Spanish Harlem, by Rebecca Pidgeon, The Raven


Hi y'all,

To those familiar with Rebecca Pidgeon's album, The Raven (Chesky), track 12, Spanish Harlem, around 00:30 there is a sound like something fell (like someone dropped something to the ground) in the background. I heard this album many times in many systems (one of my refs) and in my observations, the higher the resolution of the system, the further back this 'noise' is reproduced and it is significantly less audible. Is anybody else noticing that or observing something different instead? The same song is also on track 3 of Chesky's Ultimate Demo Disc CD. (Note: this is not promoting Chesky. I have no affiliation whatsoever with Chesky records. :) I haven't even bought their CD's in years... :( )
yr44
I just listened to this cut 4 times. What I heard was a very low level medium frequency click which sounds like it comes from one of the strings or body of the bass viol. I heard no extraneous noises, and but for your comments I would never have noticed what appears to me to be a totally normal sound. Whether you hear it or not may depend more on how you system it voiced. Contrary to your assertion, I believe that a highly resolved and balanced system is better able to identify the source and nature of the sound than one that is not balanced (especially) or resolved. Perhaps my system is inadequate, who knows. But thats what I heard. :-)
It sounds to me like either the piano player shifting on the bench, or the leg of a stool (same thing, really), which the bass player could be using. There is a similar sound at the beginning of the title song.

Write Chesky and ask them. Then see who guessed correctly.
Newbee, sorry for my bad term... What I meant by 'significantly less audible' was that the 'sound' was moved deeper into the soundstage. In my old system, whose resolution, voicing, soundstaging, etc, were nowhere near what I use now, it was located more upfront due to the more compressed soundstage depth.

Another interesting 'artifact': if you have Chesky's ultimate demo disc, Livingstone Taylor's a capella track (#11, I think), around halfway, there's a distortion-like sound. I don't know what that is, though. Got to hear it again...
Well, one or both of us needs to get a life! You for mentioning it and me for following up to hear what you're talking about! :-)

What I heard that was non musical in Grandma's Hands was some very low volume and low frequency thumps. May well have just been my speakers. I really didn't hear anything I could refer to as distortion. Interestingly the purpose of the cut was to illustrate "midrange purity". Perhaps that's ironic. Track 9 BTW.

I'll be waiting for a better discription of what you think you have heard as distortion..........
Newbee, yeah, I need to get a life :) unfortunately between work, house chores, wife and son, so little time left for music.
I'll listen to that track again tonight, haven't heard it in some time.