Test music

[RPMac]

Please list some of the music you use when evaluating your system.

[Zimmer64]

I usually try out a variety of genres and pieces based on my mood, but I always listen to Keith Jarret - K

[Grainger49]

Ok,

The Wailin' Jennys, 40 Days, just about any song, for female voice clarity & purity.
The Pentangle, Cruel Sister, When I Was In My Prime, for cabinet resonances.
Kodo, Heartbeat of Japanese Drums (Sheffield CD only), O'Daiko for bass overhang.
The Pentangle, The Pentangle, any cut, for high frequency transient response and extension.
Paul Simon, There Goes Rhymin' Simon, many cuts for male voice character and fidelity.

[rif]

 Genesis,  the lamb lies down on Broadway.   Title track and Back  in NYC. but that's also a tradition I have.  it's always  played first in a new system,  major  new component,  also on a move to a new house, etc.

[RPMac]

Thanks Grainger, that's the kind of information I am looking for.

[STURMJ]

strangely enough, my test recording is Melody Gardot, Worrisome Heart

[dubiousmike]

x2 on Grainger's recommendation of the Wailin' Jennys - 40 Days!  A few other favorites on my test list:

-Ella & Louis Again (MFSL)
-Oscar Peterson - We Get Request (k2hd)
-Chanticleer - Evening Prayer
-Pee Wee Russell - Portrait of Pee Wee
-Norman Blake, Tut Taylor, Sam Bush, Dave Holland & Vassar Clement - Hank Dean Sessions (HDS-701) / Track: Sauerkraut n' Solar Energy
-Faure Requiem (performed by Cambridge Singers and London Sinfonia)

[John EH]

My reference music:

Dave Brubek - Take Five - for Jazz
Rebecca Pidgeon - The Raven - for female vocals
Cowboy Junkies - Trinity Sessions - for clarity and purity
Tony Rice Unit - Unit of Measure - Just for the music
Stevie Ray Vaughn - Texas Flood - Do I need to say it?  For electric guitar.
Roy Rogers - Slideways (actually I believe a recommendation by Doc B here some years back)

Just good music below.  Very revealing stuff for reference listening too:

Diana Krall -  The Girl in the Other Room
Elvis Costello - Secret, Profane, and Sugarcane
Chicago - The Heart of Chicago
Rosanna Cash - 10 Song Demo
Rickie Lee Jones - The Duchess of Coolsville
Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around
Ry Cooder - Mambo Sinuendo

[earwaxxer]

Hey Rob!  - I would have to say that when I want to test a new change in kit etc, I usually go with a well known and more importantly a well enjoyed piece of music, that I have been listening to recently. Mostly its a well recorded piece, but sometimes those poor recordings are even more revealing, if I really know the songs well and know what it is about the poor recording that I have always found lacking. Example: Jethro Tull. Historically not crazy about those recordings. Always seemed a bit 'anemic' IMO. As my kit gets better those recordings have 'come out of the closet' so to speak. Detail comes forward, piano becomes fleshed out and real etc. Peter Gabrial is another one that comes hither with some good round tube type influence etc.

[Aural Robert]

My "go to" is on Pink Floyd The Wall, where the helicopter is coming down and the guy with the accent is yelling "STAND STILL LADDIE". Crank that up from a vinyl source and you can almost feel the blades whizzing over your head. Then the music kicks in and it gets even better.

Aural Robert.
... We don't need no education ...

[porcupunctis]

I'm with Earwaxer.  Go with an album that you know very well.  Something you've been listening to since you began really listening and know every nuance.

For me, Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" and "Dark Side of the Moon", Genesis' "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" and "Selling England by the Pound", as well as Yes' "Close to the Edge", "Fragile", and "Tales From Topographical Oceans".

If I can really enjoy those albums, I will keep listening and go on to Porcupine Tree, Dave Brubeck, Curtis Counce and whatever else comes up.  I think it takes a while before you really know if you like a system or not.  I keep a lot of amps, preamps, tables, etc in rotation and eventually I start sticking with certain pieces of the system.  If I keep going back to them, I figure they must be just right.

[earwaxxer]

I have to add one other observation that I have made when there is a significant, although intangible upgrade in sound from a mod kit change etc. When I play an album that is very well known, I find myself hearing and enjoying songs that I might not have really appreciated before. I just listen to the whole album and enjoy it, whereas I may have skipped some songs in the past. That tells me something.

[2wo]

The first song I play whenever I build a new amp is, Stormy Monday, usually Greg Allman but I got plenty of others. Its just sort of a tradition...John     

[Bonzo]

I'm with Erik.
To evaluate a new piece of gear is important to use a record you know really well.
Maybe something you also listen with your headphones and which you know every little detail of.
Then is important not to overload your audio memory: listen to 30", and then listen to the same 30" again with the old gear.
It is really difficult to remember sounds, even more the subtle differencies of sounds...
Then there are some records you can use to evaluate special effects (but, as usual you have to know them very well):
PRAT (I use Dire Straits records or RATM ones);
Bass and High extension (Pictures at an Exhibition - ELP; Mezzanine - Massice Attack);
3D and overall sound quality (this is a thought test, I always use Mapleshade's CD as they are recorded to preserve the stereo image and with a purist approach).

Ciao!

[2wo]

"Which one, Midnight Rider?"

When I went to look, "Live at the Fillmore East" was the first one I came across...John