[Aniki]

Hi guys, Recently was very into classical music and have since developed a strong interest in

finding out more on it. Have done lots of read up with regards to it and have so decided to start a

classical music collection to kick off my listening experience.

Bought quite a number of CDs on Beethoven, Mozart, Bach and Vivaldi etc. But after listening to them on my mp3 player, was greatly disappointed with the sound quality of the music. There's clicking and ticking sound in quite a number of tracks and some tracks even have scratching sound. This affects me greatly as I am a person who is really particular on sound quality and clarity.

Was really turned off from classical music due to it. But just don't understand why do good recording company and brands like Virgin Classics and Decca (The CDs that is having problems) produced such poor quality CDs?

So wanted to find out it is normal for classical music CDs to have the issues as mentioned above? If not, then how do I know which CDs are good recording and which are not?

 

[bigshot]

What CD are you hearing noise on? Could it be a historical recording?

Regardless, the quality of the performance is much more important than the quality of the recording in classical music.

See ya
Steve

 

[zumaro]

Unless you have historical recordings transferred onto CD, when sound quality can be patchy to say the least (see Steve's comment above however), generally the sound quality of classical recordings is far higher than rock - usually more transparent, greater dynamic range etc etc. So given that, you may actually be hearing environmental sounds in the background of the recording venue, musicians moving about, or very commonly, the keys of woodwind instruments being played and other mechanical noises (these becoming much more obvious in chamber music). Alternatively you might just be very unlucky in your buying habits - but I can't say that the issues you list have ever been a concern of mine.

 

[Aniki]

Thanks guys for all your replies, so does that mean classical music CDs are suppose to be in high clarity and quailty instead of having those ticking and clicking sound here and there?

I am just wondering why the CDs I bought have ticking and clicking sounds in almost all tracks.

Just to mention some of the CDs I have trouble with :

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons; Concertos
Amazon.com: Vivaldi: The Four Seasons; Concertos: Meyrick Alexander, Nigel Warren-Green, Antonio Vivaldi, Gregory Hunt, Gerald Ruddock, Graham Ashton, Christopher Warren-Green, Rosemary Furniss: Music

Bach: Brandenburg Concertos; Violin Concerto
Amazon.com: Bach: Brandenburg Concertos; Violin Concertos: Johann Sebastian Bach, Scottish Ensemble (formerly BT Scottish Ensemble), Scottish National Orchestra Wind Ensemble, Jane Murdoch, Jonathan Rees: Music

Bought several more CDs from Amazon lately and have found them to have clicking and sounds as well but not so often as the 2 mentioned above. Could it due to the instruments? (Sorry noob here

) Just wanted to find out is it normal for classical music CDs to be like this or have I being buying all the wrong titles.

Any classical music collectors care to shed some light on this as it really bother me? Thanks.

 

[Kees]

The samples of the Vivaldi recording sound perfect to me.
I suspect you have CDs that were pressed badly and a CDplayer that reacts badly to that with audible error recovery.

 

[DarkAngel]

As mentioned above you may just be hearing sounds you are not used to, classical music especially for small groups can reveal all types of clicks/mechanical sounds of the instruments themselves being played the sound quality is so good. This is especially true of baroque music played with original instruments like Vivaldi, Bach, Handel etc

Also some conductors can be heard moving around and humming to the music etc

 

[Barock]

Those samples sound fine, if highly compressed. I wonder if it's the sound of the hapsichord continuo, which some wag described as like a fly trapped in a bottle. Can sound like a constant buzzing but to me it's part of the joy of Baroque music. On many classical or baroque recordings you get clicks, bangs, breathing, or if it's recorded in a church, birdsong and (perhaps unfortunately) traffic noise. Just like in a real concert.

 

[bigshot]

I think it's a problem with the CD player skipping. It probably does it with rock music too, but the noise level is so high with hot mastering, you don't hear it.

See ya
Steve

 

[zotjen]

Are you sure it's the CDs? You said you heard the sounds while listening on your MP3 player.

 

[TheGhostWhoWalks]

It might be something in the transfer from CD to mp3. I don't know the science, but it seems that mp3s have a bad habit of getting defects not there in the source music. It might also have something to do with your player's error correction, though I don't know if that applies to mp3 like it does CDs.

 

[Publius]

How are you ripping the CDs? This sorta sounds like a job for EAC. Or perhaps trying the rip on another CD-ROM drive.

That said, I do have one or two classical CDs I bought used that, no matter how hard EAC tries, will never rip without clicking. No visual defects, either.

That should absolutely never happen on a regular basis, though. Did you buy all the CDs from the same source?

 

[Aniki]

Actually I will ripped all my CDs to Apple lossless format and transfer it to my IPOD for listening. Was initially thinking it could be the CDROM drive issue but realized that all POP and Jazz music CDs which I ripped in the past sounds excellent in terms of clarity. No clicking or ticking sound whatsoever. It seems to only happen on classical music CDs.

After catching up on all the replies and learned that it is pretty normal for clicking and ticking sound to happen in classical music recordings due to the instruments themselves being played, some conductors can be heard moving around and humming to the music? If that is the case I will have no choice but to bear with it then. I do not know about you guys but to me it is a turnoff on the whole listening experience.

To make things worse, just ripped a 11 CD Beethoven piano sonatas set yesterday and guess what? Loud hissing background noise.

 

[tottiflames]

listen to Glenn Gould play goldberg variation. very interesting humming.

 

[bigshot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aniki /img/forum/go_quote.gif I do not know about you guys but to me it is a turnoff on the whole listening experience.

You are totally listening to the wrong thing.

Music is a language, and classical music is a language that takes understanding to be able to enjoy. You can't just put it on in the background and let it play. You need to read about the context of the music and focus on it. If you don't make an attempt to learn about what you're hearing, you'll end up listening to meaningless details and miss the main message of the music. Listening to a recording of Beethoven and only hearing hiss is like going to the Guggenheim museum in New York and just looking at the buttons on the elevator.

See ya
Steve

 

[TheGhostWhoWalks]

bigshot, I think your last post is unwaranted. While I don't fully understand the language of music and classical, I know enough to really enjoy and be engrossed in what I hear. Defects on recordings do distract from the enjoyment, because your concentration is broken by the auto-recognition of something that isn't supposed to be there. I have the same problem when reading or watching films and can't stand for their to be external noise when I do either because it draws me out of what I'm doing.

As far as natural sounds on classical like squeaking chairs, audience noice, conductor humming, instruments being played, and stuff like that it doesn't bother me much... probably because I'm used to it though. But I have a CD of Mozart's 21st Piano Concerto that pops all the way through because of a recording defect and it is VERY distracting.