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What exactly are "highs" "mids" "treble" "roll off"?

post #1 of 8
2/15/13 at 9:20am
Thread Starter 

I've spent a lot of time on head-fi lately and always run into people who *seem* to know what they're talking about. Terms like "highs" -- "lows" -- "mids" -- "mid upper" -- "voices sound forward" -- "the base rolls off" -- "treble rolls off" -- "recessed" -- "frequency dips and spikes"..the list could go on....my point is what does all this mean in layman's terms? Can you provide some real musical examples of some of these? In other words, you could go on youtube or something, find a song that has the element you want to describe, and say "Go listen to this song, listen specifically for this instrument or this sound *insert instrument or sound* and THAT is in the range of (high, mid, low...whatever it correlates to). If I sound pushy or aggressive, I apologize...but I'm low on time and really have get to the point. wink_face.gif I just want to understand exactly what I'm reading so I can form an appropriate opinion. 

 

Any and all responses are appreciated. 

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post #2 of 8
2/15/13 at 10:13am

Did you check the glossary?

http://www.head-fi.org/a/describing-sound-a-glossary

 

And as for examples, if people could explain them better (audio files, youtube, etc..) they would have done it a long while ago.

 

What you use (headphone, earphone) to listen to those youtube video and songs also plays into representing what people are trying to say. So you won't hear exactly what people are trying to describe.

 

The best and only way to understand is, sadly, for you to go out and audition the same setup that people used while making those statements, and then you'll be able to "see for yourself".

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post #3 of 8
2/15/13 at 10:48am
Thread Starter 

Nope, I appreciate the link. It did help. However, I still feel as if those definitions lacked "layman's" terms. Perhaps it's just a tad too complicated/subjective to nail down a precise definition, as you said. I'll just keep on listening away and hopefully learn through experience or "see for myself", as you would say. 

 

Cheers. beerchug.gif

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post #4 of 8
2/15/13 at 11:06am

Yeah... that's sadly the case here.

 

I never understood it myself, either... until I purchased higher-end headphones and "saw for myself" what exactly people meant.

 

Sometimes experience can't simply be expressed in words.

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post #5 of 8
2/15/13 at 11:18am

This should give you a good idea of what lows, mids, and highs are: http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/resources/freqchart/main_display.htm

 

You can also mess around with an equalizer in those ranges to see what they sound like.

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post #6 of 8
2/15/13 at 11:58am
Thread Starter 

Thanks, Chewy. I'll give it a ring. 

 

I will be receiving HE-400's tonight, so hopefully I can gain some appreciation for quality sound vs. thumping around with my ATH M50's..not that they're a bad phone...

 

Edit: Wow, I just looked at the link. Pretty damn close to what I want. Thank you VERY much, Chewy. 


Edited by ToInfinity - 2/15/13 at 12:00pm
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post #7 of 8
2/25/13 at 12:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ToInfinity View Post

Nope, I appreciate the link. It did help. However, I still feel as if those definitions lacked "layman's" terms. Perhaps it's just a tad too complicated/subjective to nail down a precise definition, as you said. I'll just keep on listening away and hopefully learn through experience or "see for myself", as you would say. 

 

Cheers. beerchug.gif


I am fairly new to getting down to the technicalities and or jargon of everything that is used on this forum, it is a great place full of information that fascinates and interests me. I am PhD physicist and I have worked in the Oil Exploration game for close to 20 years. I have worked solely with sound waves of all descriptions and the processing thereof. However for the life of me, whatever I read, whatever I look at, for some reason I cannot consistently assign a description to what is hitting my ear drums, it is more like a feeling, is is more adjectives that I want to use, but those adjectives are totally subjective. I suspect this is the case in general because I am capable of this if anyone is, but I can't. The curves do nothing for me. Maybe my problem is that I am used to interpreting sound waves visually and not aurally. However I am not going to give up. The link above gives me one part of the puzzle yes, thank you for that very much, but if anyone has any gems of layman's adjectives, then that would be cool. Or even actually what to listen for, strip it back one level.

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post #8 of 8
2/25/13 at 12:58pm

The Glossary is probably worth keeping open as I read come to think of it, it is pretty good....

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