Extra-musical noises

[pauln]

Lately the discussions here have included some artist's lip smacking, weird brushes sound, tape hiss. I'd like to add another. I was listening to classical piano and thought I heard a slight extra sound. Was it a close mic vibrating? It was like a secondary pitch that strung along with the piano - but not quite in time and definitely not a harmonically related pitch - and very faint. I made note of it and went on. Much later I was listening to a different classical piano record and heard the same thing - but much louder. Turns out both records were Glenn Gould and he sometimes sort of mumble-sings along absentmindedly while he is recording! He's way off pitch, too. I suppose a pianist could be tone deaf whereas to play a string instrument like a violin this would be impossible. I have not heard any others do this.

[D-MAN]

The keyboard player of the "Yellow Jackets" drives me nuts with that sing-along habit, too. Its especially bad if one can't sing in the firstplace, which is apparently the case.

DM

[LarryC]

Toscanini sang along with the music in at least one of his opera recordings, and famously shouted "more tone!" at the brass at the most dramatic part (Tuba mirum) in his recording of the Verdi Requiem.

[D-MAN]

Admonitions are ok, just not singing!

DM

[ben.]

Keith Jarrett would drive you nuts. Doesn't usually get in my way, though I can see how it could. My wife can't believe that it doesn't bother me. I tend to be "detail oriented"....

[Ray Garrison]

Way back when Audio magazine did an in-depth review of the Klipschorns, they pointed out something I've never forgotten.

One of the tests they (?Bert Whyte? Len?) liked to do was set up a mike outside, tape normal, everyday sounds of people, cars, birds et al on a good reel to reel tape, then play that tape back over speakers under review. While good speakers can fool many (most? Me, for sure...) people into believing that the speakers are doing a reasonably good job of accurately reproducing music, even the most ardent of us don't spend hours a day, every day, listening to live music. We're easily fooled. Take the natural sounds you hear just walking around outside, however, and it's quite a shock how artificial they sound played back over most speakers.

They were doing this test with the KHorns, and someone slammed a car door out in the street. Bert or Len or whomever said (to paraphrase) "...we played that section of the tape over every pair of speakers we had available. On every one of them, it sounded like some kind of a muffled Whump. Except the Klipschorns. On the Klipschorns, it sounded like a car door slamming."

[garymd]

Jazz musicians do this all the time. Roland Kirk plays 2 or 3 horns at once while humming the tune! Mostly though, it seems to be the bassists but it's very common. Helps them get into their groove.

[Woodog]

On Rudolph Serkin's recordings you can sometimes hear his left foot going crazy keeping time.

On Holly Cole's "Temptation" you can hear the click track at the end of one of the selections. (CD is on loan, don't remember which one) and a voice saying something at the end of another.

On Ella Fitzgerald/Joe Pass' CD "Take Love Easy" you can certainly pick out the sound of a foot tapping time.

My brother, who is a Nashville sound engineer, often points out sounds that fly below the radar, like the sounds of coins in a backup singer's pocket that the recording engineer missed.

Woo

[BS Button]

Woo is not unlike his brother in this regard.