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PostPosted: Mon Nov 07, 2016 1:14 pm 

Joined: Tue Aug 23, 2016 9:42 am
Posts: 78
Location: France
Hi everybody. I'm Patrick from France. I'm new to this forum (although I've been reading it for a while). I just wanted to know which songs you would advice, to test a sound chain. Some of you talk about a "torture test" but I never found the playlist (apart from the famous Three Dogs Night's song to check for overshoots).
Are there any songs you regularly use to check, for example, the AGC, the clipper, the spectral balance, the reproduction of voices, etc. ?
Thank you very much.

Patrick


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 05, 2017 5:26 pm 
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Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2016 10:15 pm
Posts: 90
I personally have a big range of songs which I find difficult to get "nice". All recordings of the Electric Light Orchestra (bad spectrum), Lady GaGa (almost no headroom to begin with), Robby Williams Let Me Entertain You (needs decompress to keep hearing the singer), Earth Wind and Fire recordings are in my personal opinion one of the best analog recordings ever, they all should sound brilliant, to test a nice radio punch I use Amii Steward Knock on Wood and Venus Bananarama, John Miles Music for AGC testing, for mid tones Beach Boys recordings especially the old ones and many other old sixties recordings, all Carly Simon recordings are deplorable and are therefore used to test the effect of the total setup, some parts of Cee Lo Green hits sound dirty in a way below 100 hz hit the red to long and to strong and that should be corrected by ST, Rah Band Clouds across the Moon (after all is set) should not have more loudness then all others this one seems to "drop through" all limiters in the wrong setup, EMF Unbelievable easy gets compressed to much in the wrong setup to a big pile of loudness blowing away the singer, First Class Beach Baby very poor recording, very very difficult to get beautiful harmonics in it, Gloria Gaynor How High the Moon I was not able to put this one online yet impossible to get it sound nice in between the rest. Jon and Vangelis I Hear You Now / Surrender Jon Anderson test mid & high if not to strong. all Little River Band recordings should sound like heaven these are really really good, Ronan Keating recordings easily get to much loudness in them when settings are out of balance, Stevie Wonder Songs in the Key of Life album should sound wonderful also great recording!

These should set you up. For these we all use HD wav recordings streaming in MP3 vbr ~256 kbps

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PostPosted: Tue Jun 22, 2021 9:08 pm 

Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2016 11:53 am
Posts: 15
I remember there used to be an EBU test CD which they used for setting up transmitters etc. The only thing I can remember that was on the CD were the opening 30 seconds of 'Head Over Heels' by ABBA!


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 23, 2021 7:11 pm 
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Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2018 7:44 pm
Posts: 792
Location: Texas, USA
Quote:
EBU test CD
Thank you for this search query suggestion. It led me to this link full of EBU sound test material.

https://tech.ebu.ch/news/ebu-cds-now-online-31oct08


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 23, 2021 7:13 pm 
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Joined: Wed Nov 08, 2017 3:16 pm
Posts: 191
Quote:
I personally have a big range of songs which I find difficult to get "nice". All recordings of the Electric Light Orchestra (bad spectrum), Lady GaGa (almost no headroom to begin with), Robby Williams Let Me Entertain You (needs decompress to keep hearing the singer), Earth Wind and Fire recordings are in my personal opinion one of the best analog recordings ever, they all should sound brilliant, to test a nice radio punch I use Amii Steward Knock on Wood and Venus Bananarama, John Miles Music for AGC testing, for mid tones Beach Boys recordings especially the old ones and many other old sixties recordings, all Carly Simon recordings are deplorable and are therefore used to test the effect of the total setup, some parts of Cee Lo Green hits sound dirty in a way below 100 hz hit the red to long and to strong and that should be corrected by ST, Rah Band Clouds across the Moon (after all is set) should not have more loudness then all others this one seems to "drop through" all limiters in the wrong setup, EMF Unbelievable easy gets compressed to much in the wrong setup to a big pile of loudness blowing away the singer, First Class Beach Baby very poor recording, very very difficult to get beautiful harmonics in it, Gloria Gaynor How High the Moon I was not able to put this one online yet impossible to get it sound nice in between the rest. Jon and Vangelis I Hear You Now / Surrender Jon Anderson test mid & high if not to strong. all Little River Band recordings should sound like heaven these are really really good, Ronan Keating recordings easily get to much loudness in them when settings are out of balance, Stevie Wonder Songs in the Key of Life album should sound wonderful also great recording!

These should set you up. For these we all use HD wav recordings streaming in MP3 vbr ~256 kbps
and then comes the task of configuring the AGC to eliminate fast gain rising which leads to "pumping" and loud "jumps" which leads to "blasting", though you do want to keep a certain percent of "jumps" to preserve the peak dynamics, the clipper can handle the slight overshoot provided your AGC is correctly set to match the clipper at AGC peaks of 0dB with -6dB for average headroom.


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 10:40 pm 

Joined: Thu May 14, 2020 6:59 pm
Posts: 84
I've tried a Tom Petty song - Won't back down. Also Sister Christan by Night Ranger and every little thing she does is magic by the police.

Great dynamics

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PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2021 7:45 pm 
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Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2019 9:44 pm
Posts: 28
Location: VA USA
Any song on Chicago Greatest hits 1982 - 1989 should not sound different.
Clipping should not sound so blatantly obvious on Imagine Dragons - Night Visions.
Reconstructed highs should sound good on the extracted game music files from StarCraft.
Those are my main tests.


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2021 8:11 pm 
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Joined: Wed Nov 08, 2017 3:16 pm
Posts: 191
Quote:
Any song on Chicago Greatest hits 1982 - 1989 should not sound different.
Clipping should not sound so blatantly obvious on Imagine Dragons - Night Visions.
Reconstructed highs should sound good on the extracted game music files from StarCraft.
Those are my main tests.
if you can create a configuration that works well for those varying volumes of youtube videos and the high dynamic range of 2CH theatrical film content as well as musical content and preserve the dynamic peaks to cover the illusion of compression without noticeable AGC "pumping", then you have been ultimately successful in creating a configuration that works well for all sound content.


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2021 8:29 pm 
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Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2019 9:44 pm
Posts: 28
Location: VA USA
Quote:
if you can create a configuration that works well for those varying volumes of youtube videos and the high dynamic range of 2CH theatrical film content as well as musical content and preserve the dynamic peaks to cover the illusion of compression without noticeable AGC "pumping", then you have been ultimately successful in creating a configuration that works well for all sound content.
I agree, but am far from finding that. I think I'm close, but the settings I use on most music, don't sound good on some electronic songs and well-recorded classical or soundtrack music.


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 30, 2021 5:40 am 
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Joined: Wed Nov 08, 2017 3:16 pm
Posts: 191
Quote:
Quote:
if you can create a configuration that works well for those varying volumes of youtube videos and the high dynamic range of 2CH theatrical film content as well as musical content and preserve the dynamic peaks to cover the illusion of compression without noticeable AGC "pumping", then you have been ultimately successful in creating a configuration that works well for all sound content.
I agree, but am far from finding that. I think I'm close, but the settings I use on most music, don't sound good on some electronic songs and well-recorded classical or soundtrack music.
the key is in the AGC.
say for example the average input to AGC is -6dB, which is the industry standard for -96dB PCM at 16Bit, you would want -6dB to be duplicated on AGC out.
but if the average input is -12dB, you would want the AGC to compensate to -6dB.
the key is, to have AGC rises and drops that are not perceivable to the human ear (pumping) and to preserve the loudness peaks.
the purpose of the AGC is just gain control, it should not alter or change the incoming sound.
in my case, i prefer the Legacy AGC as this is more attune to what an AGC should behave like.


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