(Dance The Night: Dua Lipa) left channel digital ticks/clicks?

[L5730]

Absolute banger of a tune and a fun, bright, sparkly and pink movie with a message that proved too provocative for some, was missed by others and was high-fived by others.
Sounds to me like some digital editing wasn't quite fixed - a note for engineers to not just listen on monitors but check with headphones or IEMs for flaws.

Anyone else hearing a tiny soft digital click on the left channel in the section 2:19 forwards?
It repeats, so I guess it's part of the drum loop or something - this was a very loop-heavy produced track.

 

[Looneybomber]

I don’t want to play that song now that you pointed it out. Once I hear it, I can never unhear it, and all always hear it in the future.

There was a song from a decade ago that I really liked when it came out. I heard a squeak sound that happens a dozen times or so in the song. Every time I hear the song, I begrudgingly, yet compulsively listen for it. The song is ruined for me.

 

[L5730]

Once I hear it, I can never unhear it, and all always hear it in the future.

Exactly this! I even listened hard to the craptacular little Roberts analogue radio in the kitchen - I can still hear those ticks/pops.
The good news, at least with Dance The Night, is that it is easily fixable with free tools. Audacity is enough to allow one to zoom in, check the spectral view and tweak those samples. Do it a couple of times, once to get markers then just to make sure and fine tune. Shouldn't be a need to dither on export, just keep it to 16 bit editing. Everything else should null with the original is the phase is reverse.

I have fixed my own copy, so at least that is listenable without irritation.

Completely off topic, I only just noticed the dancers wearing glitter/disco ball costumes. Hilarious!

 

[Ricardus]

I don’t want to play that song now that you pointed it out. Once I hear it, I can never unhear it, and all always hear it in the future.

There was a song from a decade ago that I really liked when it came out. I heard a squeak sound that happens a dozen times or so in the song. Every time I hear the song, I begrudgingly, yet compulsively listen for it. The song is ruined for me.

Is it the guitar player's fingers moving across the guitar strings? This is a common squeak noise.

 

[Ricardus]

Absolute banger of a tune and a fun, bright, sparkly and pink movie with a message that proved too provocative for some, was missed by others and was high-fived by others.
Sounds to me like some digital editing wasn't quite fixed - a note for engineers to not just listen on monitors but check with headphones or IEMs for flaws.

Anyone else hearing a tiny soft digital click on the left channel in the section 2:19 forwards?
It repeats, so I guess it's part of the drum loop or something - this was a very loop-heavy produced track.

This is what bothers me about modern production. So many of the people making music today are computer jockeys who think knowing audio engineering is knowing all of the Protools keyboard shortcuts.

I had to sit next to a crotchety old-timer as an unpaid intern, and I assure you, my teachers would have heard those clicks and removed them. I mean they wouldn't have put them there in the first place, but you get the idea.

These things aren't subtle if you have decent critical listening skills, and they're not in time with the tempo either. Seems like if they were part of a drum loop (which would be in time with the tempo) the clicks would be in time.

Anyway, my point is this is unforgivable, and whoever did it should be pushing a broom, not making records with giant stars.

 

[L5730]

I don’t want to play that song now that you pointed it out. Once I hear it, I can never unhear it, and all always hear it in the future.

There was a song from a decade ago that I really liked when it came out. I heard a squeak sound that happens a dozen times or so in the song. Every time I hear the song, I begrudgingly, yet compulsively listen for it. The song is ruined for me.

Are you talking about that sort of chirp sound at 0:56 and a handful of other places in the track? Kind of almost sounds like the tambourine jangle but doesn't quite. Definitely not fret squeak to my ears. I'd hazard to guess it's an editing glitch.

That's what the spectrum looks like. The same things (maybe identical, not delved that far) is littered through normally after the "... lately I've [glitch] been ..." line.
Too many samples and too much of the waveform to be a simple glitch, could be bake into a loop somewhere that is just being copied.

Does this occur on CD/legit download? I ask because the more I listen the more it sounds like artefacts from very low bitrate lossy formats. Try encoding voice to 64kbps mp3 and you'll hear lots of little chirps like this.

 

[L5730]

This is what bothers me about modern production. So many of the people making music today are computer jockeys who think knowing audio engineering is knowing all of the Protools keyboard shortcuts.

I had to sit next to a crotchety old-timer as an unpaid intern, and I assure you, my teachers would have heard those clicks and removed them. I mean they wouldn't have put them there in the first place, but you get the idea.

These things aren't subtle if you have decent critical listening skills, and they're not in time with the tempo either. Seems like if they were part of a drum loop (which would be in time with the tempo) the clicks would be in time.

Anyway, my point is this is unforgivable, and whoever did it should be pushing a broom, not making records with giant stars.

They are consistently around 2.18 seconds apart and looks very similar waveform glitches. It has to be a loop of some form, and for the consistent repetition.
When viewed with those markers in place, that is the drum loop!
There isn't a 7th in the line because the drums miss a bar, and when the come in there doesn't seem to be the glitch again - maybe the drum loops were taken out for this section and processed before being placed back in - but someone messed up the edit on the edges?

Agreed, unforgivable mistakes. Though if all mistakes in music production, mixing, mastering - you know, all the stuff that isn't actually performing it - were recorded for all to see, that would be one absolutely massive library and catalogue of bad.

 

[Ricardus]

Agreed, unforgivable mistakes. Though if all mistakes in music production, mixing, mastering - you know, all the stuff that isn't actually performing it - were recorded for all to see, that would be one absolutely massive library and catalogue of bad.

This is true. One thing we should all strive for is keeping obvious glitches out of the music.

I actually had some tracks once where I heard this little click, just like this, and I had to sort through all the tracks to find it, and it ended up being the footswitch that the acoustic guitar player was using to punch in and out when he was recording at home by himself. When he punched in, the mic would pickup the tail end of the switch noise.

Once I knew what to look for I just went through all of the acoustic guitar tracks and made them go away.

 

[Looneybomber]

Are you talking about that sort of chirp sound at 0:56 and a handful of other places in the track? Kind of almost sounds like the tambourine jangle but doesn't quite. Definitely not fret squeak to my ears. I'd hazard to guess it's an editing glitch.

I’m not in a position to listen to music right now to confirm, but the way you describe it sounds exactly like what I’m talking about.

Edit: I think I hear it on the radio version (been a while since I’ve heard it over the radio), but I know for sure I hear it on Spotify. I don’t have the CD to check.