-test track (also a great, sultry song, and beautifully recorded and mastered) - Jennifer Warnes' Way Down Deep from her album The Hunter. I'd give up mission-critical body parts for an original vinyl copy of this :-)

Me too. I settled for the Cisco 180g LP release of The Hunter. The 3 LP 45RPM Famous Blue Raincoat I have is also stellar. Yes, I am a Jennifer Warnes fan. I'd also like to have Madonna's Something To Remember LP (also kind of pricey).

I've been using Regrooving the Dream as a demo since it was released. It even appears in an old showcase photo of mine.

http://www.polkaudio.com/images/showcase/218_61_big.jpg?rand=23772880

madmax

treitz3 wrote: »

Holy crap, gentlemen. Throw me a bone.

I threw you one of the biggest bones in my collection.

Also the LP with Bang a Gong from Powerhouse (I think) has about 3 super dynamic songs, listened to it last night at record levels.

treitz3

madmax wrote: »

I threw you one of the biggest bones in my collection.

That was not directed at you, Sir. Thank you for your suggestions. I will check them out.

Earlier this year, I was talking with one of the editors of Stereophile magazine and he had mentioned that AC/DC's Back in Black album was recorded with little to no compression and that it had very good dynamics. While I may not consider it a stellar recording, you can definitely tell that the dynamics are there. Great music to boot.

megasat16

treitz3 wrote: »

Hugh Masekela, "Stimela" 10 minutes and 5 seconds long.

What say you?

Well, I heard that track. It's more of a rant than a song. A good rant, may be!

Nonetheless, it's a dynamic track.

My suggestion.....

Try 2L DTS tracks from Norway!

http://www.2l.no/

Try "Lux ?terna" by Clint Mansell.

Try compositions by Hans Zimmer! Try the composition by Escala. I love them all.

I also have the Disc suggested by Fred and it's very good too.

megasat16

I can't edit my previous post but I missed to put

"Karl Jerkins and Adiemus" in my previous list.

BlueFox

Desire by Tierney Sutton is a very well recorded CD. While I expect an SACD to sound good, when a CD comes along that seems to be SACD quality I am happy. This CD is one. If you like Dianna Krall then you will like this CD.

http://www.amazon.com/Desire-Tierney-Sutton/dp/B001PXYH2S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307858393&sr=1-1

AsSiMiLaTeD

Just an FYI, if you're going to mention an artist and track, it would help to include the album name as well.

I'll use post #1 as an example, I've found 3 different version of this song online, all recorded very differently, would help to know which album is being referenced.

treitz3

Good point, my bad. The one I have is off the Burmester Vorf*rungs CD III. Song #9. The* is actually a u with the two dots over it. I tried typing it a couple of days ago and it ended up being a question mark. The entire album is recorded well and if you get it, you will also have a unique drum track that's also about 10 minutes long. That one is called "Poem of Chinese Drums" by Yim Hok-Man.

Sorry about that.

treitz3

Here ya' go. This is the exact one I have...

http://jimmyauw.com/2007/12/31/burmester-vorfuhrungs-cd-iii/

erniejade

Lorna Hunt all in one day. Ben Taylor, ( james kid decent work actually HDCD )

and for some reason I like ray lamontagne's recordings. Kind of old school sounding in the recording.

Black Keys Brothers cd I was surprised on also. After 4 or 5 sounds I just dug the music and the recording of it. Dynamic, and the bass is strong on it. Sometimes the distortion can get annoying that he uses on the voice though.

kappclark

nspindel wrote: »

Awesome cd, I have it too. This was one of the first cd's my father ever bought when he bought our first cd player back in the 1980's.

I have that -- The opening to Battlestar Galactica is off the charts ! What a way to show off the system..

soundfreak1

Axel F. Theme By Harold faltermeyer (from bevery hills cop) terrific for speaker evaluation!

FTGV

kappclark wrote: »

I have that -- The opening to Battlestar Galactica is off the charts ! What a way to show off the system..

Some potential speaker damaging dynamics if one isn't careful with the volume control as it will find your woofers Xmax in a hurry

megasat16

treitz3 wrote: »

Here ya' go. This is the exact one I have...

http://jimmyauw.com/2007/12/31/burmester-vorfuhrungs-cd-iii/

Man...I looked for it and finally found it. Track 10 is a real bass shaker. A track like that confirms why subs should be sealed and can't go wrong with multiple subs in stereo listening.

Track 10 is an awesome track. And a must have for the speaker builder. :biggrin:

I won't even go to audition speakers without this track in the future.

skipf

Telarc's 1812 on vinyl or SACD, both are excellent.
MOFI's "So Long So Wrong by AKUS vynil.
MOFI's "Waiting for Columbus" by Little Feat vinyl.
Donald Fegan's "The Nightfly" vinyl.

bmor

Lyle Lovett - Joshua Judges Ruth. I think decent dynamics but it's the quality of the recording that grabs me. Instruments and voices are clean and precise, at least to my worn ears.

unc2701

OK, general rule of thumb- you want pretty good dynamics, look for anything released in the early/mid-80's through about 90. Madonna, Like a Prayer? great dynamic range; Music? complete trash.

Dire Straights, Brothers in Arms; Duran Duran, Notorious; Van Halen 1984; ZZ Top, Eliminator; MJ Thriller; Depeche Mode, Violator.

Basically, the gear had improved to the point that you could get that awesome dynamic range, but the noise war hadn't kicked in.

One track that I've found is really great for testing gear is Massive Attack's Dissolved Girl- mostly because it has a section where they compress the hell out of it, followed by huge dynamics. On a good system, it pretty much sounds like someone flipped the "suck" switch, then just as suddenly flipped it off. Hard to find a more clear demonstration of dynamic range compression.

victor. askew

A lot of great selections have been listed. I stand by mine. Pink Floyds Animals has to be heard. This was around 76/77 and its a great recording that still holds its on with the much newer stuff that came out in the 80,90, and even now.:cool:

erniejade

treitz3 wrote: »

Hugh Masekela, "Stimela" 10 minutes and 5 seconds long.

What say you?

Wow I need to pick this up. what version do you recommend? Seems to be a few out there..