Describing Sound - A Glossary

[wackos]

how about adding "laid back"?

[Vandal]

And you sir, are a life saver. I was considering posting a new query thread for the same. And voila....the solution to my problem!! I'm a simple newbie here and get confused with terms like "warm" and "forward". I then go "Ok, I kinda get what he's saying". But actually if I were asked to define the terms I would know diddly squat...

Thanks a million! Oh, I've copy pasted these to refer to them from time to time.

[fordgtlover]

Update:
Bass
Forward(ness)
Highs
High Midrange
Laid-back
Low Midrange
Midrange
Sub-Bass
Upper Midrange

I was unable to find any real consensus on the breakdown of the frequency range into bass, mids and highs (and the divisions within those ranges).

If anyone has an authoratative view on this, I'd love to hear it.

Cheers

[ShinyFalcon]

cold The same as "cool," only more so. Having somewhat excessive upper-range output and weak lower-range output.

cool Moderately deficient in body and warmth, due to progressive attenuation of frequencies below about 150Hz.

Stereophile: Sounds Like? An Audio Glossary

Would this definition of cold work? Trying to find the meaning of cold as well.

[Rob E.]

Originally Posted by fordgtlover

Update:
Bass
Forward(ness)
Highs
High Midrange
Laid-back
Low Midrange
Midrange
Sub-Bass
Upper Midrange

I was unable to find any real consensus on the breakdown of the frequency range into bass, mids and highs (and the divisions within those ranges).

If anyone has an authoratative view on this, I'd love to hear it.

Cheers

Extreme Bottom : below 32 Hz
Low bass, Bottom octave : 20 to 40 Hz
Midbass : 40 to 80 Hz
Upper bass : 80 to 160 Hz
Lower midrange : 160 to 320 Hz
Midrange : 320 to 2560 Hz (2.5 kHz)
Upper midrange : 2560 to 5120 Hz (2.56-5.12 kHZ)
Highs, lower highs : 5120 to 10,240 Hz (5.12-10.24 kHz)
Extreme highs, top octave : 10,240 to 20,000 Hz (10.24-20 kHz)

from the "Introduction: How to Read TAS" by Harry Pearson
1994 edition "Guide to High End Audio Components"



PS - A quick bit of info for the benefit of those who might not ordinarily know; Harry Pearson (HP), was the founder and longtime editor of "The Absolute Sound" magazine (TAS). He, moreso than any other individual in the industry, was singularly responsible for the creation of an audio vocabulary. This was and continued to be a focus of TAS, so that ambiguous sonic descriptions were clarified to a level where it became possible to understand one another, and meaningfully and intelligently exchange ideas.

[gregorio]

Hot is normally a term applied to analogue recording and mixing levels and refers to a signal being over the unity threshold (+4dBu) or, in more layman's terms, a little too high in volume! In an analogue system, this would result in compression artefacts and a slight reduction in the high frequencies. This is often perceived as "warmth".

We don't usually refer to digital signals as hot, as of course a digital signal cannot exceed 0dB.

Gregorio

[gregorio]

Pink Noise is equal power across the musical octave spectrum whereas white noise is equal power for every hertz. This results in white noise sounding top heavy compared to pink noise. Pink noise is most often used for testing purposes, to analyse the frequency response of cans, mics, monitors etc., and indeed rooms and monitoring environments.

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.

Gregorio

[Rob E.]

Originally Posted by gregorio

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.

Gregorio

Originally Posted by Rob E.

Extreme Bottom : below 32 Hz
Low bass, Bottom octave : 20 to 40 Hz
Midbass : 40 to 80 Hz
Upper bass : 80 to 160 Hz
Lower midrange : 160 to 320 Hz
Midrange : 320 to 2560 Hz (2.5 kHz)
Upper midrange : 2560 to 5120 Hz (2.56-5.12 kHZ)
Highs, lower highs : 5120 to 10,240 Hz (5.12-10.24 kHz)
Extreme highs, top octave : 10,240 to 20,000 Hz (10.24-20 kHz)

from the "Introduction: How to Read TAS" by Harry Pearson
1994 edition "Guide to High End Audio Components"

I can only assume you're referring to this. Care to elaborate? As I am, one of the uninitiated, and would really like to know your thoughts.

[gregorio]

Hi Rob,

For example extreme bottom would usually be refered to as sub or sub bass freqs. I've always thought of extreme highs as 12+kHz, mids usually means roughly 1-4kHz. You then commonly hear terms like mid-highs, high-mids, etc. To a certain extent we tend to make it up as we go along, although we always seem to know what we are talking about?! Must be tricky if you're starting out, but you'll get the hang of it.

I've been in the music business for 25 years and there are no specific terms = frequencies, we use the terms as a rough guide and then specify the freq if we want to talk specifics.

Gregorio

[Rob E.]

Hiya Gregorio,

I appreciate your perspective on this. FWIW; When I noted that the OP fordgtlover commented... "I was unable to find any real consensus on the breakdown of the frequency range into bass, mids and highs (and the divisions within those ranges). If anyone has an authoratative view on this, I'd love to hear it."

I recalled seeing this info in print somewhere and thought I'd contribute to the thread, giving proper credit to its source.

Being a devoted reader of "The Absolute Sound" magazine for many years (about 1980-2001), I personally consider Harry Pearson as authoritative a source as can be found. His "breakdown" seems more specific, and yours somewhat general. However no one's infallible, and I sincerely do appreciate your perspective (as said earlier).

Best,

[gregorio]

Originally Posted by Rob E.

Hiya Gregorio,

I appreciate your perspective on this. FWIW; When I noted that the OP fordgtlover commented... "I was unable to find any real consensus on the breakdown of the frequency range into bass, mids and highs (and the divisions within those ranges). If anyone has an authoratative view on this, I'd love to hear it."

I recalled seeing this info in print somewhere and thought I'd contribute to the thread, giving proper credit to its source.

Being a devoted reader of "The Absolute Sound" magazine for many years (about 1980-2001), I personally consider Harry Pearson as authoritative a source as can be found. His "breakdown" seems more specific, and yours somewhat general. However no one's infallible, and I sincerely do appreciate your perspective (as said earlier).

Best,

Harry Pearson's "breakdown" might be very specific but to a certain extent it's irrelevant unless everyone sticks to his classification, which they do not. Remember also that there are often differences in terminology depending on which side of the pond you're in. For example in the UK we use the word crotchet while in the states we'd say quarter note.

I know you're looking for specific answers but unfortunately they don't really exist in this instance. Go ahead and use Pearson's classifications if you wish but if few others use that classification then it's not really much use as a method of communicating freq ranges with other people. As I said to start with, as a guideline it's useful but if you take it as gospel you'll be disappointed that you may still not be communicating what you think you're communicating.

Gregorio

[fordgtlover]

Added

Congested
Cool

[mikeg88]

Wow this is great. I think I count as a noob. Many of these words I knew, and many I did not. Thanks fordgtlover!

[ran_ph]

While searching for reviews of Sony DAPs, I came across this two word japanese phrase that meant slight emphasis on bass and treble (or slightly depressed midrange). I tried looking for the site but could not find it anymore.

Does anybody know that japanese phrase?

[fordgtlover]

Originally Posted by mikeg88

Wow this is great. I think I count as a noob. Many of these words I knew, and many I did not. Thanks fordgtlover!

It's my pleasure. Audio is such a wonderful journey that we are all noobs in some respect or another - no-one knows it all.