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Strange clicks on all digital versions of JMJ's Equinox album - what are they?

PHD

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Hi

I have this album on vinyl and it sounds great, then I've listened to it on many digital sources like Deezer HIFI, Apple music', HDTracks downloads, CD rips from torrents, and even on Youtube, all of the digital sources have storage clicks throughout the album, which are most noticeable in the beginning of the opening track:



At first, I thought something was wrong with my AV receiver, but I even noticed the clicks when playing from Youtube directly to my TV.

Since these clicks are absent from the LP or any analog recording, I assume it's a digital artifact. But what exactly is causing it? Clock error?

Whenever the synth starts, you'll notice a click/skip. It's not the synth itself because this is absent from the LP version, but it is on digital downloads on vinyl rips...
 

DSJR

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Not sure I'm understanding you, but could it be track breaks, or is it something more insideous?

Damn, I've got to play the 'suite' on side 2 now as I love it :D Oh I'm in heaven now :cool: First ever playing of this was in the shop on release, LinnLP12/Grace 707/Supex 900E/ bolt-up era Naim 12S, Snaps, 250 (original Naims when new were nothing klike the CB models which followed) and into IMF TLS80mk2's which really propelled the sequencer rhythms along and who said that synths can't have musicality and 'texture?' - them were the days man............

Got to say that I thought this and Oxygene were either subtly remixed to digital in the Disque Dreyfus CD release compared to the original UK Polydor releases which sounded a bit 'grubby' for want of a better term, or JMJ let them digitise the original mix-down masters. I loved the Disque Dreyfus digital transfers as released as the sound was so much clearer, making my original UK-Polydor vinyls sound slightly murky in comparison...

P.S. It does seem as if there may be tape loops doing some of the sequencing? Any tiny 'clicks' may well be smothered in the vinyl which isn't as clear to me... Do you mean the 'clicks' on the quiet sequencer passage on pt6? That's normal I think and the vinyl maybe had a bit more reverb compared to the link I'm playing above, but that's almost certainly compression...

Thanks for making me remember this album again after all the high falutin' Tangerine Dream, Depeche Mode and Klaus Schulze I've been playing lately. Breath of fresh air and much appreciated :)

P.P.S. Just playing the beginning and honestly, in the digitals I believe you're hearing the master recording and synths used as played with a keyboard more or less as mixed and produced. Vinyl really does smother fine details, or sweetens them into submission. Can I ask what vinyl player, cartridge and phono stage you use please?


P.P.P.S. - JMJ seems these days to be a Genelec nut - all sizes welcome :D I think back then he used JBL's but can't be certain of that...
 
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PHD

PHD

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At the very beginning of the first track, whenever the synthesizer kicks in, you'll notice a faint click or a skip, as if a track was changed in the middle of the song. It does not happen on the LP, only on all other digital sources. On the youtube video, listen between the 9th ad 11th seconds at the beginning
 

MaxwellsEq

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I've had a listen on 1997 CD several times over that short section. I can hear as sort of sharp "whup" at the end of synth's envelope. It sounds deliberate to me. I'll dig out the LP later, but in memory that's always been there.
 

MaxwellsEq

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Looking at the tracks, the "thuwp" is part of the close of the sound on the left before the "echo" delay on the right channel
Equinoxe.png
 

MaxwellsEq

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These are quite "impulse-y" sounds at this point:
Equinnox2.png
 

Tim Link

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I wonder if the LP playback ends up smoothing that impulse out enough that you don't notice the clickiness of it. Recently I was thinking I was hearing clipping or some other kind of distortion in Maria's voice on the song below, but I think it's just her voice gets slightly gravely at times. I had played this album many times years ago and never noticed it, or at least didn't perceive it as possible distortion or digital artifact.

You know, as we become more aware of these potential artifacts we may end up interpreting things as possibly artifacts because we tend to listen for what we are expecting. I'm amazed now that as I look for signs of video fakes and other CGI, I get confused by simple data compression artifacts. I think I'm looking at a fake CGI generated basketball game when in fact it's live footage with a little compression artifacts showing. The fakes are making reality look fake to me.
 

Galliardist

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Hi

I have this album on vinyl and it sounds great, then I've listened to it on many digital sources like Deezer HIFI, Apple music', HDTracks downloads, CD rips from torrents, and even on Youtube, all of the digital sources have storage clicks throughout the album, which are most noticeable in the beginning of the opening track:



At first, I thought something was wrong with my AV receiver, but I even noticed the clicks when playing from Youtube directly to my TV.

Since these clicks are absent from the LP or any analog recording, I assume it's a digital artifact. But what exactly is causing it? Clock error?

Whenever the synth starts, you'll notice a click/skip. It's not the synth itself because this is absent from the LP version, but it is on digital downloads on vinyl rips...
Back when I had a turntable, I remember reading stories like this, about how things were so much clearer on CD and there were all these things you couldn't hear on the vinyl. Oddly enough, they always seemed to be there, though sometimes I needed headphones to find them.

I can't do that now, but the noises noted are on the MFSL CD issue which was remastered from analogue. I'd assume they are on the master tape until informed otherwise.

Discogs lists some defective CD issues (that is to say, some pressings of CDs have noises other than the ones you mention).

Get out some good headphones and your LP and listen closely, you'll probably pick up those noises on the LP.
 
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restorer-john

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@PHD Equinoxe has always had those noises. My very first CD was Oxygene, rapidly followed by Equinoxe in 1983/4. My original 1st pressing Equinoxe had those random sounds. Don't worry about it.

There's also analogue tape skewing artefacts several times through the disc- something very obvious to me at the time as I was a tape aficionado back in my teens.
 
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restorer-john

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The audio on the above linked Youtube video is just absolutely rotten.
 

restorer-john

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Also, the idiot who uploaded the linked above Youtube JMJ video doesn't know left from right- the entire album has the channels reversed. :facepalm:
 
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