Multi-Channel, Multi-Amplifier Audio System Using Software Crossover and Multichannel-DAC

[dualazmak]

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: [Part-09] Organ Music

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.

(You would please take a look on [Part-00] Introduction here in my post.)

Hello friends,

Excellent reproduction of organ music, including the possible hall tone/acoustics, has been always one of fundamentals throughout my journey of home audio system setup. I need, therefore, proper "audio sampler" tracks of organ music of high recording quality.

Let me start this post with one YouTube clip in which young (at that time) German organist Sebastian Kuechler-Blessing plays JS Bach's Sinfonia (from Cantata BWV 26), transcription by Marcel Dupré;

I have been much impressed by this wonderful performance and recording quality since its upload to YouTube in April 2010, even though I still cannot get detailed information on the organ he played. I very carefully extracted the audio layer of this YouTube clip into 96 kHz AIFF for analysis with Adobe Audition 3.0.1;

As you can "see" on the color spectrum, the lowest large pipe tone would be 22 32 Hz, and the "meaningful" low sound goes down to 16 Hz - 18 22 Hz zone, even though I do not know whether the 16 Hz - 18 22 Hz sounds are direct huge-pipe sound or some Helmholtz hall-air resonance caused by intense stimulation of the high gain pipe sound of 32 Hz or higher. By looking at his pedaling actions, the latter would be highly possible.

In any way, we definitely need Large-heavy L&R excellent sub-woofers (SWs) of nice transient characteristics (speed) and precisely time-aligned with woofers (WOs). As for the XO (cross over) from SW to WO, the following three factors;
(1) selection of XO Fq
(2) slopes of low-pass filter for SW and high-pass filter for WO
(3) transient characteristics in Fq zone of SW-only, SW+WO, WO-only
should be measured and tuned "in total" as I have explored throughout this project thread.

For transient characteristics of SW and WO, you would please refer to my posts #495, #497, #503, #507. And please find the summary of time alignment tuning in my post #520. Also you may find the latest system setup configurations in my post #540 including the total Fq response curve measured at my listening position;

The high Fq sound components of the YouTube clip can be well "seen" by reversing the color scale of the spectrum;

As we can see in the above "color-scale-reversed" spectrum, in addition to nice midrange squawkers, we also need excellent tweeters and super-tweeters.

As a whole, the amazing sound of this YouTube clip is nice challenge and reference to my/our audio system and room acoustics.

Edit on September 29, 2022
Today, I had nice discussion with @Shorty in our posts here, here, here, and here regarding the organ instrument in the YouTube clip. He kindly informed that the organ used is not a real physical one, but it is a virtual software organ which can simulate over 150 historic classical and theatre organs all over the world. Now I fully understand the "virtual quality" and "virtual huge pipes" of the video clip, and the reasons for that I could not find any info on "real" organ for the YouTube clip; a little bit of disappointment I feel. Nevertheless, I still assume/believe that the video clip and the performance would be a nice challenge and reference to/for our audio setup.


Even though I have several LP and CD albums on Bach's organ Trio Sonatas, I always come back to Ton Koopman's "world heritage" performance (IMHO) digitally recorded in 1982 by ARCHIV label which was first released in LP format, and later-on digitally remastered CD followed; I have both of them.

You can find the whole album on YouTube;
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2k8ekJXk4nWEkVo-fcv45ZR1SQJnmV6j

I usually use one of the largo tracks, and one of the allegro tracks, for check and tuning of audio system and room acoustics; here I would like to share the two from Trio Sonata No.2 in C Minor BWV 526.
Slow tempo "Largo";

You can here on YouTube;

As you can see and hear, the recording is really nice in high S/N and cleanliness; the lowest pipe sound is 32 Hz.

Up-tempo "Allegro";

You can hear on YouTube;

For reproduction of rather quiet but excellent S/N with fantastic hall (church) reverberation tone reproduction, I always use this organ inauguration recording album for "The Great Organ of Saint Eustache Paris" performed by Jean Guillou with really excellent recording quality under Dorian label, especially the track-2 "Recit de Tierce en taille / Grigny ND".

Spectrum of the track-2 "Recit de Tierce en Taille / Grigny ND";

You can hear on YouTube;

I assume you would fully agree with me how suitable this track is as "audio sampler" for organ music reproduction with my (our) audio system and room acoustics.


Next, let me introduce you one of the amazingly excellent sound of modern huge organ in modern huge concert hall of wonderful acoustics in Japan, performed by blind organist Genzo Takehisa recorded by a famous engineer Mr. Yukio Kojima of Kojima Recordings, Inc.

The venue, Fukushima Ongakudo Hall (Fukushima Prefecture, Japan) and the organ;

The album, Genzo Takehisa; "Liebester Jesu; Airs for the Organ”, 1992, AEO-509 AEOLIAN RECORDS;

I usually use track-2: "Herzlich Thut Mich Verlangen / Bach JS":

Unfortunately, no YouTube clip nor any other web sharing available for this album. If you would be interested in hearing this album, please simply contact me by PM system writing your wish.

As you can easily find in the spectrum, the lowest clear pipe sound is 37 Hz (I confirmed it by placing mouse cursor there and read the numeric info.) I can also see and very faintly hear the low gain "meaningful" hall (Helmholtz?) resonance/reverberation around 25 Hz -30 Hz which I found preferable, not uncomfortable at all, it is even needed for the nice reproduction of the hall tone.

Over all, this recording is wonderful and also a nice challenge to our audio system, especially sound cleanliness, S/N, and low-Fq clear reproduction by sub-woofers down to 25 Hz - 50 Hz with the lowest pipe of 37 Hz.


The next and last share in this post is again the combination of organist Genzo Takehisa and recording engineer Yukio Kojima; performance of very small but wonderful organ at a small quiet chapel;

The album Genzo Takehisa: “The Realms of Keyboard Music Vol.2”, 1993, ALCD-1003 ALM Kojima Recordings, Inc:

I usually use track-1: "Preambulum in D major / Scheidemann H";

Unfortunately again, no YouTube clip nor any other web sharing available for this album. If you would be interested in hearing this album, please simply contact me by PM system writing your wish.

Looking at the spectrum, you may easily notice the extremely high S/N, sound cleanliness, and wonderful hall reverberation tone (even though such a small chapel); really amazing performance and recording quality I can hear, and very suitable for check and tuning of audio system.


Hopefully, my next post on this "post series" will be "[Part-10] Lute Music".

Edit: So far posted in this series;
[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

 

[dualazmak]

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: [Part-10] Lute Music

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.

(You would please take a look on [Part-00] Introduction here in my post.)

Hello friends,

On top of my remote thread entitled "Lute Music and Other Early Music: Stunning Recordings We Love", I wrote "Throughout my long years of enthusiasm in classical music and Hi-Fi audio, I have always deeply loved lute music", and many of excellent and enjoyable recordings of lute music, therefore, have been already shared and discussed on the rather niche thread.

In this post, I would like to share only three tracks of lute music which I usually use as "sampler tracks" for check and tuning of my audio system (you may find my latest audio setup here).

The first "sampler album" in this post is excellent lute recording of "on-microphone", very near setting of microphone(s) to lutenist Rolf Lislevand; really high S/N, crystal clear recording;

I usually use track-11: "La Psyché /Jaques Gallot";

You can hear this wonderful performance and excellent recording quality on YouTube;

The next "sampler album" is relatively "off-microphone" excellent recording of lute duet by Robert Barto and Karl-Ernst Schröder; very much suitable not only for check and tuning of lute tones but also for the check of L&R balance, 3D sound perspective giving the location of two lutenists as well as check-and-tuning for slight tone differences between the two instruments.

I usually use two tracks, allegro and largo, as my "audio samplers" from this album:
Track-6: Sonata C Major “Allegro”;

You can hear this on YouTube;

Using your audio system, how nicely can you identify the two lutenists and the two instruments?

Then, track-7: Sonata C Major “Largo”;

Again, you can hear this on YouTube;

I assume you may agree with me this track too is very suitable for system check (and tuning, if needed).

By the way, in this track, can you clearly hear a bird, Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos), wonderfully joining in this midnight recording session at a small quiet chapel? It would be also a challenge to our audio system.


Hopefully, my next post on this "post series" will be "[Part-11] Violin Music".

(I am planning that this "post series" would be provisionally finished before reaching [Part-22].)

Edit: So far posted in this series;
[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

 

[dualazmak]

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: [Part-11] Violin Music

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.

(You would please take a look on [Part-00] Introduction here in my post.)

Hello friends,

Excellent recording tracks of violin music always contain multiple orders of harmonic tones usually up to 22.05 kHz (or higher) and hence really suitable for audio system check and tuning mainly in midrange to high frequency zone covered by squawkers, tweeters and super-tweeters. This feature is especially important in check and tuning of my multichannel multi-amplifier active stereo system; you will well understand it after reading this post.

To begin with, let me share with you one album and one track which I always use as one of critical "audio samplers playlist"; a violinist James Ehnes's wonderful performance with excellent recording quality, album entitled "Vivaldi The Four Seasons", but also containing music by Tartini and Leclair;

I usually use rather quiet but amazingly high S/N track-6, Sonata “Tambourin” in D Major OP.9-3 III Sarabanda: Largo" by Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764);

In this spectrum, you may easily "see" the wonderful S/N and also clearly identify multiple orders of harmonic tones of each of the violin sounds. In some portions, the harmonic tones reach at 22.05 kHz area, the upper limit zone of the CD format.
You can hear it on Youtube;

Before going into the details of my utilization of this wonderful violin track, I assume it would be worthwhile and needed to share the essence of my latest audio setup. (You can find the full description here on this project thread.)

The total system block diagram;

For the details of my listening room environment, you would please refer to the latter half of my post #311.

Please refer to my post here for the unique physical alignment (positioning) of T925A super-tweeters in my system setup. Also you would please refer to my post here for recent overhaul maintenance of T925A.

The upstream audio player and DSP(XO/EQ/delay) "EKIO" configuration, multiple amplifiers setup, and all the SP drivers;

As for the 0.1 msec precision time alignment between all the SP drivers, please refer to my summary post here.

The DIY 12-VU-Meter-Array monitors amplifiers SP-out high level signals going into SP drivers;


And, here is frequency response of room air sound measured at my listening position, which is "best tuned for my ears and brain".

You would please note the slightly upward slope (indicated as "ST gain-B") of the Fq response in 7 kHz - 20 kHz zone which compensates our (mine and my wife's) slight age dependent hearing decline in high Fq zone.

Very fortunately, I have considerably better hearing ability over the average ability of my age group; I periodically check my hearing ability using a free software audiometer with nice headphone. I well know and understand, however, my hearing ability in 7 kHz to 20 kHz (or ca.15 kHz?) is now a little bit inferior to average of younger people; by younger people, I mean people of age 40 or less.

Consequently, in case I invite those younger people to my audio listening sessions, they highly possibly feel that my best tuned high Fq response over 7 kHz (for my ears and brain) would be a little bit too high-gain for their ears. This means it should be better that if I could have flexible Fq response adjustments in my audio system especially in 7 kHz to 20 kHz Fq zone.

I have been intensively implementing such flexible gain tuning functionalities which can be done "on-the-fly" (while listening to the music), very safely, flexibly, and smoothly (not step-wisely). From safety point of view, it is critical that such flexible relative gain tuning can be applied even while all of the DSP(XO/EQ/delay) "EKIO" parameters in upstream PC as well as preamp gains of DAC8PRO remain unchanged (they should stay "untouchable"). And, this is one of the major reasons I decided to use HiFi-grade "integrated amplifiers" in my multichannel multi-amplifier audio setup.

Now, you may well understand that using the volume dial of the "integrated amplifier" Yamaha A-S301 (directly and dedicatedly driving T925A super-tweeters), you can flexibly safely smoothly control the upward slope of frequency response in 6 kHz to 20 kHz while listening to the violin sampler track, as illustrated in this diagram;

Since I do not like to force our guest audience(s) uncomfortably accept (or adjust/adopt himself/herself to) "my preferable" slope in 6 kHz - 20 kHz, I just let them freely fine tune the upward gain slope by using the IR remote controller (up-and-down of volume/gain) for A-S301 amplifier while listening to the violin music, at the beginning of our audio listening session.

Furthermore, please note that usually I do not show them the Fq-response diagram; many of them have little knowledge of fundamentals in audio systems even though they are semi-professional or professional musicians in early-classical, classical and/or jazz genre. I myself, however, have the diagram in my brain so that I can exactly correlate their preferable dial position to the specific upward slope as shown in the diagram.

It is really my great interest "observing" how they would be impressed and enjoy the fine tuning by themselves towards their preferable high Fq upward slope while listening to the wonderful violin performance of James Ehnes; for many of them it would be their very first experience in flexible fine tuning of 6 kHz - 20 kHz sound with this kind of HiFi multichannel multi-amplifier active audio setup.

Generally speaking, the selection of preferable slopes by them are as follows;

1. gain-D (almost flat) to gain-C: by young (less than 35 yr.) healthy and nice hearing ability audiences
2. gain-C to gain-B: by middle-age to aged (40 - 75 yr.) healthy audiences with a slight hearing decline in high Fq
3. higher than gain-B to up to around gain-A: by aged healthy audiences with typical age dependent hearing decline

And, very importantly here in this post, all of them frankly agree with me that the violin music track by James Ehnes (Sonata “Tambourin” in D Major OP.9-3 III Sarabanda: Largo"/Jean-Marie Leclair) with rich high-Fq harmonic tones in excellent recording quality is really suitable for such fine tuning.

As shared here, I occasionally allow the guest audience(s) to further fine tune the system by flexibly smoothly controlling the volume/gain of other three amplifiers dedicatedly/directly driving woofers, midrange squawkers, tweeters and even also sub-woofers, as shown in this diagram;

Of course, I always reset the tuning parameters back to "my preferences" after they left my home.


After finishing the first round fine tuning in 6 kHz - 20 kHz zone as shared above, I usually move onto next nice violin track for confirmation (and further fine tuning, if needed.)

This is another "audio sampler" violin album down-load purchased at the site of "Chasing The Dragon"; Interpreti Veneziani's wonderful performances entitled "Vivaldi In Venice" also containing music by Giuseppe Tartini and Arcangelo Corelli.

This album is available in various HiRes formats at the site of "Chasing The Dragon";

For the "audio sampler" of violin music, I use the track-13, Federico Baraga plays "Largo" of Concerto D Major composed by Tartini;

This is really amazingly beautiful performance in stunning recording quality, but quite regretfully I cannot find HiRes sharing of this track on YouTube or elsewhere. You may hear this track by very poor quality YouTube clip made and uploaded by a naive amateur audience at "that" live concert using his/her smartphone, I assume.

Please note the quality of this YouTube clip is really bad, and not recommended at all. Please let me know if you could find HiRes sharing of this track anywhere. I highly recommend you to purchase one of the HiRes format at the site of "Chasing The Dragon". (If you would be really interested only in the specific track, please contact me by PM writing your wish.) Nevertheless, I assume you would "guess" the wonderful performance and excellent recording by the talented musicians through this poor YouTube clip.


Let me move on to another my "audio sampler album of violin music" recorded in 1986 at No.1 Studio, Abbey Road, London; London Baroque (leader Charles Medlam)'s album entitled "Corelli: Trio Sonatas".

I use Track-3 Sonata Da Camera in E Minor Op.2-4 as "violin audio sampler";

You can hear it on YouTube, but the sound quality is not optimal, I assume;

As you can find in the spectrum, this recording (in 1986) contains air conditioning noise of No.1 Studio of Abbey Road in 40 Hz - 55Hz Fq zone; fortunately it does not interfere/deteriorate the nice music reproduction even with my setup having relatively high gain for sub-woofers. (Of course, I can easily suppress/eliminate it by DSP EKIO if needed, though.)

This track is suitable for check (and tuning, if needed) not only for violin tones but also for total balance together with the accompaniment instruments including harpsichord as you can hear in the YouTube clip.


Next and the last in this post, let me share another rather rich sound violin album with piano accompaniment. Akiko Suwanai's wonderful album (1998) with excellent recording quality entitled "Slavonic" accompanied by pianist Boris Berezovsky;

I usually use track-4 "Four Romantic Pieces Op.75 B.150 No.4 Larghetto / Dvorak";

You can hear it on YouTube;

We may use this track for final confirmation of our fine tuning for violin music; rather warm-taste excellent recording of Stradivarius Dolphin (1714) having almost ideal balance with the piano accompaniment.

Edit:
Hopefully, my next post on this "post series" will be "[Part-12] Cello Music", followed by "[Part-13] Harpsichord (Cembalo, Clavecin) Music".

(I am planning that this "post series" would be provisionally finished before reaching [Part-22].)

Edit: So far posted in this series;
[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

 

[dualazmak]

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: [Part-12] Cello Music

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.

(You would please take a look on [Part-00] Introduction here in my post.)

Hello friends,

In my preceding post [Part-11] above, I shared and discussed the "audio sampler tracks of violin music" which generally have keynote tones in 200 Hz - 2kHz and rather high gain multiple harmonic tones up to 20 kHz zone.

In this post, as a follow-up, I share "audio sampler tracks of cello music" which have keynote tone in 65 Hz - 660 Hz with harmonic tones up to about 8 kHz as illustrated by this diagram;

As you can easily find, cello sound is essentially covered by woofers (WOs) and midrange squawkers (SQs), and the following features/elements, therefore, would be critical for excellent reproduction of cello music;

1. Smooth crossover from WO to SQ
2. Continuous and common sound "taste/characteristics" by WO, WO+SQ, SQ
3. Perfect time alignment (phase matching), in 0.1 msec precision, between WO and SQ (ref. posts #504, #520)
4. Excellent transient characteristics of WO (and SQ) (ref. posts #495, #504)
5. Perfect L-to-R gain balance for WO and SQ (and also for all the other SP drivers)

Here in this post, I will not go into details of these items since I have been already intensively measuring/discussing these throughout on this thread of multichannel multi-amplifier stereo project.

For my subjective check and tuning for reproduction of cello music, I mainly use three tracks as follows.

The first album; Christophe Coin (cello) plays "Vivaldi: 6 Cello Sonatas" accompanied by Christopher Hogwood et al. recorded in 1987 in excellent quality at No.1 Studio of Abbey Road, London:

As "audio sampler", I use the track-1 "Sonata #1 in B flat major, RV 47 Largo";

You can hear this on YouTube;

Looking at the spectrum, you may well understand that this track is the typical "cello sound sampler" with keynote in 100 Hz - 500 Hz and the harmonics in 600 Hz - 7 kHz. Furthermore, in contrast to the tracks of London Baroque I shared in preceding post [Part-11 Violin music] recorded at the same venue, this track contains almost no air conditioning noise of No.1 Studio of Abbey Road; thanks to the recording/mixing engineer(s), I assume..

I also use track-21 "Sonata #6 in B flat major, RV 46 Preludio-Largo" since so beautiful music in very nice S/N with accompaniments including archlute; really suitable for system check (and tuning, if needed).

You can hear this on YouTube;

Next and the last in this post, I use this album also; Andres Diaz (cello) and Samuel Sanders (piano) “Brahms: The Two Cello Sonatas, Dvorak: Silent Woods”, 1991, DOR-90165 Dorian Recordings.

As always true for other Dorian Label CDs, the recording quality, with wonderful hall reverberation/tone, is just stunning; this album was recorded at their main venue, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall for which we have discussed here and here.

I usually use track-1 "Brahms: Cello Sonata No.1 E Minor Op.38 I. Allegro non troppo";

The performance of Andres Diaz and Samuel Sanders is really superb in almost perfect balance of cello and piano; I especially like and carefully check the quiet part of the music in 9:50 - 10:40 with really wonderful, quite but crystal clear, piano accompaniment.

Unfortunately, I could not find (HiRes) free sharing of this amazing track/album anywhere; please let me know if you would find it somewhere. I believe you may still purchase the CD at amazon or elsewhere, highly recommended;
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Andres+Diaz+cello+Brahms+Dvorak&crid=2PH3SLNB463N9&sprefix=andres+diaz+cello+brahms+dvorak,aps,206&ref=nb_sb_noss

Edit on Oct. 14 2022:
I could find that you can hear the very short sample tracks here, even though the sound quality is not optimal.

We have just one comment at amazon site, and I fully agree with the commenter;

Hopefully, my next post on this "post series" will be "[Part-13] Harpsichord (Cembalo, Clavecin) Music".

(I am planning that this "post series" would be provisionally finished before reaching [Part-22].)

Edit: So far posted in this series;
[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

 

[dualazmak]

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: [Part-13] Harpsichord (Cembalo, Clavecin) Music

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.

(You would please take a look on [Part-00] Introduction here in my post.)

Hello friends,

Harpsichord (Cembalo, Clavecin) music is always nice challenge to our audio system especially in terms of S/N, dynamic (gain) range and wide frequency distribution even by single tone. I usually include, therefore, a few excellent recording quality harpsichord tracks in my "audio sampler playlist" for check and tuning of audio system and room acoustics; in this post, I would like to share three of such harpsichord tracks.

The first two tracks come from Jean Rondeau's recent album “VERTIGO; Rameau, Royer”, ERATO 0 825646 974580 (2015):

I usually use stunning S/N and crystal clear track-3 "Rameau: Pieces De Clavecin, Suite In D - 1. Les Tendres Plaintes":

You can hear this on YouTube in relatively nice sound quality;

You may agree with me, when you hear it in rather high gain, that this track would be very suitable for check and tuning of audio system (and room acoustics), especially the S/N.

Even though out of my "music" preference/taste, I also use track-7 "Royer: Pièces de clavecin, Book 1 (1746) #4 Tambourins: Premier Tambourin (Suite des Matelots)" for check of "excellent S/N with no distortion" in high dynamic range harpsichord sound.

You can hear it on YouTube;

Next and the last in this post, let me share an excellent 4K UHD harpsichord performance video clip on YouTube; Yuko Tanaka's stunning performance of "Bach Fantasia A Minor BWV904" uploaded by Voices of Music; the group has already done much contributions in "early classical music" on YouTube with really excellent quality 4K UHD recordings.

As you can see in the video clip, the large modern harpsichord instrument and the sound are also really unique and wonderful.

I carefully extracted the audio layer into 48 kHz (up to 24 kHz in L&R) 24 bit AIFF for analysis by Adobe Audition 3.0.1.

Hearing the YouTube clip while looking at the spectrum, I believe you would fully agree with me that this excellent S/N track with nice hall tone/reverberation is very much suitable for system check and tuning.

Just for our reference, I also analyzed the track by MusicScope 2.1.0;

Hopefully, my next post on this "post series" will be "[Part-14] Piano Concertos".

(I am planning that this "post series" would be provisionally finished before reaching [Part-22].)

Edit: So far posted in this series;
[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

 

[Doodski]

Pink Floyd - Pink Floyd Money.flac @ 2666 kbps

 

[gene_stl]

I like Jean Rondeau. Aptly named.

 

[dualazmak]

Pink Floyd - Pink Floyd Money.flac @ 2666 kbps

Hello @Doodski,

As I shared in my post #634 sharing the spectrum of your "Pink Floyd - Money track in flac" (converted it into 96 kHz 24 bit aiff), you should control your vertical Fq scale in 15 Hz - 21 kHz so that we can "see" the low-midrange sound in 15 Hz - 1 kHz. I paste my that spectrum analyzed by Audition 3.0.1 again here:

 

[dualazmak]

Hello @Doodski,

Just for your reference, I analyzed your "Pink Floyd - Money track in flac" (96 kHz 24 bit) also by MusicScope 2.1.0;

 

[dualazmak]

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: [Part-14] Piano Concertos

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.

(You would please take a look on [Part-00] Introduction here in my post.)

Hello friends,

As for piano concertos, I have so many CDs and down-load purchased albums; among the excellent recording quality tracks of these albums, I usually use just two track for check and tuning of my audio system and room acoustics. I assume you may understand, after reading this post, the reasons for my selection of the two tracks.

My first "audio sampler piano concerto track" is selected from Martin Helmchen's wonderful album of "Shostakovich Piano Concertos No1 and No2, Piano Quintet", CD LPO-0053 LONDON (2011);

I usually use the track-6 "Shostakovich Piano Concerto No.2 in F Major, Op. 102: II. Andante" which is quiet extremely beautiful melody-line music, and very nice for S/N and piano-orchestra balance check; of course stunning recording quality even at the live concert performance.

You can hear it on YouTube in relatively nice audio quality;

My second "audio sampler piano concerto track" is selected/taken from YouTube HD video clip, Anna Fedrova's live concert of "Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.2 Op.18" at Concertgebouw Amsterdam, September 2013.

I carefully extracted the audio layer into 96 kHz (up to 48 kHz in L & R) 24 bit AIFF, and use the third movement portion (after 23:47 of the video clip) as my "piano concerto audio sampler" which has remarkable dynamic range in high S/N and very nice transient full orchestra sound having the big drum of 33 Hz;

The beginning of third movement portion is very much suitable for check and tuning of not only audio system (transient high-speed attacks by full orchestral 30 Hz - 20 kHz sound followed by clear ff piano up-and-down passages) but also room acoustics. You may understand what I mean by looking at the enlarged (time-scale expanded) spectrum of the beginning 30 sec portion;

How nicely your audio system including your sub-woofer(s) in your room acoustics, can reproduce/play this excellent portion (after 23:47) of the stunning concert live video?


Hopefully, my next post on this "post series" will be [Part-15] Again, CBS/Sony's "Super Audio Check CD": Analyzed by Adobe Audition 3.0.1 and MusicScope 2.1.0


(I am planning that this "post series" would be provisionally finished before reaching [Part-22].)

Edit: So far posted in this series;
[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

 

[dualazmak]

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: [Part-15] Again, CBS/Sony's "Super Audio Check CD": Analyzed by Adobe Audition 3.0.1 and MusicScope 2.1.0

(You would please take a look on [Part-00] Introduction here in my post.)

Edit:
Also please refer to:
- Five "real air-recorded transient-sound tracks" of Sony Super Audio Check CD played and analyzed by MusicScope 2.1.0: #760

Hello friends,

On this project thread and also on other threads in ASR Forum, I have repeatedly discussed about the significance and utilization of "Super Audio Check CD 48DG3 by CBS/Sony (1983)". On this post series, I shared one track of the CD in my post #592, and in my post #593 I also shared the PDF booklet (liner notes: English translation by myself) and color spectrum (Adobe Audition 3.0.1) of all the tracks. (The PDF booklet is also attached herewith in this post which you may find at the bottom below.)

By the way, last week during my occasional tuning session, it became necessary for me confirming the degree of precision (preciseness/accuracy) of a track in the "Super Audio CD"; I analyzed, therefore, the specific track by MusicScope 2.1.0 and found that the track (actually one of the stereo tone signals) is prepared in extremely high precision (in terms of gain, frequency, L-to-R balance, phase matching, etc.) as CBS/Sony declared and guaranteed in the PDF booklet.

If you would be seriously interested in hearing and/or utilizing any of the tracks in the "Super Audio Check CD 48DG3 by CBS/Sony (1983)", please simply PM me writing your wish.

Now I believe, the analysis data given by MusicScope 2.1.0 are much helpful and useful in validating and understanding each of the tracks in the "Super Audio CD"; in case if you can properly understand the "meanings" of not only the "frequency response charts" but also the "History P/L-PLR Radar Chart" and the "Stereo Balance (plus Phase Shift) Chart" of MusicScope 2.1.0.

Also please note that, just same as Adobe Audition, MusicScope 2.1.0 can "play" (and you can hear) the track while it is generating the analysis data; afterwards you can get numerical data by mouse-cursor pointing in the "History P/L-PLR Radar Chart" as well as in the "frequency response charts".

Consequently, in this post, for my and your invaluable reference, I would like to share both of the color spectrum (by Adobe Audition 3.0.1) and analysis data by MusicScope 2.1.0 of all the tracks in "Super Audio CD" as follows; the screen capture of MusicScope 2.1.0 was done after the full scanning (quick scan) of entire track.

Again, if you would be seriously interested in hearing and/or utilizing any of the tracks in the "Super Audio Check CD 48DG3 by CBS/Sony (1983)", please simply PM me writing your wish.


Hopefully, my next post on this "post series" will be "[Part-16] A Cappella Chorus and A Cappella Vocal Ensemble".


(I am planning that this "post series" would be provisionally finished before reaching [Part-22].)

Edit: So far posted in this series;
[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

 

[dualazmak]

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: [Part-16] A Cappella Chorus and A Cappella Vocal Ensemble

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.

(You would please take a look on [Part-00] Introduction here in my post.)

Hello friends,

I assume that you are well aware of a kind of my music preference inclination to early classical music, general classical music (and slightly in jazz and popular music). "A cappella chorus" as well as "a cappella vocal ensemble", therefore, has been one of the critical genres/segments in my audio and listening room setup, and I have been including several excellent recording tracks in these fields in my "audio sampler playlist". I would like to share five of such "a cappella chorus/vocal ensemble" music tracks for our reference.

The first album in this post is an excellent quality recording by 2L Norway; chorus group Schola Cantrum's "Hymn to the Virgin" (2L-065) directed/conducted by Tone Bianca Sparre Dahl recorded in 2011 at wonderful acoustic stone church, Gamle Aker Church, in Norway:

I usually use the track-6 "Bruckner: Ave Maria" as my "audio sampler a cappella chorus track" (I carefully converted the DSD128[2x] track into 192 kHz 24 bit AIFF using dBpoweramp's file converter for analysis with Adobe Audition 3.0.1);

You can hear it on YouTube posted by 2L Company in excellent HiRes quality.

As you can see in the spectrum and as you can hear with the YouTube clip, this track is in stunning S/N, wide dynamic range, well balanced four parts in chorus, and fantastic hall reverberation tones; really suitable for check and tuning of our audio system (and room acoustics).


The second chorus album is an excellent quality recording from CHANDOS label, chorus group Phoenix Chorale's "Nothern Lights: Choral Works by Ola Gjeilo" (CHSA5100) directed by Charles Bruffy recorded in 2013:

I use the trrack-3 "Ubi Caritas (Ola Gjeilo)" as my "audio sampler a cappella chorus track";

You can hear it on YouTube;

I assume I have no need describing the wonderful performance and stunning recording quality of this track.


The third album in this post; as I have already shared here in my remote thread, I have 54 CDs (Gimell Records Ltd.) of The Tallis scholars directed by Peter Phillips, and here is their early recording/release in 1980, the very famous "popular" album "Allegri: Miserere, etc."

I usually use, of course, the track-1 "Allegri: Miserere" as my "audio sampler a cappella vocal ensemble track":

You can hear on YouTube, of course;

Very interestingly, this really excellent YouTube clip is taken from Tallis Scholars' early original release (before establishing Gimell label) in vinyl LP (I have CD version CDGIM339); for our reference, let me copy-paste the poster's note for the above YouTube clip:
Ortofon Synergy GM SPU cartridge
PTP Audio Solid12 turntable with SME M2-12-r tonearm
Graham Slee Accession phono amp + Elevator EXP step-up amp
Lexicon I-O 22 USB audio interface
This video is not intended as copyright infringement, but purely to show the merits of the vinyl playback medium and the equipment used. No commercial gain has been made from this video, and it is uploaded as "fair use".

(I do not know how the poster could clear the copyright issues, or not, with the underlined statements, though.)

In any way, again, I have no need of describing in detail on this "World Heritage" (IMHO) performance and recording. With your audio system, can you wonderfully reproduce and hear the "High-C" soprano voice sung at far away upper deck in the church with excellent 3D sound perspective?


Let me move on to the fourth album in this post; The Hilliard Ensemble's stunning performance of "Tenebre: Gesualdo; Tenebre Responsoria, etc.", 2-CD album POCJ-1065/6 ECM Records - Polydor 1980.

For my "audio sampler a cappella vocal ensemble", I use the final track 2-11 "Miserere (Carlo Gesualdo)";

You can hear it on YouTube;

Very curiously (and interestingly), the poster of this YouTube clip mis-assigned that the track was performed by "Vocalconsort Berlin, James Wood”, but when I listened to the first a few seconds of the track I clearly identified that it is Hilliard Ensemle's. In order to confirm it, I carefully extracted the audio layer of the above YouTube clip into 96 kHz 24 bit AIFF, and compared its spectrum with my CD's Track 2-11;

As you can clearly see, the both track are exactly the same; thanks to the poster who uploaded the track by Hilliard Ensemble nicely in high quality, indeed. In any way, it is just happy for us that we can hear the Hilliard Ensemble's track 2-11 on general YouTube site.

In "Music Premium Member" site on YouTube, you can find and hear with charge/cost the official(?) clip of the Track 2-11 here;

Just for reference, I also found that “Gesualdo Miserere” performed by “Vocalconsort Berlin, James Wood”; completely different performance in comparison with Hilliard Ensemble’s; you can hear the sampler, or entire track with charge, here in music.apple.com.
(I know nothing about the sound quality since I do not subscribe music.apple.com.)


The fifth and the last album in this post; chorus group Ensemble 96's "Immortal: Choral Works by Knut Nystedt" directed by Oystein Fevang, 2L29SACD released by 2L Norway (2011) which I download-purchased the DSD64(1x) DSF format;

I use the extraordinary unique work of the composer Knut Nystedt, the final Track-20 "Immortal BACH" which is now rather "popular challenge" unique music in chorus community, I believe:

You need to hear this very unique chorus music on YouTube in HiRes quality officially uploaded by Morten Lindberg, President of 2L Norway, I believe;

What is the magic of the composer Knut Nystedt (1915 - 2014) on this "Immortal BACH"?

His trick/secret is rather simple; you can understand it when you see and hear another wonderful YouTube clip performed by "Princeton University Glee Club" showing the scores for all the 4 x 5 = 20 chorus parts;

In any way, Ensemble 96's stunning performance and recording quality of "Immortal BACH (knut Nystedt)" is another nice challenge to our audio system.


Hopefully, my next post on this "post series" will be "[Part-17] Excellent Quality Music Tracks, But Containing Unacceptably High Gain Low-Frequency Air Conditioning Noises; What Counter Measures Can We Have?"


(I am planning that this "post series" would be provisionally finished before reaching [Part-22].)

Edit: So far posted in this series;
[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

 

[Doodski]

Some very nice spectrum(s) that you showed of the music selections. I even saw one spectrum that went to 20kHz in the music piece. I thoroughly enjoyed having the "Spectrum" tool but it would only be for recreational use and I don't want to buy it or lease it. So I don't have it installed anymore. My kind of music is YouTube stuff so I know I am not getting the best sound quality but it's good enough for me.

 

[dualazmak]

My kind of music is YouTube stuff so I know I am not getting the best sound quality but it's good enough for me.

I understand well; it is fully up to your choice and preference.

As I shared many times, some of the YouTube stuffs are now in very excellent HiRes or CD-quality; really amazing.
There are still so many very bad low quality YouTube clips/music, however, for which I am always much disappointed and completely reluctant to hear.

Furthermore, as I wrote on the top of each post in my current post series;
Caution and Reminder:
Even though I refer to YouTube video/audio clip(s) in this post (these posts), 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.

 

[Doodski]

There are still so many very bad low quality YouTube clips/music, however, for which I am always much disappointed and completely reluctant to hear.

Some of the old black and white videos are vintage and of historical value and so I watch them for that.

 

[dualazmak]

Some of the old black and white videos are vintage and of historical value and so I watch them for that.

I understand well your point.
I too love some of the very old, SP record period, performances, as I shared here a typical example.

One of my points is that even though actual a physical CD or my purchased download track is really high quality, sometimes people uploaded it to YouTube in very naive and poor manner of bad inferior sound quality (such as CD or HiRes DSD into mp3 and upload it). That would be much shame.

 

[dualazmak]

I thoroughly enjoyed having the "Spectrum" tool but it would only be for recreational use and I don't want to buy it or lease it.

In my coming next post on the "post series" (hopefully within a week or so), you will see another really important feature of Adobe Audition 3.0.1.
It will be "serious", not "recreational", I believe.
Please stay tuned!

 

[dualazmak]

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: [Part-17] Excellent Quality Music Tracks, But Containing Unacceptably High Gain Low-Frequency Air Conditioning Noises; What Counter Measures Can We Have?

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.

(You would please take a look on [Part-00] Introduction here in my post.)

Hello friends,

Sometimes we encounter, of course not so frequently, really excellent recording quality music tracks/album containing unacceptable high gain low-frequency air conditioning noises. In this post, let me share two examples of such album for our discussion.

The first album is my beloved guitar performance in excellent recording quality by John Williams, "From the Jungles of Paraguay: Guitar Works by Agustin Pio Barrios", 1995, CD SK 64396 Sony Classical;

Let's take a look at the Adobe Audition 3.0.1 spectrum of my favorite Track-12 "Choro de saudade /Barrios";

We can "see" the rather high gain air conditioning noises in 10 Hz - 55 Hz zone throughout the track, and I found the same in all the tracks in the album.
You can hear this track on YouTube;

Just for your kind notice, I have been greatly fascinated by guitar works of Agustin Barrios, and I have many Barrios guitar albums including this John William's and Daisuke Suzuki's. I also have all of the old recorded performances by Barrios himself (during 1913 - 1942) even though the recording quality is terrible as you may guess; CHR002 CD1, CHR002CD2, CHR002CD3 Chanterelle Historical Recordings. If you too would love the guitar works by Barrios, the very nice book "Six Silver Moonbeams; The Life and Times of Agustin Barrios Mangore" by Richard D. Stover is highly recommended.


The second "example" album is very recent one, wonderful lute performance in amazingly high quality recording by Hubert Hoffmann entitled "From Heaven to Earth", lute works of "recently discovered" P. Ferdinand Fischer (-Precheur) (1651 or 1652 - 1725);

Let's take a look at the Adobe Audition 3.0.1 spectrum of Track-3 "Partita in D Minor: Aria";

Here we can "see" rather high gain low-frequency noises in 8 Hz - 48 Hz zone throughout the track, and I could found the same in all of the other tracks in this album.
You can find all the tracks of this album on YouTube;

As for the track-3 of above spectrum, you can hear on YouTube;

I always feel and hear, even in relatively low gain, uncomfortable low-frequency air conditioning noises with these two albums using my multichannel multi-amplifier active audio system having my "all-purpose (standard/regular)" frequency response configurations as illustrated in this diagram;

The Fq response above was best tuned for almost all type/genre of music including full orchestral music and organ music; the relative gain of subwoofer is tuned sufficient and adequate for "meaningful low Fq music and hall reverberation sound" down to around 16 Hz. Please refer to my post here #497 for the specification of my large and heavy L&R subwoofers Yamaha YST-SW1000; playback Fq band 16 Hz - 160 Hz (-10 dB), Lowest resonance Fq 30 Hz.

Now, you may understand my negative concern/feeling on the air conditioning noises all the way thorough in the two example albums.

Regarding the second example album, Hubert Hoffmann's "From Heaven to Earth", l actually had nice e-mail communication last month with Mr. Bert van der Wolf, Producer, Recording- & Balancing Engineer, The Spirit of Turtle in Netherland. He kindly confirmed my observation on the low-Fq noises, and he kindly commented (summarized by myself), "Yes, these low Fq noises are actually from the air conditioning system of the very quiet (even the quietest) recording venue, the Galaxy Studio; at that time, we had relatively high gain recording since the music instrument, lute, was/is really exceptionally low gain quiet one."

He continued; "Furthermore, it is the recording and mixing policy of the company (The Spirit of Turtle) to take all the sound in 2 Hz - 175 kHz, and the 'recorded take' should be exactly reflected in the downloadable format for consumers/customers with no low-cut nor high-cut filtration. I believe the low-frequency noise portion would give no audible problem with ordinary home audio system. In case if your audio system is well capable down to 15 Hz zone, I would suggest indeed to roll that off."

He commented further; "Sometimes pressure build up by external environment outside the building can indeed be massive, but in this recording, all is way within the inaudible range to my knowledge. EC regulation has equipment cut-off at 20Hz in most cases as well however."

I fully understood the recording and mixing policy of the Company, even though I have a little bit of my objection against their QC policy especially for low-frequency air conditioning "noises" to be incorporated in their downloadable products for consumers/customers.

Edit to add at 18:50 Oct 12, 2022 Japan Time
Today, I had further nice discussion with Mr. Bert van der Wolf, Producer, Recording- & Balancing Engineer, The Spirit of Turtle in Netherland. He kindly pointed the importance of "master volume control" in hearing/listening to very quiet instruments such as lute especially in my playlist together with orchestral music and/or huge organs. I fully agree with him since I usually frequently control/change the master volume (in my setup at the most upstream JRiver) so that the sound volume would be appropriate for each of the tracks/instruments; all of the other DSP(EQ/XO, relative gain) parameters stay unchanged. Of course, the lower the master volume, the less I feel/hear the air conditioning low-Fq noises. Thank you, Bert, for your important insights and point which should be shared here in this post.

As for the upper Fq limit, therefore, it depends on the selected HiRes format of our download purchasing; I purchased 192 kHz 24 bit FLAC album, and therefore, the upper limit Fq is 96 kHz in L & R. I confirmed the upper Fq limit by using MusicScope 2.1.0;

As shown in above analysis data by MusicScope 2.1.0, I could fully confirm that this album is in amazing recording quality which has meaningful (not noise) sound signals up to around 94 kHz, even though we usually cannot hear the sound beyond 23 kHz. (At the bottom of this post, I will briefly touch on the - 48 dB/Oct LR high-cut filter at 25 kHz in my DSP EKIO's crossover configuration.)

My concern in this post, however, is the air conditioning low-Fq noises in these albums which I always feel/hear uncomfortable with my audio system setup; what counter measures can I (we) have for these unacceptable (at least for me in my setup) low-Fq noises?

Since my setup is DSP control multi-channel multi-driver multi-amplifier active system, the first "counter measure option" is the flexible on-the-fly relative gain control for sub-woofers (SWs); I can easily and flexibly do it using either or combination of;

1. DSP EKIO's digital gain for SWs
2. DAC8PRO's relative digital gain in analog out for SWs (by its ES9028PRO DAC chip)
3. SWs Yamaha YST-SW1000's gain/volume control

as illustrated in this diagram;

This option is really feasible when I would repeatedly enjoy all the tracks throughout "such albums".

You may well understand, however, that this option would not be suitable if I include one of the tracks from these albums in my "playlist" together with other tracks for which I need proper sound reproduction down to around 16 Hz; in such a case, I need to control the gain for SWs from track to track making the listening session somewhat annoying.

I can implement, therefore, my second "counter measure option" especially in the case of these excellent sound quality music albums having unacceptable (at least for my ears and brain) air conditioning low Fq noises; using Adobe Audition 3.0.1, I can easily edit the tracks so that suppressing/deleting the noise portion, then rename it and save it in new folder for registering to JRiver's music library as a new album;

Such edited "noise suppressed/deleted" tracks can be taken into any playlist together with other normal/usual tracks, and the playlist can be fully enjoyed in my "all-purpose (standard/regular)" frequency response configurations without annoying track to track gain control for SWs.

The above "sound editing", of course, also can be easily done by other software such as Audacity, iZSotope RX8 Audio Editor, and Steinberg SpectralLayers 7; I myself still like Adobe Audition 3.0.1 best since it is free, reliable and user friendly in all the features of spectral analysis and various flexible sound editing functionalities.

And let me emphasize again that MusicScope 2.1.0 is very much valuable for confirming/analyzing the format, sampling rate, bit deapth, upper Fq limit, P/L-PLR, L-R balance (and phase nature) of music tracks in various formats.


Well, I almost forget about touching on the -48 dB high-cut (low-pass) LR filters at 25 kHz in my DSP EKIO's crossover configuration.

The purpose of such high-cut (low-pass) filters is just cutting-off the possible UHF (ultra-high frequency) noises (possibly harmful to our tweeters/super-tweeters, and to our beloved pets; dogs, cats, birds) frequently included in poorly QC-ed HiRes tracks. Furthermore, it is also related to our hearing ability as well as age dependent hearing decline in high frequency zone. You would please refer to my post here (#532) for the summary of these discussions and implementations.


Hopefully, my next post on this "post series" will be "[Part-18] An Interlude or Provisional Finale of the Post Series: Brief Summary and Discussion".


Edit: So far posted in this series;
[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

 

[Doodski]

I saw that the super tweeter is missing from the Eiko's Crossover Configuration and then I remembered you use separate system for the super tweeters. Did you calculate the values for the capacitors and resisters at the squaker, tweeter and super tweeter? How are those values working for you? Nice detective work locating the AC noise riding the musical waveform. That should not be happening. I think the artists would be very interested knowing that the studio has AC noise in the recording(s) that they depend on. Then there is the paying for the studio time and not expecting AC noise in the mix and getting that.

 

[dualazmak]

I remembered you use separate system for the super tweeters.

As you can find in this diagram;

I use Yamaha A-S301 to drive super-tweeters (STs) having 30 10 uF "protection" capacitor and 10 3 uF high-pass (low-cut) filter before the signal going into STs.

For the "measured" Fq response before and after these capacitors, please refer to my post here.
- Frequency (Fq) responses in the completed system measured by using “cumulative white noise averaging method” under the present standard crossover configurations and relative gains_Part-4_Fq Responses in amplifiers’ SP output level after protection capacitors: #402

- Overhaul maintenance of super-tweeter FOSTEX T925A and further signal fine tuning thereafter: #485


As for the 22 Ohm "tuning" resistors "in parallel" with STs (just giving a slight extra work to the amp), you would please refer to;
- In depth insights on SP attenuators and their elimination in multichannel system: #248, #251, #99(remote thread), #100(remote thread), #101(remote thread)