What do you listen to?
I often get asked what I listen to. For pleasure it's a very wide range of music. However, when I'm working on a room, nothing can replace our most important tool--our ears. I have a number of reference materials that I use for a variety of tasks. Through the following newsletters I will share each of those tasks and the music that I frequently use. That's not to say that this is the best music to use, but they are recordings that have served me well for a number of years--and most of them I rather enjoy.
As you may have gathered by our website we strongly feel that you have to get the bass right. To me, the bass is like the foundation. If the foundation is bad, nothing else will be right. But if the foundation is great, then everything falls into place easily (usually that is).
Here are a few tracks I use for bass testing:
1. Jennifer Warnes "Way Down Deep" Very low bass notes and extended. These will excite almost any room mode. If you can play this track cleanly without overload, you're off to a very good start.
2. Janis Ian "Tattoo" I like this because if the bass is wrong it will affect the timber of her voice when it kicks in. If the bass is right, her voice will remain steady.
3. Eberhard Weber "Concerto for Bass" A couple of minutes into this peice there are sections where he takes very long bowing while moving up in frequency. It's incredibly uniform. It's a great way to detect blending of a subwoofer into a system. If it's not set up right--you'll hear it here.
4. The Chinese drum track on the Burmeister CD 3. Very tight drums and very dynamic. Great attacks. There should be no over extended or bloated bass sounds here.
Next month, I'll discuss some favorite imaging pieces. Until then, I hope these may be of use and enjoyment to you.
Richard Rives Bird
President, Rives Audio
