My cellmate — err, wife asked me the other day during a string quartet DVD, "What's that hissing sound? It sounds like breathing." and I told her, "That's because they have vipers in their viols." Correct?
What is that "hissing" sound?
What's the "hissiest" string quartet recording you've ever heard?
In a string quartet, all that sniffing to send signals to each other bothers me. It may work in a concert hall, but it tends to distract from recordings.
In my collection, it's a toss-up between the Vegh and the Lindsays as to who has the worst head cold.
Analogue recording? Background tape hiss on the original recording?
Something emitted by your loudspeakers/hi-fi; live electrical hiss? Local interference?
could be anything...
GG
I know what the hissing sound was. Nobody has identified it yet. I figured it was a common sound heard in many string quartet recordings, but apparently I was wrong.
Yeah...that might make for a dicey concert. Hit vibrato on a high C and you get tagged.
Incidentally, is the DVD coupled with a CD release. Go to a music shop or library and hunt down the CD. If it says AAD then you see the answer for the "hissing noise". It comes from the analog recorder that they used to record the original performance=Analog recording; Analog Mixing and Digital tranfer to CD...meaning that you got a recording in CD format that's just a straight cut off a concert recording tape.
If I recall correctly analog recording always carried a hiss because of the microphone picking up ambient noise as well as the inner workings of the analog machine used to record.
no, no. It's not a continuous hiss. I can tell tape hiss, and it's not that. (see opening post) I know what it is, but nobody else has come up with the right answer.
Hissing/breathing sounds don't especially bother me in chamber works but I find footstomping to be a little more irritating. Why not have mats under each performer's feet? Perhaps that would provide better purchase for the 'cello spike as well if a holder isn't used.
I think they should mike the feet, and have a special resonant foot-stomping box under their feet. The cello spike should be acoustically coupled to a resonating soundboard as well. Maybe this would put the Beat into CM.
Groovy. Perhaps there could be a secondary 'cello spike then the whole thing could be converted into a kind of theremin (as long as someone didn't mind lying on the floor under the 'cellist to activate it - perhaps that would rule out a female 'cellist wearing a skirt, though...).
If the players would trim their nose hairs, the deep inhalation an exhalations through the nose would not make that nasal Aeolian harp singing sound, though some of us would miss it, an extra-musical musical perq.
dude, forget about it, the nosehair bows scraping the strings are making the nasal hairs vibrate, which makes the hair vibrate, among other things. You hear all these delicious details; instead of complaining, you should be grateful.
I'm just happy to have an explanation for the sniffing. I never knew it was a signal. I thought they were taking a deep breath to concentrate, but always hated the sound. It's the audio equivalent of HD tv.
I remember hearing a cat meowing once in a Haydn quartet recording.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Classical Music Forum
2.6M posts
40.5K members
Since 2004
A forum community dedicated to classical music for musicians and other enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about composers, compositions, arrangements, collections, recordings, techniques, instruments, styles, reviews, classifieds, and more!