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Glite Dictionary
surface noise

surface noise

1 6.8
A soft background sound made when a record player's needle rubs a vinyl record
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : ruido de superficie

Examples

  • I’ll be staring at space here and listening to surface noise all night.

    Sharky's Machine (1981)

  • The vinyl record produced a distinct surface noise as the stylus moved across its grooves.

  • Many audiophiles appreciate the vintage charm of surface noise when listening to their favorite records.

  • Despite the modern technology, some listeners still enjoy the subtle surface noise from their turntables.

Synonyms

scrape
vssurface noise
9 3.2

A harsh, rough sound made when one thing rubs another

is the same noise but specifically caused by a stylus on a vinyl record
scraping
vssurface noise
5 2.3

A harsh sound made when one thing rubs another

is the continuous background sound from a stylus moving over a vinyl record

How Noisy

pop
3.1
crackle
18 3.9
surface noise
  • Specialized
1 6.8
to hiss
31 4.2

Surface Forms

surface noise singular
surface noises plural

Morphology

surface + noise

The phrase is directly compositional: 'surface' (the outer/top layer) combined with 'noise' (unwanted sound) yields the straightforward meaning of noise coming from a surface. Although the canonical use refers to vinyl records, a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it denotes background sound produced by a surface, and this source-of-noise construction is cross-linguistically common.

Etymology

Surface noise comes from the image of a record player's needle running over the vinyl surface, making small pops and hissing noise. So, 'surface noise' now means the quiet 'background noise' you hear when a vinyl record plays.