Bach Cello Suites - Zuill Bailey

Where did you get this album and which format?

When I was heavy into trying out headphones I had two CDs with hand picked tracks from all kinds of periods and genres. My choices are eclectic and I tend to like each track for its own merits.

CD I:
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (Brothers In Arms)
Yes - Roundabout [Early Rough Mix] (Fragile)
Suzanne Vega - Cracking (Book & A Cover)
Florence + The Machine - Dog Days Are Over (Lungs)
Kate Bush - Sat In Your Lap (The Whole Story)
Nora Jones - Creepin' In [With Dolly Parton (Feels Like Home)
Lynn Collins - Think [About It] (James Brown's Original Funky Divas)
Kyuss - 50 Million Year Trip [Down Side Up] (Blues For The Red Sun)
Rush - YYZ (Moving Pictures)
The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Marisa Robles, Iona Brown - Beethoven: Six Variations On A Swiss Song (Harp Concertos)
Weather Report - Birdland (Heavy Weather)
Ton Koopman - Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (J.S. Bach Organ Works)
Run DMC - Rockbox (Run DMC)
Massive Attack - Angel (Mezzanine)

CD II:
King Crimson - Larks' In Tongues Aspic Pt. 1 (Larks' In Tongues Aspic) -> 30th Anniversary Edition!
King Crimson - Larks' In Tongues Aspic Pt. 2 (Larks' In Tongues Aspic) -> 30th Anniversary Edition!
Charles Mingus - Better Get Hit In Yo'Soul (Mingus Ah Um)
S. Richter, Wiener Symphoniker, H. von Karajan - Tschaikowsky: Concert For Piano And Orchestra Nr. 1 In B Minor, Op. 23: Allegro (Klavierkonzert Nr. 1 & Preludes)
S. Richter, Wiener Symphoniker, H. von Karaja - Tschaikowsky: Concert For Piano And Orchestra Nr. 2: Andantino (Klavierkonzert Nr. 1 & Preludes)
S. Richter, Wiener Symphoniker, H. von Karaja - Tschaikowsky: Concert For Piano And Orchestra Nr. 3: Allegro (Klavierkonzert Nr. 1 & Preludes)
Skinny Puppy - Assimilate [R23 Remix] (12 Inch Anthology)
King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man/Mirrors (In The Court Of The Crimson King) -> 30th Anniversary Edition!

Some choices here I cannot explain. When the music sounds wrong through the headphone portable use or out...

Let *** be the best mastering.

I often use:

CLASSICAL

op. 35 is the test track of choice

-IVES 1st symphony, 1st movement (SACD -> CD, 2006, ***)
-VERDI requiem: sanctus, libera me, PAPPANO (CD, 2009, mastering good).
-TCHAIKOVSKY
---op. 20 swan lake, pas d'action MONTEUX (london symphony orchestra, mastering good, if phones good should sound clear without having to boost upper mids or treble in equalizer which also boosts noise)
---op. 35 violin concerto, 1st movement, The Best of Tchaikovsky, (SZERYNG, HAITINK, contsertbebouw orchestra) (CD, 1993, Phillips ***)
-KLAMI psalmus, check thy wailing (CD, 1988, mastering good, not perfect, needs detailed system, if not then treble or mids muddy.)
-GNUTOV balalaika favorites, Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra (LP -> SACD -> DSD, 2006, ***)

POP

sagisu track is the test track of choice

-ADAMO mon voison sur la lune (from un soir au zanzibar)
[This is my live performance music and bass test track of choice.]
-RAVEL la bas vers l'eglise (from cinq melodies populaires grecque, NAGANO)
[This has upper mids along with detail low bass at low volume, needs a headphone that can do both. If the bass melody is muddy or too quiet but vocals piercing, or bass clear and detailed but vocal muddy, the headphone fails.]
-SAGISU first pop song (from Megazone 23 ost, /watch?v=HABztzndFi4 on youtube, from remastered cd import) ***
[This is my treble and upper mids, vocals, track of choice.]

Most of my other pop is mids heavy, or guitar based rock or bard stuff, etc, which sounds good just about anywhere.

Yes, many of us have been using dr.loudness for ages now. Bear in mind, that only deals with DR. There are still other aspects of mastering that can go wrong. At least that's one variable we can pay attention to.

Yes, many of us have been using dr.loudness for ages now. Bear in mind, that only deals with DR. There are still other aspects of mastering that can go wrong. At least that's one variable we can pay attention to.

That site has saved me a lot of money and aggravation. Some of the remasters of older material are compressed to death. 15 on original vinyl, 5 on CD. Crazy.

I figured many of you would already be using dr.loudness. I should have quoted MattTCG as it seemed like a good first step to answering his question.

There is a remaster of this album that came out in 2013?? Is it worth picking up if I already have the original?

So... have you tried dr.loudness?   


EDIT: Also, this thread on head-fi got me started http://www.head-fi.org/t/735405/tools-for-analyzing-the-quality-of-mastering. I didn't really read the details of the post, instead I googled Bob Katz and watched some videos from sound engineers. One of the vids talked about dr.loudness ... which was listed as a link on that first post.