Pops & Clicking
You have been warned. As was spoken about in the earlier topics on clipping & distortion, those pops and clicking are the result of those extreme levels in audio. They also can arise from other things like sample rate or latency settings but this is about what can come from not watching those levels and you try to master a song. The pops and clicks are the by product of levels being over the limit of zero decibels.
Its not hard to describe and the sound is similar to that of old vinyl records that have some years of wear on them. The only difference is the clicks on vinyl keep coming back with each revolution on the turntable. The possibility pops and clicks can be produced when ever there is a sound level spike or peak above 0db.
This is why a good mix is crucial to making a quality master without any problems. In the studio every track can be checked to make sure nothing is peaking in the red. That includes the master fader especially. The master fader always remains at 0db. and all the audio tracks need to be leveled and limited in the same way.
These days music reproduction has been revolutionized to a level of quality that probably wont go any further than CD technology. The expectation is perfection since we are this far in the tech of sound reproduction. The rules should be followed so there is no mimic of the old school imperfections of cassette tapes & vinyl which can be of high quality, but can in time show signs of wear an tear with the information or data being exposed to the open air and dust.