Favorite sample tracks to test audio

[Murphy1979]

I bet I narrow it down to 4 preset EQs:

Metal
Rock
Reggae
Rap
Acoustic

I'm looking for one thing out of metal, one thing out of hard/light/punk rock, one setting for Reggae, and one setting for Rap/GoGo/Dancehall/Bass music.

And then something completely, entirely different for acoustic music. I listen to and play various instrument for stuff like Celtic/Bluegrass/etc and if you blow up the bass on those acoustics you muddy the sound horribly, as those instruments aren't supposed to be that loud in a good mix (musical performance-wise, I dont claim to know much about stereos yet).

One cool little bell the Diamond amp comes with is a Bass Knob which you can directly adjust bass without having to navigate through the radio.

 

[Slo_Ride 5,000+ posts]

I literally listen to everything bro and I'm always on the hunt for new music. My eq's are always in a constant state of motion.

 

[Murphy1979]

I hear you, I just need to simplify because I most of the time put a ton of music on an ipod and just hit shuffle, so I dont want to have to shift through too many options and I'm definitely gonna need 1 "universal" EQ for when my brain goes numb on a long drive.

I really dont even know how many settings the Pioneer NEX units can store at this point, for that matter.

Crap, my HU only saves 2 custom EQs with 5 presets. I hope those presets are nice.

 

[Popwarhomie 5,000+ posts]

SQ?
SPL?

 

[marc2112 10+ year member]

Talking about Deicide? We say way worse **** than that around here bro.

 

[SlugButter]

I have every deicide album ever made. It isn’t my go to band to test systems for heavy metal though. I usually go with lamb of god or pantera for testing purposes. White girl from lil wayne is a good test song for rap, even though I would never listen to Wayne for enjoyment. I go tech n9ne for that. Pink Floyd’s excellently produced recordings in the 70s and 80s make me go for them to test classic rock. Their recordings seemed to be at the tippy top of the pile for clarity and quality of sound back in their day. Kataklysm has some good songs to test the fast double bass also.

 

[Murphy1979]

Just for what it's worth, I have tracks from several Deicide albums, and it's only Legion that I use. Theres something about the mix on that album that is do heavy on all three instruments, and I've never heard it sound good on a low end system, and back in the day, most people's upgrad systems couldnt handle it well either.

If I ever hear "tough guy" metal like Pantera, it will be too soon. I have all their non-hairband albums, and I dont think a single one has a good mix on it for my tastes. But I know everyone has their own tastes.

I dont really know about most metal put out past say 1996...I know some (Behemoth, Vader, and Gorgoroth being my favorite newish stuff) but not much.

I wonder what a good system does to music that was purposefully recorded crappy like alot of Black Metal stuff.

 

[dragon.breath 10+ year member]

I have heard that some death or black metal music is heavily clipped when it is recorded. It is done on purpose to get a certain sound.
I am not talking about electric guitar distortion setups. I mean the recording itself. I would be careful playing that stuff at super high volumes.

 

[Murphy1979]

What does the word "clipped" mean in this context?

 

[SlugButter]

Just for what it's worth, I have tracks from several Deicide albums, and it's only Legion that I use. Theres something about the mix on that album that is do heavy on all three instruments, and I've never heard it sound good on a low end system, and back in the day, most people's upgrad systems couldnt handle it well either.

If I ever hear "tough guy" metal like Pantera, it will be too soon. I have all their non-hairband albums, and I dont think a single one has a good mix on it for my tastes. But I know everyone has their own tastes.

I dont really know about most metal put out past say 1996...I know some (Behemoth, Vader, and Gorgoroth being my favorite newish stuff) but not much.

I wonder what a good system does to music that was purposefully recorded crappy like alot of Black Metal stuff.

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some of the metal sounds crappy no matter how good your system is. I use Carcass as an example. Muffled, muddy and overall crappy sound. I’m assuming it’s on purpose for some reason. Always hated the metal bands that do that. The whole appeal to metal for me is the contrast in sound between bassy kick drums, vocals, and high symbols. With muddy sound, that dynamic is lost, and metal loses its appeal for me.

 

[Murphy1979]

Seems to me that South of Heaven is an album I've ways thought of as a production standard mix-wise. It's not Slayers best album of songs, but I like the mix the best. I cant wait to hear Dave Lombardos drums coming through a good system.

 

[SlugButter]

South of heaven is my favorite album of slayers by far. The song south of heaven is my favorite song from them also. Love testing my systems using that song.

 

[SlugButter]

The song “threshold“ from slayer is a good test song. There is some subtle snare drum work he does in that song that comes through nicely on a good system.

 

[Murphy1979]

Cool. I'm guessing Primus stuff would be a good test.

I also once bought an album on a recommendation by Electric Wizard called Dopethrone. Apparently it has a reputation of being a standard for bass in the doom metal genre. I dont really like the songs on the album. It sounds like complete **** through low end headphones and speakers. I'll be in interested to see if my system can take it and if it really deserves its reputation.

 

[marc2112 10+ year member]

The album God hates us all is not a sq masterpiece but Bostaphs sick fills on the faster songs easily point out bad/weak tuning.