Reference CD's

[Ulfius]

Since I am soooo far out of it when it comes to modern, popular music I thought I would ask this:

I am looking for some CD's to play in the room to get the "right" sound happening before a mix. You know what I am talking about. This needs to be modern popular not classical or anything like that. I am monitoring through 1031A's and Event PS5's as alternates. What modern popular CD's would you recommend that exhibit the leading edge of audio engineering and mixing. What do you cue up to hear a room or to get a mix vibe? What are the "awesome" CD's to listen to hear how it "should" sound?

[auxsend1]

Want hyper clean?

Check out Steely Dan's "Two Against Nature"

Roger Nichols and Eliot Scheiner
are masters at getting a clean mix

[lagasus]

Do yourself a big favor and go buy "Mezzanine" by Massive Attack. Right now.

It was mixed by Mark "Spike" Stent. Here are some of the albums he has worked on:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p...R128387#APPEAR

[beau]

i think that you have to "learn" your reference cd's just like you "learn" your monitors.

so with that being said, any cd that you know, would be a good one to listen to a room with.

i have a comp cd that i made, with about 15 songs on it and each song is for checking different things.

hope this helps,

beau

[froyo]

Hello. The subject of reference CD's is one that is as personal and subjective as the monitors that you use; in fact they go hand in hand, literally. The idea of a reference CD is to have something that you are very familiar with and when you put it on in any room you can immediately hear the differences in room sound (too much low frequencies, not enough, etc.) There is no magic formula or perfect CD.

However, I would suggest to you to use music (or sounds) that you are very familiar with for a long time, and that you have heard in many different rooms over a long period of time. Let me explain; somebody suggested the Steely Dan CD above. A fine choice with stellar production. But let's say you are used to listening to that CD at home which kills most low mid frequencies; you can see what would happen when you would use that as a reference. This is always going to be the case anyway, because you will always be referencing new rooms to rooms you know, and thus their deficiencies as well. Which is why I suggest to use something that you know for a long time and have listened to in many different rooms over a long period of time.

Also, I would suggest making a CD-R with many different sounds. Definitely include 100 Hz, 1Khz and 10Khz tones. My reference CD has music I know very well, very different kinds of music, tones and some SFX. I have a Beethoven string quartet, a section of the 4th movement of the 9th symphony, excerpts from Red Lenses (Rush), Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen), Perdido (Duke Ellington), Police and Thieves (Junior Murvin),
Ohh Girl (Chi-Lites), Gregorian Chant (Benedictine Monks), A Day in the Life (Beatles), Diamonds and Pearls (Prince), Cream (Prince), Anarchy-X (Queensryche), Feeling Good (Nina Simone), Play with Me (Extreme); also a few of my personal mixes, then a few well chosen sfx, explosions, white noise. This has a mix of all sorts of music excerpts which highlights different aspects, highs, mids, lows combined with the tones and the sfx give me a very good picture of what I'm listening to. I try to vary my music selections every now and again to keep me on my toes.

Different people have different ideas on what you actually accomplish with this, and some will point out that when you reference a new room to the room you are used to working in, you are referencing the deficiencies and thus it's an 'incorrect' or 'deficient' reference. My opinion on this is that even if you work day to day in a room that has, let's say, a deficient low end, the comaprison is still valid. Even though your day to day room has deficiencies you have (hopefully) compensated for this on your mixes. Thus, when you go to a new room and you compare the low end you will compensate for that new difference. Maybe more low end, maybe less, but you will compensate (again hopefully).

I hope this helps. I think the best reference CD is one that has many different sounds from many different sources. It works very well for me anyway. However, if you plan on using just one CD I would suggest a CD that has many different features, styles and thus different frequencies. In other words, if you pick let's say an AC/DC CD, you are probably not going to get a lot of different things. But a CD like Diamonds and Pearls from Prince (or probably anything from Prince) has tunes that are R&B, hip-hop, jazz, pop, rock, etc, with different production values, instruments, mixes, etc and thus a rich palette of frequencies and sounds.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

[Ulfius]

Agreed.

To clarify. I understand about track familiarity vs. different rooms, but I am still looking for more, specific suggestions on contemporary "Awesome Sound Mix" CD's. I have plenty of "older" CD's that I am familiar with, but want to get modern mix/sound versions.

Thanks.

[froyo]

Hello. OK, so it sounds like what you are looking for is some newer, 'top 40' sort of thing. Is that what you mean when you say modern. If that's the case, any Top 40 stuff will do. Mix and match. N'Sync, Eminem, Aguilera, Ludachris, Nelly, Korn, Limp Bizkit, etc. Otherwise, if you are asking for what is considered top notch, recent productions, that's like asking what's your favorite CD. Beauty is in the eye (ear in this case) of the beholder. That being said, the Steely Dan mentioned above is highly regarded, last couple of U2's (Acthung Baby is a little older but amazing), recent Radiohead and Oasis have some very good productions. I think I'm in the same boat as you. Most of the new stuff I like is either newer releases of older artists, or newer or more recent artists that sound old school (Chris Whitley, Ben Harper, etc).