How do you categorize your amp/sound as "3D"?

[BTBAM]

And I am not talking about running stereo. I'm talking about when people describe a single amp as sounding 3 dimensional vs 2 dimensional.

[Operator]

I think it's another bull{censored} meaningless musician adjective. The only thing 3D ever means to me in sound is in re stereo image.

[juri]

And I am not talking about running stereo. I'm talking about when people describe a single amp as sounding 3 dimensional vs 2 dimensional.

 

 

Some speakers can act like your being surrounded by the sound.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_audio_effect

[Ryan.]

My lame ass idea:

Sometimes when I'm using stereo headphones while playing call of duty, I can tell if someone is approaching from any direction, not just left and right.

Must be some sort of audio trick to get that done...

Its pretty sweet if you ask me.

[IamBurnout]

Some adjectives are reserved for explaining exactly why you spent a hideous amount of money on a single piece of gear.

 

The term from the OP is one of them.

[Dr.Picklebottom]

Some adjectives are reserved for explaining exactly why you spent a hideous amount of money on a single piece of gear. The term from the OP is one of them.

my impression as well. specifically delays.

PING ping ping PING ping ping ....oooooooh!!!

[IamBurnout]

my impression as well. specifically delays. PING ping ping PING ping ping ....oooooooh!!!

Only 2 taps?

tsk tsk

[Iamtehcure]

weed

[six acre lake]

3 dicks deep in worthless adjectives.

[BTBAM]

It's called binaural imaging.

My lame ass idea: Sometimes when I'm using stereo headphones while playing call of duty, I can tell if someone is approaching from any direction, not just left and right. Must be some sort of audio trick to get that done... Its pretty sweet if you ask me.

 

[ben_allison]

Sometimes it seems like there is something happening infront of the speaker, and behind.

[JRBain]

The first time I plugged into an 100w amp with a 4x12, the fullness and 'depth' of the sound felt '3D' to me I guess, but there are better words to use.

 

So I don't know...

[IamBurnout]

It's called binaural imaging.

 

 

In practical application it's phase masking of some sort.

[cubistguitar]

Unless someone else is playing so loud I can't hear it properly, my amp has a fullness and detail i could characterize as "3D". I don't use that term, it really sounds a little like advertising jibber jabber. But at pretty nominal levels, even with the drums nearby, my amp makes it easy to hear every stinking detail. This is great most of the time, but it will often make a little clam really stink up the flow.

 

A lot of rich full bottom and low mids, with plenty of detail( read- plenty of mids and treble) is what I look for in an amp. Basically balanced as hell, with a little extra bottom and mids, and loud!

 

If it feels good to play as well, something with a tactile kinda of vibe. Plenty of loud amps seem to favor one range over others (too much top, too much bottom).

 

Basically when the thing is right, its like having some compression, rich full tones that still cut through at almost any volume.

 

Great recordings of Vox amps especially sound present and warm, hard for some rigs to pull off. Reference most of the early Who, Beatles, the Edge, R.E.M., recent John Scofield. A great Vox will cut through the garbage and sound like its in the same room with you. Thats "3D"

[BTBAM]

Of all people SAL, my friend, I would have expected more than a post raising bull {censored} response.

I suppose I was wrong.

I was only curious, as it is a term I've seen a few times when researching amps lately...just didn't know if it actually was an audible characteristic that could be pointed out, because it doesn't sound possible to me, unless they are talking about the body of a sound, which sort of makes sense. Balanced, I'd call it maybe? No idea...

[christianatl]

My rig has so much balce that it would need three dongs to accommodate.

 

That's six balce, barring injury, disease or other abnormalities.

[Hiwatt Bob]

Many amps are 3D...but you need fragile harmonics for REAL toan.

[IamBurnout]

My antithesis.

[Saturnine10]

Of course your going to get that sensation the first time you plug into a 4x12 rig, i'm sure we've all felt that initially. Its just one of those things that you have no idea how its going to sound or feel until you actually do it.

Just my opinion

The first time I plugged into an 100w amp with a 4x12, the fullness and 'depth' of the sound felt '3D' to me I guess, but there are better words to use. So I don't know...

[AnderMocs]

It's a dumb term like pretty much every tone adjective.

But to me, and amp sounds "3D" when it has a lot of spread to the sound. Twins are like this, especially when tilted backwards at high volume. The sound bounces around a lot and it feels like the sound is surrounding you. The opposite would be an amp that has a very pointed sound.

[IvIark]

[ollenorin]

im going for the 2d sound....it sticks to the walls and never leaves

[Cirrus]

To me I think my vox is 3d because the attack of each note has a great chimey brightness to it, which seems to stand out against the sustain of each note which is a warmer sound - a kind of midrange fat that sounds like it's happening at some depth behind the attack of your plectrum.

[mr benn]

I actually stopped trying to make my guitar sound like {censored}ing six guitars at once along time ago,and i don't mean using delay
i mean trying to cover the entire frequency spectrum,and way over using reverb to try and fill out the sound,when i got my first valve amp it was reverb on 5 or 6 at least always
also I don't need massive Bass,thats why there's a bass player
likewise i don't need acres of clean headroom and treble taking up space that cymbals should occupy

so my sound is definitely 2D,loud and full of mids

[Cirrus]

My lame ass idea: Sometimes when I'm using stereo headphones while playing call of duty, I can tell if someone is approaching from any direction, not just left and right. Must be some sort of audio trick to get that done... Its pretty sweet if you ask me.

 

 

That's binaural recording, if you do a search there's some good examples. It doesn't really work without headphones though, because you need your left and right ear to hear specific things. I can feel a long post coming on...

 

Your ears can tell if a sound is coming from left or right because of a few things. Firstly, the sound is louder in the ear closest to it. Secondly, it takes the sound longer to get round your head to the other ear, so you can also tell by the phase difference between your left ear and right ear. Thirdly, the treble will be blocked by your head, so the ear on the other side to the sound will hear a more muted version of what the closer ear is hearing.

 

Front and back and up or down are more subtle, and you depend on the shape of your ears for those cues. If you run your fingers around the edge of your ears you'll notice little bumps along the various ridges, the folds up at the top and down at the bottom etc. What they do is block certain frequencies or slow them down and create phase shifts at those frequencies, which your brain can decode to tell you where the sound is actually coming from. If you simulate that in a recording then when you're wearing headphones you can fool your brain into thinking the sound is coming from above or behind or whatever.

 

There's another psychoacoustic aspect - we take what we can see and what we know to be happening and combine it with the sounds we hear. So if we see, say, someone sanding down a piece of wood on the other side of a window, we already know the sound of the sandpaper scraping is coming from that location, even if the sound we actuall hear is coming to us from a door behind us. That plays a big part if you're immersed in a computer game.

 

So yeah, psychoacoustics. It's pretty interesting and/or boring, but sometimes it comes in handy if you're mixing or choosing tones.