What is a warm sound?

[WRGKMC]

 

Sorry, but this is just wrong. Conductance is the inverse of resistance, but reactance is a term covering both capacitance and inductance, reluctance has nothing to do with electric circuits, but is the equivalent to resistance in a magnetic circuit.

 

 

You're right if you separate the effect of Magnetics out of what passes through a wire and its effect on electricity. You could also separate out the effect of electrostatics as well for that matter. I've been conditioned to incorporate both of those those into my understanding of electronic circuits as a whole and what those conditions place on a circuit. Its hard not to from a troubbleshooting perspective because you constantly deal with the reality of how the physical components work and their causes of failure, vs the theory using inductive reasoning. So in that aspect I can give components equal weight or balance to their roles in a circuit. Over simplification? Yes but it works very well and saves time especially when you work with many unknown factors.

 

Reactance Capacitice Circuits http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_2/chpt_4/2.html

Reactance Inductive Circuits http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_2/chpt_3/2.html

 

Reluctance is very much a part of what occurs in circuits, specifically with inductors.

 

Google up Reluctance and Inductance and you will find....http://www.data-acquisition.us/industrial_electronics/input_devices_sensors_transducers_transmitters_measurement/sensors/Variable-Reluctance-Inductance-Pressure-Sensors.html

 

Reluctance is the opposition to current flow that is caused by magnetic circuits. Inductance is the property of a coil of wire to build magnetic flux lines.

So with that definition, you could say reluctance is the opposing force to inductance that builds the magnetic flux as a very simple means of understanding cause and effect.

I learned to visualize it as Inductive resistance to what the coil was trying to do.

 

Reluctance deals specifically with inductors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_complex_reluctance

 

Reluctance = Magnimotive force/Phi

 

I was trained in electronics by Ex military instructors. I'd say 1/3 was tube technology, 1/3 transistor, and 1/3 digital. Newer cources probibly dont even teach tubes or even much transistor these days and may skim over many things that were considered important to the specific course I took at the time. The curriculum was geared towards Radio and Radar and items that were heavily dependant on Magnetics waves, Oscillators, Amplifiers, Radio, Communications, etc so It focused more in some areas than others. What you get from a formal education is more than whats written.

 

An instructor can guide your interests and understanding in specific areas which I took advantage of. My interests were focused on Music releted electronics so I did focus more on magnetic inductors ie guitar pickups, amplifiers and oscillators and saw more importance in those areas because I wanted to persue it was a career in that area which I have for the past 30 years.

 

I do appologize for over generalizing Hopkinson's law which is the magnetic analogy to Ohm's law.

 

Its been over 30 years since I've had to even look it up and I dont get a chance to work with it much other than to know it exists and it plays a part in my practical aproach to understanding components and how thay function so it was a good catch on your part to call me out on lack of details. I didnt want to boar everyone with details and stray too far away from the topic (which I have done anyway) I do have a habit of over generalizing concepts but can usually find the basis of those concepts that stuck with me so long and correct my recolection if it isnt as accurate as it should be so, Thanks

[PrawnHeed]

 

You're right if you separate the effect of Magnetics out of what passes through a wire and its effect on electricity. You could also .... I do have a habit of over generalizing concepts but can usually find the basis of those concepts that stuck with me so long and correct my recolection if it isnt as accurate as it should be so, Thanks

 

 

You'd be allowed to stop digging now.

[scuzzo]

warm tone

 

 

wow! less then a paragraph? how can that be?

[Angry Tele]

whats a crystal lattice?

 

(in 3 words or less)

[PrawnHeed]

 

whats a crystal lattice? (in 3 words or less)

 

 

Atoms

[WRGKMC]

 

I feel bad you types all that, because you still don't get it. I love metaphors. I love wordplay. Unfortunately, your examples are awful, wrong, and you're killing a ton of time trying to explain them in some pretty convoluted ways. I don't give a crap what goes on inside an amp, if I tell you to turn it UP, you damned well are gonna know what I mean. But if I tell you to "warm up" your tone a little, what am I inferring? Turn up the low end? Turn down the treble? Add some gain? Multi-band compression to tame the highs and mids while boosting the lows? Maybe it's just too sterile, and I wanted you to add a little reverb or delay to it? There is no established meaning to warmth in musical terms. This thread's many responses show that. Meanwhile, in the world of VISUAL art, warm and cool are terms describing the color pallete. Warm are Reds, yellows, COOL are blues and greens. Etc. This isn't subjective. It's not something that can be different to every person viewing the painting. If you say "hey, I love the use of warm colors like blue in this painting" someone is going to correct you, because the term is DEFINED. Musically, this is not the case. Again, dude, I love word play. Why not flip my switch and turn me on, baby. You spin me like a record. Fly me to the moon. I love it. But all these are actual word play and metaphor. Again, the examples you are giving are NOT examples of what you say they are. Turn up a knob means exactly that. Spin a record means exactly that. How you think this is using different interpretations or clever wordplay befuddles me. Again, with your own examples: This painting is warm. (the painting uses color tones from the warm color pallete) This guitar wood sounds warm. (non-defined. Subjective. Could mean MANY things to MANY people.)

 

 

Thats cool, I get that you get it now and we're just describing things from a different POV.

 

Let me use your last two examples and show you how I relate them.

 

In paintings, warm for some can be just as vague as its used in sound if you have no artistic background. I understood those terms as a child cause I has artists in the family so I never thought twice about them.

 

Infared is considered heat so the colors on the red side which are longer waves of the prisim are considered warmer. Theres no temperatue involved in seeing them but we learn to associate reds and yellows with fire. Blue and violet with darkness and absence of light. In reality though, its what the paint absorbs and reflects. Reds absorb violet, Blue, green and yellow and reflect only reds from the white light. Violets absorb reds, yellows, greens and blues and reflect only violet back to our eyes.

 

If you use the same wave analogy for sound, longer waves are bass and shorter waves are trebble. So in that aspect you're trying to describe the abstract with a laymens terms of the effect one of your sences has on your emotions.

 

A completely flat responce may sound just that, flat and emotionless. The body feels the bass vibration and that vibration feels good to many when it lacking or is equal to the higher frequency vibrations that tend to strike the ears more directly. Hyping the mid bass frequencies and cutting some mid highs is usually understood as warming up the sound so theres a bit more bass freqiencies felt vs heard. They are definately shortcut words that are describing the sence of touch more than hearing.

 

The same terms used with touch isnt questioned because you learn the differences between heat and cold as a child and it becomes a reality to you. Warm and cool are milder changes we feel as being tolerable.

 

People do the same with taste. Something peppery may be hot. Theres no temp involved there its strictly a temperature sinsation. Something like a mint would be considered cool. They are adjitives to decribe a sinsation of the nervous system. Heat isnt something used to describe something we smell thank god, so at least one method of describing sensory input doesnt use those adjitives. Smells are more associated with taste like smelling sweet.

 

If anything I'd say the term, "hot" is misused in sound more than warm because it can describe any frequency that is pushed to an extreme. Electronics wise, If you started with a flat waveform and pushed it up, the bass is most likely to distort first because long waves consume the most power to produce, and the speakers will will be dominated by the strongest frequency first. I suppose the word hot is a jazz term used to describe a great energetic performance consuming alot of energy which is my first thought. Using it to describe sound vs power in electronics isnt real accurate. Its a real generic term used to describe extremes. But scientifically power consumption and DB levals are not the same and not linear to each other.

 

Even a DB's are an invention used to describe something abstract. The Bell family were leaders in teaching the deaf before Alexander Bell got credit for passing sound through a wire. He used an average hearing level of humans to come up with the term Bell and Decibel named after himself. In terms of transmitting sound, using the term undulating current was much more accurate in scientific terms but the public settled with terms like talking through a wire, phoning someone, getting on the horn, making a call, ringing someone etc. All are slang terms developed through common use of the technology by the public that had littel or no understanding of the science in behind it. The word Phoning is based on an invention and is a relatively new verb added to the dictionary. Warm already had meanings so its not unique in describing only sound or heat or feelings and must have context to relate it to subject matter.

[scuzzo]

+

 

??

[Arr0wHead]

 

I know what turn it up means, but what you are really doing is turning it clockwise. As the left side of the knob is going up, the right side of the knob is going down.

 

 

 

It's not DIRECTION of the knob. The knob is numbered with values, 1-10. Turn it UP, from a LOWER value to a HIGHER one. i.e. - turn it UP from 3-7. It has nothing to do with the direction you're spinning the knob. If you're that focused on the direction of the knob, you can use the term "crank it" which is in reference to the direction of the knob.

 

 

WRGKMC

 

Just stop already. I can't keep coming back here and shooting down your every example, and your responses get longer and longer, which kills any desire to bother.

[Radar-Love]

 

 

As for guitar amplifiers, a warm sound would be rich in even order harmonics. A cool (or cold) sound would be rich in odd order harmonics.

 

Muddiness and icepickiness is more of a spectral filtration attribute as to how much roll-off or boost is present in the treble or bass ends of the audio spectrum.

[caveman]

Warm is a tuba, bright is a piccolo...

 

If you want true warm, only a mahogany Sousaphone will do.

[guitarcapo]

In my experience, open back cabs are brighter and with more presence and dispersion. Closed cabs are darker, more directional, and bassy.

[ToneChase]

 

Why do we say we need to tune up before we play and not tune down or tune over.

 

Because you should always tune up to a pitch for better tuning stability:poke:

[CoqBelliqueux]

Because you should always tune up to a pitch for better tuning stability:poke:

 

But the pitch is not higher in altitude, it's just a faster frequency. We should tune fast.

[PrawnHeed]

But the pitch is not higher in altitude, it's just a faster frequency. We should tune fast.

 

Actually not. Frquencies are either high or low, not fast or slow.

[Fenezz]

wow! less then a paragraph? how can that be?

 

I thought that was the "woman tone"?! Which I guess would make "sunshine of your love" a WARM, woman tone? And we're still under a paragraph

[Arr0wHead]

 

Actually not. Frquencies are either high or low, not fast or slow.

 

 

 

I think he was being funny. I hope. WRKGRDD or whatever it is keeps going into overly scientific terms to overexplain his grammatical misinformation.

 

However, he IS correct. Frequency is aptly named, as it is determined by how quickly the waves occur. AMPLITUDE measures how high or low the wave is. Frequency determines pitch, and amplitude determines volume.

[PrawnHeed]

 

I think he was being funny. I hope. WRKGRDD or whatever it is keeps going into overly scientific terms to overexplain his grammatical misinformation. However, he IS correct. Frequency is aptly named, as it is determined by how quickly the waves occur. AMPLITUDE measures how high or low the wave is. Frequency determines pitch, and amplitude determines volume.

 

 

No. Speed (fast/slow) is a measure of how far (distance) something moves in a unit of time. Frequency is just a count of how many (high/low number) things happen in a unit of time. There is no speed difference implied by a frequency difference.

[Arr0wHead]

Prawn, I think your confused, or are having trouble explaining yourself. I'm not sure.

 

When speaking of frequency in a soundwave, you are speaking specifically of the frequency, or rate, of the waves repetition. This in fact is directly related to speed, as speed is a MEASURE of frequency. Thus A 440 is a higher pitch than A220. Because in A 440, there are 440 peaks passing the same set point where A220 would only have 220. Any tone we hear will have speed as a measure, because we ARE hearing it within a measure of time. Unless you be a time-lord.

 

I'm no scientist, so this is the clearest explanation I can give.

[arrowhen]

I honestly can't tell if some of you people are pedantic jackasses or high-functioning autistics. I hope it's the former so I won't have to feel bad about laughing at you.

 

Either way, great thread, guys. It really WARMS my heart.

[Arr0wHead]

 

I honestly can't tell if some of you people are pedantic jackasses or high-functioning autistics. I hope it's the former so I won't have to feel bad about laughing at you. Either way, great thread, guys. It really WARMS my heart.

 

 

When discussing a HIGHLY subjective word, in a thread seeking a definition, Pedantry if kind of expected. Now your own judgmental and mocking response? That's douchebaggery of the first order. Laugh away at people trying to answer the OP's thread, and continue on feeling good about yourself. Just be aware the impression it leaves.

[arrowhen]

Right, because stuff like "you don't turn the volume UP, you turn it CLOCKWISE" is a totally useful answer to the OP's question.

[arrowhen]

What might be cool is if a bunch of people took the same clip of dry guitar signal and processed it to sound "warm". Then one could compare the various "warm" waveforms to see what they had in common.

[PrawnHeed]

 

Prawn, I think your confused, or are having trouble explaining yourself. I'm not sure. When speaking of frequency in a soundwave, you are speaking specifically of the frequency, or rate, of the waves repetition. This in fact is directly related to speed, as speed is a MEASURE of frequency. Thus A 440 is a higher pitch than A220. Because in A 440, there are 440 peaks passing the same set point where A220 would only have 220. Any tone we hear will have speed as a measure, because we ARE hearing it within a measure of time. Unless you be a time-lord. I'm no scientist, so this is the clearest explanation I can give.

 

 

Hmm. Let me try again. Think about a pendulum. It swings at a given frequency, say once every second. It will swing with the same frequency however big the swing is. If it swings gently it will move slowly, but if it swings violently it will move faster. The frequency is the same, but the speed is different.

[Arr0wHead]

 

Hmm. Let me try again. Think about a pendulum. It swings at a given frequency, say once every second. It will swing with the same frequency however big the swing is. If it swings gently it will move slowly, but if it swings violently it will move faster. The frequency is the same, but the speed is different.

 

 

 

Yes, but if it swings faster, the frequency increases.

[Arr0wHead]

 

Right, because stuff like "you don't turn the volume UP, you turn it CLOCKWISE" is a totally useful answer to the OP's question.

 

 

 

As an example of subjective definitions and their effect on terms like "warm"? Still more on topic that you "laughing" at them for saying it.