Music For Testing Bass

[Mean & Green]

There have been a few threads recently discussing bass response, measured and corrected rooms & systems and so forth.

Which has led me to this. No matter how objectively you have set up your listening room and system at some point you have to subjectively sit and listen to it.

So purely for a bit of light fun I am posting a list of what I consider good low frequency testers. Granted this is a small selection based on my own personal taste - nevertheless I find these particular tracks to be my go to tracks when subjectively evaluating a set up.

This selection will test both bass control and perceived tonal evenness as well as weight and impact in a completely subjective way.

It’s music I’m extremely familiar with so you can all add your own personal favourite testers. Who knows maybe someone will discover some music they haven’t heard before and like it?

Feel free to add your own essential low frequency evaluators if you like.

Here is a list of mine feel free to look any of them up, it’s quite a varied selection. Remember this is just a bit of fun! If I can get my system to play all of these well without being over blown or lacking then I’m happy.


White Stripes - Ball & Biscuit

Robert Miles - Red Zone

Madonna - Vogue

Pomplamouse - Sweet Dreams/Seven Nation Army

Taylor Swift - Look What You Made Me Do

Lorde - 400 Lux

Dire Straits - Money For Nothing

Buddy Holly - True Love Ways

David Bowie - Let’s Dance

Dave Brubeck - Tokie’s Theme

Tobok - Aber

Electric Youth - Innocence

Phyllis Nelson - Move Closer

 

[Berwhale]

BASS!

Post some nice examples of tracks that can challenge your system/headphones with lower spectrum notes. Try to include not only tracks from a "reference test suite" category but also those that are fun to listen (or you like personally). Although it's natural to expect some electronic music...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[computer-audiophile]

It simply has to sound 'right'. And you can only know that if you've heard a lot of bass performances live, imo.
One of my favorite albums in context is this one:

A Stefano Scodanibbio

Håkon Thelin - album - 2014 - 6 Songs

www.deezer.com

 

[BDWoody]

Feel free to add your own essential low frequency evaluators if you like.

With the bonus of a good, wholesome story to tell.

 

[boxerfan88]

Bela Fleck - Flight of the Cosmic Hippo
Bass Mekanik - Bass I Love You
Mason Bates - Stereo is King

 

[Puddingbuks]

There have been a few threads recently discussing bass response, measured and corrected rooms & systems and so forth.

Which has led me to this. No matter how objectively you have set up your listening room and system at some point you have to subjectively sit and listen to it.

So purely for a bit of light fun I am posting a list of what I consider good low frequency testers. Granted this is a small selection based on my own personal taste - nevertheless I find these particular tracks to be my go to tracks when subjectively evaluating a set up.

This selection will test both bass control and perceived tonal evenness as well as weight and impact in a completely subjective way.

It’s music I’m extremely familiar with so you can all add your own personal favourite testers. Who knows maybe someone will discover some music they haven’t heard before and like it?

Feel free to add your own essential low frequency evaluators if you like.

Here is a list of mine feel free to look any of them up, it’s quite a varied selection. Remember this is just a bit of fun! If I can get my system to play all of these well without being over blown or lacking then I’m happy.


White Stripes - Ball & Biscuit

Robert Miles - Red Zone

Madonna - Vogue

Pomplamouse - Sweet Dreams/Seven Nation Army

Taylor Swift - Look What You Made Me Do

Lorde - 400 Lux

Dire Straits - Money For Nothing

Buddy Holly - True Love Ways

David Bowie - Let’s Dance

Dave Brubeck - Tokie’s Theme

Tobok - Aber

Electric Youth - Innocence

Phyllis Nelson - Move Closer

I will add your tracks to this tidal playlist:

BASS!

This one goes deep, it's a quite a challenging track for a system:

www.audiosciencereview.com

https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/ddc17dc1-d388-46ca-a9bc-a86cb38a35e3

 

[Blumlein 88]

Was going to list Flight of the Cosmic Hippo, but boxerfan88 beat me to it.

Dead Can Dance "Into the labyrinth"

Fiona Apple "Tidal" has some good mid low end bass. It is a clipped, compressed mess, but it has some low end content at fairly high levels.

 

[Blumlein 88]

A different kind of bass test track. "The Trinity Sessions" from the Cowboy Junkies has some tracks with some very low end content. None of it is the music rather the space they were in. A good test of whether your setup can paint a large sense of space with the low end sounds. "Mining for Gold", "To love is to Bury", and "I'm so Lonesome I could Cry" have this. Some other tracks used different mic patterns or were filtered as they don't have lots of ambient low end sound.

 

[LarsF]

The second track on this http://open.qobuz.com/album/sd9ablh8l59aa
also this http://open.qobuz.com/album/gq1ijbgv8gclc

 

[PatentLawyer]

Hear Me (alternate mix) by Tedeschi Trucks Band. If your system can reach into the 20s, you will enjoy.

 

[bodhi]

Fading Sun by Terje Isungset. You don't need to listen for many seconds to know what's up.

 

[Eric Auer]

The Clash - The Guns of Brixton
Megadeth - Sweating Bullets
D'Angelo and The Vanguard - Till It's Done
The Reverend Horton Heat - Psychobilly Freakout
Primus - Wynona's Big Brown Beaver
Jimi Hendrix - Manic Depression
Nirvana - Aneurysm
Fela Kuti - Expensive Shit
Preservation Hall Jazz Band - That's It!

 

[Berlin]

"Anywhere" - Sam Gendel (Album: COOKUP)...

 

[Brian Hall]

Iron Maiden. The album Somewhere in Time. Steve Harris is a great bass player.

 

[Bugal1998]

Lorde - Royals [Dramatic and spacious room filling bass, particularly the 20 seconds starting at ~2:24]

James Arthur - Naked (Acoustic Version) [Organ pedal notes beginning around 2 minutes into the track]

James Taylor - Gaia [Cinematic drums at 4:07; also contains infrasound for systems with sufficient output]

Hozier - Work Song [Bass in the first 14 seconds is big and deep]

John Ritter Reqiuem - Reqiuem: III. Pie Jesu Nancy Keith [The chorus beginning @ 50 seconds has infrasound as it ends, but the organ is excellent even without sub-20hz output]

Taj Mahal - Strong Man Holler [The bass starting @ 13 seconds fills the room and puts you right into a dimmly lit and smoke filled night club]

Bruno Mars - Chunky [Tight rippling bass line, too much bloat or boom and the bass won't work with the drive of the song]

Chris Stapleton - Cold [Tight kick drum]

Muse - Dig Down [First 60 seconds]

O-Zone Percussion Group - Jazz Varients [When the bass drum is in action during the first three minutes it should sound big, powerful, undulating, and natural]

Cynthia Erivo - Stand Up (from Harriet) [Big kick drum]

Now time to go listen to the new-to-me tracks in this thread.

 

[Keith_W]

Hans Zimmer - Blade Runner 2049. Especially the first track, "2049".

I have NEVER heard a system produce this track properly. On my system, the subs have so much excursion that they sound "flappy". On other systems, the house vibrates or something starts rattling. Some other systems do not have well sorted bass. The only time I heard it sound good was in the cinema.

 

[Descartes]

Hans Zimmer - Blade Runner 2049. Especially the first track, "2049".

I have NEVER heard a system produce this track properly. On my system, the subs have so much excursion that they sound "flappy". On other systems, the house vibrates or something starts rattling. Some other systems do not have well sorted bass. The only time I heard it sound good was in the cinema.

Any track in particular?

 

[Keith_W]

Any track in particular?

As mentioned in my post, the first track, titled "2049".

 

[dualazmak]

I hope that my thread here entitled "An Attempt Sharing Reference Quality Music Playlist: at least a portion and/or whole track being analyzed by 3D color spectrum of Adobe Audition" would be somewhat of your reference and interest.

My post here on my project thread entitled "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" would be hopefully also of your interest.

 

[pderousse]

Hans Zimmer - Blade Runner 2049. Especially the first track, "2049".

I have NEVER heard a system produce this track properly. On my system, the subs have so much excursion that they sound "flappy". On other systems, the house vibrates or something starts rattling. Some other systems do not have well sorted bass. The only time I heard it sound good was in the cinema.

I was about to add 2049. I never heard it in the cinema, but man does this produce scary, overwhelming bass: pants flapping, sense of impending doom, like being buzzed by a bomber.