J
js41891
Guest
I have heard this a lot from different engineers and producers.... What do they mean by adding or having color to your sound???? Pleasssse, someone explain.......
J
js41891
Guest
Thanks man but could you eleborate or explain it in more detail... example maybe?
---------- Post added at 05:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:14 AM ----------
Thanks man but could you eleborate or explain it in more detail... example maybe?
masterthemix
New member
Colour of the sound does refer to the harmonic content.
You will notice it when listening to different genres of music recorded in different ways. Have you noticed that jazz has a warm fuller tone compared to punk rock.
Also it brings up the old analog vs digital debate. Analog mixers tend to have a warmer soft sound when compared to the clinical sound of digital. Obviously there are other arguments to the debate but thats not what this thread is about.
Preamps all colour the sound in a different way the same way guitar amps all sound different to each other.
I hope this helps
You will notice it when listening to different genres of music recorded in different ways. Have you noticed that jazz has a warm fuller tone compared to punk rock.
Also it brings up the old analog vs digital debate. Analog mixers tend to have a warmer soft sound when compared to the clinical sound of digital. Obviously there are other arguments to the debate but thats not what this thread is about.
Preamps all colour the sound in a different way the same way guitar amps all sound different to each other.
I hope this helps
moses
hardliner
Of course.
The first thing you should be aware of is what the mathematician Fourier found out several years ago. You probably already heard about "Fourier Series", "Fourier Transformation" or "FFT" which is the digital version of the fourier transform ("Fast Fourier Transformation").
Pls don't be scared of this, it is the absolute fundamental theory of audio (or better: signals in general).
The main point he found out is that any kind of signal, no matter how complex it is, can be reproduced by a sum of sine-waves (at different levels, frequency and phase). This is exactly what the Fourier Series are about, these are formulas which exactly explain how different type of waves (rectangle, sawtooth, ect) can be "composed" with a sum of sines. So, sine-waves are the "atoms" of audio (let me add that's there's other kind of such decomposition theories beside Fourier, "wavelets" for example. But they all fall back to Fourier).
Look here for theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_series
Look here for a (great!) practical example: http://www.falstad.com/fourier/
This theory explains 99% of everything you need to know about audio engineering. No matter if it's about sound synthesis, sound analysis or the subjective and technical effects of distortion (like clipping or soft saturation).
For example, clipping a signal produces the same harmonic pattern as a rectangle wave (all odd harmonics extending to infinity and fall down by a very specific about), while a "tube like" saturation approximates a saw-wave (which contains both even and odd harmonics).
The other way around is also possible. Instead of "visually" clipping the waveform (i.e. restricting the values), you could also add odd multiples of the original signal attenuating and extending to infinity to achieve the same rectangular clipping effect. The more odd harmonics you add, the sharper the edges of the square.
It's important to note that these micro/"tone" harmonics rules perfectly correlate with the theory of harmony. It's really just a scaled version of what Fourier describes.
Even more, Fourier is the fundamental theory behind the Nyquist/Shanon theorem and helps a lot to better understand the latter. Many people still believe digital audio is "grainy", especially the high frequencies (which is completely wrong). Fourier also helps in that case
I'll stop for now, make sure you dig into Fourier and Harmony. They belong together and will really help to master the topic.
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J
js41891
Guest
Of course.
The first thing you should be aware of is what the mathematician Fourier found out several years ago. You probably already heard about "Fourier Series", "Fourier Transformation" or "FFT" which is the digital version of the fourier transform ("Fast Fourier Transformation").
Pls don't be scared of this, it is the absolute fundamental theory of audio (or better: signals in general).
The main point he found out is that any kind of signal, no matter how complex it is, can be reproduced by a sum of sine-waves (at different levels, frequency and phase). This is exactly what the Fourier Series are about, these are formulas which exactly explain how different type of waves (rectangle, sawtooth, ect) can be "composed" with a sum of sines. So, sine-waves are the "atoms" of audio (let me add that's there's other kind of such decomposition theories beside Fourier, "wavelets" for example. But they all fall back to Fourier).
Look here for theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_series
Look here for a (great!) practical example: http://www.falstad.com/fourier/
This theory explains 99% of everything you need to know about audio engineering. No matter if it's about sound synthesis, sound analysis or the subjective and technical effects of distortion (like clipping or soft saturation).
For example, clipping a signal produces the same harmonic pattern as a rectangle wave (all odd harmonics extending to infinity and fall down by a very specific about), while a "tube like" saturation approximates a saw-wave (which contains both even and odd harmonics).
The other way around is also possible. Instead of "visually" clipping the waveform (i.e. restricting the values), you could also add odd multiples of the original signal attenuating and extending to infinity to achieve the same rectangular clipping effect. The more odd harmonics you add, the sharper the edges of the square.
It's important to note that these micro/"tone" harmonics rules perfectly correlate with the theory of harmony. It's really just a scaled version of what Fourier describes.
Even more, Fourier is the fundamental theory behind the Nyquist/Shanon theorem and helps a lot to better understand the latter. Many people still believe digital audio is "grainy", especially the high frequencies (which is completely wrong). Fourier also helps in that case
I'll stop for now, make sure you dig into Fourier and Harmony. They belong together and will really help to master the topic.
Wow thanks man... I sure do appreciate this
moses
hardliner
LOL, I completely forgot the conclusion:
What I wanted to say is that harmonic distorion (or just: harmonic content) behaves and sounds exactly like the classic harmony theory.
Even harmonics sound open and warm like octaves above the fundamental (and they are in fact).
Odd harmonics sound like odd intervals: "limited, edgy and compact".
The mix and falling rate of both odd and even harmonics define the color of a sound and its visual shape.
One single frequency is always a perfect sine. As soon the shape of the waveform is changed, harmonics (multiples of the fundamental) will be created.
Also nice:
http://cnx.org/content/m13682/latest/
What I wanted to say is that harmonic distorion (or just: harmonic content) behaves and sounds exactly like the classic harmony theory.
Even harmonics sound open and warm like octaves above the fundamental (and they are in fact).
Odd harmonics sound like odd intervals: "limited, edgy and compact".
The mix and falling rate of both odd and even harmonics define the color of a sound and its visual shape.
One single frequency is always a perfect sine. As soon the shape of the waveform is changed, harmonics (multiples of the fundamental) will be created.
Also nice:
http://cnx.org/content/m13682/latest/
Last edited:
oxygenbeats
New member
I always thought "color" was associated with the higher frequencies in a mix as opposed to any harmonic elements. The flipside of "power" in a mix which is associated with low freq (bass).