Rock Music

music taste is totally personal, but there is plenty of even recent, well-recorded rock. see the latest Beck, Death Cab for Cutie, Dawes, Blake Mills, Jack White, etc.

i made the mistake of buying two "audiophile-approved" female vocalist discs recently- lets just say i don't relate to the audiophile obsession with female vocals, but at least put on some Rhye, London Grammar, Natalie Prass, Sia, etc.

I agree Keith, there is some really well recorded new music out there.

And some old remastered stuff that I just love. Jimmy Page did a great job on the Led Zeppelin remasters, especially on vinyl!
 
I found Marilyn Manson's latest release, The Pale Emperor, to be well recorded. I liked it so much I bought 4-5 of his previous albums.
 
I've been a casual fan of Muse, I sampled their new CD and thought it was worth ordering. Lot's of nice crunchy guitar.
 
My tastes in music tend to swing in lumps over the years. Though I enjoy some classic rock, I tend to get my fill of what's needed (re: Eagles, Bad Company, Skynyrd....the stuff you hear repeatedly) on the radio. Rather, what I find myself listening to at home for "rock" are the likes of Marshall Tucker Band, The Outlaws, Rolling Stones, Supertramp, AC/DC. I've also recently started listening to more Johnny Cash and love Big Band era stuff like Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra, Will Bradley, Elliot Lawrence, Larry Elgart, Pete Fountain, Al Hirt, etc.

If I feel like listening to music that has a visceral quality and at higher volumes, I always seem to migrate to techno-industrial with the likes of Front Line Assembly, KMFDM, Yello, Crystal Method kind of stuff.

However, anymore I find myself listening to Classical of all varieties 95% of the time. I've been on this Classical music discovery-bender for the past six or seven years and it doesn't appear to be letting up any time soon. I find the differences in playing, tempos and performers/conductors of even familiar pieces of music make the Classical listen even more interesting and involving.
 
I've been a casual fan of Muse, I sampled their new CD and thought it was worth ordering. Lot's of nice crunchy guitar.

LOL. I downloaded Drones last week, and forgot to listen to it. Oh well, there is always next weekend. :)
 
I've heard that Fremer likes rock too and is not afraid to use it either.
There should be a smiley in there somewhere :) AFAIK his USB sticks he takes to audio shows contain nothing but rock music.

I would not call the new Dawes album well recorded; too compressed for that, I think. And the thing is, rock is "popular" music, and good recorded sound and popular music just don't go together, the priorities are different unfortunately. There are and always have been a few exceptions, of course, whether by accident or design.
 
There should be a smiley in there somewhere :) AFAIK his USB sticks he takes to audio shows contain nothing but rock music.

I would not call the new Dawes album well recorded; too compressed for that, I think. And the thing is, rock is "popular" music, and good recorded sound and popular music just don't go together, the priorities are different unfortunately. There are and always have been a few exceptions, of course, whether by accident or design.

I agree Rob, but I have a stereo system to listen to the music I love. If I could only listen to music that was well recorded, I would probably sell my system.

I listen to other genres as well, but Rock and Blues are about 80% of what I normally listen to.
 
There should be a smiley in there somewhere :) AFAIK his USB sticks he takes to audio shows contain nothing but rock music.

I would not call the new Dawes album well recorded; too compressed for that, I think. And the thing is, rock is "popular" music, and good recorded sound and popular music just don't go together, the priorities are different unfortunately. There are and always have been a few exceptions, of course, whether by accident or design.

I heard that about Fremer as well. I don't know if his USB sticks are strictly rock, but it would be a safe bet that it mostly is. I like to call him the rebel audiophile musically speaking. He also has some seriously good stuff in that library of his, so I wouldn't go messing with him too much.:D

I don't know about the Dawes album, I've never heard of them until now. I have to say though that your second statement is a little bit broad brushed, but not by much, I agree with you that it is mostly correct in my opinion. In my opinion the exceptions depend on the sub genre and era a lot too. For instance a lot of Prog Rock tends to be treated like classical or jazz in recording and mastering, (probably because it's often heavily classical or jazz based). Not to say there have not been errors there too. Then there is the era where music was more important than it is now to the society at large and more artists were into the art of it and concerned about what was going down in recording and such, than today.

~Eric
 
I agree Rob, but I have a stereo system to listen to the music I love. If I could only listen to music that was well recorded, I would probably sell my system.

I listen to other genres as well, but Rock and Blues are about 80% of what I normally listen to.

I agree Mark! The reason we listen to music is because we love it, whatever genres we like. If it weren't for that, there would be no incentive to produce fine audio gear of any level and the "hobby" would not exist. Heck, music would cease to exist, there would be no market for it.
Man, what a terrible thought!

~Eric
 
I listen to a fair amount of music that isn't of great recorded quality, it's hard to avoid; I also like it to sound its "best", whatever that may be. But I don't use poorly recorded music, no matter how much I like it, to help evaluate the sound of my system or new components I might want to change or add. I'm not saying anyone here does, just that sometimes we need to separate (and be aware of the separation) music from sound quality. There's a good reason the SH Forums have different Music and Hardware Forums despite the overlap that sometimes occurs.
 
I have trouble fathoming NOT listening to rock music. The same goes for jazz, classical, metal, indie, pop, electronic, reggae, country... and so on and so forth...

That said, I admit that listening to only a few genres of music could prove quite advantageous to the audiophile - particularly when it comes to system building. Ah well. I've always had a rather eclectic taste in music. While this tends to create some unique problems insofar as system building is concerned, I wouldn't have it any other way. After all, there is A LOT of great music out there! :D
 
I have trouble fathoming NOT listening to rock music. The same goes for jazz, classical, metal, indie, pop, electronic, reggae, country... and so on and so forth...

That said, I admit that listening to only a few genres of music could prove quite advantageous to the audiophile - particularly when it comes to system building. Ah well. I've always had a rather eclectic taste in music. While this tends to create some unique problems insofar as system building is concerned, I wouldn't have it any other way. After all, there is A LOT of great music out there! :D

In my opinion I would not necessarily think that rock music tends to create some unique problems where system building is concerned. Personally, I almost think in the reverse of that. I'd think it might present challenges the system must handle well or back to the drawing board.
As Mark said earlier and I paraphrase, if the system can handle rock music and make it sound great then it can handle anything.
I agree, if the system can handle something like Prog rock real well, then it will handle classical and jazz in equal stellar fashion and everything else will be no sweat.
 
my perspective is that large orchestral classical and even organ music needs the same attributes from a system that rock music does. a full tilt boogie concert grand piano might actually demand the most from a system as far as the combination of attributes. big band can also be very demanding of a system.

when I play Pink Floyd or AC/DC it should not be tamed. or Beethoven's 9th or the 5th Piano Concerto.

ultimate system headroom that is much more capable than any musical content allows all that music to breathe. the big thing is that the system does musical peaks with ease allowing for subtleties and nuance to come thru regardless of the content. and that there is plenty of weight and foundation and that the system does not get compressed and confused.

I do listen to lots of rock with scale and impact. I love 60's and 70's rock. I just acquired some excellent 15ips 1/4" low gen master dubs of Led Zep IV, Sticky Fingers, and Let It Bleed. loving the way those sound.

there is a degree of emotion and immersion in rock that is unique. I graduated from High School in 1969, so my sweet spot of musical discovery was rock and roll from that era and that music is just part of me.
 
There should be a smiley in there somewhere :) AFAIK his USB sticks he takes to audio shows contain nothing but rock music.

I would not call the new Dawes album well recorded; too compressed for that, I think. And the thing is, rock is "popular" music, and good recorded sound and popular music just don't go together, the priorities are different unfortunately. There are and always have been a few exceptions, of course, whether by accident or design.

Dawes LPs typically remove the compression- have not heard the latest. (and I don't really like the band). in general, i've found you get much better rock recordings on LP (and sound).

but if you are defining well recorded as DR 20 or something ridiculous, sure (and I would not agree that DR defines a great recording, but that's another topic).

then again, Buddy Holly sounds good on an AM radio- so good music at some point is just good music.
 
there is a degree of emotion and immersion in rock that is unique. I graduated from High School in 1969, so my sweet spot of musical discovery was rock and roll from that era and that music is just part of me.

Dropped The Cars inaugural pressing the last day of the Newport show...Ed was shocked how good it sounded :)
 
When I say rock typically isn't all that well recorded I don't necessarily mean only dynamic range, I'm referring also to all the audio processing that usually occurs. As far as Dawes LP's go, I'm pretty sure the same masters are used for both CD and LP, you're just hearing the llessenig of peak-limiting that has to occur with LP. There's an interview with the band I read (in our local paper a couple of years ago just before they played here) where they talked about that.

BTW, The Cars aren't really from the era Mike talks about :D (I also graduated high school in 1969)
 
Oh, that first Cars LP sound great, even on regular CD pressings! There's MFSL LPs out there of it too...
It's a case of the late-70s/early 80s slick production style done right, before they went overboard with it, I guess...

alex
 
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