Frequency spectrums of recorded music

[Macca]

I've started a new thread on this as a spin off from the pfm thread from Elsewhere on the Web.

Okay fair point re the bass, I can't really say that 20 hz is not 'deep bass' and vinyl will get down to that just about.

I still say that there is nothing on Solitude Standing that goes anywhere near the low in the bass, though. I don't have a copy myself since it is not my scene.

A CD of 'Solitude Standing' arrived this week, gave it a listen Thursday night and zzzzzzzzzzzz... Oops sorry almost dozed off but I managed to make it through. Have to say that I don't think there is anything on that album that even remotely approaches 20 Hz. I don't know what was being measured but I'm now pretty confident that whatever it is, it is not music signal.

Have you analysed the frequency spectrum with something like Audacity?

Would you care to explain to me exactly what it is that Audacity is finding that is there on the musical part of Solitude Standing that isn't there on the run in groove?
It's also there on Dead Can Dance Oman.
It's there in greater quantity on Solitude Standing and Oman than on Wishbone Ash's You See Red and Talking Heads And She Was.

Have you tried listening to Solitude Standing on 2 systems: one that starts rolling off at 50 to 60 hz and one that starts rolling off at 20 to 22 hz to determine if there's any difference in the experience, inparticular in the lower bass?


Just because it sounds like there's not a lot of 20 to 40 hz content on Solitude Standing on your system to your ears, doesn't mean to say there isn't.

There is only one instrument on that album that could potentially produce a note at 20Hz and that is synthesiser. I have albums with synth bass down to that sort of level and whilst my system will not reproduce the fundamental properly you are still definately aware that there is serious deep bass action going on. From what you had posted I was expecting to hear something like this, a deep bass effect, but there is nothing on any of the tracks to indicate there is any activity that low. A bass guitar will not be below 40 Hz and that is properly deep if you have a system that will replay the fundamental properly. 20 Hz is an order of magnitude deeper, it is earth-moving stuff.

I am using a subwoofer that rolls off below 40Hz but as I say, other albums I own with deep bass sound like they have deep bass. This doesn't.

Maybe I could send you the CD and you can repeat the experiment, see if that LF content is not some sort of surface noise or some other form of noise? That would be my guess as to what it is.

[Lindsayt]

Audacity is free software. Anyone can do the same analysis as me if they've got the recording on their PC in a format that Audacity can open.

[Lindsayt]

Here's a needledrop that someone else made. I can't remember what TT, arm, cart, phono amp, ADC he used. It's from the Beatles Revolver album, 2nd side. The end of track 1 and the start of track 2.

It sounds really crackly. Like an abused 78.


And here's the frequency spectrum chart of 4 seconds supposed silence (crackle crackle) between track 1 and 2 from this Beatles needledrop.

[Lindsayt]

This another needledrop that I didn't do. It's about 1 minute of Pink Floyd's Sorrow.