[keokio]

When I listen to vocal heavy tracks, I get this buzz/distortion in the vocals when they begin to sing pretty loud
 
https://soundcloud.com/keokio7/vocal-prob#t=0:06
listen to the part when she says "kneeling" theres a buzz.  You may need headphones to hear it
 
 
At first I thought it was my equipment but after a lot of testing, it seems to be coming from the "source" not really related to my headphones/dac / amp, because it happens to multiple headphones and it happens across all different combinations of my equiment
 
the song is 16bit/44k flac 
now when i listen to the SACD 24bit version theres a noticeable difference, theres less of it
 
im going from foobar>Arcam irdac>Asgard 2> LCD 2 fazors
 
Do any of you guys hear this buzz when you listen to music or am i the only one. Trying to figure what this is, if its simply a limitation of digital music or what not.  This happens to many of my different lossless quality songs so its a little annoying to say the least

 

[NA Blur]

It is probably a combination of lossy compression distortion and dynamic range distortion.  Sometimes the artifacts are in the master too.  Welcome to hi-fi!
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distortion

 

[keokio]

  It is probably a combination of lossy compression distortion and dynamic range distortion.  Sometimes the artifacts are in the master too.  Welcome to hi-fi!
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distortion

hi, thanks! I was under the impression that flac files are lossless, so shouldn't distortion due to lossy compression not be an issue?

 

[cjl]

Flac files are lossless, so the only way it could be lossy compression is if someone converted the file to FLAC from an MP3 or similar (and a pretty low bitrate one too, in order to artifact a bunch). I'd guess simply poor mastering, but I haven't listened to the file yet.

 

[keokio]

  Flac files are lossless, so the only way it could be lossy compression is if someone converted the file to FLAC from an MP3 or similar (and a pretty low bitrate one too, in order to artifact a bunch). I'd guess simply poor mastering, but I haven't listened to the file yet.

Doesn't make a whole lot of sense converting mp3 to flac, but does this happen often?  I was thinking maybe it was the poor recording and such, but its happening across a wide variety of my vocal songs and many being well known artists like Norah Jones so i don't think they'll produce cds that have an obvious distortion in their tracks but who knows..

 

[cdsa35000]

I heard it a loud slissed voice and then a buzz/vibration like the mic grill is loose resonate or something.
Its in the recording caused by tonedeaf/loudness war ppl.

Gloogle: loudness war.
Loud it into a wave analyzer/editor software and you'll see the recording is clipping like crap as the last pic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

 

[keokio]

I heard it a loud slissed voice and then a buzz/vibration like the mic grill is loose resonate or something.
Its in the recording caused by tonedeaf/loudness war ppl.

Gloogle: loudness war.
Loud it into a wave analyzer/editor software and you'll see the recording is clipping like crap as the last pic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

 
hm this is interesting ill take a look at it after work

 

[NA Blur]

  hi, thanks! I was under the impression that flac files are lossless, so shouldn't distortion due to lossy compression not be an issue?

Yeah, the compression should add minimal artifacts.  Must be something else here.

 

[dprimary]

It sounds like microphone or preamp distortion. Most likely it is overdriving the microphone preamp. She is not singing at volume that would normally overdrive a microphone. But she is very close to the microphone and should have used a 10 or 20 dB pad on it. It could be an intentional effect as well. I have added distortion to vocals a few times as an effect. Sometimes a very subtle distortion to give a vocal that slight Neumann U47 breakup you hear on 50's and 60's recordings

 

[keokio]

  It sounds like microphone or preamp distortion. Most likely it is overdriving the microphone preamp. She is not singing at volume that would normally overdrive a microphone. But she is very close to the microphone and should have used a 10 or 20 dB pad on it. It could be an intentional effect as well. I have added distortion to vocals a few times as an effect. Sometimes a very subtle distortion to give a vocal that slight Neumann U47 breakup you hear on 50's and 60's recordings

i'm starting to get a feeling that it is the recording
 
if anyone has norah jones - don't know why, can you see if you get some distortion between 1:44-1:57.  I'm listening to 16/44 lossless

 

[NA Blur]

No distortion here:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO4dxvguQDk

 

[dprimary]

Erykah Badu has a song called "Green Eyes" that starts out sounding like an acoustic phonograph playing a record from the thirties and as the song plays the song morphs both in style and production from the thirties to 50's jazz to on to current day.

 

[keokio]

  No distortion here:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO4dxvguQDk

 
thats interesting im listening with my lcd2s and i hear it
 
@ 0:38 she says "when"
 
@ 1:13 she says "on"
 
like i said it could just be me with my gear or maybe its the recording..  Audeze said they're going to contact me tomorrow to see whats going on

 

[cdsa35000]

@ 0:38 she says "when"

@ 1:13 she says "on"

Its in the recording/conversion.
0:38: a spike burst to the right channel (like contact noise/statics when plugin the audio in/output connector to playing gear).
1:13: a vibration noise to the left channel (like a hair etc. is touching the diaphragm).
Maybe they use the dusty old lp sfx!

 

[keokio]

Its in the recording/conversion.
0:38: a spike burst to the right channel (like contact noise/statics when plugin the audio in/output connector to playing gear).
1:13: a vibration noise to the left channel (like a hair etc. is touching the diaphragm).
Maybe they use the dusty old lp sfx!

 
wells its good to know other people are hearing this too not just me.