Are CD's ever mastered on the back of a moving pick-up truck?

opusarlo

Active Member
I popped in Livescapes' "Beethoven Moonlight Sonata" disc...it was labeled as "DDD". So..it was recorded digitally, mastered digitally, and now I am playing it on my cd player only there is a notable hiss...not even notable - completely distracting. How do you record digitally with a hiss or master digitally and leave the hiss in. Of course, between track the cd is silent like a good cd should be. Make me think of the movie "Falling Down". My guess is they digitally recorded some old LP in a basement studio while smoking cheap grass and mastered it all on a bootleg copy of Audacity using a pair of headphones from their old Walkman as the monitor.
 
I was curious as I've not noticed that sort of problem in any CD I own. Sure, with analog recordings converted to CD there may be some tape hiss. However IME it has never been loud or particularly annoying.

I know one thing for certain. I'll never buy that CD. Thanks for the tip.
 
If it's mastered from an analog source (I suspect part of this was) then the tape hiss of a pre Dolby or DBX master or where no NR was used is a sign of honesty in mastering. You want that hiss and room ambiance instead of noise reduction sucking the life out of the recording.
 
Hiss is present in all recordings, be they digital or analogue. It's likely residual noise, and in the early days of digital, they only had 14 or 16 bits to play with and considerably more residual noise in the mic preamps, the desks, the lack of dithering in the A/Ds etc.

I have a CD here of Moonlight Sonata, Emil Gilels, 1981 Deutsche Grammophon, digitally recorded and it contains audible hiss and artifacts at the lowest levels. It's a glorious recording IMO.

The earlier recordings also gave themselves at least 20dB of headroom, so quiet parts did end up in the noise floor.

Don't be too tough on it- there are some very quiet parts in that piece.
 
Restorer-john is correct - microphones hiss, mic preamps hiss, mixing desks hiss... in fact, all electronics hiss to some extent. Usually it's inaudible, but when you're recording quiet music at a distance it can become noticeable.

BTW, bootlegging Audacity is an interesting concept since it's freeware to start with. :D
 
Restorer-john is correct - microphones hiss, mic preamps hiss, mixing desks hiss... in fact, all electronics hiss to some extent. Usually it's inaudible, but when you're recording quiet music at a distance it can become noticeable.

BTW, bootlegging Audacity is an interesting concept since it's freeware to start with. :D
I am old...times have changed. I do believe it did cost money back when I knew people who bootlegged it. I never did that...I usually just read passages from the bible. :D
 
Electronics self-noise in recording quiet music is a nasty reality. Even the finest gear will generate its own noise in amplifying a weak signal. Bringing a microphone signal up to line-level is akin to bringing a low-output phono cartridge up to the same. It takes levels of gain in the range of 40dB+ of gain structure, and, can be more, to bring a microphone to line-level.
Add all of that to the fact that you have to cap your levels at the highest impulse points, everything else moves quickly towards that self-noise range.
Self-noise can, and regularly does, manifest itself as hiss.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom