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Does recorded applause grate on your ears?


Coytee

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Scenario: You're listening to a live CD or DVD. Between tracks, the crowd applauses... There are times that I find this particular sound exceedingly painful to my ears and at other times, it doesn't bother me a bit.

Keep in mind... I'm talking at reasonably loud levels or perhaps for some people, very loud levels. I'm NOT talking background sound. Also, the music sounds fine before and after the applause... it's the sound of the applause specifically that I'm referring to as being grating.

I should pay a bit more attention to see if it's just specific recordings that do that to me, then I can maybe better organize my thoughts on what/why.

I know at times, I've heard it bad enough that if I had a remote, I'd knock the volume down between songs just to avoid hearing it.

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You got dem big ole horns and they should sound like... Well..... Applause?

Of course the answer is sometimes it is recorded louder than normal, sometimes the applause is I am sure mixed into the mix and does not sound realistic as well.

The answer needed to further study this might be what mics were used, and is it the applause used to psyche you out like your there or is it garbled and surround you so your center stage and all around you people clap?

The Eagles WHFO DVD is it cool it envelopes you but is not so much in front of you so you fee like 4th row dead center... Nice Trick!

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I love applause, like when I walk in a room, it's awesome !!!!!!!!!!! ................. Turn the Jubes down, it's probably that Blue Man Group you listen to !!!!

That's funny OB, it's usuialy the other way around for me, when I'm walking out ! [*-)]

Coytee it seems the louder it is the worse the applause sounds. I was listening to EC unplugged the other day and being " unplugged " I guess, it sounds like the applause is really louder than the music. I like well recorded live music but they could turn down the crowd a little between songs.

Except for the applause that EC unplugged is a good recording, the song Old Love is one of my favorites.

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That's funny OB

Thats before they start throwing things at me !!!!!!!!!!!!! You wouldn't believe what they throw ............... Embarrassed

I would bet it's not like what they throw at Tom Jones.

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I had a recording that the crowd noise over-shadowed the band playing.......very annoying and disappointing. What gets me is.......Who edits this stuff? [8-)]

I've got more good than bad recordings........but the bad ones can make you wonder how they even make it out the door.[:S]

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That's the downside of realistic, lifelike, recordings. Don't we all remember being at concerts when the applause was really loud, then some guy or girl right behind or beside you feels the need to whistle piercingly loudly, over and over?

And then there's the "Whooo!" girls, who have to yell that out all the time. I used to live with one of those girls, until I came to my senses.

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Just a guess here, but maybe it has to do with that 500W amplifier on the tweeter?

I'll admit that this has crossed my mind and is exactly why I decided to bring this up. HOWEVER, I've experienced it with most of the amps I've had... I've never paid conscious thought to it other than not liking it....Now I'm going to start paying attention.

What I mean by that is... "if memory serves me", it was something that bugged me back when I had my Khorns if not prior to that (LaScalas)

I've had McIntosh Mc-30's, MC-2102, Wright 2A3's, Transcendent OTL's ALL on my Khorns and the 2102 on the Jubilees, ALL of them used the Peach as preamp.

Point being, it's not JUST this Crown that is experiencing this aggrivation with me. I'd like to think that the MC-2102 would be considered a "fine" if not "audiophile" amp by more than a few people?

Some might even consider the 2A3 and SE-OTL amp "fine" amps?? I KNOW the Peach is fine! [Y]

Years ago, I had a Simon/Garfunkle greatest hits album (this is WAY before Khorns) and they dubbed in applause between the STUDIO tracks (sigh). That applause is when I first noticed how it grated on me. That was on VINYL through LaScalas with a Yamaha amp. (interestingly, I've heard people claim Yamaha's are great & others claim they're trash, so I'm not making a comment either way on that, but it WAS on vinyl)

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Very interesting thread to me. I have judged the quality of my own and other recordings by this very thing, applause. In most cases, it sounds like bacon frying or rain.

I know there is a group of applause after the Widor I posted, and I think after the last movement of the Raff that is still up as well. I'd be interested in your opinion, especially thread owner Coytee. I might even put up the 24/88.2 version. Even with my high end (ears, that is) gone from age I can tell a difference in the 16/44.1 and the 24/88.2.

Applause is extremely difficult to record realistically. That's what makes it a good meter.

Dave

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It's not the amp it's the recording. My experience with such recordings as the mofi Pictures at an Exhibition or even the normal release of Stop Making Sense and also the live at Carnegie hall Monk and Coltrane is that the audience applause is not grating at all, and adds to the overall feeling of almost being there.

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Very interesting thread to me. I have judged the quality of my own and other recordings by this very thing, applause. In most cases, it sounds like bacon frying or rain.

I know there is a group of applause after the Widor I posted, and I think after the last movement of the Raff that is still up as well. I'd be interested in your opinion, especially thread owner Coytee. I might even put up the 24/88.2 version. Even with my high end (ears, that is) gone from age I can tell a difference in the 16/44.1 and the 24/88.2.

Applause is extremely difficult to record realistically. That's what makes it a good meter.

Dave

You got that right Dave, its like getting a good recording of 80's injected guitar distortion and having it believeable more importantly listenable[;)]

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>It's not the amp it's the recording.

I am sure no one here will be shocked when I heartily concur. I just checked one of mine on my (rather decent) car CD player. Yup. Sounded like applause on a car CD player, not bacon frying in a car CD player.

For me this the the great audio TRVTH: Source is everything, the rest is execution.

OK, somebody already said it better: "You can't make a silk purse out of bacon frying" or something like that...

Dave

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Applause is very broad band, almost pink noise- I think that's why it's so grating. It should be recorded well below the material but it's probably an ego thing.

I use my iTunes advanced options and start and stop songs so as to cut out a majority of the noise.

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