Strange noise at beginning of MP3 files

[AllanWhoops]

I have encoded a batch of FLAC files to MP3 using ReplayGain.

There is a noise at the beginning of some of them. The best way to describe it is that it is similar to lifting the needle off a record.

This seems to be random but common and isn't in the original FLAC files. It also seems to have started in the last 12 months (the previous time I did a batch conversion).

Any ideas please?

Many thanks.

[Harry Lyre]

The noise likely comes from changes in the encoder or how ReplayGain is applied. Try re-encoding without ReplayGain or using your previous encoder version to see if it resolves the issue.