I'm perfectly aware of the high range of the bassoon at the beginning of the Rite of Spring. It's mentioned with every mention of the work actually, in connection with the "riot" at the premiere.
Anyway you have the patch and I'm pretty sure good ears as well. Are the clicks less noticable in the normal range when you play it?
If they are, I'd be a little surprised, but then again I'm certainly no expert on bassoon.
I'm just drawing from my own experience in school band and recordings I listen to.

Anthony

@Another User said:

Are the clicks less noticable in the normal range when you play it?
If they are, I'd be a little surprised, but then again I'm certainly no expert on bassoon.

Certain frequencies do cover up the clicks. I think Dietz could explain this thing better than I. Just a small example: I have a laptop for internet in my studio which does noise, if the air condition is on I do not hear the laptop anymore, because of air flow, which is more pleasant and much lower in level as the laptop. I think this is also how Dither in audio does work.

Iwan

Yep, this is a psycho-acoustical phenomenon called masking, which appears in the time-domain as well as in the frequency-domain. If you're interested in this topic, do a Google-search, I'm sure there is quite some information available online.

/Dietz - Vienna Symphonic Library

I know about masking, but don't you need a similar frequency range as the noise in order to mask it? That's why I mentioned that metallic clicks are very high frequency, way higher than the highest note a bassoon can play.
Anyway I'm all talked out on this topic!

The recordings of a basson itself can differ in percieved noise ,dependin gon the frequency, your room acoustics, and playback system. This can change the amount of percieved level of the clicks....I guess

Still the basson itself would generally have clicks on every note transition, and depending on how noisy that specific key is, the louder/quieter the click will be.


Now, Herbs right, add some ambient noise in, and use an impulse or tweak some reverb with some filtered out highs, and you lose alot of the "clickyness".

@Another User said:

Yep, this is a psycho-acoustical phenomenon called masking, which appears in the time-domain as well as in the frequency-domain. If you're interested in this topic, do a Google-search, I'm sure there is quite some information available online.

Absolutely. I recommend the (free) guide in pdf format at Izotope site on the subject of dithering. Although it comments from time to time about their mastering product (Ozone) there is an amazing amount of interesting info on the subject of dithering.
I was a real ignorant on anything related to this stuff and now I´m an ignorant who understands dithering [:D]

I've read a lot of "reasons" why the clicking is there, and how it can/should be masked, filtered, etc....

Perhaps it's simply too darn loud and it's bugging some people--for good reason. There is a balance between authenticity and making too much of the things that really aren't what the instrument is supposed to be about.

just lower the volume, put it "back" in reverb with less dry signal and some high frequency filtering, and add some natuaral "hall noise", the clicking should be minimal or not noticable then.