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Reference Recordings / Test Tracks
GESTALT:
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.
Xen:
Was doing research on Dynamic Range and watched Bob Katz's lectures on mastering and the "Loudness Wars".
There is a database on releases/remasters showing which release was "properly" mastered with more dynamic range.
http://dr.loudness-war.info/
The site says a good score for a track is >=11.
The poster child of remastering is Green Day. The original CD was mastered with a score of around 8, which is bad. If the vinyl was mastered to the same loudness, the needle would fly off the record. So, the vinyl master has a score of 12.
If you are wondering which version of an album or track you should get, see if the album has a DR score on that website. People are submitting from optical, vinyl, and digital sources.
Oooh, Ookami! Awesome game and soundtrack. I own the CD boxset. I was just organizing of my FLAC "master" rips, prepping my machine for bit-perfect output.
Anaxilus:
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.
Ringingears:
--- Quote from: Anaxilus on August 12, 2015, 05:56:21 AM ---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.
--- End quote ---
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.
Xen:
--- Quote from: Anaxilus on August 12, 2015, 05:56:21 AM ---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.
--- End quote ---
--- Quote from: Ringingears on August 12, 2015, 11:56:14 AM ---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.
--- End quote ---
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.
--- Quote from: MattTCG on January 30, 2015, 01:05:38 PM ---There is a remaster of this album that came out in 2013?? Is it worth picking up if I already have the original?
--- End quote ---
So... have you tried dr.loudness? :)p8
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. facepalm
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