Describing Sound - A Glossary

[Fetou]

Warm vs. Bright... what do you mean by this dynamic of "fundamentals" and "harmonics"?

[gregorio]

Originally Posted by AmanGeorge

3. Soundstage – how well you can “hear the space” of the music. A soundstage can be evaluated along five major categories. The first three are spatial:
-Width of soundstage (how wide does the space feel, how much does sound placement appear to vary within that width?)
-Height of soundstage (how high does the space feel, and how much does sound placement appear to vary within that width?)
-Depth of soundstage (how deep does the space feel, and how much does sound placement appear to vary within that width?)
The next is related to clarity
-How good is the “separation,” that is, how well does the setup present individual instruments or singers as having their own individual spaces rather than melding into one?
And the last is the feeling of “airiness” – a really great, well-presented soundstage will give you not only a sense of size of the space but also a feel for the air in that space so that you really feel like you’re there.

4. What is the overall “feel” of the sound? This can be evaluated along a spectrum from “warm” or “dark” (generally meaning the bass is a little stronger and more enveloping – this can also mean that some detail/clarity is sacrificed in order to achieve a more “relaxed” sound) to “bright” (generally meaning that trebles tend to be emphasized at the expense of bass – this can also mean that the sound is very detailed and clear rather than relaxed).

5. Where do you feel like you’re sitting while listening to the music? The presentation can either be very “forward” (i.e. the performer appears to be right up in your face) or more “removed.”

6. What sort of “texture” does the music give off? This is somewhat related to the feel of the sound – the texture can be either “analytical” (you can hear a lot of the details of the sound, but this is sacrificing the feel to some extent) or “lush” (you can really feel the texture of the instruments, but this might sacrifice some level of detail).

Generally pretty good but I'd like to make a few observations.

3. Height. Height is not a controlable factor and is not a consideration when mixing music. In other words it doesn't really exist. If you are hearing height in your cans this is just a fluke of the interactions of phase characteristics.

4. Warm and Dark are slightly different. Warm is having slightly over balanced mid-lows and not too much brightness. Dark usually means a very minor scale feel with filtered high freqs.

5. When an instrument in the mix feels "in your face" the correct term is presence.

6. Texture usually refers to the complexity of the orchestration.

G

[Oggranak]

Any reason why the very commonly used term "sparkle" or "sparkly" isn't on here?

[Mayzei]

Could we have a definition for saturation?

xx

[htotsuka]

up

[fordgtlover]

Updated
- sibilance

Added
- saturation

Trying to find definitions for:
- tubey
- sparkle

[holyharry]

Fabulous thread!

I'd like to add this if I may...
Amazon.com: Ultimate Demonstration Disc: Chesky Records' Guide to Critical Listening: Various Artists: Music
It's a recording by Chesky Records, who make incredible jazz and classical recordings, and I mean incredible. It's meant to teach you how to really listen to music through your system, and also helps you test it.
I had a copy, loaned it, and never saw it again. But it was excellent.

[CDBacklash]

Chesty - The vocalist sounds like their chest is too big
... LOL

[djevoultion]

Thanks

[pikoli]

What does it mean, that cans are lifeless, boring?

[Jackbush]

I was going to start a similar thread, but with general terms like 'Cans, IEMs, E2c, UE11's' with terms that we all use and throw around like that.

[Tiemen]

Originally Posted by pikoli

What does it mean, that cans are lifeless, boring?

I can better describe what it they are not.
Some headphones makes your feet tapping to the rhythm, your head shaking and your hands playing the air guitar.
Or/ and you get a sense of involvement.
Those headphones are not liveless/ boring.

[naves]

When I am describing a sound, it depends of my mood, how my soul receives the music, its message along with all details which brings me that priceless pleasure of listening.

[Kawai_man]

WHen describing headphones i eel it mostly makes sense to myself lol

[Jackbush]

Looking at the list of terms for frequency ranges, I wouldn't take it as gospel, although as a rough guide for the uninitiated, it's useful.