Reference Songs

adamvelvetu

adamvelvetu

New member
I wanted to do just a fun little thread. I'm assuming (and we all know what happens when assuming) all mastering folks do a little ear cleansing to get perspective. What are your faves? Mine were:

1. Lennon-I Found Out
2. Stones-Rocks Off
3. Big Star-O My Soul
 
I mix, not master, but for me after a long session or other need of "ear cleansing", the last thing I want or need to hear to get my sonic feet back on the ground is yet more music. For me the best "ear cleansing" is total, absolute silence for a couple of hours.

If you're talking about "reference" to remind my ears of what things are supposed to sound like, there's no substitute for live music; preferably not too high-decibel, dynamic enough to hear real frequencies and real dynamics to remind me of how things are supposed to sound instead of what the Goo Goo Dolls or Lady GaGa (who are touring together in a show called "Goo Goo GaGa") think it should sound like in an overdone recording.

G.
 
Here's a few albums that I listen to, because I like the sonic quality, no particular order, many others...


- Black Light Syndrome
- George Harrison - Cloud Nine
- John Mclaughlin - Industrial Zen, Electric Dreams
- Rage Against the Machine - first 2 albums
- Ziggy Marley - Dragonfly
- any Beatles
 
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I like to go back n forth from Slayer to Bing Crosby repeatedly. After an hour of that, the residue of my stuff has been beaten out of my head and I get a fresh perspective.
:D
 
Dogbreath said:
I like to go back n forth from Slayer to Bing Crosby repeatedly. After an hour of that, the residue of my stuff has been beaten out of my head and I get a fresh perspective.
:D
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LOL! Too be honest, you might be able to fit in a little Cole Porter too :)
 
I don't listen to music to reset my ears/head, but maybe I should. When I read the thread title, though, I thought of when I got my monitors recently, and wanted to play something (other than my recordings) that might be better than CD quality through them.

My daughter has the Wall-E DVD and it has a Peter Gabriel song ("Down To Earth") at the end, and I figured since it was on a DVD it might be better than CD quality - but I really don't know. Since then (not long ago) I tend to use that song as a benchmark to refer to when I change parts of my system.
 
Hmm, my reference songs are pretty much any Jethro Tull album I own

Aqualung if I want really raw, dynamic music, or Thick as a Brick (Live) if I want a bit more polished, semi-compressed sound (although its still pretty dynamic, usually hovering at -12 RMS during the loud bits). Benefit and Stand Up are in between those two...these are just the CD's that I have, other masters may sound different.

For a clean, 'modern' production, pretty much Metallica's Black Album. Its a very good sounding record.

The Beatles CDs are good too, probably the best one is the 1999 Yellow Submarine songtrack, which IMO is better than the 2009 remasters since they remixed most of the music so the stereo spread is MUCH better.
 
Seafroggys said:
The Beatles CDs are good too, probably the best one is the 1999 Yellow Submarine songtrack, which IMO is better than the 2009 remasters since they remixed most of the music so the stereo spread is MUCH better.
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I agree...I pretty much just finalized my home setup and the first song I played through my new monitors was 'It's All Too Much'
 
I have yet to hear anything that strikes me as better recorded than "Dark Side of the Moon".

There was a while that I used Toni Braxton's "You're Making Me High" as a reference to get the volume right. I find it hot now. Babyface did a nice job on that whole production.

Another nice mix was Eric Clapton/Babyface's "You Can Change the World". The bass (Nathan Watts?) on that tune is exceptional.
 
antichef said:
My daughter has the Wall-E DVD and it has a Peter Gabriel song ("Down To Earth") at the end, and I figured since it was on a DVD it might be better than CD quality
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Some of the very best stuff I ever heard comes from DVD movie soundtracks. I'm not prepared to necessarily say it's because of the DVD format itself so much as I think it's often just one generation less of re-mastering or gets a different mastering treatment than the CD does.

But if we're talking about favorite-sounding recordings, which it sounds like this thread has turned into, and recordings which remind me of what recording is supposed to be all about and why I got into this to begin with, then I'd have a real hard time picking anything much better than the theme song for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

G.
 
Yeah, Dark Side of the Moon is a great sounding record, but I don't use it as a "reference" CD since that's not the sound I am going for generally speaking.

Another CD I may find myself using as a reference is one I just got for Christmas, an import copy of Deep Purple's self-titled album, which is probably their least-known record from their 1968-1976 incarnation. Easily the best sounding Deep Purple CD I have in terms of fidelity.
 
My mostly used ref. CDs:

Sting - Mercoury Falling
Glenn Kaiser - No Greater Love
Dire Straits - On Every Street
 
I was interested by the use of DVD for reference (not DVDaudio disc but the audio on a DVD) & did some searching - granted only on the net but not just wikki - I sussed out 1/2 doz answers & below is what appeared to be, from my reading, a consensus on the quality of audio on a DVideoD:
Oh, there was a caveate - taht as the software is becoming more available & movie production more wide spread the quality seems, in many instances, to decline.

"Alternatively, audio for most movies is stored as discrete, multi-channel surround sound using Dolby Digital or DTS audio compression similar to the digital surround sound formats used in theaters. As with video, audio quality depends on how well the processing and encoding was done. In spite of compression, Dolby Digital and DTS can be close to or better than CD quality."

I seem to remember reading some time ago that the laser in a DVD player doesn't read audio (from a CD I think) too brilliantly.

For refreshment of my ears I like normal household sounds for a couple of hours (not at present though as the cicadas are REALLY LOUD at the moment) and actually sitting down & playing an acoustic instrument for a bit can be useful too - AFTER some peace.

Reference listening hmm, I don't really.
 
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