Sounds like bearings or piston slap, not the clutch. A misadjusted clutch is going to slip even if it's brand new. When you engage the clutch it is lightly loading the engine so whatever parts are worn and have excessive clearance don't have as much 'room' to accelerate so they don't make as much noise when they suddenly stop. Same principle applies when your riding - less noisy when there's a load on the engine. Without actually hearing it, it's hard to pinpoint what's causing it.
I wouldn't run the bike anymore. Time to tear the thing down, do the top end and measure/inspect everything else. If you don't know the maintenance history of the bike, I'd go ahead and change the crank seals and water pump seal while I was at it. If you continue to run it in it's current condition, it's a matter of time before the engine completely Chernobyls on you adding hundreds to the cost of repairing it.
If you plan on doing the work yourself, get a service manual. If you haven't done much work on bikes, I would suggest a Clymer's manual because they cover a lot of basic information, substitutes for some of the specialized tools, and have lot's of pictures to help you along. Factory service manuals assume you already know what you're doing therefore, don't contain much general information, but will have more specific information.