[marvda1]

how about putting together a reference cd for anyone in the area to use so that when we get together we will all be familiar with the songs used to evaluate equipment. list some of your choices and why.
we can either put the cd together by number of most common choices or someone that has a majority of the suggested cuts put one together and it can magically multiply for member distribution.
what are your thoughts?
marvin

[Danny Richie]

I think Brian is a big fan of female vocals and piano. So we should put together a copulation of that type of music for him.  aa

[oscar]

how about putting together a reference cd for anyone in the area to use so that when we get together we will all be familiar with the songs used to evaluate equipment. list some of your choices and why.
we can either put the cd together by number of most common choices or someone that has a majority of the suggested cuts put one together and it can magically multiply for member distribution.
what are your thoughts?
marvin

Thanks for volunteering to put this together 

Do you know what everyone considers a "reference disc" ?   If you ask me what I use for equipment evaluation, it's:
Rebecca Pidgeon "The Raven" (Chesky) - SACD/CD (Chesky, 1st rate of recordings of third rate artists)
Ray Browne Trio "Soular Energy" (Groove Note)- SACD/CD , anything by Groove Note would be good)
Diana Krall "When I Look in your Eyes" (Verve) - SACD/CD
Duke Ellington "Blues in Orbit" (MFSL) - SACD/CD OOP
Fennell's "Pomp & Pipes" (Reference Recordings)  CD - pipes and percussion, actually, anything by Reference Recordings works for me.
Bela Fleck "Flight of the Hippo" - CD - decent bass test.
Audiophile Reference IV (FIM) - SACD/CD
Bluesquest sampler (Audioquest) -SACD/CD
DMP does DSD (DMP) - SACD/CD
Showcase sampler (Opus 3) - SACD/CD
A Chesky sampler disc (I've got one that's more than 10 years old).

Heck, plenty of samplers to go around.  I'd be lucky if any of the above present THE best recordings for particular instrument/voice playback.  I would be interested to hear what other people use as reference.

[brj]

I think Brian is a big fan of female vocals

and piano.

American Beauty Original Score - tracks 1 (percussion), 2 (triangle/cymbal)
Jesse Cook, "Gravity" - track 1 (guitar & percussion) & 3 (percussion lick)  (Points to Danny for finding this one.)
Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade and Russian Easter Overture, LPO (Points to kyyuan for finding this one.  The Gergiev/Kirov recording is also excellent.)
Vivaldi, The Four Seasons, Giuliano Carmignola - Any track (massed strings)

More later when I have time...

[lonewolfny42]

Good idea guy's....
When I went to RMAF this year, I did hand out copies of the tracks we use at our NY Rave's....tunes that we all got to know over time. This way others could know what we were listening to as we compare equipement.

These are the tracks on the cd.....

New York Audio Rave - “Reference Tracks - 2006”

1 - Copland - Fanfare For The Common Man
2 - Wynton Marsalis  Quartet - Feeling Of Jazz
3 - The Bad Plus -  Keep The Bugs Off Your Glass, And The Bears Off Your Ass
4 - Bozzio, Levin, Stevens - Duende
5 - Ben Harper - Gold To Me
6 - Morphine - Buena
7 - Bernadette Peters - Blackbird
8 - Kalman Olah Trio - Inspiration Of Variation XXI
9 - Mino Cinelu - Oncoming Horizons
10 - Nils Lofgren - Keith Don’t Go
11 - Groove Troopers - Bearing Bears and Boring Boars
12 - Stevie Ray Vaughan - Tin Pan Alley (w/ Johnny Copeland)
13 - The Only Reference Track You’ll Ever Need…

If one of you would like a copy, drop me a PM and I'll send one.

Good luck with your selections.....

                               Chris

[Captain Humble]

Good idea guy's.... 
When I went to RMAF this year, I did hand out copies of the tracks we use at our NY Rave's....tunes that we all got to know over time. This way others could know what we were listening to as we compare equipement.

These are the tracks on the cd.....

New York Audio Rave - “Reference Tracks - 2006”

Chris gave me a copy of the New York Rave Reference CD.
I burned one for Marvin when he visited a couple of weeks ago.

Chris also gave me a copy of the Boulder Mensa Reference CD by Wayne a couple of years ago.  This CD was made in 2003.  Also has some very good cuts.
Tracks include:
1.  Ambrosia - TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE
2.  Herbie Handcock - WATERMELON MAN
3.  Marcus Miller - PANTHER
4.  Blue Man Group - SYAESTHETIC
5.  Bela Fleck - FLIGHT OF THE COSMIC HIPPO
6.  Jewel - WHO WILL SAVE YOUR SOUL
7.  Allison Kraus - BABY NOW THAT I'VE FOUND YOU
8.  Rod Stewart - MANDOLIN WIND
9.  Fairport Convention - LIFE'S A LONG SONG
10. Pink Floyd  - LEARNING TO FLY
11. annie lenox - WHY? (LIVE)
12. Little Feet  - LONG DISTANCE LOVE
13. Chieftans / Daltry - BEHIND BLUE EYES
14. STAR WARS THEME
15. Flim & The BB's - BORN TO LOVE YOU

[arthurs]

Surprised Heart hasn't been suggested yet.....

[brj]

Surprised Heart hasn't been suggested yet.....

We got ourselves a bunch of commedians here!

[texasphile]

Let's see...

Air Supply's greatest banalities.

Barbra Streisand's greatest screeching.

Bob Dylan's greatest mumblings.

REM's greatest mumblings.

Nirvana's greatest mumblings and screaming.

Led Zepplin's greatest screaming.

Lynyrd Skynrd's greatest...oh wait, I like them.

Peter Paul and Mary's greatest whinings.

Haysi Fantayzee's greatest annoying hits.

Arlo Guthrie's greatest talking.

Ringo Starr's greatest...uh, I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Hair Metal Bands greatest posturing.

Britney Spears greatest white trashing.

Madonna's greatest blaspheming.

Rap music's greatest cursing.

And finally:

Enya's greatest snoozing.

I hope to not hear that compilation anytime soon,

Chris

[kyyuan]

Surprised Heart hasn't been suggested yet.....

he he he he ....

[marvda1]

i've got some progressive bluegrass!!

[arthurs]

Surprised Heart hasn't been suggested yet.....

We got ourselves a bunch of commedians here!

Brian, do you have some kind of issue with Heart?

 

[Danny Richie]

Hey Lonewolf,

That copy of the New Audio Rave CD is pretty good listening. Hours later though I am having a tough time getting that last track out of my head.    Whose idea was that one?

[lonewolfny42]

Hey Lonewolf,

That copy of the New Audio Rave CD is pretty good listening. Hours later though I am having a tough time getting that last track out of my head.    Whose idea was that one?

Thanks Danny....glad you enjoyed it. It's a collection of reference tracks suggest by fellow Raver's for testing equipement......the last track is all my doing....."The Only Reference Track You’ll Ever Need".
See, it's a good one....something everyone can remember..... arf,arf....

I'm sending brj / Brian a copy of the cd....he can make copies for the Jam members...

                                       Chris

[marvda1]

i've got a copy of the boulder mensa reference cd we can give a listen to.
marvin

[brj]

I'm sending brj / Brian a copy of the cd....he can make copies for the Jam members...

I'm back in town and looking forward to it - thanks, Chris!

I only have basic CD-Rs at the moment and nothing of an archival or audiophile calibre.  If anyone has a recommendation for a specific CD-R, I'll look into picking some up.

[brj]

That copy of the New Audio Rave CD is pretty good listening. Hours later though I am having a tough time getting that last track out of my head.    Whose idea was that one?

Thanks Danny....glad you enjoyed it. It's a collection of reference tracks suggest by fellow Raver's for testing equipement......the last track is all my doing....."The Only Reference Track You’ll Ever Need".
See, it's a good one....something everyone can remember..... arf,arf....

Argh!  I finally had a chance to listen to the entire disk all the way through (after 3 false starts)... and now I can't get that track out of my head!! 

Good disk, guys!  I passed along a copy to Oscar this past weekend, and I'll pass along more as I run into people - thanks!

Ok, Marvin, you started this mess - you get to come up with a DFW alternate to the famous NYAR track 13!

[lonewolfny42]

Nice ......

Almost time to start on 2007 NYAR Reference Tracks...glad you enjoyed the disc....its a group effort.
Now lets get that Texas one up and running.....

                                           Chris

[texasphile]

I only have basic CD-Rs at the moment and nothing of an archival or audiophile calibre.  If anyone has a recommendation for a specific CD-R, I'll look into picking some up.

I would highly recommend the Taiyo Yuden brand CD-Rs.  We use them exclusively at work.  100 year archival quality and $35 per 100 piece cake box delivered from newegg.com

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?DEPA=0&type=&Description=Taiyo+Yuden&Submit=ENE&N=0&Ntk=all&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

There is only one company that makes better CD-Rs and that is Mam-A, their cost is about $110 per 100 piece cake box.

http://www.encoredataproducts.com/74-Minute-Gold-Archival-Grade-CD-R-p-1-c-73.html

The only downfall of the Taiyo Yuden is that excessive sunlight and/or heat will cause the dyes to break down and shorten the life of the discs.  If you take reasonable care of them, they'll last your lifetime plus several decades.  Considering they are almost as good as the 3X more expensive, Mam-A; the Taiyo Yudens are a very good purchase at $5-10 dollars more per 100 than the cheap discs you can pick up just about anywhere.

I have never had a failed (coaster) burn since I switched to the Taiyo brand and I have recorded about 100 albums at work, transferring LP records to CD-R.  We have over 5000 records cataloged so far, with more (at least several hundred) being cataloged as time permits.  I figure it will take 10 to 15 years working on this project unless I can find a dedicated group of volunteers who would help out in archiving the LPs onto Compact Disc.  Some of the recordings we have in our collection are the only ones listed in the WorldCat.  WorldCat is a superlisting of all participating libraries in the world and the items they carry in their collection.  If you watched the American Masters PBS documentary on Woody Guthrie, some of the music came from archival original recordings of some Woody Guthrie 78rpm records at Midwestern State University from my department (Media Department of the Library).

I hope this helps Brian,

Chris