Sound system tuning playlist (apparently)

[richardash1981]

I came across this: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/top-of-the-charts-the-songs-the-sound-engineers-use-to-tune-your-stereo

What I found interesting was the reasons given for why the 7 tracks named (probably only one I would claim to know) are used.

[kerry davies]

It is all horses for courses and personal choice. One PA consultant used to set up well-respected systems for big-name bands using "Lifted" by Lighthouse family. Drove me potty but he then went sublime to gorblimey by cranking it up to 11 with early Rammstein.  Another mate started every day at his recording studio playing Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" which he reckoned was near perfect production. Yes they both first used pink noise and frequency generators but the set-up tunes were very much familiar tracks which they knew in their bones. 

[Bryson]

It's really mostly songs you know really well.  There are a few "tricky ones" I use - for example I like "She Moves She" by Fourtet as it has a unusual syncopated sound that basically falls apart if any of your time alignment is off.  But mainly it's because I know it really well.

 

[Stuart91]

23 hours ago, Bryson said:

But mainly it's because I know it really well.

I vaguely remember someone on here mentioning that they used a recording of their father's voice to check speech intelligibility, for similar reasons. 

[intyra]

I only really listen to tracks after tuning a system to a known quantity using pink noise (and Smaart traces).

Listening to a song that you know really well will verify you've tuned the system well. I don't think that trying to tune a system to a track is an effective way of getting a consistent and repeatable result, which has to be the number one thing you're looking for when tuning PA.