What CD are you listening to right now?

[JonMarsh]

For those not familiar with what an Alex Lifeson Les Paul looks like,




Note the bridge assembly, compared with a "normal" Les Paul.

[JonMarsh]

OK, this is the “Geezer reconnects with favorite music of the distant past” moment. Extra points for you if you know who the Pousette-Dart band was. I just received the double album CD of their two best early albums from Amazon- a small number floating around, made in Italy. Extra points for you if you know who they are, or can name at least one song. But like most folks, you probably have “Amnesia” about these guys… whereas I can sing all the words to this song and others on the album without even thinking about it.

https://youtu.be/dm6AFag8SdY

Scary, huh? My daughter understands, but I don't think anyone else does... maybe, unless you hear it!

This is the double album CD I picked up. Enjoy the heck out of it. Very good writing and ensemble playing.

[Warlock]

Listening to the new Haiduk album Diabolica. Blackened death metal. Non stop riffs!

Haiduk - Wraithavoc:

[theSven]

I've been listening to Ghost Impera album. I don't know hos I missed this album for so long!

[JonMarsh]

Why, the "Lost Christmas Eve" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra, of course!

[masterofnone]

Why, the "Lost Christmas Eve" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra, of course!

I have that same album. Perhaps I should play that later today too... It is a pretty fun album to listen to, and I'm sure it will bring up some good old memories of when I was living in in the Southern states.

[JonMarsh]

My wife loves their stuff, but then she's Russian, born in Khabarovsk in Siberia, of parents exiled from the Moscow area by the Bolsheviks.

That's what I call having history...

[r100gs]

a blast from the past, Modern English , after the snow

[theSven]

OK not a CD because I need to track one down if they have it... Found out about this group the other day from a colleague in the office, and I'm shocked I've never heard of this group! The group is called Brass Against which does covers of Tool, Perfect Circle, Rage Against the Machine, Led Zeppelin and others. Its a brass instrument group with drummer, vocals, and some strings (bass and/or guitar).

[Warlock]

Possessed by this song

[theSven]

A life goal for me that I don't know if I will ever achieve at this point is to drum like that!!!! Such discipline to keep that beat. Great share!

[technodanvan]

So I've been trying to listen to bass-heavy music this week to break in my new subwoofers. Naturally, this leads me more towards a pop / hip-hop trend than what I normally listen to (which is a much more varied blend of music).

First up, I discovered Post Malone is a bit of a bass head, especially on his first album. It gets quite deep, but it sometimes seems to get louder or quieter on a whim, with little rhyme or reason.


Of course, Post Malone is best listened to in small doses (IMO) so I've been breaking that up with a lot of Halsey, whom I quite like. Specifically her first and third albums, Badlands and Manic, respectively. The other two are fine as well, but I keep coming back to these two. The initial bass hit on 3 A.M. is something to behold.



To keep the mood light I also listened to the Popstar soundtrack by The Lonely Island. A couple of the later songs dig pretty deep. I love the Lonely Island, it's great listening just about anywhere (except the garage with an open door)...



From here I went back to hip hop and tried T.I. on for size. This is fairly variable, but his 2020 album The L.I.B.R.A. seems to take some cues from the Post Malone-era of bassheadedness.




Kud Cudi also explores the depths with several albums, most notably in the Man on the Moon, Vol. 3.

[JonMarsh]

I agree! will check some out more-
But note, for "traditionalists", try a good recording of Saint-Saëns C minor organ symphony, I'm fond of several, but the Boston Symphony with Charles Munch (remastered SACD preferred) or the Philadelphia Orchestra with Eugene Ormandy are probably my all time favorites.
And for something that's been around and might surprise you, try Deana Carter "Did I Shave My Legs for This? 25th Anniversary Edition. Remastered and two new tracks; very clean 5 string bass that goes quite low on some cuts. And it's like a classic country album- who'd have thought?

[theSven]

I got the Popstar album now. Only listened to 2 songs, and need to get through the album when I get some time...

[technodanvan]

Hope you like it. The movie is worth a watch IMO. Some of the songs are helped by a little context.

[JonMarsh]

OK, decided I had to "bite" on this, in a sense, because there are new versions of a couple of favorites I discovered yesterday after reviewing this thread, as noted in the comment above.

The SACD version of the Charles Munch version of the C Minor symphony... ordered:




While I do have a couple of SACD players, what I need to do is install the Vanity 93 output board in my Oppo player, set up the conversion configuration for DSD to PCM, and fire up my oldest Mac Pro which is setup with software to capture the PCM stream from an RME Fireface 800 and store it on disk. I was last doing this with an older AudioPraise product that had to be hardwired into a Pioneer multi format player- this is a lot better, as it just swaps in for the original output board.

Why do I think that will take most of a morning or afternoon to get working right....

Of course, this is another one of those deferred gratification projects, as was the Oppo player I bought just for this activity.


Much simpler will be ripping and listening to the 25th Anniversary of Deana Carters 1996 album...




This is for the "country music lover" that wants to hear what an excellent recording job can do with fairly classic tunes, (originals) and with deeper range of a 5 string bass tossed into the mix (not a typical country music approach, in my limited experience!

[JonMarsh]

I'm so busy with various design and construction projects and stuff going on around the house that going and seeking out new music isn't something that I think about....

But sometimes new music is brought to me, courtesy of my personal "Apple Music Channel" which streams music based on the favorite artists from my existing collection that that are synced in iTunes- and very similar artists that they suggest and play. This has happened in a variety of musical genres, to my delight and pleasure.


A few days ago it was some classic blues playing in a relatively recent album, by someone I haven't followed in years- Walter Trout. He has literally been to hell and back, a personal story a lot like David Crosby, including the liver transplant. Makes me feel like I've lived a sheltered life, though we were born the same year. But unlike Crosby, he's still around, recording and touring.




Curiously, Trout had a lot more impact and success in Scandinavia and Northern Europe, something of a cult following I'd say, than in the US. This album doesn't break any new ground, but will bring you back to the roots of some popular music in the 60's, 70's, and 80s- he was playing with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers in the late 80s, in fact.

If you need a good fix of traditional electric blues, you might want to check this out!

[JonMarsh]

This is one I've been meaning to get to in this topic for a long, long time, but slow work and distractions always seem to get in the way. . Not this Sunday, though I have plenty of both today!


This is a special release version of the 2010 Eric Johnson album "Up Close"-

Special edition of the guitar virtuosos acclaimed 2010 UP CLOSE album revised & remixed & featuring guest appearances by Steve Miller, Jimmie Vaughan, Johnny Lang & Sonny Landreth.




And if you haven't heard the album, you have no idea of the impact of those additions...

I'm going to just focus on one cut, the least likely to get attention in all likelihood, based on how one might imagine it fits... Steve Miller, Jimmie Vaughn and Eric collaborating on the old blues chestnut "Texas".

With this video you won't have to wonder what I'm talking about. I've known about Steve Miller since I was in high school, but never gravitated enough to his style to buy any of his albums- but his vocals on this are just perfect.


If you're a guitarist and guitar nerd like I am, then this video about Eric Johnson's playing setup in the studio for that album done for Musician's Friend should be of interest...

However, if you're one of those in the know, you may be aware that he ditched the Fuzzface and Strat for "Texas" and went hard core with a Les Paul plugged plugged direct into a 100W DSL Marshall stack, cranked up to high heaven... (and if you have ever been "experienced", there's no mistaking that sound...)

[JonMarsh]

I should comment a bit further...

1) It's the opening guitar work that he's using the "non-standard" setup for lead
2) This video about equipment is sponsored by Musician's Friend so let's just say there's a bit of a focus on stuff they sell- like the large conventional Marshall setup and the big Fender cabinet with Twin Reverb top.
3) Eric Johnson is known for using Dumble amplifiers for his high output lead setup with the Fuzzface, and Princeton Reverbs for the relatively clean and echoey rhythm or lead stuff. Who is/was Alexander Howard Dumble? Imagine if Jim Marshall didn't have a big company producing amplifiers in volume, but just built one offs for those that could afford them... and I mean AFFORD! If you had to ask how much, well, it was too much.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumble_Amplifiers

4) Interestingly, there is a small boutique manufacturer outside Boston MA (Amplified Nation) that seems to have "captured" a lot of the "sprit" and characteristics of Dumble amplifiers, at not "inexpensive" prices (a good head unit in the range of $3500 to $4,000) but much less than what a good used Dumble amp will go for. Trying on of those is on my bucket list some day... if the mild arthritis I have right now does't become a problem for playing. There are a number of YouTube demo's that are quite "interesting" sonically.

[JonMarsh]

Well, it seems that no one listens to CD's anymore... at least not directly! Guilty as charged, but what I do relish is getting some good, no, great CD's in to rip for the collection...

Just recently when discussing my moving back to working on the Saint-Saëns design again, the question of various recordings came up with Sven, and I allowed has though I had several of the Symphony No. 3 recordings, I was still lacking the Seiji Ozawa version and had just ordered it from a vendor in Germany... some sorts of "vintage" stuff are becoming a bit rare in these days of social media and rap.

Well, Sven had to top me, of course, and related where he was getting the Warner Classics set for Seiji Ozawa, from one of his favorite vendors. Being stuck in a convenience rut like I am, I checked my favorite fast turn around free shipping firm, and danged if I didn't get lucky and get the 25 CD set headed my way at a very nice price!

For those who may be curious....









And yesterday, earlier than forecast until two days ago, it arrived.






Sadly, last week Seiji Ozawa also passed away, at age 88, from heart failure. Rest well....

[theSven]

Well, it seems that no one listens to CD's anymore... at least not directly! Guilty as charged, but what I do relish is getting some good, no, great CD's in to rip for the collection...

Just recently when discussing my moving back to working on the Saint-Saëns design again, the question of various recordings came up with Sven, and I allowed has though I had several of the Symphony No. 3 recordings, I was still lacking the Seiji Ozawa version and had just ordered it from a vendor in Germany... some sorts of "vintage" stuff are becoming a bit rare in these days of social media and rap.

Well, Sven had to top me, of course, and related where he was getting the Warner Classics set for Seiji Ozawa, from one of his favorite vendors. Being stuck in a convenience rut like I am, I checked my favorite fast turn around free shipping firm, and danged if I didn't get lucky and get the 25 CD set headed my way at a very nice price!

For those who may be curious....









And yesterday, earlier than forecast until two days ago, it arrived.






Sadly, last week Seiji Ozawa also passed away, at age 88, from heart failure. Rest well....

I really like this box set. Seiji had a style that I have really enjoyed listening too. Another Conductor of Interest is Riccardo Muti. I'm debating to buy his Warner Classic box set that has 91 CD's!! I still buy lots of CD's myself to rip. Yes there is streaming, but on the other hand knowing you ripped the CD properly gives a sense of satisfaction.

[technodanvan]

For one that is perhaps not ready to drop the cash on a 20+ disc set, is there a good place to start? I listen to very little classical recordings these days, though I have several in my cart right now. It's just hard to press 'buy' unless I really know I'm going to listen more than once.

[JonMarsh]

You might be rather surprised at the pricing of these classical sets- in my case, a 3rd party vendor working on Amazon, and the total cost with the vendor I chose was a bit under $48. Pretty great for a 25 CD set from a conductor like Ozawa. There were more than enough titles I had heard of or wanted anyway to jump in at that price.

[JonMarsh]

For one that is perhaps not ready to drop the cash on a 20+ disc set, is there a good place to start? I listen to very little classical recordings these days, though I have several in my cart right now. It's just hard to press 'buy' unless I really know I'm going to listen more than once.

That comes down to figuring what you like and why? Right? One source of potential info would be reviews at Stereophile on recordings.

My situation is a bit different, though we never listened to music at home when I was growing up (parents had no interest), I was trained on voice and keyboards in order to perform in the church. Not in a bar or on stage.

But, perhaps not surprisingly, my interest in a wider range of classical music didn't take off until my involvement as a partner in the Boulder Sound Gallery. We were a dealer for some high end stuff, including Mark Levinson, Luxman, and Ampex. and had an ATR100 in the store... and sometimes out of the store for community engagement and promotion- I had the opportunity to do live recordings of the Boulder Philharmonic, including one performance of Saint-Saëns Symphony #3, the C-minor organ symphony. Which is still one of my top favorites.

If you just want to try a taste, to get started, I'd suggest considering some chamber music, to start with. Or, if I was going to bridge genres, let's go with Jacque Loussier, the Frenchman who does jazz interpretations of Bach in a three piece trio- still performing in his 80's, but he wore out the first trio and has a new set of guys! A logical start might be "Best of Play Bach", a 2004 recording... available as an Audio CD for $10.98 on Amazon. (I have most of. his recordings, he is a favorite for me). This is on Telarc, who had a big focus on very high fidelity recordings.






Now, "at the other extreme" from a trio, a full blown orchestra with double string sections plus piano plus organ is what it takes to do Saint-Saëns C-minor organ symphony- and there's a nicely priced version of it also recorded by Telarc available on Amazon, with Eugene Ormandy conducting an Michael Murray on the organ.




Now, if you buy these, and don't like them, they come with a money back offer- I'll buy them from you, and find another victim/deserving soul to foist these off on- like Steve!

Mind you, there is a lot of stuff that fills a mid ground between these examples, as regards the number of players and styles.. if you have access to a streaming service that includes classical (rare; Apple does), then you can do a little sampling and searching to see if anything appeals to you.

One more comment about having a bit of a background in classic music- for some reason I get a special feeling when I hear an artist/composer, say, like the guitarist Eric Johnson, for whom on is earlier recordings I hear Sibelius and Arron Copeland all just in one composition... now, he has chops, but he also has some sophisticated musical tastes, and I love what he does with chord inversions.



But I gotta warn ya, a copy of Ah Via Musicom, one of his earliest albums, and with the classical underpinnings in spots of one of his most noteworthy songs, "Cliffs of Dover", will set you back a full $13.87 at Amazon.

No video per se, just music.


Though, truth to tell, one of my favorite all time cuts from Eric is a partnership with Steve Miller on an old traditional blues favorite, "Texas". He sets his normal setup of Strat, Princeton Reverbs and Dumble amps aside and goes with what is rumored to be a '59 re-issue Les Paul, and a 100W Marshal DSL.

[JonMarsh]

One thing I didn't mention about classical recordings- one thing that separates the "stellar" ones from the merely "quite good" ones, is the degree to which they preserve the original hall acoustic of the recording performance. Of course, you've got to have a playback setup that SUPPRESSES your own room acoustic, otherwise it tends to override. Room treatments and architecture.

In the unusual living room setup that the house that the receptionist from Boulder Sound Gallery and I rented, it was easier to get this kind of response than in most cases (partly architectural luck, of course), but when you queued up a good recording (Denon platter, Rabco tone arm, Denon DL103 cartridge, my own moving coil step up transformer) then magic could happen from time to time. We'd bring a few customers back there in the evening to hear what we meant. And this was with a "homemade" set of speakers using the B&W DM6 drivers, but with rather different cabinet design parameters and crossovers.

So, think about that, when you're pondering whether a set of ATS panels and some furniture re-arrangment might be worthwhile. This effect occurs for all recordings, but for many pop recordings there isn't much of an "original acoustic" to recover.

[theSven]

For one that is perhaps not ready to drop the cash on a 20+ disc set, is there a good place to start? I listen to very little classical recordings these days, though I have several in my cart right now. It's just hard to press 'buy' unless I really know I'm going to listen more than once.

If you don't wan to buy CD you could go this route and just get the digital album: https://www.hdtracks.com/#/album/5dd...366413978775a8

That would be the next best option if you don't want 25 discs. However after you listen to a few of the symphonies Seiji conducted you may find yourself really liking his style and want more...

[JonMarsh]

speaking of Seiji, I just finished importing disk 13...

[technodanvan]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the insight. I'll think on it. I really do have several classical albums in my cart but we'll see.

[JonMarsh]

OK, one more "teaser" for you, this is a live performance video of Jacque Loussier, not the best audio quality, but it conveys the music reasonably well...

Same year as my FJ Cruiser was built...

[JonMarsh]

This is about a musical experience this weekend which does have a CD has a tangential aspect - which I will discuss- as I did buy one.

Life here in Idaho is "interesting", and part of that is due to the ever expanding circle of my Russian wife's friends; privately I call them the "Russian Mafia" because they do stick together, though no criminal or forced activities are involved!

Last week Tatyana and her husband Lee queried whether we might be interested in attending a relatively private piano recital by a very talented Russian performer, Vyacheslav Gryaznov, who was trained in Siberia, Moscow, and Yale, and who achieved top rewards and recognition. This was sponsored by a local classical music organization with ties to what is probably the top musical equipment dealer in the Treasure Valley area. Tatyana is a new acquaintance from a recent larger get together of the "Russian Mafia" (which includes a number of Ukraine women and Russian nationals who grew up in Ukraine), and the whole idea was very enticing.

The recital was scheduled for 4pm Sunday afternoon, so we met Tatyana and her husband Lee earlier for coffee at a Starbucks, then proceeded to the venue, which was accessed by going around to the back of the store, which is closed on Sundays. Of course, a key factor is that this store is THE Steinway dealer for the Treasure Valley area...




Note the MacBook Pro sitting on the piano... there's a good reason for that... all in due time.

Now, a view of the overall "Stage" area...




There are speakers to both sides, in the corner, close to the wall (right side cannot be seen in this picture- it's past the 2nd piano), and those are NOT there to amplify the piano, but to provide playback for the orchestral transcriptions for the pieces which are for piano and orchestra- this is not just an acoustic audio track playback, but a playback from a multi-tracked digital synthesis of the orchestral parts, all of which were transcribed and programmed by Vyacheslav.

Now, a brief but necessary comment- considering the nature of this store, and the uses to which this room is usually put (training activities and recitals) the acoustics are absolutely abysmal, not treated in any sense, and the speaker setup was, well, IMO, rather stupid, as the positioning was guaranteed to produce high level comb filtering from reflections on the side wall. Sigh... The playback of the orchestral parts, through what amounted to stand mounted PA speakers, confirmed my concerns.

But!

Vyacheslav is a true virtuoso, and it was a Steinway he was playing, so the results for the piano part were quite sublime.. wonderful master of dynamics and expression, and superb timing.




The video cameras and display for watching him from behind (see upper left) were sufficiently clear that I could watch the pacing metronome at the lower right of the software display... It was enthralling, including the concerto for left hand.

After standing applause and two encores, he hosted a sing along for his 18 year old son, who was having his birthday that Sunday, and the audio and video were transmitted live to his son.

Afterwards, of course he got mobbed by the Russian Mafia...





And while everyone was pre-occupied, I quickly made my way to the entrance room and desk where they had announced CD's for sale- and it was just a few, but I did score one... documentary evidence attached!





And the image you can find online.





So, yes, there is a CD involved, and of course I have extracted it for my library.

Life is strange at times, as anyone knows from reading the news, but there are some occasional unexpected pleasant surprises. This was certainly one.

[technodanvan]

Very cool stuff Jon!

[JonMarsh]

It really was- an enchanting afternoon!