Diva vs Analogue - a real world test

[IncarnateX]

In consequence, sounds that have an emphasize on low frequencies, such that the wavelength exceeds the human ability to separate individual events (less than 1kHz IIRC), may be perceived as more animated and thus less static than anything that emphasizes on high frequencies where individual cycles can not be perceived as separate events. I'm leaning myself far out of the window here, maybe someone more knowledgeable in neuroscience and psychology can chime in.

I don't drink but I am currently THCed enough to take a shot at this. Case is that if you present a constant stimuli to the brain (whether high or low frequent) over a longer period of time, the phenomenon of habituation occurs; the brain cease to fire impulses when presented to the stimuli:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habituation

Think of the ticking from a watch -now you hear it, next you don't. Or think of the old synth you used to love that doesn't evoke any interest now. Could also be your wife. To keep the brain attented to the stimuli, they have to be varied and hard to identify exactly. For this reason alone you cannot be entirely wrong. Question is if this is "warm" sound? If it is, I could consequently make a more "warm" sound with a heavily modulated digital patch in contrast to a very simple patch from an analog synth. Agree? Further the sound does not necessarily need to be saturated as in analoguesamples's definition... or what?

[SWAN808]

I've been thinking about it for a bit.

Maybe there's a more literal sense to "warm" and "cold" in music / sound than meets they eye. In physics, something that's warmer is described as having more energy than something that's cold. For instance, the more movement of matter, the more bouncy the atoms, the warmer something is. In short, really cold water takes up the forum of ice (static) while really hot water becomes steam (rather turbulent).

I always think of "warm" sounds as those that incurr a lot of movement, such as nicely beating oscillators, better yet in such a way that the beating isn't static. On the other hand, cold sounds are static, "frozen", without much movement.

In consequence, sounds that have an emphasize on low frequencies, such that the wavelength exceeds the human ability to separate individual events (less than 1kHz IIRC), may be perceived as more animated and thus less static than anything that emphasizes on high frequencies where individual cycles can not be perceived as separate events. I'm leaning myself far out of the window here, maybe someone more knowledgeable in neuroscience and psychology can chime in.

Further on, if we take something that moves and/or develops as something that's animated, and if we in the literal sense call it "having a soul", we can call it "alive". In analogy, something that doesn't move is static, not alive and thus dead and soulless.

So there you have it. It all makes sense. Warm sounds move - and they move you. Cold sounds are static and they suck the life out of music

(in my defense I had a drink or two and I just violated my vows not to post drunk)

I agree with a lot of this and I would add that a lot of people think warm means fewer high freq (as I said above) but Im not sure that is always the case...sometimes instruments perceived as warm have quite a lot of HF but because there is a lot of movement that doesnt sound sterile or harsh...

But I think thats a component perhaps of the 'organic' statement people sometimes make...or yes 'soul'...a drift that has a sense of character...

But still I also think a big part of it is the saturation and enhancement of the low-mids...

[buescher]

i've definitely noticed that playing most softsynths with an EWI gives them a "warmer" (i'm tempted to say "analog", but that's taking it too far) sound. this is undoubtedly from the natural, variable vibrato that comes from biting on the mouthpiece, which goes a long way in reducing any intrinsic sterility. so, yeah, movement goes a long way.

[fluffy_little_something]

i've definitely noticed that playing most softsynths with an EWI gives them a "warmer" (i'm tempted to say "analog", but that's taking it too far) sound. this is undoubtedly from the natural, variable vibrato that comes from biting on the mouthpiece, which goes a long way in reducing any intrinsic sterility. so, yeah, movement goes a long way.

Probably has more to do with your pneumonia than with biting on your mouthpiece (Are you even supposed to bite on it?!)

Thinking about it, I could use that odd beam controller of my Roland Midi keyboard for that by using a rubberband to hang a piece of cardboard above it and assigning the beam controller to pitch or whatever.

[wagtunes]

IMO, associating "warm" with a certain kind of synth sound is no different from the association we make between a sax and sex scenes. Why is it everytime we watch a couple making out in a movie or TV show the sax comes in? Talk about stereotypes.

And these stereotypes totally permeate cinema.

The Alfred Hitchcock "shrieking" strings for thrillers.
The moog "sci fi" sound FX.
Low string and woodwinds for mysteries.
The cowboy movie "brass" and "percussion"

I could go on and on forever. Cinema stereotypes are stereotypes because they are in at least 90% of all movies ever made. In fact, scoring for cinema is all about giving the audience what they expect. There is very little innovation in cinema scoring ever since the big synth orchestral sounds of the super hero movies. Now every super hero movie has the same damn sound track.

And yet, while we accept all that, say that a synth sounds "warm" and people go ballistic like you've just killed their first born.

Associating "warm" with a synth sound is no more crazy than hearing shrieking strings and expecting somebody to jump out from behind a curtain and slitting your throat.

PS - John Carpenter's "Halloween" theme was truly innovative and chilling. Too bad we don't see that kind of innovation anymore.

[Teksonik]

I can easily define "Warm". It's the temperature of all the bovine fecal matter that's been spewed forth in this thread.....

[Goriila Texas]

I think without a doubt on the first video "A" is hardware.

[Frantz]

There is very little innovation in cinema scoring ever since the big synth orchestral sounds of the super hero movies. Now every super hero movie has the same damn sound track.

So I guess you are not a fan of u-he creating The Dark Zebra for Hans Zimmer to be used in the Batman movies.

[wagtunes]

There is very little innovation in cinema scoring ever since the big synth orchestral sounds of the super hero movies. Now every super hero movie has the same damn sound track.

So I guess you are not a fan of u-he creating The Dark Zebra for Hans Zimmer to be used in the Batman movies.

I didn't see the Batman movies where Dark Zebra was used nor would I recognize it if I had. I'm referring to all the Marvel and Superman movies. Go listen to the sound tracks of each of them. They're all interchangeable. And yes, of course there are exceptions. There are always exceptions. But those are straw men in arguments because they are not the norm. And note I said "very little innovation" and not "no innovation."

[Frantz]

I didn't see the Batman movies where Dark Zebra was used nor would I recognize it if I had. I'm referring to all the Marvel and Superman movies.

Nice job wriggling out of that one.

[hakey]

I'm leaning myself far out of the window here, maybe someone more knowledgeable in neuroscience and psychology can chime in.

The 'Bouba/kiki effect' comes to mind.

'The presence of these "synesthesia-like mappings" suggest that this effect might be the neurological basis for sound symbolism, in which sounds are non-arbitrarily mapped to objects and events in the world.

More recently research indicated that the effect may be a case of ideasthesia.[5] Ideasthesia (alternative spelling ideaesthesia) is defined as a phenomenon in which activations of concepts (inducers) evoke perception-like experiences (concurrents).'

Just as there is agreement about which shape is bouba and which kiki, it seems plausible that there might be similar agreement about which sounds are warm or cold, fat or thin, rough or smooth, etc.

[IncarnateX]

Batman

[glokraw]

i've definitely noticed that playing most softsynths with an EWI gives them a "warmer" (i'm tempted to say "analog", but that's taking it too far) sound. this is undoubtedly from the natural, variable vibrato that comes from biting on the mouthpiece, which goes a long way in reducing any intrinsic sterility. so, yeah, movement goes a long way.

Would flossing first send a cleaner signal?

http://www.keypiano.com/download.php?id=8

The free Midi Checker app might at the above link might be interesting
for verifying the ewi midi data output, compared to what one has enabled
in ewi (and softsynth) prefs.
Cheers

[glokraw]

i've definitely noticed that playing most softsynths with an EWI gives them a "warmer" (i'm tempted to say "analog", but that's taking it too far) sound. this is undoubtedly from the natural, variable vibrato that comes from biting on the mouthpiece, which goes a long way in reducing any intrinsic sterility. so, yeah, movement goes a long way.

Would flossing first send a cleaner signal?

http://www.keypiano.com/download.php?id=8

The free Midi Checker app might at the above link might be interesting
for verifying the ewi midi data output, compared to what one has enabled
in ewi (and softsynth) prefs, portamento, pitchbend, sustain etc
Cheers

[trimph1]

At least we did not get into IQ and acuity of hearing.