I have an idea
Mar 15, 2006 at 11:29 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 8

rincewind

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I don't know if anyone's interested in this, but sometimes when I'm listening to a piece of music, whether it be on my mp3 player, or cd player, or (usually) my PC, I'll hear a strange noise in a piece of music and say "Gee, I wonder if that was just a badly encoded mp3/ape/flac/wav or if the original is like that" or (WORSE) "Oh ****, I hope that's not the left speaker on it's last legs!"

For example, I'm listening to Machine Head's Through the Ashes of Empires right now, track 3, "Left Unfinished". Now I've just setup Foobar to use ASIO. The music is coming from a WAV file created using Exact Audio Copy from the original CD while a friend was visiting for TESTING purposes :p Anyway, I like to test my WAVs before even converting to APE for backup to hdd (call me super paranoid). Anyway, at 3m08s into the song when they really start playing faster before going back into a verse, I'm hearing quite a bit of subtle distortion coming out of my left speaker. I can also (even more clearly) hear it through my Senn HD650's which although running off the same (trusty) amp, eliminates the speakers as a cause. I also listened using WaveOut and DirectSound 2.0. Again, they both had the slight fuzz on the left hand side.

Now, wouldn't it be nice if there was an area you could post up "weird noise like a clicking/crackling/distortion heard on track X of CD Y by artist Z" ??? And ppl who own the CD could have a listen on their system and say "errrr u have a problem, it's fine" OR "hey yeah! wow, that's screwy... but ur system is fine"

Cos I find it hard to believe that a band which is into using high-tech for their recording would release a CD with such a glaringly obvious "noise" on their CD. I can hear it very ocassionally now and then on some of the other tracks too, but that is the most obvious example.

Reckon this would go very far?

PS, I really DO want to know about that Machine Head song lol Tell me if u hear the slight *bad* distortion in the left channel at 3.08-3.30 on track 3!
 
Mar 15, 2006 at 1:37 PM Post #2 of 8
yeah i used to listen to the CD over and over again when it came out =)

i hear it too, its like a slight distortion but its meant to be. i believe its simply meant to be, so nothing to worry about.
i have mp3s ripped of an original CD.

that i understand, but there are some tracks that something like this really isn't meant to be, like green day, the american idiot CD, track St jimmy. I hear some "pk" sounds at the beginning.
 
Mar 15, 2006 at 2:24 PM Post #3 of 8
Lol, I have a weird sound on my Operation Mindcrime CD, on 'Spreading The Disease' by Queensryche. Theres sort of like a quiet message-recieved MSN beep!
Originally I thought somehow my mp3 rip had inextricably picked it up. I played the CD on two players and it was on them. I even bought the remaster(for other reasons) and it was on this one too!

I asked people on MSN if theirs did it, but only Frank Noones did.
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Mar 15, 2006 at 8:38 PM Post #4 of 8
5ergo: DAMN. I can't believe it
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I hate that noise. It's really apparent on my HD650s, not AS bad on the speakers.. but.. far out. That's so lame.

Chri5peed: Another great album! I haven't heard what you heard and since u seemed to have confirmed yourself, I won't try to hear another noise in one of my fave albums that will annoy me :p
 
Mar 15, 2006 at 11:04 PM Post #5 of 8
Well in metal world any kind of distortion effect is pretty popular, so get used to it =)
I don't like it either. The worst thing i heard was bass guitar with some distortion effect used by Kataklysm band
 
Mar 15, 2006 at 11:24 PM Post #6 of 8
Yeah I know distortion is commonly used in metal
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but this distortion is BAD, like not part of the original recorded sound coming from the instruments, and not a result of my hifi gear. I have hundreds of other metal (and other) CDs and this is one of the most obvious "not right" sounds I've ever heard on a piece of music where the rest of it is so well produced. It's not like it's a blackmetal CD where the whole mix is saturated with the bad distortion on purpose. In those instances, u know it's intended to be that way. But Machine Head have never used that in their sound - always been a very clean production using high tech gear (read in interviews they sometimes went overboard and didn't feel some records were organic enough). PLUS, it's only out of the left speaker/headphone. Can't tell me that's intentional.

An example of where the actual sound of the distortion is very very crusty/rough, but the production is 100% spot on and you never ever hear any "bad" distortion, would be Bloodbath's "Resurrection Through Carnage" CD. The mids on the guitars are pretty much maxed out, everything is probably heavily compressed etc but it's all crystal clear and I've never looked at my hifi gear and gone "What was that noise..." Another example would be Obituary's latest CD(s).
 
Mar 15, 2006 at 11:46 PM Post #7 of 8
Production-wise I have been mightily impressed by Steve Vais offerings. Both my headphones sound absolutely awesome playing a ripped FLAC file by him.

Even his 1990 Passion & Warfare sounds beautiful. It helps I like his highly polished sound. Plus I only have 3 or 4 of his albums and most of his stuff is pretty cheap.
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Ones a double, so thats where the '3 or 4' comes from!
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Mar 17, 2006 at 9:35 PM Post #8 of 8
Look the "bad" distortion is simply meant to be in this track. It doesn't sound so wrong to my ears.
You'll just have to face it.

Its like you meet a fine woman and than you find out that she ain't perfect. You wouldn't give up on her would you.
 

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