What music are you listening to? Part III

First topic message reminder :

Radiohead - Myxomatosis

one two three 
pioneers here and there 
singing songs of Lenin

I'm playing an assortment of songs from all genres to test out my new headphones before my DAC/Amp comes in. 


I don't think this song is mastered all that well, but it's still enjoyable nonetheless.

LOL, the entire Ladyland album is excellently mastered if you listen to it on vinyl on a proper stereo. Do not judge anything from crappy YouTube uploads..... Duuuuuuuude............. 

Thomas wrote:LOL, the entire Ladyland album is excellently mastered if you listen to it on vinyl on a proper stereo. Do not judge anything from crappy YouTube uploads..... Duuuuuuuude............. 

I have it in FLAC, downloaded. I'm using fancy headphones and I doubt I can hear any increase in audio quality from vinyl versus a regular file. This has been discussed in http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=Myths_(Vinyl)
I believe I'm hearing some clipping in the first part of the song. The rest is just fine. The vinyl 24bit FLAC rip I just heard has the same clipping at the start.

Have you heard Radioactive by Imagine Dragons? That song has clipping every 10 seconds.


And taking the vinyl/audio quality stuff up a notch, it is very hard to ABX a well done mp3 vs FLAC. The HD800s I have are probably the ideal headphones for picking up flaws in the music - But it's very subtle there for mp3, one has to train themselves to hear it. And 16 vs 24bit is a similar thing... very few people can tell a difference. Short of objective and blind ABX testing, a ton of audiophiles like the claim they have golden ears when they do not and self-deception/placebo runs rampant. However, Youtube sound isn't always that great and vary a lot from uploader to uploader too.

I checked out a vinyl rip vs a CD rip of Coldplay's last album, and it was obvious they changed the way it was mixed or EQed it, because the entire song changed in tune, it was pretty drastic. Can't exactly ABX that. It may be possible that the original master on vinyl is mastered differently on CD but that doesn't speak for the medium, but rather the person and how he or she decided to master the album.

I try to steer clear of shittily (that a word?) produced music, and have heard from first-hand (had a backstage chat with the guys from Opeth) that in the end, it is the record company that decide whether or not to crush the sound so that keeds can hear it on their iPlugs, phones, whatever, you know, it's meant to sound good in compressed format. I remember such giants as AC/DC or The Beatles releasing their back catalog "mastered for iTunes". Ew.

Of course, there are some records I like from recent times that are smashed like hell. 1998-2003 is the worst period, but after that people began to take the threat seriously. Stuff like Deep Purple's "Bananas" (2003), Rush's "Vapor Trails" (2002) - luckily this was re-mixed and released last year, Elton John's "Songs from the West Coast" (2001) - the list is endless. The "St. Anger" album by Metallica is a prime example. Most hilarious however is the fact that the snare drum sounds like a tin box.

Most CD's I own I own for a month or so and then trade 'em away for vinyls or money. I have about 1500 CD's ripped in the WAVE format (most of which were bought between 2008 and now), takes up a whole lot of room (320GB) but it sounds exactly as a CD would. I even checked with the guys at the local hi-fi club. There is a clear difference. Of course, there's some stuff which is hard to get on both CD and vinyl which I listen to on Spotify, like obscure progressive rock or some weird jazz fusion or whatever... Stuff I don't want to shell out the big bucks on, you know.

If you really want to listen music where the dynamics are top-notch, you should buy second-hand first generation CD's. Stuff like Supertramp, The Police, Rush etc. were released on either A&M or Polygram, which had excellent dynamics. I can also recommended anything on Polydor (Bee Gees, Clapton/Cream, Hendrix even) ..... But it all depends on taste as well. I listen to it because I love the art of music. Not only because it sounds terrific (though that's an advantage)...

These guys, the audio engineers and geeks, it is their job to make sure the audio is as good as it possibly can be... They're supposed to care about every last sound which is barely audible. Thinking about that type of people cranking up the volume for the loudness war is strange to say the least.

Here's a random song a person in a random forum showed me:

Russian go..


.
Russian go through the dark centuries of pagan
Russian go through a host of fallen enemies
Russian go , freeing the Third Rome
Russian go to the heavenly Jerusalem
...

Ukrainian Nationalism will not pass
Ukrainian Nazism will not pass

.

.
The song is addressed to terrorist and extremist organizations that commit coup in Ukraine, as well as those who support it. Do not think that the song carries aggression towards normal people. Nationalities mentioned in the song are based on the facts of terrorism, certain persons of Caucasian appearance and do not carry the nationalistic character.

.
The song is addressed to extremist and nationalist organizations in Ukraine.
Those who are to blame for the deaths of people killed in Odessa, May 2, 2014.

People .. vs maidan-nazi's
.

It is said that the genre that the HD800s are best at is classical. So time to pop some classical tracks!

I still cannot fathom how you insist on using YouTube and lossy media to test anything at all.

Thomas wrote:I still cannot fathom how you insist on using YouTube and lossy media to test anything at all.

Dude.

I have it on the computer, I'm sharing it via Youtube, that's how it's always been.

Dedication events in Odessa, May 2, 2014

P!nk's "Try".

Who here hasn't heard this song yet?
Give it a try, tell me what you think.

Dark_wizzie wrote:
Who here hasn't heard this song yet?
Give it a try, tell me what you think.

Look better group - Joy Division.. The Cure.. Dead Can Dance.. -> Sorry but it is "the ххx"[size=30] [/size]a clone of independent rock 70s-80s.. and new wave 80s...

Akuul wrote:

Dark_wizzie wrote:
Who here hasn't heard this song yet?
Give it a try, tell me what you think.

Look better group - Joy Division.. The Cure.. Dead Can Dance.. -> Sorry but it is "the ххx"[size=30] [/size]a clone of independent rock 70s-80s.. and new wave 80s...

Never heard of any of those three.
I just like this one song from the XX, the instrumental. Good track.

Dark_wizzie wrote:

Akuul wrote:

Dark_wizzie wrote:
Who here hasn't heard this song yet?
Give it a try, tell me what you think.

Look better group - Joy Division.. The Cure.. Dead Can Dance.. -> Sorry but it is "the ххx"[size=30] [/size]a clone of independent rock 70s-80s.. and new wave 80s...

Never heard of any of those three.
I just like this one song from the XX, the instrumental. Good track.

track from the XX - full shit

Agree with Akuul; Bauhaus, Joy Division etc. is way better, darker and much more authentic than XX or wuddever. You should also check out Gary Numan. But to each his own, huh.

The song against the Ukrainian nationalism.
On video torch demonstrations of the Ukrainian nazis.
.
Sense of a song -> the Ukrainian nazis shit
.

Thomas wrote:Agree with Akuul; Bauhaus, Joy Division etc. is way better, darker and much more authentic than XX or wuddever. You should also check out Gary Numan. But to each his own, huh.

I only know of a John Newman.

I wasn't talking about XX as a band, I was talking about the track in particular. It's an instrumental and I like it a lot.


I don't always listen to classical, but when I do...




Akuul, I'm not a psychologist but constantly listening to music trashing a particular group of people is... not healthy.

D'JANGO THEME

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_1aF54DO60
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKxuiw3iMBE

The first one is a track from The Great Gatsby.

What? There are people still posting on my forum?

Leprous - The Price

Prince - Purple Rain



R.I.P., Prince.

Max Raabe - Kein Schwein ruft mich an

golden sun 2 battle theme

Max Richter - On the Nature of Daylight

Dale Hawkins - See You Soon, Baboon

Jazzy song, very well produced.