Sine waves! How audiophile. I only listen to recordings of marine fog alarms.Oh come on now. I put together my main system to listen to sine waves! The music part is just for when I'm bored.
Sine waves! How audiophile. I only listen to recordings of marine fog alarms.Oh come on now. I put together my main system to listen to sine waves! The music part is just for when I'm bored.
Well, if you could tell what kind of guitar was being played, and through what kind of amp, and what, if any, effects pedals were being used, and roughly how high they were turned up, and where the tone controls were set on the guitar, etc., etc., then maybe. I would think you would agree that all these things significantly affect the tone produced. Maybe some experienced guitarists can do all that easily just by listening. But I'm guessing that the average listener isn't going to be in a position to do that, nor do they care. But then again, they really aren't in a position to know how the recording of the instrument is supposed to sound without knowing that sort of stuff, are they?
Do you have to be able to tell a Selmer from a Vito tenor sax on the recording to know if it sounds right? I was lucky that I played clarinet from 5th grade to 1st year of college, then keyboards with a rock band for years after that, so have a pretty good idea of what things sound like.
Umm, no -- the first "digitally recorded rock LP" was Ry Cooder's Bop 'til You Drop in 1979.Actually, Aja and Nightfly were both first digital recorded LP's. They were terrible recordings and the engineers had to deal with the issues.
McIntosh recorders.theophile, I agree with you on this...I have found some of the older 50's recording incredible, were mikes ran right into McIntosh recorders..like RCA Living Stereo classical records, some are breathtaking. Bill Evans live recording on Waltz for Debbie come to mind too.
I'm sure there was a real person sitting there playing a real guitar while another real person was recording the actual performance. Sure the other real person playing the keyboards may be in a different studio in a different city at a later time with another real person recording that. What's your point?Without getting derailed into a side issue, I would just say that there's probably a lot more variability in mouthpieces, reeds, and embouchures than in horn models. (Parker played on some really crappy, often borrowed horns, but still sounded like himself. It's the player, not the horn. ) But with the many effects pedals for guitars, and the practically infinite possible combinations of them, and the differences in degrees to which they can be implemented, I think electric guitar tones have a lot more variability. But I've had guitarists tell me that they can easily hear the differences between Fenders and Gibsons, for example.
I'll try to put the basic point a little differently. Most people are thinking of a "reference recording" in terms of one that's been engineered to sound impressive. But asking that the recording be as accurate as possible compared to the actual live performance is quite different. Comparing recordings, I can often tell pretty quickly and easily whether a piano, sax, trumpet or string instruments sounds more like the live instrument. With an electric guitar, since there are really many, many different possible ways it can sound, I don't really have any way of knowing what it did in fact sound like in the studio. But, again, most people are shooting for "impressive", not "accurate", so what it in fact sounded like is irrelevant. I really doubt that many rock recordings are live-in-the-studio, or have been for quite some time anyway, so "accuracy" per se is really besides the point: there never was any actual performance to be reproduced.
So is Steely Dan a guy or what?
Long time lurker, first post.
That song is called "FM" ...Fred Norris the sound drop guy on the Howard Stern show mentioned that when this album was released it was so well engineered most HiFi stores used it to demonstrate their equipment. The topic came up as Howard was stating his disdain for the song No Static and the movie it was written for.
I'm sure there was a real person sitting there playing a real guitar while another real person was recording the actual performance. Sure the other real person playing the keyboards may be in a different studio in a different city at a later time with another real person recording that. What's your point?
I think Nightfly was recorded on the 3M console.Umm, no -- the first "digitally recorded rock LP" was Ry Cooder's Bop 'til You Drop in 1979.
It was widely (umm) trumpeted as such, and - of course - I bought a copy probably the week it was released.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bop_till_You_Drop
The Nightfly I don't know about offhand (and I am too lazy to dig out the copy that's somewhere around here), but Aja came out two years before Bop.
Most people? How would you know this?But, again, most people are shooting for "impressive", not "accurate", so what it in fact sounded like is irrelevant. I really doubt that many rock recordings are live-in-the-studio, or have been for quite some time anyway, so "accuracy" per se is really besides the point: there never was any actual performance to be reproduced.
I'm sure there was a real person sitting there playing a real guitar while another real person was recording the actual performance. Sure the other real person playing the keyboards may be in a different studio in a different city at a later time with another real person recording that. What's your point?
If you like the SQ of Rickie Lee Jones (ST), check out Pirates. Russ Titelman and Lenny Waronker were geniuses.I think Aja and Nightfly are both very good sounding records (at least on my gear), but there are a couple that I own that I much prefer sonicly (sp?) over them. Rickie Lee Jones ST debut album and also her Magazine album. Another really good one is Lowell George, No Thanks, I'll Eat it Here.
I'm sure this is old news to many but I just recently got this cd and love the way it sounds on my system. I've always just heard these songs on radio and have never experienced them through my main gear. I think I have a new reference cd to add to the collection!
Anyone else use this album as reference for testing speakers?
I also love Lover's Rock by Sade, when her backup band was at it's absolute peak of tightness. The bass work on that album immediately exposes any flaw in any woofer or subwoofer out there and her vocal range is an absolute test of any equipment's clarity. It's usually the first one I put on for testing. "Slave Song" is an excellent track for audio examination of speakers. Every instrument gets it's moment to enter the soundstage featured, and as each one does, it's pretty easy to ascertain the strength and weaknesses of a set.
I believe you mean Michael McDonald rather than Michael Murphy that sang backround vocals on 'Peg.'I've used it for years, like 40, years to test any piece I've ever bought. Especially the title track, it seems to cover every possible note in the universe. "Peg" has Michael Murphy as a back up singer, and I can always tell a great set of speakers when I can hear his voice in the background clearly and easy to identify as him. But I myself think The Royal Scam is a slightly better, absolutely dynamite album for me to personally test, enjoy and compare audiophile grade equipment, with the song Sign in Stranger probably the best piano work ever done, probably the best tune I have to bring out everything about my HPM-100s that make them one of the greatest speakers ever made.
I also love Lover's Rock by Sade, when her backup band was at it's absolute peak of tightness. The bass work on that album immediately exposes any flaw in any woofer or subwoofer out there and her vocal range is an absolute test of any equipment's clarity. It's usually the first one I put on for testing. "Slave Song" is an excellent track for audio examination of speakers. Every instrument gets it's moment to enter the soundstage featured, and as each one does, it's pretty easy to ascertain the strength and weaknesses of a set.
I also have Pirates but I like the two I mentioned better for SQ and material.If you like the SQ of Rickie Lee Jones (ST), check out Pirates. Russ Titelman and Lenny Waronker were geniuses.