Music For Testing Bass

[Elkerton]

One of the organ recordings I have of over 300 is Peter Hurford's performance of Mendelssohn, one of the few that has 32' pipes recorded well though C0 isn't used, but D0 is at approximately 19Hz. The CD is also one of the few that is listenable straight through. A sample:

 

[Pareto Pragmatic]

Ok, I'll look.... EMI Angel Records, A Bach Festival for Brass and Organ, The Empire Brass, Douglas Major on organ, recorded in Washington Cathedral. 1986.

Is it good? No idea.

Doing some quick reading, the acoustics are not great there, so likely not a great recording. It does have 64' pipe so can go very low, and there have been some renovations to the sound system, so maybe new recordings will be improved.

 

[diablo]

I came across this piece recently, quite good for low bass -

A better version is available on Qobuz - and probably other services.

 

[Digital_Thor]

It does not have to be super deep, it just has to be there - rhythmic, engaging and fun.
Never knew Jeff Goldblum played the piano.... but he does. Then there's Haley Reinhart with her sultry voice and sweet charm. All with a lovely bass rhythm all the way through

 

[rdenney]

Doing some quick reading, the acoustics are not great there, so likely not a great recording. It does have 64' pipe so can go very low, and there have been some renovations to the sound system, so maybe new recordings will be improved.

The Washington Cathedral’s Skinner organ has a 64’ rank, but it doesn’t extend all the way down to the C, so they don’t actually have a 64’ pipe.

If you record (or listen) in the choir right behind the console, the sound is very good. It’s rather echoey out in the nave, with probably 5-6 seconds of RTA60. I learned that years ago occasionally attending the Sunday-afternoon organ recitals. That was back when David Majors was the organist and Sam Pilafian (RIP) in the Empire Brass wasn’t yet a friend. (I can never resist dropping Sam’s name—knowing him was a privilege.)

We were only ten rows back in the nave for a recent performance of the Mozart Requiem, and even that close it was muddy. But the Arvo Pärt Berliner Messe that led the program was suited to the church acoustics and it was transcendent.

Rick “the organ is currently being renovated and they are using an electronic substitute at present” Denney

 

[JohnnyAudio]

If you want to improve bass on subs, try a DBX 510.

510 Features​

• 
  
• Adds a signal an octave below the input signal
• Two bands 24Hz-36Hz and 36Hz-56Hz
• Subharmonic control over the strength of the effect

This device is very good. I recommend! It does need a bipolar PS +/- 15 v.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

Four Tet "128 Harps"

 

[womanofscience666]

Sad that very few people know about this track. Wild bass stuff

GEGCGEGHECEDCHCOHDHTDODTOTOT, by Patricia Taxxon

from the album TECHDOG 4

patriciataxxon.bandcamp.com

 

[Anton S]

This device is very good. I recommend! It does need a bipolar PS +/- 15 v.

... or one could pick up any of dbx 120 variants. These are standalone 120VAC boxes that split the low bass up into four bands, centered at 28, 34, 40, and 50 Hz, and process each one individually. I rely on a 120X when playing my old classic rock albums and a 120X-ds for most everything else, simply because I'd rather not fiddle with the controls any more than absolutely necessary, and those genre require different settings. Also, the ds provides controls for fine tuning the operation within each individual band, which is great for acoustic music, but my old classic rock doesn't benefit from those.