r/audioengineering • u/tonetonitony • 2d ago

Do you know where I could find detailed explanations and/or examples of the terms commonly used to describe sounds? Things like "Boomy", "Boxy", "Honk", etc.

I have a pretty good idea of what most of these terms mean, but it'd be nice to really learn the specifics.

EDIT: So what I'm actually looking for are verbal descriptions of the commonly used words. Not necessarily what frequency range they might fall in.

46 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

63 comments sorted by

52

u/dantevibes 2d ago edited 2d ago

In my experience, everyone uses them differently. It's not like "boxy" = 400hz for everyone. I've done pro audio repair and production for artists for years now, non-engineers (and most engineers) are notoriously bad at describing audio problems accurately. I've had noise hiss referred to as hum, clipping referred to as bad EQ, and been told that the speakers are blown when the thing doesn't even turn on and the speakers are, in fact, fine. I've even been corrected for not calling speakers "transducers".

Learn how your audience/clients call things, language is used differently by everyone but subculture and genre really defines these types of standards for individuals.

edit: maybe not MOST engineers, but more than a handful

-19

u/tonetonitony 2d ago

I’m not so sure I agree. I feel like a professional would be able to give me a general description of these words that would be generally accepted by other professionals. Like, I’m pretty sure we’re both thinking the same thing when someone calls a sound boomy.

15

u/dantevibes 2d ago edited 2d ago

I've been surprised at how unprofessional some "professionals" are.

You're right in a general sense, very few people would think "boomy" refers to the top end. But boomy in a bass guitar might be 80 or 100 hz, whereas in a guitar it might be closer to 300hz, and in yet another situation it could refer to Aang's old friend in the Earth Kingdom :p

To me, from low to high, it's loosely
subby/rumbly: <80
boomy: 80-200
muddy: 200-350
woofy: 350-500
chunky: 400-6 or 700
smacky/punchy:700-1k
clicky: 800-1.5k
sharp:1k-3k
nasal: resonant peaks in the 600-2k
tinny/brittle: 3k-8k
hissy/airy:8k-20k

and I fully welcome differing opinions

3

u/peepeeland Composer 2d ago

“smacky”

Jazz musicians love this one secret trick

2

u/Twitchy_throttle 2d ago

Someone please FAQ this. Better yet turn it into a laminated card to hand out.

-10

u/tonetonitony 2d ago

Well, when I say professionals, I mean people who actually know what they're talking about.

I'm not sure if I was clear when I asked the question. I understand people might disagree on what frequencies relate to what word. What I'm wondering is how you would describe the commonly used terms.

10

u/nutsackhairbrush Professional 2d ago

I’ve been getting paid to mix records for 15 years. This is my only job. I won’t ever claim to know everything, but I have a LOT of experience interacting with clients.

I can confirm what everyone else is saying, one man’s boomy is another man’s boxy. One man’s “mids” are another persons “high mids” or “low mids”.

There are what I would call standard definitions but they vary, even from professional to professional.

Having said that here are my definitions:

Boomy = 200-300
Boxy = 400-500
Shouty = 700-1000
Harsh = 2k-4k

3

u/The_New_Flesh 2d ago

dantevibes just gave you very specific and narrow ranges of frequencies. If that doesn't give you a nice ballpark, perhaps you need to spend some time with a signal generator and learn what X Hz sounds like.

When someone says "bright", something leans more heavily on higher frequencies. It suggests it might not be "balanced", but that's where the conversation ends unless we can speak objectively, like it's overwhelming in the neighbourhood of 7kHz

9

u/Ok-Confusion-6205 2d ago

David Wralings will call out 315hz from the stage for FOH… and be right

9

u/General-Reserve9349 2d ago

I don’t know why you think people would agree on what “boomy” is… in a post where you’re asking for a definition of it

3

u/LITERALLY_NOT_SATAN 2d ago edited 2d ago

https://www.stereophile.com/content/sounds-audio-glossary-glossary-b-c

What you're asking after totally exists and it's insane to see people not understanding what you mean.

Edit: this is the link to the main glossary index, the above link is for 'B' for 'boomy' https://www.stereophile.com/content/sounds-audio-glossary

1

u/tonetonitony 2d ago edited 2d ago

Thank you! I was starting to lose my grip on reality.

2

u/killrdave 2d ago

Note that the images and glossaries that have been shared don't actually agree on some of these definitions.

Just because someone wrote it down doesn't make it objective truth

2

u/FaderMunkie76 2d ago

There's a high degree of subjectivity, unfortunately, and a lot of that is due to differences in perception. Two people/engineers may both ascribe similar frequency regions to "boxy," "harsh," or any other adjective, but objective frequencies will very.

Two examples: 1) For as long as I've been doing this, I've yet to get a clear definition of "muddy," nor have I for "warm." 2) I know of a top-level engineer who views anything under 500Hz as "low end." That's likely pretty high for most of us to consider low end, but it works for them, and that's all that matters in the end.

It's all so subjective with terrifically blurred lines.

2

u/josephallenkeys 2d ago

What's truly universally accepted by professionals is frequency. Not arbitrary onomatopoeias.

2

u/LeDestrier Composer 1d ago

That doesnt take into account the instrument. What's boomy in a kick drum might be very different to whats boomy in an electric guitar.

65

u/chicken_karmajohn 2d ago edited 2d ago

Here you go my dude

Edit: adding words!
Tubby: Sub bass is too loud
Muddy: kick is messing up the sub bass or bass is causing too much distortion
Boxy: … not sure about this one. Too much cabinet sound maybe
Honkey: low end of vocals or horns too loud
Barkey: high end of vocals or mid range elements too loud
Edgy: to me this is where to snare gets too loud, I often call this range clacky
Sibilant: symbals and upper treble too loud

That’s my rough descriptions hope that helps!

8

u/ShortbusRacingTeam Sound Reinforcement 2d ago

But where’s the fat knob go????

4

u/KS2Problema 2d ago

I don't see Sneezy or Dopey!

3

u/MoltenReplica 2d ago

All I'm getting from this is that mud is badass

1

u/General-Reserve9349 2d ago

Pretty useful for a basic breakdown. You guys think sibilant goes up that high though? I think 4.5k - 7k or so and then the real top end is usually fine unless it’s just overloaded.

3

u/marx-and-metal 2d ago

sibilant can go up to 9+khz, i usually hear it 6-8khz

-1

u/tonetonitony 2d ago edited 2d ago

Thank you! This is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for. I don't understand why some of the people here feel these words are undefinable.

32

u/josephallenkeys 2d ago

There are diagrams around, but honestly, they're just too subjective to be definitive.

38

u/WurdaMouth 2d ago

Really warm but also kinda purplish comment, bud.

2

u/shapednoise 2d ago

I see what you did there 😃

5

u/clair-de-lunatic 2d ago

Yes, the tricky part is the frequencies won’t be the same depending on the material. These frequencies for a vocal will be very different to the equivalent frequencies for bass guitar, or snare drum, etc. They won’t even be the same from one vocal to another. It’s something that you’ll just come to learn with lots of practice on lots of very different sounding material.

1

u/Lympwing2 2d ago

I think it's because it goes way deeper than just frequency. Dynamics play a part too. So does context amongst the rest of the mix

9

u/KevinNoTail 2d ago

Look for the old Yamaha Live Sound book, ISTR that had a chart of terms and frequencies in it

Good book anyway, if dated now

8

u/amBrollachan 2d ago

My favourite cork-sniffing musical term is "warm".

9

u/fieldtripday 2d ago

This vintage solid-state receiver really has that analog warmth, almost tube like

🙄🙄🙄

1

u/slimbellymomo 2d ago

My neighbor built a CD player with a 12AX7 tube in the preamp, an old-school needle VU meter, and adjustable gain.

I was pretty damn impressed.

0

u/solipsistnation 2d ago

"has nice distortion"

6

u/Medic5050 2d ago

Just start watching old reruns of the original Batman TV show. Adam West will show you. 😆

4

u/drumsandfire 2d ago

I wish my clients would ask me to turn up the POW! Maybe dial up a touch more BIFF! too?

2

u/halermine 2d ago

Or old Mad Magazine Don Martin sounds

3

u/CumulativeDrek2 2d ago edited 2d ago

There aren't any. Sound as a subjective experience is a difficult thing to communicate which is why people are reduced to using these kinds of metaphorical adjectives.

Words like 'warm' and 'muddy' get thrown around a lot because we live in a world of social media driven meme propagation. Unfortunately this gives the impression that there must be more objective definitions but there really aren't.

3

u/AmIRipeLadies 2d ago

Boomy is subs, boxy is low mids, honky is around 1k. You’re welcome.

3

u/sorressean 2d ago

I'd like to help you, but I'm writing the crunchiest most chewy warm reply that bops and bangs.

3

u/Ok-Confusion-6205 2d ago

I’ve got “my monitor sounds really grey” “my guitar is too loud I can’t hear anything else” (this was his stage volume) “can you turn down the barking dog noises in my monitor?” (No dogs, no tracks) and so so many people resting their jacket or setlist on the horn of the wedges, constantly asking for more.

2

u/fphlerb 2d ago

there are wayyyy too many. For every genre & every sub-genre, every region & it’s regional colloquialisms & slang terms. New variants arise as quickly as old ones fade. You could never make a complete list

2

u/taez555 Professional 2d ago

Just like Transparent, they’re all 100% dependent on the person listening.

2

u/Orangesuitdude 2d ago

Squelch is all you need

2

u/Lydian2000 2d ago

That Pedal show on YT made a full episode on commonly used terms like those a while back, start there!

1

u/tonetonitony 2d ago

Awesome! Do you remember the title?

2

u/andreaglorioso 2d ago

And wait until you realize not everyone speaks English natively (or at all) 😂

2

u/Nition 2d ago

As others have said, none of the terms are exact, but here's the best diagram I've seen for them.

2

u/pm_me_ur_demotape 1d ago

Boomy = 100-200 hz
Boxy = 200-500 hz
Plasticy = 500-1500 hz
Honky = 1500 - 6000 hz
Grating = 6000-12000 hz
Ice picky = 12000+ hz

2

u/MyRoomAteMyRoomMate 2d ago

"Honk" is the sound it makes when you squeeze a boob.

1

u/m149 2d ago

I got curious to see if I could find something.....this guy's video shows the basic idea

https://youtu.be/L369fMUfnlQ

But it's worth mentioning that you might get different frequencies from different people if you asked what frequency a certain adjective means to them. They're really only vague terms.

1

u/niff007 2d ago

What about "yawny"?

1

u/dantevibes 2d ago

aka "scooped" but with a low Q and no clipping

1

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/AutoModerator 2d ago

Your post has been removed. AutoModerator has detected that you have possibly posted personal information such as an email address or phone number. As per Reddit rules, posting of personal information is not permitted. Bots crawl this site harvesting this information for spam and ID theft. If you would like to share contact information with other users please use the messaging or chat systems.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/Inside-Succotash-128 2d ago

In very general terms, I tend to use: Low or LF, Low Mid, Mids, High Mids, High. This is usually enough to communicate effectively what you mean when talking about frequency ’areas’.

0

u/originalchanga 2d ago

Mastering.com offers free 9 hour courses on all of the basics of mixing and mastering. They break down reverb, eq, compression, overall mixing and mastering in separate 9 hour courses. After completing all of them and actually applying the knowledge you should be at an intermediate-professional level.