Dr. Sean Olive on 35 Years of “Fast Car”

[MattHooper]

The girly sounding, wispy off-key, voice breaking cannot-actually-sing stuff drives me nuts. Some of these voices sound like pre-teens and grown men are listening to it at audio shows. Weird if you ask me.

Yes, my gawd, yes! That's been the current trend for so many female singers these days - from indie to more popular artists - especially in their slow songs.
Apparently to get across serious emotion, these singers assume you have to sound like you are totally bereft of life energy - like you are whispering from a bathtub, on your last breaths, after slitting your wrists. It's so monotonous.

 

[MAB]

This strikes me as odd.
HiFi stores used this track and many others to sell gear, I know. I sold so many systems using Tracy Chapman's CD. It demonstrated speaker characteristics. People liked it and seemed to be able to hear the differences in speakers. I sold lots of subwoofers, even in the late 80s, especially using "She's Got Her Ticket". And it engaged the customer and helped cure them of "Subwoofers can't keep up with Magnepans" fever and other odd ailments. Quadrophenia or There and Back won't help with that.

So it's interesting that we love to bash the audiophile stores (and for many good reasons), but we all seemed to latch onto the same test tracks that the scientists at Harman used.
Also, I love Tracy Chapman's CD and still do. But then again, I tolerate most everybody here even if they are repetitive like Krall at a cable-lifter convention. And they seem to tolerate me even though I'm a broken record.

 

[kemmler3D]

Fast Car is a good recording, one of the few that audiophiles rave about that actually sounds good. Most of the others (Diana Krall, Rebecca Pigeon, etc.) sound artificial. I never listen to it because it's been so over-played but just now I pulled the original CD off my shelf and gave it a listen. Fast Car does sound pretty natural, has deep bass that is also tight not bloated, and is not dynamically compressed. It's far better than other popular music recordings, but that is a very low bar. I agree with Olive's statement:
When I heard it, I just thought it was well-recorded compared to a lot of other contemporary albums. It was fairly well balanced—perhaps a bit bright, but it had music that went from the lowest lows to the highest overtones, and when we played it through the speakers we were testing, you could clearly hear the differences between them.

Tend to agree, it's a good mix/recording but not remarkably good. But, there is a lot of value (unfortunately) in using the same song over and over for testing. If you know how it sounds on 1000 systems, identifying flaws in the 1001st tends to be pretty easy.

If you want something new that has a pink noise-like spectrum, try I Can't Stop by Flux Pavilion.

 

[raif71]

Yes, my gawd, yes! That's been the current trend for so many female singers these days - from indie to more popular artists - especially in their slow songs.
Apparently to get across serious emotion, these singers assume you have to sound like you are totally bereft of life energy - like you are whispering from a bathtub, on your last breaths, after slitting your wrists. It's so monotonous.

I like Billie Eilish's "Bad Guy".

 

[pma]

Just use pink noise. It's free to make, has no copyright issues, does a better job than music and is guaranteed to send everyone but you out the listening room door so you can listen in peace.

That’s right on the spot. The pink noise reveals more about the speaker tonality than music, if the ears are trained how it should sound.

I do not understand why the Fast Car and similar tracks are used to test the speakers. It sounds “good” even on my iPad!! (on its miniature speaker). To me, classical music, big orchestra, with high dynamics, serves to test speakers.

 

[Blumlein 88]

That’s right on the spot. The pink noise reveals more about the speaker tonality than music, if the ears are trained how it should sound.

I do not understand why the Fast Car and similar tracks are used to test the speakers. It sounds “good” even on my iPad!! (on its miniature speaker). To me, classical music, big orchestra, with high dynamics, serves to test speakers.

I seem to recall some testing of which songs work best, complex music like orchestral music overwhelms our hearing in a sense. We will accept it with more distortion and other issues than relatively simpler music like Fast Car, chamber music, 3 piece jazz recordings etc. With the simpler sound we hear issues at lower levels.

Definitely agree about listening to pink noise. Helps with FR issues though not much for dynamic limitations.

 

[amirm]

I do not understand why the Fast Car and similar tracks are used to test the speakers.

30 minutes of speaker testing using pink noise will drive anyone nuts.

 

[Blumlein 88]

30 minutes of speaker testing using pink noise will drive anyone nuts.

Well there is the question of whether anyone who listens to pink noise for 30 minutes is driven nuts or is already nuts. You only need a few seconds.

 

[restorer-john]

To me, classical music, big orchestra, with high dynamics, serves to test speakers.

I agree. Really good classical recordings sort out equipment better than good old Tracy Chapman. Way more going on and if you value scale and dynamics, it's the best way to rapidly weed out good speakers from bad, excellent speakers from toy speakers.

Trouble is, when selling HiFi you want a short 2-4 minutes maximum, so popular tracks are better and the percentage of buyers who are classical music buffs is only a tiny fraction of 1%. Back when Compact Disc first arrived, it was the opposite- the classical music aficionados were the main customers.

 

[restorer-john]

30 minutes of speaker testing using pink noise will drive anyone nuts.

If it's cumulative exposure, we're all doomed.

 

[restorer-john]

Well there is the question of whether anyone who listens to pink noise for 30 minutes is driven nuts or is already nuts. You only need a few seconds.

We must all be nuts from spinning those tuning wheels on analogue FM tuners back in the day. I used to use the interstation noise (closer to white than pink) when I was a teenager for setting my bias on tape recordings. Oh man, I've been nuts since then.

 

[Blumlein 88]

We must all be nuts from spinning those tuning wheels on analogue FM tuners back in the day. I used to use the interstation noise (closer to white than pink) when I was a teenager for setting my bias on tape recordings. Oh man, I've been nuts since then.

I did the same thing.

 

[pma]

Well there is the question of whether anyone who listens to pink noise for 30 minutes is driven nuts or is already nuts. You only need a few seconds.

Absolutely! That’s why pink noise is good. Few seconds and you know what you need. Should add that narrow band noise is good to test speaker distortion audibility. Again, if we know what should we concentrate on.

 

[dasdoing]

I don't know how people say it's a good recording when these recordings have one of the most processed guitar sounds in history. it doesn't even sound like a guitar anymore. listen to her demos with real guitar sound:

 

[Waxx]

i always bring my own "demo music" to a test/meeting/shop/... and if they don't want to play it i'm not interested anymore. I'm sick of all the Diana Krall/Pink Floyd and other "audiophile music" that does tell me nothing.

I bring mostly

- "Shakara" from Fela Kuti: it starts minimal, but explodes in an busy 40ppl band african party that asks a lot from your speaker and amp.
- "Light up your spliff" from the Bush Chemists: It's a heavy UK "steppers dub" track, with a very deep bass and busy electronic drums. Mainly good to test bass capacity on high volume, in which many speaker fail.
- And the album "Songs in the key of life" from Stevie Wonder, an album that i know inside out as it's one of my favorites since childhood, and keeps holding that status in all the seasons of life i already passed. I heared it so many times that i'm on my 4th vinyl copy, altough i mostly play it digital since i know it (my parents had the 1990's cd version and the vinyl)...

I may also bring some classical music (Carmina Burana by Karl Orf performed by Anima Eterna Brugge & Collegium Vocale Gent). I was in the place when they recorded it in the concert hall in Bruges more than a decade ago, and it's a very dynamic and complex music recording that also only a few speaker can do fully right. And it's the total opposite of the typical whispering female voice/small combo music like Diana Krall & Co. Wagner opera's are also always a good test.

That music tells me actually relative accurate what a speaker can and can't do. Also because i know that music and recordings very well and heared it on dozens of speaker setups. And that last is probally more important than the music itself. It does not equal measurments, but it gives an id.

 

[AnalogSteph]

That music tells me actually relative accurate what a speaker can and can't do. Also because i know that music and recordings very well and heared it on dozens of speaker setups. And that last is probally more important than the music itself.

QFT.

The trick is identifying tracks in your music collection that you like well enough (but not too much) while they're also being revealing in some way. I for one don't care one iota about most of the commonly mentioned "classic test tracks".

 

[amirm]

Well there is the question of whether anyone who listens to pink noise for 30 minutes is driven nuts or is already nuts. You only need a few seconds.

Not if you are comparing multiple speakers randomized in Harman testing.

 

[RickS]

Well there is the question of whether anyone who listens to pink noise for 30 minutes is driven nuts or is already nuts. You only need a few seconds.

Count me in!

 

[RickS]

As such, was totally unaware of the application of Fast Car as a demo track. Being from Cleveland, the song has had plenty of airplay here and so mainly heard in the car. While I like it well enough, it never made it into my home until now. On my Purifi SPKs, it does have a lush sound with a growling bass line. Can see why this made it popular for demonstrations. Will be interested on how it sounds on my CBT24s…

 

[HoweSound]

I sure agree with not using Country music. I too have a handful of exceptions (John Hiatt).

I certainly agree, especially when Ry Cooder is playing too:

Don't forget the Little Village album