Case Study mp3 - The Music

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The Music

One or two pieces from significant genres were selected. Excerpts from the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Fourth and Sixth Symphonies were selected for the orchestra selections. Both were recorded by the Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Lorin Maazel. It is interesting to note that this occurred under two different record labels. The Fourth was done under Telarc and was the reference piece for several hifi magazines. The Sixth is a CBS recording and is also very good, but a bit more higher in tone. The Telarc recording was reportedly made using only a few microphones in order to optimize the spatial reproduction. The dynamic and spatial segmentation are interesting facets of this recording. A famous passage in the Sixth Symphony is where the orchestra grows increasingly quieter down to a fourfold pianissimo and then comes back in with a threefold fortissimo. In technical terms, there are about 40dB difference (a factor 10,000 in the power) between the loudest portions of the pianissimo and the fortissimo.

The introduction from Beethoven’s Eroica variations by Emil Gilels was chosen as the piano music. This is a famous recording by the piano master with extreme contrasts. Schubert’s "Death and the Girl" played by the Alban Berg Quartett represents chamber music. The first movement of the string quartet is full of different tempo and volume changes.

Mariah Carey’s "Without You" and living legend Tom Jones’ "If I Only Knew" were chosen as a slow and fast example of pop music. The voices of my wife and daughter serve as the original recording. As both were somewhat microphone shy at 8 o’clock in the morning, the inclusion of a few of the author’s own comments was unavoidable. A relatively inexpensive dynamic microphone and simple sound mixer were used for the recording.

1st Test
The Soundtest
Detective Needed
Conclusion

The Music Heared

Without You from Music Box (1´30´´) Mariah Carey Sony
If I Only Knew You from The Lead And How To Swing It (1´) Tom Jones ZTT
Eroica Variations (Introduction) from Ludwig van Beethoven Emil Gilels Dt. Grammophon
4. Sinfonie (3´ from 1st movement) from Peter Tschaikowsky Lorin Maazel Telarc
6. Sinfonie (7´30´´ to 10´30´´ from 1st movement) from Peter Tschaikowsky Lorin Maazel CBS
2. Sinfonie (3´ from 1st movement) from Gustaf Mahler Eliahu Inbal Denon
Der Tod und das Mädchen (1´30´´ from 1st movement) from Franz Schubert Alban Berg Quartett EMI

We also verified the results using other music pieces (e.g.. Eine Insel mit zwei Bergen, Mädchen, I only wanna be with you, Block Buster, Beethoven string quartetts).

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