Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Holst The Planets Waveforms + extras for JohnK

Since Waveforms seem to be the latest craze, I pulled out my Gustav Holst The Planets CD that JohnK recommends often to people. I wanted to see how it stacks up to other cd's that are not recorded in high quality.

Mars the Bringer of War


Venus the Bringer of Peace


Mercury the Winged Messenger


Jupiter the Bringer of Jollity


Saturn the Bringer of Old Age


Uranus the Magician


Neptune the Mystic


And special bonus waveforms....

Star Wars main title


Close Encounters of the Third Kind suite

Gorgeous, Randy; I was barely able to control myself while looking at those.

A few questions about these gorgeous wave forms:

1) How do you listen to them?

But seriously,

2) What is the version of the cd that John K likes?

3) And, the idea of cds being recorded too loud has been brought up elsewhere on the forum I believe. You can tell it is recorded too loud by seeing if the wave forms are squashed around the top and bottom? Is there any other purpose to wave forms? Just curious.

Well Don, if viewing those waveforms didn't thrill you sufficiently(blew me away!)and you insist on actually listening to the music, Randy undoubtedly measured the performance by Mehta with the LA Phil which is my favorite of the six that I have(but by a very narrow margin over Dutoit with Montreal)and is a great bargain as well(even better at $5.99 from Tower ), especially if you order over $25 and get free shipping.

Now I'm hoping that Randy will do the Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances and really put me in a state of ecstasy.

As far as the factors that the waveforms show, besides the clipping that would take place if the recording level was beyond 1.0 or -1.0, the main point would be illustrating graphically the dynamic range by showing the highs and lows in the sound levels(i.e. how much or how little is blue), which is probably an even greater source of complaints, since an occasional clip would probably be unnoticed in a generally good recording.

I have 2 versions of Holst now, Andre Previn and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Mehta version. I know the Mehta is louder as I recently compared the 2 and had to turn down the Mehta version to equal the same output SPL as the Previn.

Waveforms to follow, if my 4 yr old allows me some time later today.

Those pesky four year olds! Getting in the way of research. I decided to let my four year old turn five - so maybe I am out of the woods now?

I generally don't like full orchestras / symphonies - but the Holst will probably be an exception. I liked it when I heard Tomita's version. The one you recommended comes up as the most popular on Amazon (and only $4 plus shipping).

Thanks John for all your recommendations. I am really interested in the chamber stuff - but I think you have given me slews of recommendations before, so I won't ask again. I have more than I have time to listen to right now!

Ask and you shall receive.

Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances op.45

Non Allegro


Andante con moto (Tempo di valse)


Lento assai - Allegro vivace

Randy, I better not ask for more; those Symphonic Dances waveforms have me so worked up that I can barely type this.

Don, sure, you can order from either Amazon seller Importcds or Moviemars(I've used them twice)for $6.99 with shipping; great buy.

It is pretty easy to create these graphs John. Would be glad to include others from Rach's Symphonies if you would like. I also have his Piano Concerto's from Andre Previn.

The dB waveforms and the spectrum (energy) waveforms are neat to look at as well...

Well Randy, I've now calmed down enough that I want to see more, more! Bring on the Rachmaninoff!

Incidentally, I'll add a comment on the Rachmaninov vs Rachmaninoff spelling. Rachmaninov tends to be used in Europe and it's closer to what the transliteration of the Russian name in cyrillic letters into the latin alphabet is. However, after he fled communism Rachmaninoff lived mostly in the U.S.(became a citizen shortly before his death), used that pronunciation and signed his name that way, so Rachmaninoff is typically used here. One problem in looking up recordings is that sometimes you have to check both spellings or you might miss something.