Best music for testing PRaT

I guess that the Mana guys are not terribly enamoured by a musical presentation but rather than admit this they'll instead get you bogged down with deflective semantic issues.

 

That was actually an electronic organ - the RAH instrument being at that time under repair. The electronic replacement was not bad, but was nothing like the real thing, even in it's wheezy geriatric incarnation of the last few years. The new improved post-regeneration version gets its grand reopening 26th(?) June this year, and is supposed to feature largely in the Proms' first night (possibly the Saint Sains , Galgolitic Mass would be better, but that was done a few years ago).

Graham - you will see very few double-basses in modern symphony orchestras that are simple 4-string: they will either be 5-string or have the low frequency-extender on the bottom string. Apparently the 5th string is frequently only tuned a third down to C (32.7Hz), also the extender is called a "C-string attachment", but is occasionally taken down to that B. AFAIK, there are quite a lot of pieces in the last 100 years requiring these low notes (although I can't give you any specific examples ATM).

I can confirm that 19Hz is all but inaudible. I went to a concert/experiment last summer where they turned on/off a tone generator at various times, and we were asked to say whether it was on or not, and and strange feelings/sensations we were getting. In DOUBLE-BLIND TEST , I managed to get the right answer exactly 50% of the time - i.e. pure chance. This was also not a low intensity tone - holding a 2-sheet programme in the end of the resonator got it flapping by about +/- 1 cm.

 

This particular Mana guy is not terribly enamoured by people like you writing utterly meaningless and often quite sanctimonious prose about fluffy abstract concepts such as "musical" presentation. These you have quite clearly lifted from whichever hi-fi mag you have your nose in at the moment.

 

The Closest Aproach To The Original Sound

It's pretty straightforward isn't it? The most musical performance is the original, the system that gets closest to this, is then by definition the most musical.

 

Really?? I knew the RAH organ is/was undergoing repairs but I thought it was still functional. At first I too thought it was an electronic organ but then I asked by dad (who knows a fair bit about organs) and he thought it was just a remote keyboard for the real thing (I didn't know such remote keyboards existed before).

Michael.

 

Re: The Closest Aproach To The Original Sound

But ALL hifi is, by its nature, a compromise, and any hifi will do some things better than others. In which case it's the hifi that gets closest to the original in the same order as your personal priorities....
That seems a tricky one to pin down IMO. But maybe I'm misssing something here?

 

Hi Joel,

The closest approach implies compromise doesn't it? Otherwise it would be the exact approach which we are nowhere near. Maybe we could modify it to " the system that gives us the most musical clues so that we can reconstruct the original in our heads"

Many years ago Quad used to do an ad which featured a guy playing a cello behind a curtain while a reviewer who thought he was listening to speakers, made notes studiously on a pad and generally looked disgruntled. There is a bit of that reviewer in all of us.

 

If the cellist had been sitting on Phase 16 Mana it would have been a different story

 

Re: Re: The Closest Aproach To The Original Sound

Joel - I think that's an astute comment. Its a given that presenting the real is impossible, so our idividual preferences and perceptions kick in and it becomes subjective.

However I do think some members crave one *hifi sound* or another rather than one or another attempt at the original sound. This seems to be where objectives start to differ considerably, or at least thats how it seems to my tiny mind anyway

 

'Fraid so. There were some huge speaker cabs up in the intermediate-level gallery behind the stage, and it did a fair job... but I can assure you that it got nowhere close to the visceral rumble in the guts the real thing does (very similar feeling to the morning after a really good vindaloo!)

 

Sounds excellent. Japanese Wadaiko has a similar effect - especially when you stand close to one being played (or to many smaller drums). Your whole body doesn't vibrate so much as resonate. A wonderful feeling and quite different from high SPL trouser-flapping / sofa-pinning hifi.
Paul,
I wouldn't argue with what you say. I think it's true. But each of us seems to have his/her own slightly differing perspective on what reality is...

 

I often manage to have more than one perspective on reality simultaneously, and that's nothing to do with either wearing glasses or being drunk...

-- Ian

 

At a rehearsal I was at some time ago a slightly* (*extremely) over-enthusiastic thwack on the bass drum by an excited percussionist (well, it was the Great Gate of Kiev to be fair ) gave me probably the most extreme sound-induced experience of my life. I swear the shockwave actually knocked me forwards in my chair... It must have completely deafened the brass players who were sitting just in front of it

 

Ian,

That's the last time I take any notice of your music recommendations

Robbo

 

Robbo mate, you need to get yourself round there in person, and decide what you like from the record collection!.

So far, Ive raided Julians and Ians music collections, now with a ''wish list'' 40 albums long! eeek

Actually, unless you want a 400 quid list, maybe its a bad idea!!

 

You utter peasant.

-- Ian

 

Sorry, I couldnt get any further than track two before the urge to put something else on became irresistable

Oh well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

Which one was it? If it's Third, track 3 (Moon in June) is the only thing on it that's any good. If it's the first album, it's all great. By Third they were straying dangerously into jazz rock, the first two albums are quite different, much more song-based. Extremely big influence on Pink Floyd and Hendrix, BTW.

-- Ian

 

it's Third.........

I'm probably not going to risk buying any more albums though.

 

First is fabulous. Entirely different.

-- Ian