Background noise

[Bjossi]

Is anyone else annoyed by background noise in some of Yello's music?

Even in the remastered versions of their early work I hear a very noticeable and annoying background noise in some of the songs. For example I hear hissing shortly before La Habanera begins, and it is very noticeable even in the newer albums, such as Motion Picture's Bubbling Under and Cyclops.

This isn't as much of a problem in The Eye though, it is by far the most clean-sounding album as far as my ears can hear.

Of course I can't put all the blame on Boris and his engineering, I'm not even sure in what percentages I should share the blame between the music and my listening gear.

If there are any experts on the subject here it would be great if you shared your thoughts. For one thing I'm a little confused why the background noise varies from track to track, in one song I hear background noise even at medium volume while in the next one I can't pick up any hissing even if the volume is loud enough to make my ears bleed. . .

[Juanma]

Hi! it sounds to me thats a fact of your sound system or the files quality you've got.

In one hand, are they original tracks? I mean, not shitty mp3.
On the other hand, in case they are original tracks of good quality, have you try them on other sound systems??

I've heard probably all Yello tracks and theres no background noise on any of them... Not even the firsts records like Habanera. Contrarily Yello tracks are supreme quality since the beginning.

Cheers mate and hope that was helpful.
Juan

http://www.myspace.com/cleantrip

[soundstory]

I'm with Juanma on this one.

I've always found Yello to be very well produced, I think Juanma is right how are you listening?, mp3??

[Bjossi]

Why are you guys connecting background noise with a certain form of lossy compression? It is not a compression artefact, if it is present in a mp3 file then it is present in the original source as well. It is a little thin to be calling mp3 crap with nothing to back up the claim. I am ready to bet that you'd not be able to tell anything above ~160-192k LAME VBR from a lossless source in a blind listening test. The same goes for the vast majority of the self appointed audiophiles. But no, I do not use mp3, I use wavpack (.wv) lossless. I use EAC for ripping and it always reported my Yello rips as accurate.

As for equipment I hook up my Sennheiser HD 595 to a sub for amplification. These cans got wider frequency response than the human ear so I am not missing out on any details. If there was a fault in my equipment or the audio processing then I would hear the same background noise in all the files, that includes other artists, but I don't, it is only a select few tracks. I think the most obvious one (to my ears anyway) is in Bubbling Under. I do need to crank the volume up quite a bit but it is still easily noticeable. I already made sure this was not just a result of the equipment creating this noise by switching between tracks, as soon as I switch from the first few seconds of Bubbling Under to Solar Driftwood there is a peaceful silence until the music kicks off.

Now I can understand that album like You Gotta Say... has background noise since it is just the good old tape hiss at work (Has a charm on its own really.) but hearing it in an album from 1999? Either it was an intentional effect like in Vertical Vision or it is just a "bug" that wasn't fixed. I am not crying a river though, I made this thread mostly just for discussion, not complaining.

But don't get me wrong, I fully agree that Yello deliver amazing sound quality. Easily the best sounding group in my entire collection. Touch Yello sounds fantastic and I have not noticed any unwanted noise there at all, when there are quiet moments in the music it is just pure bliss with no noise to sabotage the experience. When the Pet Shop Boys have gone the dark route of brickwall compression in their latest work Yello stick to the beautiful dynamics that are in danger of extinction today. I hope Yello will always be the oasis of good sound quality in this age of brickwall compressed filth, because we need one!

[zaz965]

Joint activities of these two talented people began to record music and overlaying it exotic and unusual noises. Thus was born the style of music YELLO.

background noise - this is the main component of the noise.
Background noise is the norm.

[Juanma]

Hello! I was just pointing that idea of the file quality in case it was 128kbps - 160kbps, which in this case it is clearly noticeable compared to a wav file. (And many people don't know the cause, neither the difference between background noise or lossy compression)

According to the sound system I mentioned, I was pointing to "I'm not even sure in what percentages I should share the blame between the music and my listening gear."
But if you have professional monitor speakers, then sure is not your listening gear as you say.

Then I think you are right regarding to the tape recording fact. Even if its an album from 1999, many of the samples Boris use are recorded/processed with tape over his long career, may be from the 80's.

All the best.