# Background Sounds in Recordings?



## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

My hobby is turning LPs into CD-Rs, because a lot of my old favorite recordings have never been re-issued on CD. I do a lot of tick & pop cleanup and occasionally EQ and DR and anything else I can do to bring the music to the forefront.

Which occasionally exposes problems.

A couple of the albums I've done recently were recorded in small studios by independent labels, and in the background of the recordings you can occasionally hear trucks driving by. Sometimes it's pretty obvious. I'm working on the album right now by the Greenwood Consort, and the unnamed studio must have been in the heart of the Boston business district.

Old Arthur Lyman records from the 1960s were recorded in the Kaiser Aluminum Dome on the grounds of the Waikiki Hawaiian Village hotel. They recorded after midnight, after the band finished on the bandstand, and occasionally you can hear the dome creaking and settling in the night air.

Gordon Giltrap recorded an acoustic guitar album in his garden ("Live at Ambergate"), with birds and the sounds of the country accompanying him.

I have a Richard Sinclair album recorded in an old church, with people milling about and the occasional child adding unscripted vocals. It's quite charming.

A lot of live albums have coughs and shuffling of feet and rustling of scores... but studio albums with extraneous noises? Still pretty rare. Know of any good examples?


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## Guest (Dec 16, 2020)

I could swear I remember hearing a phone ring in the background on one of the Perahia Mozart PC recordings on Sony. Couldn't say which one. I also could swear I heard birdcalls in the background at one point in the Pollini/Schubert Late Sonata recordings.


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## Dan Ante (May 4, 2016)

I have a few CDs in which you can hear traffic in the background it does not worry me at all from memory they are obviously live recordings and recorded in London unfortunately with age comes hearing deterioration and wish I could hear them now.


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## Guest (Dec 16, 2020)

The only background sound I remember being genuinely annoyed with was Pierre Fournier's breathing in his famous set of Bach Cello Suites. If I had a time machine I'd send a nasal decongestant back to 1960. Actually pianist groaning/singing is another background sound that sometimes annoys me.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

I can't remember which one, but one of the Toscanini/NBC Beethoven symphony recordings, from Carnegie Hall, features the NYC subway making an appearance in the bass section!! lol!!.


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## bluto32 (Apr 25, 2015)

A well-known example of background noises can be found in Gieseking/Rother's recording of Beethoven's 5th PC in either 1944 or 1945 (depending which source you read). During the quieter passages of the first movement in particular, you can hear distant bombs and artillery.

And then there's the Zimerman/rubber duck recording (if only this actually happened...) of Chopin's first ballade:


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Are there some with whistling???


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

Heck148 said:


> I can't remember which one, but one of the Toscanini/NBC Beethoven symphony recordings, from Carnegie Hall, features the NYC subway making an appearance in the bass section!! lol!!.


You can hear the subway in Copland's recording of Appalachian Spring with the Boston Symphony on RCA.


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## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

I have a recording of Respighi's Pines Of Rome that must've been recorded at an outside venue because you can clearly hear some birds twittering away in the third movement. I've got used to it over the years, so it's not a major problem.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

The Beatles, their recorded tracks being scrutinized perhaps more than any other musical act in history, have a lot of extraneous sounds on their songs. They're often difficult to hear, but as we're now able to easily hear their isolated tracks of an awful lot of their product, it's astounding at just how much oddball stuff was left in, as it ended up being mostly buried in the mix.

You can hear squeaky bass drum pedals, voices, talking, etc.

Here there's some finger popping on the down beat as they all sing 3 part harmony.


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

HenryPenfold said:


> I have a recording of Respighi's Pines Of Rome that must've been recorded at an outside venue because you can clearly hear some birds twittering away in the third movement. I've got used to it over the years, so it's not a major problem.


lol!! you're joking, of course....good one!!


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

If you turn them up loud enough, some of the old Kingsway Hall (London) recordings feature a plethora of local traffic. Lol


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## CnC Bartok (Jun 5, 2017)

HenryPenfold said:


> I have a recording of Respighi's Pines Of Rome that must've been recorded at an outside venue because you can clearly hear some birds twittering away in the third movement. I've got used to it over the years, so it's not a major problem.


I've got a recording of Vaughan Williams Seventh Symphony, obviously it was recorded in a gale!? :devil:


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## Handelian (Nov 18, 2020)

The old mono recording of Beethoven's 4th piano concerto with Serkin and Ormandy - at the end of the slow movement you can hear the Philadelphia traffic!


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Parts of this sound like it was recorded on the studio's loading dock.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

In the second recording of Sutherland second Traviata, during the prelude you can hear the subway rumble beneet the recording venue.


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## Oldhoosierdude (May 29, 2016)

I have a recording of some Alkan piano music. If listening via headphones you can occasionally hear a dog barking.


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## Dan Ante (May 4, 2016)

Oldhoosierdude said:


> I have a recording of some Alkan piano music. If listening via headphones you can occasionally hear a dog barking.


Better than howling


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## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

Oldhoosierdude said:


> I have a recording of some Alkan piano music. If listening via headphones you can occasionally hear a dog barking.


Was it on the HMV label?


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Malx said:


> Was it on the HMV label?


Maybe RCA? :lol:


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## Guest (Jan 1, 2021)

Those types of noises are common when recordings are made in actual halls or churches rather than in an isolated studio. I generally prefer the acoustics of halls over studios, so I'm willing to put up with a little rumble or the occasional bird! (Haven't heard any phones or barking dogs yet!)


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