What is this phenomenon in music recordings

[castleofargh]

My neurons, reach action potential, or they don't, they do 1 or 0. I'm digital!
Also, there is no free will, the molecules of the universe made me post this, and I'm definitely not a troll.

 

[bigshot]

But what about your underpants?

 

[Ryokan]

I know it's not the same but on some tracks I can hear a second of the music played again faintly at the beginning or the end. Must be how it was produced. It often occurs on a re-mastered cd and the original has no such artifacts. I thought a remaster would always sound better but it seems some are done just to make more money out of an older album.

 

[medon]

Not sure what you mean? There is nothing inherently digital or analogue in our acoustic world.

There is changes in air pressure reaching our ears.
One could argue - but I would classify this change in air pressure as "analog", never as "digital".

 

[bigshot]

I know it's not the same but on some tracks I can hear a second of the music played again faintly at the beginning or the end. Must be how it was produced. It often occurs on a re-mastered cd and the original has no such artifacts. I thought a remaster would always sound better but it seems some are done just to make more money out of an older album.

Older tapes have had more time to develop print through. Post echo is easy to eliminate with a fade out. Eliminating pre echo with a fade in can be tricky depending on the music.

Sometimes masters become damaged with age. A remaster might have more problems than the original release. A remaster isn’t automatically an improvement.

 

[Ryokan]

Older tapes have had more time to develop print through. Post echo is easy to eliminate with a fade out. Eliminating pre echo with a fade in can be tricky depending on the music.

Sometimes masters become damaged with age. A remaster might have more problems than the original release. A remaster isn’t automatically an improvement.

The music fades out and then for a split second you hear a repeat, especially when the music is quite loud. I've bought a few re-masters only to stick with my original cd as all they need to sound very good is slightly higher volume.

 

[bigshot]

Anything like that depends. Some remasters sound better. Some don’t.

 

[Ryokan]

You'd think the studio would listen to the finished result before they're put on a nickel glass master and mass produced. I had one album where the tracks were cut off part way through when selecting the next song.

 

[bigshot]

Only God is perfect. Mistakes happen.

 

[Ryokan]

My neurons, reach action potential, or they don't, they do 1 or 0. I'm digital!
Also, there is no free will, the molecules of the universe made me post this, and I'm definitely not a troll.

Thought this was leading to a joke about going to '11'

 

[gregorio]

One could argue - but I would classify this change in air pressure as "analog", never as "digital".

“This change in air pressure” is “acoustic”, never “analog” or “digital”. An analogue audio signal is a continuous, alternating electromagnetic signal, representing some other quantity. EG. The voltage changes represent (are analogous to) the amplitude changes of sound pressure waves. Sound waves do not represent some other quantity and therefore are not analog.

G

 

[gregorio]

You'd think the studio would listen to the finished result before they're put on a nickel glass master and mass produced.

The studio (engineer/s) do listen but depending on the exact nature of the bleed through it can be impossible to remove. Or rather, it can be entirely removed but sometimes not without severely damaging/destroying the audio that the bleed through is affecting. In many/most cases, it’s therefore a case of reducing the bleed through rather than removing it, based on a judgement call of where the subjective preference point is between more bleed through and less bleed removal artefacts and less bleed through and more bleed removal artefacts.

There are some modern and quite sophisticated tools designed specifically for bleed through removal but they’re still relatively crude and still require very judicious use. The best subjective result is commonly a faint bleed through echo, that hopefully some/many won’t notice too prominently (or at all). The only other alternative in some/many cases would be not to release a re-issue (or remaster), which isn’t viable obviously.

G

 

[medon]

...Sound waves do not represent some other quantity and therefore are not analog.

G

I think I understand your point...

For me, the AC voltage of an "analog" signal represents the alternating air pressure.
Therefore the term "analog" signal.

... kind of right?

 

[gregorio]

For me, the AC voltage of an "analog" signal represents the alternating air pressure.
Therefore the term "analog" signal.

... kind of right?

That’s entirely right. What is not right is the reverse assertion, that sound (“the alternating air pressure”) is “analogue”, as sound does not represent some other quantity.

G

 

[pail]

OP here, I could post here one of the .flac files that have the echo phenomenon for further analysis, it's a Miles Davis record,but i don't know/ think i'm allowed to do this.