Banging noise in front end

jyrostng wrote:
Hitting the brake and the sound stops may be a good clue. The caliper mounts on softer pieces so that it can slide as the disk pad wears. see if you can move the caliper at all, it may be the caliper rattling over bumps, those parts are replaceable separate from the caliper.

In my OP I stated that the caliper was loose and I reformed the lower spring clip to remove the slop and it tightened the caliper, I thought for sure this would fix the problem but it didn't. I am now wondering if some how the brake pads are loose. I don't know what else would make the clunking noise go away when the brakes are applied.