Describing Sound PDF

From Audio in Media Listening: Sensitivity to sound varies from person to person; however, listening skills can be acquired through training. What Listening Is and Is Not: “Listening is perceiving sound with careful and responsive attention.” “It is thinking about sound- analyzing its quality, sty...

From Audio in Media Listening: Sensitivity to sound varies from person to person; however, listening skills can be acquired through training. What Listening Is and Is Not: “Listening is perceiving sound with careful and responsive attention.” “It is thinking about sound- analyzing its quality, style, interpretation, and nuance.” “It is engaging in new sonic experiences regardless of their strangeness.” “It is examining your reaction to sound in relation to your mood and feeling.” (Alten, 17-20) We are continually bombarded with hundreds of sounds at any particular moment. In fact, most people have developed “selective” hearing. Only the interesting, useful, or pleasing sounds are perceived, while others wash away in the background. Learning to listen means paying attention to all sounds. Focus on all sounds, not just the interesting ones, allows the attentive listener to better understand, control, or even recreate it. How to Listen and What to Listen For: The best way to learn how to listen is to begin focusing on sound as it occurs. Learning what to listen for is best achieved through analysis of the elements that create the sound and the way the sound exists in the environment. The shape of a room, the materials of the environment, air quality, and many other elements shape every sound you hear. Since each person hears differently, a set of concrete standards for listening and describing sound is hard to develop. Alten, Stanley. Audio in Media. 2nd ed. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1986. Describing Sound: Sound can be described in a variety of ways. One place to start is with some of the controllable qualities of sound. Intensity, duration, and timber are three of these qualities. There are others words that are synonymous with these including: tone, volume, presence, and sustain. These terms are broad ones and often require additional description. Adjectives are often used to describe the differences between high, mid, and low tones found in a sonic event. Although these words are subjective, they facilitate conversation about sound quality. Here are some examples. ALL TONES Warm Rich Clean Flat Powerful Smooth Natural Big BASS (LOW) TONES Chesty Punchy Boomy Tight Muddy Full Big MID TONES Warm Strong Tinny Vivid Focus Boxy Nasal Rich Powerful HIGH TONES Crisp Clean Airy Sibilant Bright Strident Smooth Thanks to Bruce Bartlett and Pro Audio Review, here is a Sound Quality Glossary. (http://www.faqs.org/faqs/AudioFAQ/part2/) Airy: Spacious. Open. Instruments sound like they are surrounded by a large reflective space full of air. Good reproduction of high-frequency reflections. High-frequency response extends to 15 or 20 kHz. Bassy: Emphasized low frequencies below about 200 Hz. Blanketed: Weak highs, as if a blanket were put over the speakers. Bloated: Excessive mid-bass around 250 Hz. Poorly damped low frequencies, low- frequency resonances. See tubby. Blurred: Poor transient response. Vague stereo imaging, not focused. Boomy: Excessive bass around 125 Hz. Poorly damped low frequencies or low-frequency resonances. Boxy: Having resonances as if the music were enclosed in a box. Sometimes an emphasis around 250 to 500 Hz. Breathy: Audible breath sounds in woodwinds and reeds such as flute or sax. Good response in the upper-mids or highs. Bright: High-frequency emphasis. Harmonics are strong relative to fundamentals. Chesty: The vocalist sounds like their chest is too big. A bump in the low-frequency response around 125 to 250 Hz. Clear: See Transparent. Colored: Having timbres that are not true to life. Non-flat response, peaks or dips. Crisp: Extended high-frequency response, especially with cymbals. Dark: Opposite of bright. Weak high frequencies. Delicate: High frequencies extending to 15 or 20 kHz without peaks. Depth: A sense of distance (near to far) of different instruments. Detailed: Easy to hear tiny details in the music; articulate. Adequate high-frequency response, sharp transient response. Dull: See dark. Edgy: Too much high frequencies. Trebly. Harmonics are too strong relative to the fundamentals. Distorted, having unwanted harmonics that add an edge or raspiness. Fat: See Full and Warm. Or, spatially diffuse - a sound is panned to one channel, delayed, and then the delayed sound is panned to the other channel. Or, slightly distorted with analog tape distortion or tube distortion. Full: Strong fundamentals relative to harmonics. Good low-frequency response, not necessarily extended, but with adequate level around 100 to 300 Hz. Male voices are full around 125 Hz; female voices and violins are full around 250 Hz; sax is full around 250 to 400 Hz. Opposite of thin. Gentle: Opposite of edgy. The harmonics - highs and upper mids - are not exaggerated, or may even be weak. Grainy: The music sounds like it is segmented into little grains, rather than flowing in one continuous piece. Not liquid or fluid. Suffering from harmonic or I.M. distortion. Some early A/D converters sounded grainy, as do current ones of inferior design. Powdery is finer than grainy. Grungy: Lots of harmonic or I.M. distortion. Hard: Too much upper midrange, usually around 3 kHz. Or, good transient response, as if the sound is hitting you hard. Harsh: Too much upper midrange. Peaks in the frequency response between 2 and 6 kHz. Or, excessive phase shift in a digital recorder's lowpass filter. Honky: Like cupping your hands around your mouth. A bump in the response around 500 to 700 Hz. Mellow: Reduced high frequencies, not edgy. Muddy: Not clear. Weak harmonics, smeared time response, I.M. distortion. Muffled: Sounds like it is covered with a blanket. Weak highs or weak upper mids. Nasal: Honky, a bump in the response around 600 Hz. Piercing: Strident, hard on the ears, screechy. Having sharp, narrow peaks in the response around 3 to 10 kHz. Presence: A sense that the instrument in present in the listening room. Synonyms are edge, punch, detail, closeness and clarity. Adequate or emphasized response around 5 kHz for most instruments, or around 2 to 5 kHz for kick drum and bass. Puffy: A bump in the response around 500 Hz. Punchy: Good reproduction of dynamics. Good transient response, with strong impact. Sometimes a bump around 5 kHz or 200 Hz. Rich: See Full. Also, having euphonic distortion made of even-order harmonics. Round: High-frequency rolloff or dip. Not edgy. Sibilant: "Essy" Exaggerated "s" and "sh" sounds in singing, caused by a rise in the response around 6 to 10 kHz. Sizzly: See Sibilant. Also, too much highs on cymbals. Smeared: Lacking detail. Poor transient response, too much leakage between microphones. Poorly focused images. Smooth: Easy on the ears, not harsh. Flat frequency response, especially in the midrange. Lack of peaks and dips in the response. Spacious: Conveying a sense of space, ambiance, or room around the instruments. Stereo reverb. Early reflections. Steely: Emphasized upper mids around 3 to 6 kHz. Peaky, nonflat high-frequency response. See Harsh, Edgy. Strident: See Harsh, Edgy. Sweet: Not strident or piercing. Delicate. Flat high-frequency response, low distortion. Lack of peaks in the response. Highs are extended to 15 or 20 kHz, but they are not bumped up. Often used when referring to cymbals, percussion, strings, and sibilant sounds. Telephone-like: See Tinny. Thin: Fundamentals are weak relative to harmonics. Tight: Good low-frequency transient response and detail. Tinny: Narrowband, weak lows, peaky mids. The music sounds like it is coming through a telephone or tin can. Transparent: Easy to hear into the music, detailed, clear, not muddy. Wide flat frequency response, sharp time response, very low distortion and noise. Tubby: Having low-frequency resonances as if you're singing in a bathtub. See bloated. Veiled: Like a silk veil is over the speakers. Slight noise or distortion or slightly weak high frequencies. Not transparent. Warm: Good bass, adequate low frequencies, adequate fundamentals relative to harmonics. Not thin. Also excessive bass or midbass. Also, pleasantly spacious, with adequate reverberation at low frequencies. Also see Rich, Round. Warm highs means sweet highs. Weighty: Good low-frequency response below about 50 Hz. Suggesting an object of great weight or power, like a diesel locomotive. Airy Bassy Blanketed Bloated Blurred Boomy Boxy Breathy Bright Chesty Clear Colored Crisp Dark Delicate Depth Detailed Dull Edgy Fat Full Gentle Grainy Grungy Hard Harsh Honky Mellow Muddy Muffled Nasal Piercing Presence Puffy Punchy Rich Round Sibilant Sizzly Smeared Smooth Spacious Steely Strident Sweet Telephone-like Thin Tight Tinny Transparent Tubby Veiled Warm Weighty