More Records that Helped Me Make Progress in Audio
The track that started us down the road to our first Sauter-Finegan shootout is, to this very day, our Number One Test Track of All Time, a little ditty known as the Song of the Volga Boatman.
We first heard it back in the 90s on Bob and Ray Throw a Stereo Spectacular, which is still the version we test with, but this album of forward-looking big band contains that track as well as 10 others, all with truly amazing sound.
Why is the Song of the Volga Boatman our ultimate test track?
The simplest way to understand it is that all the instruments are being played live in the studio, and all of them in the huge soundfield are real and acoustic — string bass, drums, horns of every size and type, woodwinds, percussion, tubular bells, etc.
In addition, the arrangements given to this roomful of players is so complex and lively that if anything sounds “funny,” to use the precise audiophile nomenclature, it really calls attention to itself.
Port’s Rule states: If it isn’t easy for your Test Discs to sound wrong, they are not very good Test Discs.
Wrong is the natural order of things.
Getting it right is where the work comes in to play.
And it should seem more like play than work or you are unlikely to get very far with it. (That’s another one of Port’s Rules, sometimes referred to as music does the driving.)
When the stereo is right from top to bottom, this song is right from top to bottom, and every other record we know the sound of will have the sound it’s supposed to have.
It seems simple and in some ways it is.
We’ve been getting the Song of the Volga Boatman to sound bigger and better now for years, through scores and scores of changes. At our current stage of audio evolution, at the very loud levels we play it at, it’s shocking how big, powerful and real it seems. It has more of the “live music” qualities we prize than almost any other studio recording I can think of.
Every change and tweak we make to the system must end up making this one very special track sound to one degree or another more like live music, or that change must be undone. The Song of the Volga Boatman is the ultimate authority over what is right and wrong in the sound of our stereo.
It sets the bar higher than any recording we know of. From its judgments there is no appeal.
Testing, Tweaking and Tuning
We are in the process of making some lists (more lists!) for records we’ve found to be good for testing, tweaking and tuning your system, your room and your front end setup, among other things. You may want to check them out.
- Favorite jazz test discs
- Favorite orchestral test discs
- Favorite rock and pop test discs
- Still more of our favorite test discs
If you want to improve your stereo, setup, room, electrical quality and who knows what else, these are some of the best records we know of to help you do that.
Glenn Miller
If you go to youtube you can find a performance of the original Glenn Miller arrangement. It’s dramatically more “square” than this one, and swings about one tenth as much, if that.
The Sauter-Finegan version, however, is a blast — nothing can touch it!
Get hold of a copy and see for yourself.