Great thread. Many good recommendations.
Here are a couple to consider:
For bass, I’ve gotta go with a guilty pleasure: Hearts of Space Universe 4. Rainstreet (Braheny/Clark) followed by Boot and Paisley (Kahn/Taschner). There is some serious, plumb the depths bass in those two tracks. Turned up late at night for full effect, to the annoyance of my neighbors. Ah well …
While this is a mixture of music and some effects, the following CD by Telarc has some deep bass as well:
Smashing Pumpkins - Thirty-three has some nice varied bass throughout
I just got my Magico A5’s and came across the best i’ve found for testing/breaking in the bass…
nothing comes close, so far, to playing a C or B grade Horror movies…they rely on mostly on deep and strong bass to build up emotion/tension
or not…
Robert Earl Keen’s “The Five Pound Bass” is loaded with weighty bass-ness (over two kilos!). You can find it on the West Textures and No.2 Live Dinner albums.
Paul Chambers, “Bass On Top”
Used to be a good test CD back in the day for auditioning speakers. Probably still is today.
YELLO TOUCH Takla Makan - really low bass.
Horror Inc. Briefly Eternal. Phowa
Anything off “A Trick of the Tail” by Genesis. Mike Rutherford is an amazing player and uses Moog Taurus bass pedals extensively here which get you down into the sub-bass level.
“The Trinity Session” by Cowboy Junkies. “Blue Moon Revisited” is exceptional.
“No Reply at All” by Genesis off “Abacab”. Mike Rutherford basically plays the melody for this entire song on bass.
“Hey Bulldog” by the Beatles off “Magical Mystery Tour”.
Edit: sorry to repeat myself. I forgot I already said this stuff.
Great call out - this is good stuff!
Firth of Fifth at the 6:40 mark makes the room shake without Subwoofers when the Bass Pedals kick in. Only the 200g Quie-X LP that I used to have could do this. Studio version 2003 Pressing.
Bass Mekanik Presents: Bassatronics tracks Sub Bass Excursion and Bass I love You
Why so many tests/interest in bass and not midrange? Isn’t midrange the most important spectrum?
Peace
Bruce in Philly
If I were to make an analogy to Golf, Bass is the drive where the Midrange is the Putt, lots of show in the big hit but the putt is where the money is. Nobody cares about the long Putt contest but they’ll line up for the long drive.
I quite enjoy using percussion instruments to demonstrate & evaluate bass. Dead Can Dance’s Anastasis has subterranean bass is great demo material (particularly on vinyl, digital a little less so.) The Ondekoza Devils on Drums is a great recording. The often used Telarc Kodo Drum cd pales in comparison to this one. Mickey Hart’s Global Drum cd is an extremely entertaining collaboration between four percussion masters from different cultures. The Alan Hovhaness recording is another great demo disc. When Mt. St. Helen “blows” in symphony #50, it will test your woofer’s excursion. The other compositions are also excellent. !
This album is a recommendation for 3 reasons: