Good Music for testing Audio Equipment

APP

Well-Known Member
Oct 1, 2014
455
108
273
I love Gregory Porter. I think all his albums are very well recorded. I personally like a bit more placement of the instruments but that is just me. I play all his albums and enjoy them very much musics and sonics.

My favorite, sound wise, is his first album; Water
 

24bit

Well-Known Member
Jun 14, 2013
172
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333
Excellent! What a great idea.
If I may suggest the new Bach recording with Enghave Barok from Sound Liaison. Perfect for speaker placement. The little ensemble is up close and personal but also with a phenomenal sense of space.
And the new recording engineer for the label, Torsten Jessen, really seems to know what he is doing:
http://www.soundliaison.com/studio-masters/253-bach-live-edition-1


And in their news letter they have added several pff's showing the stage plan of the recording and the layout of the church, very interesting info, ideal for speaker placement;
We should like to share with you one correspondence in particular from Billy in Pasadena, California and the reply from Enghave Barok director Christian Denh Bang ;

Greetings All at Sound Liaison,

I have just purchased and downloaded your Enghave Barok - Bach Live HD Edition 1 recording. It is phenomenal. Thank you so much for producing such masterpieces in performance and audio quality.

Is it possible for Torsten Jessen and/or Christian Dehn Bang to provide us with an Illustration or Photograph depicting the "Stage Map" which shows the actual Size and Layout of each Musician/Instrument and Vocalist on the recording "stage" in the church and also their placement within the church?

I am hearing an incredible "Sound Stage" and ambiance of the "room" with this recording, and would like to have an actual Reference to compare and confirm the "image placement" and depth of each instrument and vocalist, in order to properly set up and "fine tune" both my main Hi-Fi playback system and Neumann studio monitors in my home studio.

Thank you for your time and interest.

Sincerely, Billy

------------------------

Dear Billy!

Thank you so much for your kind email and interest in our recording – we highly appreciate your feedback!

Here’s 3 drawings showing Cross-sections of Enghave Church – at the one with the floorplan we have placed icons for the instruments and singers showing their position at the recording of Bach Live HD Edition 1. Hope that this was what you was asking for. Unfortunately we haven’t any pictures from that project. But you can find pictures from a school concert at our Facebook page www.facebook.com/enghavebarok/ It’s a different setup – but it will give you a pretty good idea of the stage. Later this year the church will undergo a major rebuild that, among other benefits, makes it an even better place to perform Bach.

Best wishes, Christian Dehn Bang

Bach Live HD Edition 1 Stage Map (High resolution pdf): https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/...e-14a16c6f9efe

Enghave Church Drawing 1.pdf (High resolution pdf): https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/...6-75199a3897d0

Enghave Church Drawing 2.pdf (High resolution pdf): https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/...5-46f6bf062638

-------------------------

Gentlemen, Thank you so much. The PDF illustrations that you have provided are perfect and beyond my expectations! This is greatly appreciated.

I would look forward to hearing more recordings from the "new and improved" Enghave Church, so please contact me when you have new recordings available.

Thank you again!
 

APP

Well-Known Member
Oct 1, 2014
455
108
273
Speaker placement

If I may suggest the new Bach recording with Enghave Barok from Sound Liaison. Perfect for speaker placement. The little ensemble is up close and personal but also with a phenomenal sense of space.
And the new recording engineer for the label, Torsten Jessen, really seems to know what he is doing:
http://www.soundliaison.com/studio-masters/253-bach-live-edition-1
For speaker placement the latest from Sound Liaison; the DXD recording of ''Carmen Gomes Sings the Blues'' is also excellent.
Looking at the picture from the session, you can clearly see how the musicians were placed. That corresponds to the description on how they record in the liner notes;
The musicians were placed in front of a stereo pair of microphones with additional spot microphones on each instrument. The musicians were playing without headphones, the reason being that we believe that when we get the musicians to play together in the same room, without headphones, it creates a number of musical and technical benefits:

As they are not ''separated'' by the headphones, the musicians, in order to hear each other are forced to create a natural and musical balance, a balance which is then easily captured by the main stereo pair of microphones. Because of this natural and musical balance the need for compression to control levels is no longer necessary, and since everybody is in the same room, the boxed sound which is so common in many modern recordings is absent.

This all sounds very straight forward but for this approach to work, certain criteria has to be fulfilled;
The studio has to have a good sound.
The musicians have to be very good and well prepared as it is very difficult to repair mistakes because of the ''cross talk'' between the instruments.
We have to be very precise placing the microphones and the musicians at the right distance to the main stereo microphones and the right distance to each other.
http://www.soundliaison.com/studio-showcase-series/276-carmen-gomes-sings-the-blues
 

Kefas

Well-Known Member
May 21, 2014
179
25
248
For speaker placement the latest from Sound Liaison; the DXD recording of ''Carmen Gomes Sings the Blues'' is also excellent.
Looking at the picture from the session, you can clearly see how the musicians were placed. That corresponds to the description on how they record in the liner notes;

http://www.soundliaison.com/studio-showcase-series/276-carmen-gomes-sings-the-blues
If I may suggest the new Bach recording with Enghave Barok from Sound Liaison. Perfect for speaker placement. The little ensemble is up close and personal but also with a phenomenal sense of space.
And the new recording engineer for the label, Torsten Jessen, really seems to know what he is doing:
http://www.soundliaison.com/studio-masters/253-bach-live-edition-1



Both albums works perfectly for that purpose.
 

daytona600

Well-Known Member
Sep 9, 2012
724
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scotland
 

APP

Well-Known Member
Oct 1, 2014
455
108
273

APP

Well-Known Member
Oct 1, 2014
455
108
273
Those Binaural recordings are done with 1 stereo microphone, right?
 

MarinJim

New Member
Feb 2, 2011
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Flim& the BB's.
 

853guy

Active Member
Aug 14, 2013
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38

 

RogerD

VIP/Donor
May 23, 2010
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BiggestLittleCity

Kefas

Well-Known Member
May 21, 2014
179
25
248
For speaker placement the latest from Sound Liaison; the DXD recording of ''Carmen Gomes Sings the Blues'' is also excellent.
Looking at the picture from the session, you can clearly see how the musicians were placed. That corresponds to the description on how they record in the liner notes;

http://www.soundliaison.com/studio-showcase-series/276-carmen-gomes-sings-the-blues

Interestingly on hear previous live in the studio album, Thousand Shades of Blue, the drums and the double bass has switched positions.
On ''Sings the Blues'' the bass is in the middle while on ''Thousand Shades'' the bass is to the right with the drums in the middle.
 

APP

Well-Known Member
Oct 1, 2014
455
108
273
It is also a different drummer.
I googled her name in google image and it looks as if the band has changed position on stage when the drummer changed;
here with the drummer from the last 2 albums, Bert Kampsteeg;

and here from the first two Sound Liaison albums marcel van Engelen.

It could be that Sound Liaison records them in their live positions and that explains it.
 

MarinJim

New Member
Feb 2, 2011
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