Thread: Audience applause

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Post by Big Al June 30, 2007 (1 of 16)
Does anyone else share my frustration with the habit of fading out audience applause after just a few seconds?? This may strike many as a minor and irrelevent quibble but I find that it considerably diminishes the listening experience - it is so unnatural. Although I prefer no applause, if it has to be there then why not record it in its entirity (or at least longer than a few seconds) which would allow the individual listener to decide the appropriate moment to fade it out?

I fear "you should get out more" (to concerts?) comments but I suspect there may be many more 'out there' who share my frustration and if so I will follow up the matter with the recording companies. Other annoyancies (such as audience coughing,fidgiting etc,manuscript page turning,conductor/performer moansand grunts etc etc) are mainly unavoidable and things any concertgoer has had to become used to but this issue is easily resolved.

Post by Windsurfer June 30, 2007 (2 of 16)
Big Al said:

Does anyone else share my frustration with the habit of fading out audience applause after just a few seconds??

Yeah - ME!

I don't really object to applause but the applause fading out after a few seconds, well, that is very fakey. If they are going to do applause, it should be done well. It should be done in a way that makes you feel as if you are there! The Theodorakis recording I reviewed a few months ago has that quality in spades!

Post by Tootsie June 30, 2007 (3 of 16)
I totally agree with both of you.
Listening in MC, the music is generally coming only from the front, and the rears are only used for ambience. When the applause come at the end, you feel totally immersed in the audience, and that add to the MC experience.

Post by Polly Nomial July 1, 2007 (4 of 16)
I'd go along with this too and add that those companies that chose to excise the applause (why can't they use a separate track?) altogether are even more frustrating...

Post by bissie July 1, 2007 (5 of 16)
Polly Nomial said:

I'd go along with this too and add that those companies that chose to excise the applause (why can't they use a separate track?) altogether are even more frustrating...

I totally agree with the above and that is why - in the very few cases that BIS has a live performance recorded - we have kept the full applause, but made a track point for the applause to help those who don't want to hear it.

This, however, can lead to comical results. At a time, when eMusic had a ban on downloading tracks over a certain duration (this has been changed now), the only track that could be downloaded of our Mahler 9th was the last - the applause! This fact didn't generate a lot of friends for BIS at the time...

Best - Robert

Post by terence July 1, 2007 (6 of 16)
i thoroughly dislike applause on discs, whether short, long or medium in extract.

who wants to hear applause at the end of, say, mahler's 9th, sibelius's 4th or tchaikovsky's 6th, when you've been listening to them in the privacy of a home setting?

i'd rather just be left to my own devices than have applause sprayed all over me for the sake of so-called "atmosphere". it all sounds pretty much the same anyway, and invariably detracts from rather than enhances my experience of the recorded performance.

Post by andrewb July 1, 2007 (7 of 16)
terence said:

i thoroughly dislike applause on discs, whether short, long or medium in extract.

who wants to hear applause at the end of, say, mahler's 9th, sibelius's 4th or tchaikovsky's 6th, when you've been listening to them in the privacy of a home setting?

i'd rather just be left to my own devices than have applause sprayed all over me for the sake of so-called "atmosphere". it all sounds pretty much the same anyway, and invariably detracts from rather than enhances my experience of the recorded performance.

I agree, my preference is for no applause. If I know a disc has applause then it puts me off buying the disc. There have been a very few exceptions where the applause has been acceptable - but I would still have liked to have a track number so I could choose.

The worst example of applause to me is the recent Ondine / Eschenbach disc of Saint-Saens/Poulenc/Barber where we get applause after every single piece - for me this ruined an otherwise excellent disc.

Post by seth July 1, 2007 (8 of 16)
Big Al said:

Does anyone else share my frustration with the habit of fading out audience applause after just a few seconds?? This may strike many as a minor and irrelevent quibble but I find that it considerably diminishes the listening experience - it is so unnatural. Although I prefer no applause, if it has to be there then why not record it in its entirity (or at least longer than a few seconds) which would allow the individual listener to decide the appropriate moment to fade it out?

I fear "you should get out more" (to concerts?) comments but I suspect there may be many more 'out there' who share my frustration and if so I will follow up the matter with the recording companies. Other annoyancies (such as audience coughing,fidgiting etc,manuscript page turning,conductor/performer moansand grunts etc etc) are mainly unavoidable and things any concertgoer has had to become used to but this issue is easily resolved.

A great performance will remain a great performance regardless of if clapping is included, and for how long. While it's obviously preferable to make the applause its own track so that consumers can choose if they want to hear it or not, I scratch my head when I hear that people avoid buying a great performance on CD/SACD because there is 10 seconds of clapping on a 60 minute recording.

Post by tream July 1, 2007 (9 of 16)
seth said:

A great performance will remain a great performance regardless of if clapping is included, and for how long. While it's obviously preferable to make the applause its own track so that consumers can choose if they want to hear it or not, I scratch my head when I hear that people avoid buying a great performance on CD/SACD because there is 10 seconds of clapping on a 60 minute recording.

I would buy a great performance with applause if I have to, but I much prefer that applause be totally excised. For me, applause at the end of a recording is a terrific spell breaker - not a great thing. Applause trivializes the ideal and universal. My view of course, but it seems to me to be the height of laziness on behalf of the producers to leave it in.

I did enjoy Bissie's story, of course.

Post by seth July 1, 2007 (10 of 16)
tream said:

Applause trivializes the ideal and universal.

Huh?

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