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"Soundstage tracks" (for headphone listening)

pavuol

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Post songs you think have that "soundstage" feel while enjoying on headphones.
"Natural" tracks recorded in spaces from smaller chambers to big churches that retain its "spatial sound" also when reproduced on headphones.
Or "synthetic" tracks that was intentionally manipulated (post recording) and/or enhanced with sound effects to "fool" our brain.
[partial encouragement for this thread was also post #38 by @Tks ]

There is also one category of songs that are not spatial as a whole but feature particular sound(s) with "distant" feel. You know those kind of moments I hope more of you headphone enthusiasts experienced - you listen to "just some new music" and then all of a sudden some specific sound appears "so distant/out of head" in some particular track that you find yourself almost disturbed - "was it some noise from my real surroundings or was that featured in the song? [I was also thinking about making a separate thread for these tracks but I don't want to be accused of forum flooding.. so maybe let me know your opinion]

PS: if you embed media, always write artist/title in plain text as well
 

MakeMineVinyl

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Post songs you think have that "soundstage" feel while enjoying on headphones.
"Natural" tracks recorded in spaces from smaller chambers to big churches that retain its "spatial sound" also when reproduced on headphones.
Or "synthetic" tracks that was intentionally manipulated (post recording) and/or enhanced with sound effects to "fool" our brain.
[partial encouragement for this thread was also post #38 by @Tks ]

There is also one category of songs that are not spatial as a whole but feature particular sound(s) with "distant" feel. You know those kind of moments I hope more of you headphone enthusiasts experienced - you listen to "just some new music" and then all of a sudden some specific sound appears "so distant/out of head" in some particular track that you find yourself almost disturbed - "was it some noise from my real surroundings or was that featured in the song? [I was also thinking about making a separate thread for these tracks but I don't want to be accused of forum flooding.. so maybe let me know your opinion]

PS: if you embed media, always write artist/title in plain text as well
Chesky Records has a number of recordings which are specifically binaural for headphone listening, and others which are designed for speaker listening but which still provide extremely wide, deep, and enveloping soundstage. This One is very good on my system and the reverberant field behind the listener is obvious, especially on track #4.

Boris Blank's "Electrified" has instrumental sounds swirling all around the room.

Both of these are on streaming.
 
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Tks

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There is also one category of songs that are not spatial as a whole but feature particular sound(s) with "distant" feel. You know those kind of moments I hope more of you headphone enthusiasts experienced - you listen to "just some new music" and then all of a sudden some specific sound appears "so distant/out of head" in some particular track that you find yourself almost disturbed - "was it some noise from my real surroundings or was that featured in the song? [I was also thinking about making a separate thread for these tracks but I don't want to be accused of forum flooding.. so maybe let me know your opinion]

PS: if you embed media, always write artist/title in plain text as well

Yeah I know what you mean, it's usually a ethereal sound, or a sound like knocking or something in another room, or through a wall. Since those sounds can't really be "located" by the ear all the time if you weren't paying attention to the direction explicitly, if there is no background audio in that part of the track, the effect is quite convincing. I have my phone sometimes set to output to Airpod Pro's, and if I let my phone play some music, I sometimes have to check that the audio-path is actually outputting to my airpods (when conditions are right, and if the volume is at a level where I would usually hear my phone if I didn't have bluetooth outputting to IEMs for example). I think it's also convincing since the Airpods are super comfortable and can sometimes feel like they disappear, and since there is also no wire dangling from your phone, that visual uncertainty I think contributes to this illusion of confusion for a moment.

Until I look, I sometimes can't tell if its coming from my phone's speakers, or from the IEMs (this is usually late late at night when I'm tired as well, and there's no sounds in the house).
 

MakeMineVinyl

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Until I look, I sometimes can't tell if its coming from my phone's speakers, or from the IEMs (this is usually late late at night when I'm tired as well, and there's no sounds in the house).

Its likely some of these recordings have binaural '3D audio' processing. It can be extremely effective.
 

Tks

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Its likely some of these recordings have binaural '3D audio' processing. It can be extremely effective.
If that's the case, then that explains it. Binaural is awesome. Wish everything was recorded in such a format tbh. Wouldn't even need to care about 5.1 or 7.1 in that case. Stereo binural is enough for me to die happy with.
 

MakeMineVinyl

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If that's the case, then that explains it. Binaural is awesome. Wish everything was recorded in such a format tbh. Wouldn't even need to care about 5.1 or 7.1 in that case. Stereo binural is enough for me to die happy with.
Stereo being able to throw a seamless and enveloping sound field around, above and behind the listener is something I wrote about earlier ....in some thread or another. Some people just don't believe that's possible with just two speakers, but its absolutely true, just as binaural through headphones is true.

I use Panorama 6 by WaveArts in some of the recording projects I do. This can easily and convincingly zip instruments and effects all around the room, including above my head with the virtual joysticks in the program. This type of processing isn't new; HRTF (head related transfer function) processing has been known and used for decades. Games make great use of this, and I've found that probably a majority of contemporary music uses these types of effects, at least to some degree.
 
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pavuol

pavuol

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Yeah I know what you mean, it's usually a ethereal sound, or a sound like knocking or something in another room, or through a wall. Since those sounds can't really be "located" by the ear all the time if you weren't paying attention to the direction explicitly, if there is no background audio in that part of the track, the effect is quite convincing. I have my phone sometimes set to output to Airpod Pro's, and if I let my phone play some music, I sometimes have to check that the audio-path is actually outputting to my airpods (when conditions are right, and if the volume is at a level where I would usually hear my phone if I didn't have bluetooth outputting to IEMs for example). I think it's also convincing since the Airpods are super comfortable and can sometimes feel like they disappear, and since there is also no wire dangling from your phone, that visual uncertainty I think contributes to this illusion of confusion for a moment.

Until I look, I sometimes can't tell if its coming from my phone's speakers, or from the IEMs (this is usually late late at night when I'm tired as well, and there's no sounds in the house).
I must admit, I don't have many of such songs archived, as I've not stored them thoroughly/+ have started just recently. (I hope I add some better examples later)
Just to give a short glimpse, here are some examples, with this effect more or less pronounced:

Bruno Major - The First Thing You See
- clapping percussion - first engages solo at 0:44 / than at 1:13 it goes along the voice which further accentuates the "distance" feeling

benny blanco, Tainy, Selena Gomez, J. Balvin - I Can't Get Enough
- short shouts/"howls", at 0:29, 0:34 and more later

To advocate myself ;) - these are not the tracks I enjoy, just demo tracks :). Also I am not an audio professional so maybe someone can quickly explain that this and that simple techniques used, nothing special.. If so, this thread is not for searching miracles, just to gather tracks with similar features.
 
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pavuol

pavuol

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+ Some more example, somehow belonging in between the categories.. :)

Nice "remote" guitars (which is nothing rare in indie), this time being nicely distorted and positioned in the left channel:

Indigo de Souza - Take Off Ur Pants

(ok, this comes closer to my taste.. :))
 

sejarzo

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Posted this cut earlier today in the "What are we listening to..." thread before I saw this thread.

Soundstage. Truly legit soundstage. Many of the US Marine Band recordings are similarly excellent in that regard. Many public library systems receive them regularly, hint, hint....

I had the Jazz at the Pawnshop LP back in the day, and while it sounds great on speakers, I have always had an odd sensation of sitting on top of the vibes...which isn't natural at all to me.

 
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Propheticus

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Apart from being a very high quality recording for a live version, this one has loads of spatial info or rather an echo that almost lets you imagine the big hall he's in:
Fink - Trouble's what you're in (live from Union Chapel, London)
 

beeface

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Perfume Genius' album No Shape utilises binaural recording (via a Neumann KU 100 head microphone) and sounds great on headphones IMO.


Tomba sonora by Stemmeklang & Kristin Bolstad was recorded with a "one-meter-square array of spaced omnidirectional DPA microphones in the almost sealed Emanuel Vigeland mausoleum in Norway" and has a great sense of space also. Not sure if this is what you had in mind though, OP.

 
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pavuol

pavuol

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Kind of "spatially" sounding percussion effects..

Jarvis Cocker - Baby's Coming Back to Me
 

Moonhead

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I always enjoy this number on my headphones, especially HD800.
Muddy ain’t bad either.
 

jeroboam

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Here’s an album for you… Pictures Jack DeJohnette


Anyone tried this album sounds good on speakers haven't listened with headphones.
 

Hondaki

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Hi All,

I'm new here. Just wanna share this here for all. This album is awesome on Spotify. Very good spatial presentation. Enjoy!
Artist: Amber Rubarth
Album: Scribbled Folk Symphonies
 

kami

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Lighting Crashes (Remastered 2011) - Live
Guitar fades between the left and right channel for the first minute and then becomes solid in front of you when the lyrics are about to start.

I don't know if the Youtube video has this feature, so I won't link the Youtube video
 
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