"Clacking" Unknown unwanted sounds on soft solo piano songs. Multiple platforms, multiple artists.

[John772]

Plan

Free/Premium

Country

USA

Device

Samsung S7+ Tablet, S21 phone, Bose surround speakers, Toyota Prius speakers, Onkyo receiver, Pioneer speakers (from the 1980's), Sennheizer headphones

Operating System. Windows 10, Android 10-12

My Question or Issue

I hear a mysterious "clacking"  on numerous quiet songs, on multiple platform equipment, multiple songs, multiple artists.  See:  Angus MacRae "Mirror Image".  Is this piano noise on the original recording such as pedal noise, damper noise or noise from key action?  Is it some artifact that arises in the recording process?  Is it a problem in data transmission?  My equipment?

Help!  I find this soooo bothersome.  Apologies if this has been addressed elsewhere, I am new to Spotify, trying to perhaps shift from Pandora.  I do not hear this problem there...

John

[Eni]

Hey there @John772, 

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community.

Could you send us the URI of the songs you mentioned so we can have a closer look directly from our end? Also, let us know if you hear this during the whole song or only at a specific part. 

We'll be on the lookout.

[John772]

1. Thank you!  I  will begin making a list.  I listen a great deal to the playlist:  "The Most Beautiful Piano Songs".  I often hear this in these songs.  I hear it across many different equipment configurations and communication paths as well.

[powerbenny]

It's happening on loads of the songs on the Peaceful Piano playlist. Terrible experience.

[Nigamshah]

I just found this thread for the exact same reason. The Peaceful Piano playlist has great music, but the clacking sounds drive me crazy, the list is unlistenable for me. Is this some kind of ASMR trend, or are these audio compression artifacts?

[Kiril]

Hey folks,

Thanks for posting in this thread!

We understand that you've found some songs with unwanted sounds and bad quality of the sound overall. As @Eni mentioned earlier, if we want to help you with investigating possible content related issues, we'd need the exact URIs (share links) of the playlist and the songs in question, so to take a closer look.

On another hand, you can also report such situations of broken content that doesn't sound right yourself, by following the steps given in our support page here.

Hope this helps clarify things. Don't hesitate to give us a shout if there's anything else we can help with.

[keylights]

I hear the same sounds on "Peaceful Piano" and "Atmospheric Piano". I also thought it might be pedal sounds picked up in the recording, though I have never heard this sound in any solo piano recording I've ever listened to ever. It is annoying, and too bad because the music is wonderful. If you are checking around and find this post, Spotify, this problem still exists as of early October 2022. I'm listening on headphones and in the car. The sound is there. It makes the  music unlistenable.

[keylights]

As of October 2022 this problem has not been solved.  John's post above and mine below describe the problem simply and clearly. What's further annoying is that Spotify still has not done anything about this. Maybe you have to redigitize all this music?

[Esguelhamento]

I also have the same feeling about most song on the peaceful piano playlist, the mechanical sounds on some of those songs are very exagerated and quite bothersome. But, it does feel like an artistic choice to have them there, it must be.

[pj48north]

I too hear this. I think this is some sort of fad or trend, or could it be the offending pianos are very old vintage instruments? I don’t know, but i don’t think this is some sort of technical issue with the recording.

[rachellafond · Accepted solution]

Hey John and all you other lovely piano music listeners!

I was actually trying to answer an entirely unrelated question for myself, came upon this thread accidentally and thought I would answer it for you as a piano composer and recording artist myself.

What you're hearing is a very specific recording and sound-style that you'll hear on most highly-popular piano tracks on Spotify (not as popular on Pandora, interestingly enough!). It is often called "felted piano", and involves dampening the strings with felt or some other cloth or mechanism, playing very softly, and recording with the microphones very close to the strings and the action. By its nature, it includes a lot of the mechanical sounds of the piano: the action, the damper (foot pedal) system, and even the sound of the performer shifting. 

This practice dates back to the classical period: pianos made for Mozart and Beethoven had pedals that created a very similar sound, though of course if you were listening to a live performance you wouldn't hear anywhere near that amount of mechanical noise. It was popularized in modern piano music by Nils Frahm with his breakout album 'Felt'.

So I'm sorry to say, since you don't care for it, that it is intentional on the part of the artist and an integral part of the track, no matter which platform you might listen on. For what it's worth, as a piano purist I hated it at first as well, but after spending a lot of time hearing the sound it's really grown on me.

There are absolutely piano playlists on Spotify that don't focus on the felted sound, but they won't be the biggest Spotify-curated ones. I'd encourage you to explore different playlists until you find one(s) that have a sound you like.

I sure hope this was helpful to read ❤️
Happy listening and piano-exploring!
-Rachel

[Yan98765]

https://open.spotify.com/track/7eriWSdbkuFHBM6qiHIEq8?si=TnzYvilZS1CwDaG25_LJ1A%0A