Subwoofer City! Name Those Deep Bass Tracks Now!

[User211]

OK OK. You have got yerself an ML sub - or more maybe. Or a Caped Crusader JL Gotham or three in yer batcave...

The point is, what really gets your sub going, in a way that really makes you appreciate you own one (or more)?

What I'm talking about here isn't mere bass augmentation, I'm talking about moments on certain tracks which make you think "wow!, that was really impressive". In other words, bits that drop really low from out-of-nowhere - the kind of thing you weren't really expecting to happen - or just generally output that you know full well you wouldn't really appreciate without a sub.

Any offers? Timings into the tracks would be cool if you think it necessary.

 

[Cherian]

Two of my favorites are

1) Patricia Barber: Mythologies CD track called Orpheus Sonnet.
2) Pink Floyd: Wish You Were Here CD Tracked called Welcome to the Machine.

 

[amey01]

Why do you never start off?

One of my favourites is Ray Brown with Christian McBride and John Clayton - "Super Bass" (Telarc). It's a live recording of three double basses, and is great from start to finish. Very high on the musical merit too of course. Particularly Track 9 - "Brown Funk".

I also like a band called "Bluezeum" and the track "Can I get that Funk".

 

[timm]

There is a songon james taylor's hourglass sacd called gaiya where a drum comes in that just shakes the house and resonates forever. Wouldn't expect it from a jt album

 

[TomD]

I always enjoyed those powerful base runs in Toccata by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer from Brain Salad Surgery. Its also one of my favorite songs believe it or not.

But what really stood out for me is the beginning of Close To The Edge by Yes. Not so much the exceptional deepness but the punch felt even in the upper octaves. Somehow it did not transfer well to CD. That LP was very well engineered. Score one for you plastic devotes out there (and Eddie Oxford).

 

[amey01]

Funny you should mention subwoofer though. I find that a good sub adds so much to what I hear in the entire audio specturm - not just the bass.

My sub will improve the rendition of a flute solo and I can tell immediately if it is not on.

 

[timm]

Funny you should mention subwoofer though. I find that a good sub adds so much to what I hear in the entire audio specturm - not just the bass.

My sub will improve the rendition of a flute solo and I can tell immediately if it is not on.

I agree amey. My descent is on - but I don't know it is on - if u know what I mean. Acoustic guitar, piano all have just a bit more bite. Everything seems more fleshed out. I won't include a sub at the detriment of the ml mids.

 

[SteveInNC]

About anything on Depeche Mode's "Violator".

I have a mix CD I use for auditioning (along with some others), labeled "Kick Test". It's not all necessarily deep bass, but involves dynamics like kick drums, percussive notes, etc. Here is the track list (pretty random, some may be obscure):

Precious Things - Tori Amos/Little Earthquakes
Strangers - Portishead/Dummy
Few and Far Between - Shannon Curfman/Loud Guitars, Big Suspicions
Gaslighting Abbie - Steely Dan/Two Against Nature
While My heart is Still Beating - Roxy Music/Avalon
Hella Good - No Doubt/The Singles 1992-2003
Sparkle - Live/The Distance to Here
Some Like It Hot - The Power Station/The Power Station
Fell on Black Days - Soundgarden/Superunknown
Magic Carpet Ride - Steppenwolf/16 Greatest Hits
Owner of a Lonely Heart - Yes/90125

 

[JMAUSGP]

That is one of the things I really like about you Justin, you are always thinking of others.

I will have to check tonight and see at what time mark it happens but on Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon, there is a stretch where the subsonics do some really neat stuff. I have listened to this album over 1000 times over the years and never heard this until the JL Gotham came to town. I have had Yamaha, Sunfire, KEL, SVS, and Martin Logan subs and never heard these deep subsonics.

I asked my brother about them and he used to work for ShowCo which handled some of Pink Flyod's concerts back in the day. He said that when he was setting up the drum kit and riser that the sound engineer for Pink Floyd would put some kind of flat square shaped microphones under the riser. He said it was to capture low level sound and mix back in to the music. I suspect this is what we are hearing in the stretch of music that I heard on DSOTM.

I have just started going over my reference discs so I should have some more sub revelations in the next few days. But Pitch Black, South of the line is certainly right in there.

Oh and Depeche Mode Playing the Angel that has got some serious bass too and but if you really want to damage your brain, speakers, house foundation and marital relationship, listen to the first track on Erich Kunzel's Time Warp, ........but remember you were warned.:music:

 

[JMAUSGP]

Okay Justin,

Here you go.

Pink Floyd, DSOTM the TIME song; about 2 minutes in, there are sub frequencies that I have never heard or experienced before, it literally shook the couch and the house, just like a earthquake and it does it from then on until the end of the song. Before the Gotham I never experienced this kind of sub behavior.

Erich Kunzel Time Warp about 2:25 in on the first song. If your system has survived this long, don't get cocky, as you ain't heard nothing yet. Be careful from here on out, there are sub frequencies that can literally break your speakers.

I will catalog some others as I have time, but try these two and let me know what you think of your Apojesus and the low end.

 

[User211]

I posted a link to the DOTSM bass issues thread earlier, in case you hadn't seen it - but then I realised you had, so I deleted it.

I'll check out Erich Wotsit tomoz on the Friday night listening session if Spotify or Napster has it - I'll even buy it if it is any good.

Anyway, where is the YouTube video of your system? I want close ups of the Batcave's Gotham doing extreme bass excursions, cos that sort of thing floats my boat.

My Apos won't beat a Gotham, or get even close, but they will poo poo CLX bass without one. Make that destroy, when it comes to bass extension. Mind you, anything can go lower than a CLX by itself. But the Apos have the speed and, well, just excellent sound quality down at the lower frequencies.

I've been pumping bass tones into the Apos and the Descent recently - just to see how low they really go. There's very significant output at 25Hz - and you can see the ribbons flap at 15Hz. You'd be able to hear it very significantly by wacking the gain up beyond reason - but that's just a good way to break them. The Descent will handle 15Hz easily - but a 15Hz sine wave test tone sounds like complete SH*^%T. You don't want to go there... really.

I've just learnt to accept zero toe-in with the ApoGods. Hard to get used to for a 20 year ML user. But it does seem to produce the best overall results.

Incidentally, reading the Duetta manual from 1988D), they say little or no rear wall treatments. Leo Spiegel (the Apo engineer - beyond God, I think) and co. felt it kills the mid/treble response with them. They also reason that you want to keep the speaker parallel with the rear wall to keep reflections in order. Also, between 36" and 48" from the rear wall. Mine are at 42".

Adam - I had two tracks in mind - but I don't have the timings available so will post later.

Will check all the other recs tomoz. Thanks - keep 'em coming.

 

[MDSPHOTO]

Thom Rotella Band-Self titled
DMP
Track 12-Friends

This track opens with a wall shaking synthesizer and about 1 minute in switches to a pyrotechnical electric bass solo using a digital delay that hits you in the gut and resonates there until it switches back to the synthesizer.

AWESOME BABY!!

 

[SteveInNC]

You could always hire this guy to come over: "Southern Illinois singer hits lowest note".

 

[JMAUSGP]

Found another last night. Wife asks if she can put in one of her CDs. That doesn't happen to often, so I set it up with McCormack ARM and low and behold this thing has some serious bass for the Gotham.

Christina Aguilera
Bionic Album

Tracks:
Try Woohoo to warm up and then Elastic Love. Let's see how your Apropos do that thing!

 

[repman]

Pete Belasco - Deeper- from the album of the same name has some very low bass I am guessing below 20HZ or so it seems

 

[TomD]

this thing has some serious bass for the Gotham.

I'd imagine that any base coming out of that fine beasty is serious

 

[JMAUSGP]

Justin,

I found another and this one is real interesting. It will give your apologies a real test, not just for bass but also for realism.

Get Porcupine Tree Arriving Somewhere and listen to the Cymbal Song. All cymbals all the time, this song is phenomenal in 5.1 surround sound but if you have too you can listen in Hi-Res 2.0 PCM for those so inclined.

 

[User211]

Yo Joe,

This thread is suffering from bass neglect. As a result, I'm gonna check out the recommendations right now. Meant to do it a while ago, but hey.

Been doin' some bass thinkin', though. Honesty forces the revelation, realisation and reality that whilst deep bass can be done down to around 25 Hz with an apology panel, if ya wanna shift some fabulous furry freakin' really low LF air, then ya gotta move it practically not with massive surface area and relatively low displacement, but with small surface area and big lateral displacement.

But then we all knew that anyway.

Descent stays, therefore.

Also, one sub is nice. But two is better. Anyone who sez it isn't directional is deluded. You always get spatial clues as to where one is located, and if you get those hints, be it via eyesight, plain old hearing, room resonance - or just the fact that you need to get the builder round to fix the damage in the corner where the sub was located, then you simply must reason you could have done twice the damage with two subs.

Two subs. Way to go

Why do I find my posts getting increasingly less serious?

Justin

That said, no apologies for apology panel bass. But lots of apologies for CLX panel bass. Like, where is it? **** take, but deserved. A bit harsh, maybe - appreciate it's nigh on impossible for a stat to do it. Rise to the challenge, ML.

 

[JMAUSGP]

Justin,

Been listening to some wicked bass tracks and meant to let you know.......

Get Porcupine Tree Stupid Dreams and check out the tracks, Slave Called Shiver and Tinto Brass. The Bass on these will show your Apogees off.....or maybe show them up

 

[User211]

OK Joe I've just ordered it from Amazon with a 2nd high res disk. This'll be the one: Joe's mega bass recommendation

It'd better be good.

I've been gettng severe warnings from the wife - especially Friday night when I had to argue to keep playing NIN's The Fragile disk 2, tracks 2,3, 4 and 5 with Descent in full swing. Epic - and definately worth the marital dis-harmony.

She has this bizarre feeling that Apos + Descent causes the doors and floor to shake badly in the upstairs lounge. I wouldn't know cos I never go up there whilst a session is in full swing:devil::devil:

I seem to have made a mess of my Apos by changing the MRTW ribbon and getting a crossover mod done. Here's hoping they break in soon - or I'm back to the original configuration.

I've also just put The Incident from Spotify onto the iPhone 4 - well, it's in progress now. They didn't have your recommendation.