Michael's System

eeewww

Daddy likes this   I was doing a referencing thing on Stereophile, so I put back on Abbey Road and started listening to Sun King. As I listened I could tell my cymbals were splashing a little less than I wanted so I did a little movement toward the edges on my player and oh my, I like that   Not only did the cymbals spread the pond grew in size.

Now as I'm writing this I can hear splashland in the other room, nice.

Nothing like a good referencing to find little gems forgotten or little gems rediscoverd.

I also noticed that Pauls bass on the songs are so real, if feels and sounds like a paul bass solo. That thing is so sweet isn't it? Have to let this settle in a little and see where it goes.

The loudness wars visited me tonight   but I hung in there.

You know if this would have been done with less compression it would have been a heck of a recording, but still I think I can come back to this one and tune out most of the bad.



Well it's not really tuning out, it's letting the good play more. The bass on this came right in a shook my body, yes with mini monitors. And I really like the vocals. When their doing the soft stuff it's actually pretty good and I'm into finding some of the younger vocals from this time frame. Pernice Brothers is a band I like alot and as well  the late Eliot Smith, who shock all of us with his death.

The whole vocal flanging thing though is something, like with FUN, is just not my thing, but every generation seems to have there oddity.

So I didn't put this on repeat, sorry guys maybe when I'm up for a challenge, but thanks for stopping by.

I felt much more at home with this next feller. David Gray who always reminds me of Jeff Lynne.



I know we're tough on some of these recordings but hey I love Wilson but some of those recordings needed a little push too.



I started off the night with Wilson then let my mind go to the 2000's so I could hear how music has changed in thought and delivery. Now as David sings softly I smile and say "I'm glad I got to live during this ride". The greatest hobby I can think of and I get to have lived right in the middle of it. Still I think in the formative years.

what a life right   

Dag gone have I got "selling England by the Pound" sounding good. Those drums are just floating on air in here.

I must have been in there 10 times today listening.

man do I love this recording, when you get it right it's right

I was going to run to the record shop today but now it's too late.

guys what should I pick up?

Hi guys

Last night and today I needed to go on one of my listening journeys, so I didn't look at the threads, so I'm off to the races to see what everyone is up to.

Oh would like to get some input if you are interested https://tuneland.forumotion.com/t241-audiophile-recordings-vs-mainstream#4284

  

MG was doing a lot of back to back playing lately and the system did not like it. I could after time hear that the system was becoming more narrow in it's end to end response. The same unsettling I hear you guys talk about was happening. It is a little un-nerving to be honest and I sat there thinking I'm I about to dig into the room and do a major tuning? But as time went on and I got my cool I started to smile and said to my other self do what I preach. So the system got turned off for a few hours. That system has been on for at least 6 months without a break. I gave it a 5 hour one. I reset the transformer and the screws on the newer speaker platforms. There were a host of things I thought about doing and really need to do but I decided I would see how the system liked being reset.

I had to think about what I wanted to play. Has to be something that I know like the back of my hand so I thumbed through and grabbed "year of the cat". This recording as you know can give it up or cluster in the mid highs. Well I have to say the Sherwood/FUNAI combo got another indorsement from me cause there was a lot of inner detail. Had to listen to a few songs cause to be truthful I was a bit surprised. I brag about these units but boy I tried to think back through my history and wondered if I ever heard any high end system that came close to this amount of info, and nothing high end came to mind, and I have to say I'm wondering if this is even a rival for the MA700? I'm starting to think it is. It's not a tunable room, but that aside this is sounding pretty one target.

So I walked out of the room stuned and knew what I wanted to do. Down to the woodshop to make some different flavored LTR Blocks. I was so impressed with what the 2 pieces of electronics were doing that I have to see just how much flavor bending I can do here. And shockingly this is without the top tuning setup.

I have a feeling this might be one great season of listening.

Hi Guys

been playing a little with the LTR Blocks this morning

I need to let things settle in between, but even with a couple of quick changes this is a lot of fun. I adjusted the shimmer on the cymbals on Al Stewart's year of the cat, and it was very cool, along with the new drum sound. His vocals got nice and smooth coming from his chest instead of nose, and the percussive sounds got nice and warm. This is by no means a permanent setting just a whole lot of goodness knowing there are easy to do flavors to add.

There's the thing for me of course, I like to be able to sit and hear things and be able to make a simple change not disturbing things too much and get a setting I like for that recording and kick back, then do the same for the next. Once you get use to the different flavors you can create, you can then tie them to a recording.

 

oh yeah

This has settled nicely for Al Stewart. Drums have a fantastic roll to them.

With Al, I went back to 4 blocks on the player, and a special one on the front of the sherwood. One thing is if you are using the sherwood , try your front one to balance the weight just a little closer to the left side than right, made a nice difference in mine.





  

Oh Also wanted to mention for those of you who want something to reference. On Midas Shadow the panning comes way out into the room.

here's my listening the last 3 days



listening to Lee now

 

Hi guys

I jammed all night long, just finished with "born to run"





the boss   

Did you ever get in the mood for a record label over the recording?

Well, last night I got in this mood for EMI. More EMI with piano specifically. No I didn't reach for Keith Jarrett, but now that I think about it, he's on my list. What I did put on was



A very interesting recording that I never listened to before.  I picked it up in one of my buy out collections. The Sherwood was in rare form and took the stage really deep. Like parking lot deep. At first I wasn't crazy about it and was going to make a change until I sat there a while and the more this played the front to back was something I didn't want to move away from. I went deep inside of this thing and a few times it scared me as they jumped out with some very strange , to me, piano runs that wasn't expecting. I'll have to check this out later when I decide to do a different stage. While I was listening though I started to think about this same clean sound, kinda that Windham Hill sound, but when I was looking through that wasn't it, close but not where my head was at, but ah yeah that's it J.David Liindsay.



This is a sweet trip. If you like Ackerman and Hedges your probably going to like J as well.

Well Wings of dawn has been playing for a little while now and has mellowed so nicely. The strings have relaxed and now I can hear the body vibrate. I can tell by tonight this will be a great concert.

on the guitars

http://williamlaskin.com/




 

Michael,

Yep, like all of that stuff. I saw Michael Hedges live locally at a small local venue before he passed on. I have most of his work on LP and CD.

Hi Garp

You my friend have seen it all.

I'd like to do a plug here if I could again. If any of you get a chance to visit Nashville, you will enter a world all it's own. I would recommend planing it well so you can take in the live spots which Garp says some have been redone. Having a chance to experience the music city is like being in a dream. I would have to say that for me it's was as close as being on tour as I have been since being on tour.

This is a true audiophile experience  

So after listening to "J" I had to grab my Sampler, and get the Windham Hill fix in.



I have a feeling some Michael Hedges will be on my list this weekend. I have Aerial Boundaries of course, Live on the Double Planet and Watching My Life Go By. Hmmm.... should probably get more. I think I had most of them at one time. Think I had most of the WindHam Hill collection at one time. Not only the music but also some of the most relaxing LP covers.

Now I'm going to change it up a little. This has  been floating around in my mind and even though I was enjoying the music I have been putting on you know how it is when you have that music following you around. Well ever since I heard this the first time it has entered my soul. Another one on my bass list and maybe one of the most textured pieces of rock ever writen along with it's counter part "fragile". Yes I'm talking about non other than "close to the edge".



For my self there is a trio that almost has to be grouped together in my mind when it comes to rock textures. One my Abbey Road, second YES with both Fragile and Close To The Edge, and the third is Genesis Trick of the Tail. If you survive the bass lines of these three in a row you are guaranteed to pass your rock texture physical.

ladies and gents I proudly present "close to the edge"



from Wik

Close to the Edge is the fifth studio album from the English progressive rock band Yes, released on 13 September 1972 on Atlantic Records. Following their success with Fragile (1971), Yes began to produce extended pieces which resulted in Close to the Edge, an album formed of three tracks with the 18-minute title track occupying side one and "And You and I" and "Siberian Khatru" on side two. When recording for the album finished, drummer Bill Bruford had grown tired of the band's style and song writing methods and left to join King Crimson.

Released three months into its supporting tour, Close to the Edge was a commercial and critical success for the band. It peaked at number 3 in the United States and number 4 in the United Kingdom. "And You and I" was released as a single that reached number 42 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The album is certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling over one million copies.

Following the release of their fourth studio album Fragile (1971), Yes enjoyed their greatest commercial and critical success since their formation. When their well-received 1971–72 tour of Europe and North America to promote the album ended in March 1972, the band started work on their next record. The line-up during this time was singer Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, drummer Bill Bruford, guitarist Steve Howe, and keyboardist Rick Wakeman.

After rehearsals at the Una Billings School of Dance in Shepherd's Bush, the band returned to Advision Studios to record their next album. They were joined by audio engineer Eddy Offord, who had worked on Fragile (1971) and served as their sound mixer for its tour. Production duties were shared between Offord and the band. According to Bruford, he came up with the album's title to describe the state of the band at the time, as he had with Fragile. Bruford recalled "a cheap black velour settee at the back of the control room" where he slept one night as Squire was "poring over a couple of knobs on the desk, and jerking awake a couple of hours later to find him in the same place, still considering the relative position of the two knobs".

Offord made the band's road crew "build a huge stage in the studio" to make the album sound "more live". In one incident, after the band decided to use a particular edit of a track, the group found out the studio's cleaner put a piece of tape in the rubbish. Following a "desperate hunt for the missing section" in the bins outside, the piece was found.

Composition

Side one of the album is occupied by its title track, of which Anderson and Howe share composition and lyrical credits. With a running time of 18 minutes and 43 seconds, it is the longest song the band had recorded at the time. The track was assembled in pieces throughout, as Bruford described, "in ten, twelve, sixteen-bar sections". Anderson based its theme and lyrics from reading Siddhartha by German novelist Hermann Hesse. Reflecting on the song's lyrical content in 1976, Anderson noted the concluding verse is a dream that he had "a long time ago about passing on from this world to another world, yet feeling so fantastic about it that death never frightened me ever since". Wakeman's organ solo was originally a section written by Howe for the guitar, but he thought it sounded better on the organ.

Side two opens with the ten-minute track "And You and I", written by Anderson, Howe, Bruford, and Squire. The spiritual influences introduced by Jon Anderson are already evident in the music and lyrics of all three tracks on Close to the Edge. Renewal and repetition are other main themes; the title track starts and finishes with the same sound effects of running water and birds, and in "Siberian Khatru" there is the repetition of two-syllable words and phrases. The album closes with "Siberian Khatru", the only track where Wakeman receives a writing credit. Anderson described the track as "just a lot of interesting words, though it does relate to the dreams of clear summer days".

Hearing "close to the edge" go from good to great through settling was a little more than I expected. Getting inside of this recording was like stepping into the middle of the effects. A lot more happened from behind me then moving into the stage in front of me than I remembered. The drums on the first track were crazy good and perfect size mixed into all of the surroundings. Throughout the recording I was impressed with all the mid vocal harmony parts that I may have in the past mistaken them for keyboards but this listening adventure they were clearly vocals presented all over the stage in these deep rich tones. Maybe this is the first time I've looked at this recording from the midrange out and because of that was made aware of all the rich tones within the layers. Also speaking of layers I'm not sure if I have listened to this quite this thick before, where the motion of the mix was this electronic in a good way. I'm sure this is the most mellow I have ever heard it and in fact on the last listen through it felt maybe too mellow, but I was too lazy to top tune it that I know would have snapped everything into this cystalized moment along with the smooth but my mind today started to drift and I knew what CD I wanted to put on hoping that this same flavor would carry over.  So this has derailed me from getting into a YES-Fest but maybe I will return once I take this sidetrack.

While doing a little finishing today, I started to think about stereophile and the listeners there and wished that I could bring them into my home and let them experience tuning. I read about "the sound" their getting but it bugs me that they have not yet grabbed that their hobby offers so much more. I think maybe it's hard to conceive of so many different ways the same piece of music can be looked at. The distortion button maybe goes off in the brain saying we must seek only one way, but their missing out on so much content that way. I know that people want to believe that they are heading toward revealing all the music but that's not what tuning is about for me. The art of taking this massive amount of signal, far more than we are able to play back, and shape it is what this hobby is for me and I don't know if describing this with words can ever happen.

hang on have to go hear this

Sorry back now.

Where was I, oh yeah. How do you tell somebody who is listening basically to one flavor with all the music that there are options? So many options, and they can pretty much pick a flavor and go for it. No more I heard this on this system and this on that. You can create any of these sounds and go much further because you are literally tuning in the signal it self. Hard concept to get across unless you explore it.

In the hobby I've seen so many pictures of sound, and unless tuning I see the person playing the music through their system. I don't even think they are realizing that they are telling the music what to sound like, and that's not a bad thing, but it's only one tiny picture. Maybe me sitting in the hall shaping the sound or in the studio I've always respected where things can go. And I know the audiophile has been punked over the one way listening but if they only knew where they could go at any given time. Like right now If I want to tighten the drums there are 50 ways right off the top I could do this and all of them would be correct and without distortion. but it's the whole flavor thing that makes me feel bad for folks. Lets say they have owned 10 high end systems in their life and been in 4 rooms. That's a very limited way to view a piece of music. I want to get in there and start uncovering things and then those things give me ideas of other areas of the recording I can explore.

well before I get all carried away I have a recording calling me

The bottom has dropped in place so I'm going in. Watch out brothers, where are you bound?

This should be fun  

If I don't come out in 24 hrs call emergency 911, and have em bring the paddles.


  

Well, got in my last listen on Supertramp, wow! What a stage!

Not sure what my next victim will be, but I'm going to run through a few that take me further down memory lane before getting too serious starting with.



Frankenstein sounded so darn good and is one of those throw backs to the "70's" that gets me thinking about all kinds of LP's.

Well I rocked and rocked. Was a fun time. I ended up listening to the Doobies.



Then, don't know how my mind went here, but I needed a Daddy Marsalis fix.



Oh man this really hits the spot   

Man guys, and gals   

These keys are layin down some sweet sounds. Ellis in nearfield is crazy good  Notes are poppin, and he is getting it on. Love how their changing up some of the micing on this. Makes the stage interesting to follow from song to song.

My toe is a tappen  

Hi Guys

So I love Liz Story, and my favorite is "Part of Fortune", but when I'm in the mood to pull up that feeling of a romantic diner by the piano bar in the Bellagio I go with "my foolish heart".



Liz puts a rich, beautiful spin to these choices.

Last night (while attempting sleep) I felt this bass accompanied by piano coming from the listening room. Liz was ready to be heard, and as tired as I was it was concert time.

Now you guys have to picture, this is what I do. I don't get up and go to work and come home and listen. I get up and listen, I go to bed and listen. I do my thing during the day, and.....? that's right, listen  . I realize this probably wouldn't work for most people, but because I have spent my whole life doing this, there is nothing that seems more natural to me.

I so totally get Liz with this recording, and if you don't let it settle a while and come back. The string bass and piano's lower register play off of each others harmonics and pace. Liz is using the sting bass as her, shall I say subwoofer. This is so brilliantly done that you almost don't notice it at first. It's not just a duet, it's a support system of bottom flavor of different textures. So smart, simple as well as complex. The tones are so rich in the piano that it even come close to the loose string action of the bass at times and for a second you loose the bass in the middle of the piano strings. If you back up you can catch it, but at first you say "where did it go". It's sometimes like they are oscillating together and then again on their own. Oh now this is high end audio  

Yeah, I love Liz. I have been listening to hear since early nighties and have a couple of her albums. Haven't kept up with recent stuff .. the gotta get list grows longer