Ahhh..., its a Friday and im in relax mode. Anyway, just to share some of the languages we normally use in audio to describe the sound. This is a post from Jim Richardson that I just happen to read this morning. Natatawa lang ako and im guilty as well. I realize mali pala ung choices of words ko minsan to describe a sound system. hehehe.
"To help expand your hi-fi vocabulary, we are pleased to present the following excerpt from the Introductory Guide to High-Performance Audio Systems by Robert Harley , Editor-in-Chief of The Absolute Sound magazine.
The Treble
Good treble is essential to high-quality music reproduction. In fact, many otherwise excellent audio products fail to satisfy musically because of poor treble performance. The treble characteristics we want to avoid are described by the terms bright, tizzy, forward, aggressive, hard, brittle, edgy, dry, white, bleached, wiry, metallic, sterile, analytical, screechy, and grainy. Treble problems are pervasive; look how many adjectives we use to describe them.
1. Tizzy describes too much upper treble (6kHz-10kHz), characterized as a whitening of the treble. Tizzy cymbals have an emphasis on the upper harmonics, the sizzle and air that rides over the main cymbal sound. Tizziness gives cymbals more of an ssssss than a sssshhhh sound.
2. Forward, if applied to treble, is very similar to bright; both describe too much treble. A forward treble, however, also tends to be dry, lacking space and air around it. Many of the terms listed above have virtually identical meanings. Hard, brittle, and metallic all describe an unpleasant treble characteristic that reminds one of metal being struck. In fact, the unique harmonic structure created from the impact of metal on metal is very similar to the distortion introduced by a solid-state power amplifier when it is asked to play louder than it is capable of playing.
3. A particularly annoying treble characteristic is graininess. Treble grain is a coarseness overlaying treble textures. I notice it most on solo violin, massed violins, flute, and female voice. On flute, treble grain is recognizable as a rough or fuzzy sound that seems to ride on top of the flute's dynamic envelope. (That is, the grain follows the flute's volume.) Grain makes violins sound as though they're being played with hacksaw blades rather than bows—a gross exaggeration, but one that conveys the idea of the coarse texture added by grain.
4. The following terms, listed in order of increasing magnitude, describe good treble performance: smooth, sweet, soft, silky, gentle, liquid, and lush. When the treble becomes overly smooth, we say it is romantic, rolled-off, or syrupy. A treble described as "smooth, sweet, and silky" is being complimented; "rolled-off and syrupy" suggests that the component goes too far in treble smoothness, and is therefore colored. A rolled-off and syrupy treble may be blessed relief after hearing bright, hard, and grainy treble, but it isn't musically satisfying in the long run. Such a presentation tends to become bland, uninvolving, slow, thick, closed-in, and lacking detail. All these terms describe the effects of a treble presentation that errs too far on the side of smoothness.
5. The presentation will lack life, air, openness, extension, and a sense of space if the treble is too soft. The music sounds closed-in rather than being big and open. The best treble presentation is one that sounds most like real music. It should have lots of energy—cymbals can, after all, sound quite aggressive in real life—yet not have a synthetic, grainy, or dry character. We don't hear these characteristics in live music; we shouldn't hear them in reproduced music. More important, the treble should sound like an integral part of the music, not a detached noise riding on top of it. If a component has a colored treble presentation, however, it is far less musically objectionable if it errs on the side of smoothness rather than brightness.
More post to come!
Paeng
