Hi guys,
Could you tell us which songs/recordings you used for each of the ANL files that come with Har-Bal?
Thanks,
Jay
Reference file sources
Ok Jay,
I'll tell you what I used but with a few qualifications. The references I chose were ones that I thought were representative of the right sort of spectral balance for each genre. For anyone who has bothered to study HarBal in depth will also know that it can only ever be representative and not prescriptive. By that I mean that you shouldn't match your track to a reference exactly, and possibly not even in an approximate sense because it is more than likely that the best balance does not correspond to the reference. Also, a number of the references I chose could have possibly been improved apon with a little HarBal tweaking but I chose not to do this so that the references truly represented a commercial recording processed without the use of HarBal. Finally, these references are largely subjective and are not necessarily the best available. They are just references taken from my CD collection that I regard as good recordings that represent the given genre from my point of view. Most are quite old recordings. So here goes.
Classical.anl
"Caliban's Song" taken from "Jean Sibelius: The Tempest" BIS-CD-448.
This has been recorded in the classical style with a couple of hanging Neumann mics in the concert hall with no compression and minimal processing.
Contemporary.anl
"Soul Cages" taken from "Sting: The Soul Cages" 396 405-2.
I really like the sharp imaging in that album and I have a liking for the mixes that Hugh Padgeham comes up with, both for this album and in general.
Folk.anl
"The Queen and the Soldier" taken from "Suzanne Vega" CD 38490. Folk to me implies baroque music acoustics, rightly or wrongly. This album certainly has that baroque subdued bass sound and lively acoustics.
Jazz_blues.anl
"The After Thought" taken from
"Vince Jones: One Day Spent" CDP 794792. Don't have a lot to draw from in this genre though I like the sound of this one. However, on seeing the result under HarBal I wasn't entirely sure that it was the best possible mix but I wasn't about to fudge it. Either way, it does have that smooth Jazz sound with a warm bottom end.
Jazz_fushion.anl
"Amandla" taken from "Miles Davis : Amandla" 925 873-2. Again, I don't have heaps in my collection to draw from in this genre but this recording really shines with vitality. I just love listening to this track so I guess it must be close to perfect.
Rhythm_and_blues.anl
"I Shiver" taken from "Robert Cray : Shame and Sin" 518 517-2. I guess Robert Cray should fit this genre and the harmonic balance is pretty close to spot on as far as I'm concerned.
Rock.anl
"Learning to Fly" taken from "Foo Fighters : There's Nothing Left to Lose" 74321715742. This one is the most recent of my collection and I consider it to be a very solid recording. All in all a well polished rock album with the right emphasis in the right places.
Techno.anl
"Kiss" taken from "Art of Noise : The Drum and Bass Collection" 0630-16463-2. This is out of my depth since I don't listen to a lot of techno music so I don't consider myself a knowledgable critic here. However, this track, and the album as a whole, have the hallmarks of what I understand to be a techno mix.
The hip hop reference is just the R&B one re-named. I don't really have much in the way of hip-hop in my music collection and didn't feel confident enough suggesting one though Earle suggested that the R&B reference "fits" the hip-hop genre well so I just re-cycled the R&B one.
That's pretty much it and as you can see, it is entirely subjective. I think that people should really get to know their own tastes on genres and compile their own reference lists. If nothing else, it is a good excercise in training your hearing.
I'll tell you what I used but with a few qualifications. The references I chose were ones that I thought were representative of the right sort of spectral balance for each genre. For anyone who has bothered to study HarBal in depth will also know that it can only ever be representative and not prescriptive. By that I mean that you shouldn't match your track to a reference exactly, and possibly not even in an approximate sense because it is more than likely that the best balance does not correspond to the reference. Also, a number of the references I chose could have possibly been improved apon with a little HarBal tweaking but I chose not to do this so that the references truly represented a commercial recording processed without the use of HarBal. Finally, these references are largely subjective and are not necessarily the best available. They are just references taken from my CD collection that I regard as good recordings that represent the given genre from my point of view. Most are quite old recordings. So here goes.
Classical.anl
"Caliban's Song" taken from "Jean Sibelius: The Tempest" BIS-CD-448.
This has been recorded in the classical style with a couple of hanging Neumann mics in the concert hall with no compression and minimal processing.
Contemporary.anl
"Soul Cages" taken from "Sting: The Soul Cages" 396 405-2.
I really like the sharp imaging in that album and I have a liking for the mixes that Hugh Padgeham comes up with, both for this album and in general.
Folk.anl
"The Queen and the Soldier" taken from "Suzanne Vega" CD 38490. Folk to me implies baroque music acoustics, rightly or wrongly. This album certainly has that baroque subdued bass sound and lively acoustics.
Jazz_blues.anl
"The After Thought" taken from
"Vince Jones: One Day Spent" CDP 794792. Don't have a lot to draw from in this genre though I like the sound of this one. However, on seeing the result under HarBal I wasn't entirely sure that it was the best possible mix but I wasn't about to fudge it. Either way, it does have that smooth Jazz sound with a warm bottom end.
Jazz_fushion.anl
"Amandla" taken from "Miles Davis : Amandla" 925 873-2. Again, I don't have heaps in my collection to draw from in this genre but this recording really shines with vitality. I just love listening to this track so I guess it must be close to perfect.
Rhythm_and_blues.anl
"I Shiver" taken from "Robert Cray : Shame and Sin" 518 517-2. I guess Robert Cray should fit this genre and the harmonic balance is pretty close to spot on as far as I'm concerned.
Rock.anl
"Learning to Fly" taken from "Foo Fighters : There's Nothing Left to Lose" 74321715742. This one is the most recent of my collection and I consider it to be a very solid recording. All in all a well polished rock album with the right emphasis in the right places.
Techno.anl
"Kiss" taken from "Art of Noise : The Drum and Bass Collection" 0630-16463-2. This is out of my depth since I don't listen to a lot of techno music so I don't consider myself a knowledgable critic here. However, this track, and the album as a whole, have the hallmarks of what I understand to be a techno mix.
The hip hop reference is just the R&B one re-named. I don't really have much in the way of hip-hop in my music collection and didn't feel confident enough suggesting one though Earle suggested that the R&B reference "fits" the hip-hop genre well so I just re-cycled the R&B one.
That's pretty much it and as you can see, it is entirely subjective. I think that people should really get to know their own tastes on genres and compile their own reference lists. If nothing else, it is a good excercise in training your hearing.
Yeah, Paavo, I completely understand. I just wanted to be able to hear the source material where possible to give me a sense of what's producing the ANLs. Genre labels could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Anyway, thanks a lot for posting the song titles.For anyone who has bothered to study HarBal in depth will also know that it can only ever be representative and not prescriptive. By that I mean that you shouldn't match your track to a reference exactly, and possibly not even in an approximate sense because it is more than likely that the best balance does not correspond to the reference.
Jay
techno
Thanks for this list
It helps..
I'm doing techno, house and eurodance music and I was bit confused with techno anl.
I was not sure am I doing something wrong when I put more energy in bass.
But now I can see why. Art of Noise are not exactly techno in today's terms of music production in Europe.
I find that generally bass is stronger today and mid range is bit weaker. Something like loudness curve.
But it is my subjective opinion.
It helps..
I'm doing techno, house and eurodance music and I was bit confused with techno anl.
I was not sure am I doing something wrong when I put more energy in bass.
But now I can see why. Art of Noise are not exactly techno in today's terms of music production in Europe.
I find that generally bass is stronger today and mid range is bit weaker. Something like loudness curve.
But it is my subjective opinion.