u/oratory1990's reference playlist
Description
Quickstats
Playlist Length
0 days, 1 hours, 11 minutes
Playlist Followers
1159
Source
Playlist Last Updated
November 5, 2018
Mood
Mixed Mood
Track Popularity Rating
Somewhat Popular
Style
Varied
Average Release Decade
1990s
Main Genre:
Mixed
Reddit Info
Reddit Post
I have a whole playlist of songs that I know intimately, some of which I recorded and mixed myself, so I know exactly what they are supposed to sound like. There's actually a decent amount of [research](http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=18654) into what makes a song well suited to review speakers/headphones. There are also some songs that produce more correct results (read: more accurate, meaning that more test persons will agree on the perceived sound quality rating of the loudspeaker/headphone when this song is played) in testing. If I remember correctly, **"Bird on a Wire"** by **Jennifer Warnes** is one of the songs that often comes out on top when different songs are compared in terms of whether or not they make test persons agree on the sound quality rating of a headphone/loudspeaker. This does not necessarily mean that it's a good song, it just means that it is well suited to the task of headphone testing, and that when many different test persons are listening to this song played on a specific speaker, they are most likely to come to the same conclusions ("this speaker has too much bass at 300 Hz", "there is a small dip at 6 kHz"...). In other words: This song makes it easiest to correctly assess and review headphones or loudspeakers. When testing gear at conventions (I'm talking Pro Audio, not consumer conventions like Headfi-Meets), people always ask to play **Hotel California**. Every acoustic developer I've ever met in meetings or conventions asked for that song to be played when testing our products. My own Reference Playlist reads like this: 1. Jennifer Warnes - „*Bird on a Wire*“ - Ticks a lot of the boxes. The percussive shakers will tell you a lot about whether or not the top-octave (10-20 kHz) is reproduced faithfully and at the correct level, the deep drums will tell you a lot about bass extension and correct amount of bass boost, and whether or not the lower midrange is negatively affected by it. Then there’s a very complex layer of vocal arrangements telling you a lot about whether or not the midrange is reproduced naturally or scooped. Also great depth-layering (different amounts and types of reverberation), whether or not the listener can separate them tells you about any distortion/IMD problems of the system. 2. Blink 182 - „*All the small things*“ - the sound of the guitar will tell me all I need to know about the treble range. Well-recorded distorted guitars are great to reveal resonance peaks in the treble. 3. The Sorrow - „*Far Beyond the Days of Grace*“ - different sounding guitar, will reveal any resonances/muddiness in the bass/low-mids. Also tells me everything I need to know about the shape of the treble response. The recording was made with an Engl E645 guitar amplifier which I also owned for quite some time, and I am intimately familiar with how it should sound. 4. „*Infinite*“, A song that I recorded and mixed myself, a slow hiphop beat played on Jazz Drums and electric bass, which tells me a lot about the bass extension and bass continuity (any humps, resonances, dips in the bass response). 5. Holly Cole - „*I can see clearly now*“ - right at the beginning, the bass tells me a lot about the sound in the low mids and bass range. Also a very well recorded female vocal, which can tell a lot about the midrange reproduction and how natural it is. 6. Jeff Cascaro - „*Love will find a way*“ - same as 5. Also the snare drum will tell me if the range between100 and 300 Hz is overemphasized or underrepresented. Similar to track 3 but on a smaller time-scale. 7. Steely Dan - „*Cousin Dupree*“ - great track to test overall balance. When a specific frequency range peaks out or is lacking on this track, then it’s the fault of the system, not the song. 8. Eagles - „*Hotel California*“ - Same as 7. Also that 12-string guitar is very hard to reproduce truthfully, and will tell you a lot about accurate treble reproduction of the system. 9. Human Traces - "*Human*". A song that I recorded and mixed myself - the sound of the drums will tell me a lot about the low mids and bass range, the cymbals and the guitar will tell me anything about the midrange and treble shape that I need to know. There are lots of small fader ride details in the vocals that will tell me if the reproduction of depth is correct (which is a different way of interpreting treble response). 10. All Systems Red - "*Ghost*". A song that I recorded and mixed myself. Similar purpose as song 2 - I know *exactly* how the guitar should sound like because I set up the guitar amplifier and microphone myself. If anything is off (especially between 700 Hz and 4 kHz) I will notice immediately. 11. Adele - "*Hello*". The bridge into the first Chorus has incredibly deep and far reverb - whether this reverb tail is accurately reproduced will tell me a lot about the system (more applicable to loudspeakers where distortion is more of an issue than headphones). 12. Snarky Puppy - "*Semente*" - same as 7. 13. Wintersun - "*Sons of Winter and Stars*", there are so many small details in this song, only systems with very deep bass extension and very detailed treble, distortion free response will be able to accurately reproduce them all. Especially the 3rd section ("Journey inside a Dream" starting around the 7 minute mark to ~8:50) tells you a lot about the subbass extension of the system. Especially useful to test whether or not a bass reflex system is accurately tuned, but also useful for headphones. 14. "*Balance Test*" by Chesky Records, tells me about stereo balance / channel balance. Only need it to verify channel imbalances that I would have noticed on the previous tracks. 15. *Pink Noise*. Plain and simple. Only needed to verify whether or not a resonance is present which I would have noticed listening to the previous tracks. Pink noise excites every frequency range equally, so when having tuned in to a problematic region when listening to one of the previous songs, I can verify it by checking the same frequency region in a pink noise scenario. Some people have created playlists from this: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0qsyMCLn4C5313IAZ7Enj2), [Tidal](https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/9a109d54-6df3-4c53-bb91-b8dfde42567d), [Apple Music](https://music.apple.com/at/playlist/a0-reference/pl.u-4JomXNJtZ81kMW)
Upvotes
26
Subreddit
headphones
Reddit Username
oratory1990
Reddit Timestamp
2/21/23 8:31
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