An Attempt Sharing Reference Quality Music Playlist: at least a portion and/or whole track being analyzed by 3D color spectrum of Adobe Audition

[dualazmak]

I hope it would be allowed and worthwhile having this thread within "Reference Quality Music Category" in our ASR Forum for your/our reference.

During September 10 to October 24 in 2022, I shared a series of posts on reference/sampler music albums/tracks under the rather long title of:

"Excellent Recording Quality Music Albums/Tracks for Subjective (and Possibly Objective) Test/Check/Tuning of Multichannel Multi-Driver Multi-Amplifier Time-Aligned Active Stereo Audio System and Room Acoustics; at least a Portion and/or One Track being Analyzed by Color Spectrum of Adobe Audition in Common Parameters:"

Under this title, I have shared as follows (having hyperlink to each of the posts on my project thread);

[Part-00] Introduction: #587
[Part-01] Full Orchestral Music: #588
[Part-02] Solo Piano Music: #590
[Part-03] Typical(?) Smooth Jazz Music with Guitar: #591
[Part-04] Bimmel Bolle Antique Orgel; Extremely High-Energy High-Frequency Sharp Transient sound: #592
[Part-05] Color Spectrum of Tracks in CBS/Sony's "Super Audio Check CD": #593
[Part-06] Female Vocal in Jazz and Popular Music, and One Male Vocal Track for Comparison: #596
[Part-07] Female Vocal and Counter Tenor in Early Classical Music: #639
[Part-08] (Smooth?) Jazz Trio: #640
[Part-09] Organ Music: #641
[Part-10] Lute Music: #642
[Part-11] Violin Music: #643
[Part-12] Cello Music: #644
[Part-13] Harpsichord (Cembalo, Clavecin) Music: #645
[Part-14] Piano Concertos: #650
[Part-15] Again, CBS/Sony's "Super Audio Check CD": Analyzed by Adobe Audition 3.0.1 and MusicScope 2.1.0: #651
[Part-16] A Cappella Chorus and A Cappella Vocal Ensemble: #652
[Part-17] Excellent Quality Music Tracks, But Containing Unacceptably High Gain Low-Frequency Air Conditioning Noises; What Counter Measures Can We Have? #658
[Part-18] An Interlude or Provisional Finale of the Post Series: #669
and,
Updated, the latest, Audio Sampler Playlist as of October 20, 2022: #670

As far as possible and available, and for your convenience, I shared also the YouTube link to the specific reference/sampler track or album, even though I do not know, I cannot guarantee, the sound quality of the YouTube clips.

I believe above "post series" is/was the very first attempt within ASR Forum sharing "excellent audio reference/sampler music tracks" in systematic manner having the "spectrum" (3D color spectrum of time-frequency-gain) of the intact track being analyzed.

I know very well that the Color Spectrum of Adobe Audition (I use Ver. 3.0.1) is not "the almighty" at all; it only gives 3D color representation of time-frequency-gain (sound pressure), and (almost) no info on sound cleanliness (S/N, distortion), sonority, 3D stereo perspective/image, extent of SP disappearance and so on. Nevertheless, I assume the Color Spectrum of Adobe Audition of specific audio reference/sampler music track would be more worthwhile than having no such objective representation of the track. (For some of the tracks, I also attached the spectrum and other data analyzed by MusicScope 2.1.0.)

If you would be interested in the above cited "post series", your visit to any of the above posts will be highly welcome.

On this thread and/or on my audio project thread, I would highly appreciate having our further discussions and info exchange on the specific "reference/sampler track" in the post series as well as on other excellent-recording-quality reference/sampler music track/playlist.

 

[Greenman]

Although I’m not a classical music guy I thought I’d respond as seems a lot of effort went into these.

I investigated the Female Jazz/pop vocal tracks as it’s something I at least have a chance of liking ;-) (#596).

The Sakamoto album is very nicely sounding, not especially my sort of music but a couple of good tracks. The Erin Bode album is a bit more my thing, though I do find that first track (holiday) just almost touching a bit of sibilance early on.

I don’t do computer analysis of tracks but I know what sounds great on my system, one such album in a similar vain is Melody Garbot - My one and only Thrill, The whole album is great sounding, worth checking out if you don’t know it.

 

[DWPress]

@Greenman - thanks for the Melody Gardot link, good stuff.

 

[dualazmak]

Although I’m not a classical music guy I thought I’d respond as seems a lot of effort went into these.

I investigated the Female Jazz/pop vocal tracks as it’s something I at least have a chance of liking ;-) (#596).

The Sakamoto album is very nicely sounding, not especially my sort of music but a couple of good tracks. The Erin Bode album is a bit more my thing, though I do find that first track (holiday) just almost touching a bit of sibilance early on.

I don’t do computer analysis of tracks but I know what sounds great on my system, one such album in a similar vain is Melody Garbot - My one and only Thrill, The whole album is great sounding, worth checking out if you don’t know it.

Thank you for your interest and kind attention on my "audio reference/sampler playlist" summarized here and here on my project thread, especially on this post for "[Part-06] Female Vocal in Jazz and Popular Music, and One Male Vocal Track for Comparison:".

I also appreciate your sharing the YouTube video clip of "Who Will Comfort Me" is from Melody Gardot’s CD "My One and Only Thrill." I quickly listen to it, and I am really impressed by the sound quality as "audio reference/sampler track", even though the music is a little bit out of my preference, as you may imagine.

I carefully extracted, therefore, the audio track of the YouTube video clip into 48 kHz (upto 24 kHz in L & R) 24 bit PCM AIFF format by using JRiver MC 31, and first I analyzed it by Adobe Audition 3.0.1.

Please note that that following analyses were performed on the extracted audio track of the specific YouTube video clip, not on the original CD track since I have not yet purchased the physical CD.

A little bit of disappointment, even though the subjective sound quality is really amazing, some parts of the dynamic range (upto 24 bit) were slightly saturated as you can see in this amplitude analysis diagram. Nevertheless, almost no subjective clipping-like distortion I can hear. Edit: This could possibly be attributed to the YouTube upload/encode/decode processes.

The 3D (time-Fq-gain) color spectrum shows the amazingly excellent S/N of the track with wonderful transient characteristics all the way through the 4:55 min track, and looks it contains "clearly audible" high Fq sound upto around 12 kHz; no air-conditioning-like low Fq noise is seen/heard below 20 Hz, really excellent.

The observation of High Fq zone would be somewhat interesting in this track. If the high Fq vertical scale is expanded/focused in 2 kHz - 24 kHz zone, we can see this diagram.

I assume that, in the mixing-mastering procedure, some kind of sharp (or mild) low-pass (high-cut) filter at around 11.8 kHz was applied, as you may easily see on the above diagram. Edit: Again, this could possibly be attributed to the YouTube upload/encode/decode processes.

The meaningful music sound still exists, however, even in 11.8 kHz to 24.0 kHz Fq zone which can be seen in the diagram of "reversed" color gamma scale; I sometimes use this "reversed gamma color scale" for checking the existence and nature of very high Fq sound upto the maximum Fq limit (in this case 24 kHz in L & R) of the specific track of interest.

Consequently, we can subjectively hear and objectively see/measure excellent and meaningful music sound spreading all over the 16 Hz to 24 kHz Fq zone in using almost all of the 24 bit dynamic range; really nice full utilization of Fq range and dynamic/gain range of the format.

I also analyzed the track by using MusicScope 2.1.0. The whole track scanning in logarithmic horizontal Fq scale gave this result.

Just like analyzed by Adobe Audition 3.0.1, again you can observe that a low-pass (high-cut) filter at around 11.8 kHz was possibly applied during the mixing-mastering procedure. Edit: Again, this could possibly be attributed to the YouTube upload/encode/decode processes. The meaningful music sound, however, can be seen/heard up to 24 kHz.

The same result was given by scanning the whole track in linear horizontal Fq scale.

In any way, I (we) could subjectively (audibly) and objectively confirm that the specific music track, even though extracted from the YouTube video clip, is very well fit for excellent "audio reference/sampler" music, I believe.

 

[Greenman]

Thank you for your interest and kind attention on my "audio reference/sampler playlist" summarized here and here on my project thread, especially on this post for "[Part-06] Female Vocal in Jazz and Popular Music, and One Male Vocal Track for Comparison:".

I also appreciate your sharing the YouTube video clip of "Who Will Comfort Me" is from Melody Gardot’s CD "My One and Only Thrill." I quickly listen to it, and I am really impressed by the sound quality as "audio reference/sampler track", even though the music is a little bit out of my preference, as you may imagine.

I carefully extracted, therefore, the audio track of the YouTube video clip into 48 kHz (upto 24 kHz in L & R) 24 bit PCM AIFF format by using JRiver MC 31, and first I analyzed it by Adobe Audition 3.0.1.

Please note that that following analyses were performed on the extracted audio track of the specific YouTube video clip, not on the original CD track since I have not yet purchased the physical CD.

A little bit of disappointment, even though the subjective sound quality is really amazing, some parts of the dynamic range (upto 24 bit) were slightly saturated as you can see in this amplitude analysis diagram. Nevertheless, almost no subjective clipping-like distortion I can hear.
View attachment 306246

The 3D (time-Fq-gain) color spectrum shows the amazingly excellent S/N of the track with wonderful transient characteristics all the way through the 4:55 min track, and looks it contains "clearly audible" high Fq sound upto around 12 kHz; no air-condition-like low Fq noise is seen/heard below 20 Hz, really excellent.
View attachment 306247

The observation of High Fq zone would be somewhat interesting in this track. If the high Fq vertical scale is expanded/focused in 2 kHz - 24 kHz zone, we can see this diagram.
View attachment 306248
I assume that, in the mixing-mastering procedure, some kind of sharp (or mild) low-pass (high-cut) filter at around 11.8 kHz was applied, as you may easily see on the above diagram.

The meaningful music sound still exists, however, even above 11.8 kHz to 24.0 kHz Fq zone which can be seen in the diagram of "reversed" color gamma scale; I sometimes use this "reversed gamma color scale" for checking the existence and nature of very high Fq sound upto the maximum Fq limit (in this case 24 kHz in L & R) of the specific track of interest.
View attachment 306249

Consequently, we can subjectively hear and objectively see/measure excellent and meaningful music sound spreading all over the 16 Hz to 24 kHz Fq zone in using almost all of the 24 bit dynamic range; really nice full utilization of Fq range and dynamic/gain range of the format.

I also analyzed the track by using MusicScope 2.1.0. The whole track scanning in logarithmic horizontal Fq scale gave this result.
View attachment 306250
Just like analyzed by Adobe Audition 3.0.1, again you can observe that a low-pass (high-cut) filter at around 11.8 kHz was possibly applied during the mixing-mastering procedure. The meaningful music sound ,however, can be seen/heard up to 24 kHz.

The same result was given by scanning the whole track in linear horizontal Fq scale.
View attachment 306251

In any way, I (we) could subjectively (audibly) and objectively confirm that the specific music track, even though extracted from the YouTube video clip, is very well fit for excellent "audio reference/sampler" music, I believe.

Wow amazing stuff, and interesting, though without the background knowledge myself compairing what is a reference level recording with a ‘typical‘ compressed alternative I don’t really know what elements make all the difference, though I can speculate.

I listen to the uncompressed Qobuz stream of this album(cd quality no hires) (the track included was just really a random example, the whole album sounds great to me). I don’t know what (if any) extra compression the YouTube stream might experience. Would be an interesting exercise to compare a Qobuz (or similar) stream to YouTube (I guess you may have done this before elsewhere?). either way it’s a nicely recorded album that sounds great on my system, with no compression artefacts that I hear.

 

[danadam]

Consequently, we can subjectively hear and objectively see/measure excellent and meaningful music sound spreading all over the 16 Hz to 24 kHz Fq zone in using almost all of the 24 bit dynamic range; really nice full utilization of Fq range and dynamic/gain range of the format.

Spikes above 20 kHz are for certain a clipping after decoding from Opus:

]$ ffmpeg -i "Melody Gardot - Who Will Comfort Me-qKDj-OVJ6hc.ogg" -af astats -f null /dev/null
...
Peak level dB: 1.941569

If you want to avoid them, you should decode to float and then keep it as float wav or reduce gain before converting to the usual integer wav.

And the whole low pass at 11 kHz must be a modification by the uploader (probably introducing clipping on its own and creating the spikes between 12 and 20 kHz) because the same track on the official channel (here or here) doesn't have it. They still have a clipping after decoding from Opus though:

]$ ffmpeg -i "Who Will Comfort Me-L0mJA5V9uEo.ogg" -af astats -f null /dev/null
...
Peak level dB: 2.021557

In any way, I (we) could subjectively (audibly) and objectively confirm that the specific music track, even though extracted from the YouTube video clip, is very well fit for excellent "audio reference/sampler" music, I believe.

If you say so

 

[dualazmak]

Spikes above 20 kHz are for certain a clipping after decoding from Opus:

]$ ffmpeg -i "Melody Gardot - Who Will Comfort Me-qKDj-OVJ6hc.ogg" -af astats -f null /dev/null
...
Peak level dB: 1.941569

If you want to avoid them, you should decode to float and then keep it as float wav or reduce gain before converting to the usual integer wav.

And the whole low pass at 11 kHz must be a modification by the uploader (probably introducing clipping on its own and creating the spikes between 12 and 20 kHz) because the same track on the official channel (here or here) doesn't have it. They still have a clipping after decoding from Opus though:

]$ ffmpeg -i "Who Will Comfort Me-L0mJA5V9uEo.ogg" -af astats -f null /dev/null
...
Peak level dB: 2.021557

If you say so

Hello @danadam,

Yes, my guess/speculation is essentially same as your points; I just analyzed the extracted audio track from YouTube video clip.

Since I currently have no intention of purchasing the specific track or the album (a little bit out of my music preference), I will be able to analyze the intact CD track only if you and/or @Greenman would kindly provide/present me the intact CD track(s); in case of this possible situation, please personally contact me through the PM communication system. If this would be the actual case, I will be more than happy to share such results of analyses/measurements on the intact CD track in comparison with the above my results on the YouTube extracted audio track.

 

[sigbergaudio]

I'm not sure I understand this sentence: "using almost all of the 24 bit dynamic range". Why would they do that?

Even at 16 bit, utilizing the full dynamic range would render parts of the recording inaudible in almost any feasible playback scenario.

 

[dualazmak]

I'm not sure I understand this sentence: "using almost all of the 24 bit dynamic range". Why would they do that?

Even at 16 bit, utilizing the full dynamic range would render parts of the recording inaudible in almost any feasible playback scenario.

Again, this could possibly be attributed to the YouTube upload/encode/decode processes.

As I wrote in my above post #7, I really would like to analyze/measure the intact CD track!

 

[dualazmak]

Just for your reference, at the top of almost all of my post series on "audio reference/sampler playlist" summarized here, I wrote/attached "Caution and Reminder";
Caution and Reminder:
Even though I refer to YouTube video/audio clip(s) in this post, I cannot guarantee its sound quality since I know little about YouTube's audio codec/compression, and furthermore I know nothing about your internet access environments.

Furthermore, at the end of my post here on my project thread, I wrote;
The ZIP file (6.3 GB) containing all the 60 intact tracks has been also prepared for possible communication with my audio-enthu friends. In case if you would be seriously interested in these intact (non-compressed) audio sampler tracks, please simply PM me writing your wish.

 

[dualazmak]

Hello friends,

For your possible reference (and interests), I just posted on my project thread;
- Reproduction and listening/hearing/feeling sensations to 16 Hz (organ) sound with my DSP-based multichannel multi-SP-driver multi-amplifier fully active stereo audio system having big-heavy active L&R sub-woofers: #782

 

[Dgob]

I hope it would be allowed and worthwhile having this thread within "Reference Quality Music Category" in our ASR Forum for your/our reference.

During September 10 to October 24 in 2022, I shared a series of posts on reference/sampler music albums/tracks under the rather long title of:

"Excellent Recording Quality Music Albums/Tracks for Subjective (and Possibly Objective) Test/Check/Tuning of Multichannel Multi-Driver Multi-Amplifier Time-Aligned Active Stereo Audio System and Room Acoustics; at least a Portion and/or One Track being Analyzed by Color Spectrum of Adobe Audition in Common Parameters:"

Under this title, I have shared as follows (having hyperlink to each of the posts on my project thread);

[Part-00] Introduction: #587
[Part-01] Full Orchestral Music: #588
[Part-02] Solo Piano Music: #590
[Part-03] Typical(?) Smooth Jazz Music with Guitar: #591
[Part-04] Bimmel Bolle Antique Orgel; Extremely High-Energy High-Frequency Sharp Transient sound: #592
[Part-05] Color Spectrum of Tracks in CBS/Sony's "Super Audio Check CD": #593
[Part-06] Female Vocal in Jazz and Popular Music, and One Male Vocal Track for Comparison: #596
[Part-07] Female Vocal and Counter Tenor in Early Classical Music: #639
[Part-08] (Smooth?) Jazz Trio: #640
[Part-09] Organ Music: #641
[Part-10] Lute Music: #642
[Part-11] Violin Music: #643
[Part-12] Cello Music: #644
[Part-13] Harpsichord (Cembalo, Clavecin) Music: #645
[Part-14] Piano Concertos: #650
[Part-15] Again, CBS/Sony's "Super Audio Check CD": Analyzed by Adobe Audition 3.0.1 and MusicScope 2.1.0: #651
[Part-16] A Cappella Chorus and A Cappella Vocal Ensemble: #652
[Part-17] Excellent Quality Music Tracks, But Containing Unacceptably High Gain Low-Frequency Air Conditioning Noises; What Counter Measures Can We Have? #658
[Part-18] An Interlude or Provisional Finale of the Post Series: #669
and,
Updated, the latest, Audio Sampler Playlist as of October 20, 2022: #670

As far as possible and available, and for your convenience, I shared also the YouTube link to the specific reference/sampler track or album, even though I do not know, I cannot guarantee, the sound quality of the YouTube clips.

I believe above "post series" is/was the very first attempt within ASR Forum sharing "excellent audio reference/sampler music tracks" in systematic manner having the "spectrum" (3D color spectrum of time-frequency-gain) of the intact track being analyzed.

I know very well that the Color Spectrum of Adobe Audition (I use Ver. 3.0.1) is not "the almighty" at all; it only gives 3D color representation of time-frequency-gain (sound pressure), and (almost) no info on sound cleanliness (S/N, distortion), sonority, 3D stereo perspective/image, extent of SP disappearance and so on. Nevertheless, I assume the Color Spectrum of Adobe Audition of specific audio reference/sampler music track would be more worthwhile than having no such objective representation of the track. (For some of the tracks, I also attached the spectrum and other data analyzed by MusicScope 2.1.0.)

If you would be interested in the above cited "post series", your visit to any of the above posts will be highly welcome.

On this thread and/or on my audio project thread, I would highly appreciate having our further discussions and info exchange on the specific "reference/sampler track" in the post series as well as on other excellent-recording-quality reference/sampler music track/playlist.

Excellent, this is exactly the type of thing that I was hoping for. I'll get around to sampling these and adding (hopefully) many to my own library. Thanks

 

[dualazmak]

Yesterday, I posted this on another thread of "Music For Testing Bass":
A nice smooth-jazz album for bass (low Fq) and higher Fq tonality check and tuning

Spoiler

A nice smooth-jazz album for bass (low Fq) and higher Fq tonality check and tuning

Just for all of your possible reference and interests...

As I have shared here on my project thread in September 2022, I have (almost?) all the CDs of Peter White (smooth jazz, acoustic/electric guitar player), and I incorporated a few of his wonderful tracks in my "Audio Reference Reference/Sampler Playlist".

I assume, as "a whole CD album", Peter White's "CONFIDENTIAL" released on March 23, 2004 would be very nice reference/sampler for not only bass (low Fq) tuning but also the total tanality balance over the whole 16 Hz - 22.05 kHz CD format frequency and dynamic range.

You can hear the entire album on YouTube in rather good sound quality, even though I know nothing about sound compression in YouTube clips and your YouTube listening internet environment and your audio gears;
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kQxYlSsNL89etmxdvOEFprKf8xWYrEmQY

Just for our possible reference, yesterday I quickly analyzed two tracks of the ripped CD album using Adobe Audition 3.0.1's 3D(Gain/Fq/Time) color spectrum and FFT frequency spectrum.

First, track-06 "Lost Without Your Love";

In the FFT frequency spectrum of the whole 3:35 track, you can clearly observe (and hear) the distinct high-level low Fq sound peaks throughout the track where we have well separated low Fq peaks at 35, 39, 44, 52, 58, 69, 78, 87, 97 and 103 Hz!

I believe you (we) need excellent L&R subwoofers and woofers, both have nice transient behavior with precise time/phase alignment with each other, and nicely tuned DSP-based multichannel multi-amplifier setup dedicatedly and directly driving subwoofers and woofers; furthermore, the amplifiers driving these SP drivers need to have excellent damping factors.

Here, the distortion in woofers caused by overlapped lower subwoofer-zone transient sound should be minimized by appropriate filters in DSP configuration (and built-in filters in active subwoofers).

Four the total tonality tuning of this wonderful track, I assume independent flexible gain tuning for subwoofers, woofers, midranges, tweeters and supertweeters would be needed in DSP domain and analog domain (e.g. ref here).

Second, track-08 "Swept Away";

You would please note, in 0:40 - 0.45 portion, we have "meaningful" very low Fq sound over 16 Hz - 27 Hz even though the gain is not so high. I can clearly hear and feel (by my whole body) the 16 - 27 Hz sound by using the big and heavy L&R subwoofers YAMAHA YST-SW1000 (ref. here).

Details of the latest setup of my DSP-based multichannel multi-SP-driver multi-amplifier fully active stereo audio system can be found here.