What do these terms mean : Fat , Thick , punchy , boxy , In your face etc ?

[vignesh.vijay]

Hi ,

This might be a very basic question .
I have studied many tutorials online . They use these terms like :
Fat , Thick , punchy , boxy , In your face ,Natural , Smooth , transparent , creamy , clean , Edgy , Knock and Thwack , Snappy , aggressive , grit , etc

I don't exactly understand the meaning of these terms in the context of audio engineering . Can someone throw some light on this ?

Which are all good and which are all bad ?


Thanks in advance .

[BertKoor]

Most of these terms are quite subjective, so for me nearly all of these are meaningless without context.

[Googly Smythe]

+1
Same as trying to describe colours to a blind man.
You'll need to find someone who knows the terms and a fair few examples to point to.
Anyway, here goes...
Minimoog sounds are often described as fat and thick, as are pads - opposites of thin and reedy;
Boxy often means too much lower-mid frequencies.
Transparent means uncoloured, as does clean (clean guitar /distorted guitar);
Snappy - fast response;
Aggressive - metal guitar solos;
Edgy doesn't mean anything.
There're only bad if they don't fit the music, and good if they do.
Anyone else?

[Aloysius]

Something to do with weiners?

Fat , Thick , In your face ,Natural , Smooth , creamy , clean , Snappy , etc

[chk071]

Most of these terms are quite subjective, so for me nearly all of these are meaningless without context.

You're right, though, in a context, most of these things are understandable for me. Punchy, creamy and clean for example. Punchy usually has to do with "snappy" envelopes (yes, another of those terms...), creamy is a characteristic of the filter, some filters tend to sound pretty dry, while others sound more liquid, bubbling, and creamy, which all has to do with the resonance behavior usually, clean for me has to do with the filter too, some filters, especially the strictly analog modelled ones, have a lot of distortion, which makes them seem unclean and dirty, it could be the oscillators too, some synth's oscillators sound rude, and unfine, saturated and what not, while others sound crystal clear, and smooth.

@ vignesh: If you don't understand most of these descriptions or terms, you may have to fiddle with synths more, because some of those terms are so obvious that they jump on you, when listening to your sounds.

[do_androids_dream]

Having the characteristics of something .......... .

[DJ Warmonger]

Well, to each his own. Will try to answer:

Fat , Thick

For me it's the same, I don't use term "thick" tho. Fat means prominent bass.

In your face

Psychoacousticlaly close, with no panning.

Natural

Resembles real-world sounds or acoustics. As opposite to "articifial" or "synthetic". In particular, synths feel synthetic.

Smooth

Not abrupt, gentle. Predicatble and soft, free of glitches and distortion.

transparent

Unnoticeable, unspeakable. I recently came up with transparent reverb - it's there, but doesn't resemble anything in particular. No coloration, no artificial metallic sound, no modulation or any other distinct properties.

clean

Harmonic as opposed to detuned. Not distorted. With high signal-to-noise ratio

Snappy

Short, dynamic. Moving. Makes you move your foot as well.

aggressive, grit

Abrupt, disturbing. Distorted, cutting through mix.

It's not worth much on it's own. The interesting investigation is "how to make sound X more Y"? Here's where sound design meets mixdown

[V0RT3X]

Instead of saying I love that triple sawtooth oscillator sound with detuning being amplified through a driven 24db LPF, it's easier to say "I love that phat creamy sound"

lots of musicians use these types of words to explain a sound because they can't or don't want to explain the technical knowledge of what's going on. And it's also easier and hip to talk that way.

[Ridan]

Something to do with weiners?

Fat , Thick , In your face ,Natural , Smooth , creamy , clean , Snappy , etc

Wow..

[zeep]

Don't you think it's better to explain / experience them listening to a mix?

Like to me Boxy would be too much going on between 300 Hz and 500 Hz.
Clean would be no rumbling low and frequencies fighting in the mix.
Punch would be nice 100 Hz on kicks and 200 Hz on snares in your drums.
In your face is like a lead synth or vocals with short/little delay/reverb. Well accentuated 2K / 3K.
Snappy would be giving only some percussive sounds the most room in high frequencies.
Etc.

Once you understand these aspects in a mix you can spot it in single instruments better.

[do_androids_dream]

I don't really get the confusion to be honest. For instance, when something is 'boxy' it means it has the characteristics of hitting a cardboard box - a dull low mid indistinct sound. And so on.. it kind of speaks for itself.

[vignesh.vijay]

Thanks a lot guys !! Never expected so many replies in such short time
I am overwhelmed

Most of them wanted to know the context . I mostly watch a lot of tutorials on mixing . So all these terms are used in the context of mixing like for compression, EQ ,Reverb,Delay .

So just wanted to know what they mean in the context of mixing .

[pixel85]

Fat - rich dense sound, with a lot of harmonics, mostly with a lot of bottom 'low-mid' frequencies. Subjective as it means different things for different people.
Thick - same as above, just not that fat as fat can be fat, sooo fat
Punchy - sound that have lot of short transients, typical used for drums, short sound that almost sting your ears
Boxy - when sound have too much of low-mid frequencies, mostly around 300-500Hz. EDM hates this area but 'british sound' loves it
In your face - music loud so much that there's no dynamics anymore, sounds shit but teenagers are wet down there
Natural - sound that reminds us of unprocessed sound that we know from nature (real world). Stuff that doesn't sound artificial. Simplest example: real electric guitar player solo vs same solo sequenced with cheap electric guitar sound from Casio keyboards but mostly used to describe sound that haven't been over processed like acoustic guitar that still sound like original recording, not like ringtone from Nokia 3210
Smooth - when you listen new demo with Snoop Dog and (thanks to 10th blunt) you just feel it that this sound is so 'smooooth baby'
Transparent - commonly used to compressors/limiters where fx unit does the job but you can't hear artifacts like pumping or other stuff that you don't want to be there. Also processing without adding 'colour' like additional harmonics, harmonic distortion, saturation etc.
Creamy - nah i wouldn't comment about this one
Clean - like in real world: clean windows, clean floor. It's exactly the same meaning in music
Edgy - dunno
Knock and Thwack - check in urban dictionary as i have no idea about teenagers slang
Snappy - same as Punchy

[DJ Warmonger]

Most of them wanted to know the context . I mostly watch a lot of tutorials on mixing . So all these terms are used in the context of mixing like for compression, EQ ,Reverb,Delay .

This doesn't make much sense. Wer are in "prduction techniques" forum and are discussing nothing but mixing.

The "context" is actual sound of sound. Term "clean" would mean something different in context of pop/rock recording or hi-tech psytrance. These terms are too abstract in general, must be related to actual sound sample and entire mix.

[pheeleep]

I recently compiled the list of terms that I use (I was bored). I need to add a few new ones mentioned in this thread


Punch
Thump
Oomph
Pump
Knock
Snap
Slap
Smack
Slam
Crack
Crunch
Scrunch
Crush
Silk
Tick
Tap
Sizzle
Shine
Crisp
Sparkle
Air
Grit
Dirt
Fizz
Fuzz
Buzz
Hiss
Pop
Sub
Boom
Fluff
Squish
Swoosh
Spring
Twang
Ring