Best Bass Recordings? - 2 Categories

A sheer heft recording that immediately jumps to mind is "Please Don't Tell Her" by Big Head Todd and the Monsters.  Also the tune "Buena" by Morphine will really test your speakers' mettle; used to make my old ProAc Tablette Sigs "fart" on the intro.

In the Celine Dion-Peabo Bryson recording of "Beauty and the Beast" there is a very short orchestral interlude/transition back to the final verse accompanied by bass - not especially deep, but it requires fast speaker response that my old Altec-Lansings (featured anecdotally on the 'Disaster Struck!' thread) could not handle with their 12" woofers - too much paper to move too fast.   Of course, as a 'mid-fi' product from a previous age of technology that is not surprising.

"Color of Iris" from Dave Holland's Prism - this one always gives my system a good bass work-out.  Could be somewhere between category 1 & 2.

For sub this Naim download is pretty effective;

https://www.naimaudio.com/news...ccallum-city-out-now

or this one with a comment from the computer audiophile forum;

[quote]Placement is perfect on this young audiophile classic as well as the near perfect natural recording of the voice, but the real test for audio equipment when listening to this recording is it's ability to separate the kickdrum from the upright bass.
The two instruments are playing the same pattern. On less than optimum equipment it might be difficult to separate the two, but with good setup you clearly hear the upright at 10.00 and the kick dead center with a nice decay that one generally do not hear on commercial recordings.
There are lots of speakers and headphones with ''extended lows'' but low with definition is a whole different ballgame. [/quote]

both from Sound Liaison; http://www.soundliaison.com/

The beating of the Nazgul wings in one of the LOTR movies made my big Velodyne crackle.

Teardrop by Massive Attack's a pretty good recording for lots of LF. For movies there's nothing to touch the awesome, magnificent bass at the start of Event Horizon. Yes, I know you can't really hear anything in outer space...

Nils Lofgren Band Live Album - 'Bass and Drum Intro' track. Not subsonic but fast and articulate so more category 1 than 2.

Dave Grusin Prents GRP All-Star Big Band Live, 'Sing Sing Sing' track. More drum-driven bass and category 1 again.

Both of these suggestions available on Tidal.

Wack up the volume on these!

Enjoy.

1. Ron Carter presents Dado Moroni (A superb album if you can find a copy)

2. Firth of Fifth (Selling England By The Pound)

G

Anyone who has come in contact with a Chapman Stick..

Being a fan of category 2 bass in particular, here are some that make me smile like a fool when my system pumps them out:

1) Mike Oldfield, Songs of Distant Earth. On track 12, about 0:50, a sub-bass bassline comes in, going lower and lower. 

2) Danny Elfman, Mission: Impossible OST. Track 2 is 'the famous tune' with pummelingly-recorded bass.

3) Leftfield, Leftism. Track 1, 3:20 and Track 3, 0:46.

4) Enya, Watermark. Tracks 1 and 10 have some very subtle sub-bass here and there which I didn't notice for years.

5) Kraftwerk, Minimum: Maximum. Disc 1, track 1, 2:22.

6) Public Service Broadcasting, Inform, Educate, Entertain. Track 7, 3:30.

7) Infected Mushroom, Converting Vegetarians. Disc 2, track 4, 0:49

Mark

Lou Reed Walk on the Wildside for both 

Jonas Hellborg 'The Silent Life' from 1991. 13 tracks of an acoustic bass guitar recorded with just 2 mikes.

This CD pretty much covers it.

01. James Newton Howard & Friends - Slippin Away II 02:54
02. Sam Brown - Piece Of My Luck 02:53
03. Andreas Vollenweider - Skin And Skin 03:24
04. Flim & The BB's - Funhouse 05:55
05. Lee Ritenour - Wes Bound 05:52
06. Marcus Miller - Panther 06:02
07. Spliff - Herr Kennedy 03:01
08. Jaydee - Plastic Dreams (Radio Edit) 03:06
09. Thomas Dolby - Pulp Culture 05:35
10. Neneh Cherry - Iv've Got You Under My Skin 03:46
11. Frankie Knuckles - Workout (1992 Vocal Mix) 06:19
12. Thom Rotella Band - Friends 01:00
13. Rob Wassermann - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction 02:23
14. Jay Leonhart - Sometimes I Think 03:52
15. Ray Brown & Laurindo Almeida - Mondscheinsonate / Round About Midnight 06:08
16. Dallas Wind Symphony - Suite 1 In E-Flat, Part 3 'March' 03:10
17. Kodo - O-Daiko (Big Drum) 01:16
18. Orchestre National De France - Bolro (Finale) 01:38
19. Les Arts Florissants - Marche De Timables 01:25
20. Atlanta Symphony Orchestra - Fanfare For The Common Man 03:17

For a sub bass, this LP.

There is a pretty deep synth bass running under on some of the track from this Audio Fidelity reissue. Caveat here is you'd need a capable cartridge and well set up turntable.

kuma posted:

This CD pretty much covers it.

 

The attractive lady seems to have been covered in doodles and a dodgy stain! An explanation or wipe-down is in order...

Lol. You are right! Eww!  :x

Here's a tune from the same CD with a groovy bass line intro.

For more sub bass testing:  This CD even comes with a warning. 

My thoughts on 2) and a thoroughly decent piece of music as well is:

Goldie - Saturnz Return

track1, the sprawling hour-long drum 'n' bass epic 'Mother', it takes 20 minutes to get going, 20 minutes to cool off but the middle 20 minutes should have you putting the wall hangings back level. An excellent piece of music in its own right.

Also worth trying tracks from artists such as Front 242 (Soul Manager), The Prodigy (Poison, Diesel Power), Speedy J (Hayfever/Haywire, Drill), CJ Bolland (The Analogue Theatre), Masami Akita/Russell Haswell (Unlock The Mysteries Of The Sun).

Rob Wasserman's "Duets" album (I believe that the duet with Jennifer Warnes on Leonard Cohen's "Ballad of the Runaway Horse" is often used to check for bass nodes when checking speaker placement)

Holly Cole's "Temptation" set of Tom Waits songs is good for deep tuneful acoustic bass.

"Mr Big" from Free Live just because Andy Fraser's bass playing is awesome.

For no. 1 I'd recommend this. The bass is just amazing, probably the deepest I've heard apart from on dub albums. Added to that its great music and a beautiful recording. I have the 24 bit version.

And for no. 2 I recommend this - amazing deep bass and great music too.

Hungryhalibut posted:

And for no. 2 I recommend this - amazing deep bass and great music too.

Love the subtitle on that one!

I can think of a few, the leader in my little universe being Rush's Power Windows. It's a typical 80s recording, wide, big and scrubbed clean. You can hear every note played and every technique (both hands) used to ring a wide variety of notes and effects out of it. The album also contains a couple of big low level synth bass throbs that will either overload the room, make the system lose grip or resolve into every constituent frequency while just stopping short of overloading - if the system works well in the room.

Loved the vinyl. Hated the CD for many years until the system evolved into something capable of playing the music as opposed to just emphasising the brightness. The last version released (24bit remaster 2015 "Twelve Months Of Rush") is the best to my ears. I can think of many albums (including Rush) with better bass lines and heavier presentation but if it's some kind of subjective analysis you're after, this is my suggestion.

Try this at 11.00 at your own risk.

The Bug - Pressure - 2003

Cat 1. Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Pump it up. Loud. 

Just tried unsuccessfully a couple of times to post with images attached (I didn't use to have problems), so I'll try again without.

A few suggestions from me:

Steely Dan - Kamatiriad: "Snowbound" in particular and "Trans-Island Highway" have both bass clout and agility. A great album too.

Rory Block - There's a rock in my sock: "Send the man back home" has a wonderfully agile bass running all the way through the track. Another fine album.

And finally (and much more difficult to find), possible only available on vinyl:

Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth: Pretty much the entire album. In fact, there's not much in the way of instrumentation on the entire album apart from the lovely driving bass.

Why does my heart felt so bad, should wake your speakers up!