WARM: an audio term that confuses me... help?

[chiqgarcia]

WARM: an audio term that confuses me... help?

first off, nung bata bata pa ako: "brown sound" as in EVH. I always thought that 'brown' meant, hmmm, lacked treble. but then again, EVH's tone is actually very bright. So, dinedma ko na lang yun.

pero when it comes to, say, microphones or recording equipment, can someone shed some light with the term 'WARM'? the uninitiated (like me) would readily conclude that warm equals more lower mids and bass when we do encounter the word (magazines/internet).

tingin ko kasalanan ito ng mga marketing people eh.

medyo confusing na kase talaga eh: "oh this mic preamp really sounds warm" or "tube amps are warm compared to solidstate amps" etc etc.

noted ko na po ang subjective nature nitong word... baka may audio samples kayo demonstrating warm vs 'cold', if there's such a thing, share niyo naman.

what does 'warm' look like on a spectrum analyzer?

is 'warm' much more related to 'hot' (as in high gain) rather than frequency characteristics (low mid high)?

pasensya na ha, i hear people use the word all the time but their 'quiao quiao' dont help.

hmmm alam kong meron pang ibang mga terms na subjective din ang meaning eh... isipin ko pa. baka may ma-dagdag pa kayo.

thanks in advance! 

[alien_inside]

my feel...

[stilljey]

"Air" - the high mids to high frequencies

[KitC]

You will find that warm is more towards the bass end of the spectrum while trebly sounds tend to be called 'cold'.

The 'brown' sound seems to reminds me of that so-called 'brown note'. It's sort of like an urban legend. They say it's a particular frequency which causes your bowels to resonate thereby inducing involuntary bowel movement. Since the chest area resonates somewhere at 80 Hz (go to any club that plays dance music loud enough that you feel the subs in your chest and try to take a peep at their EQ), they say the brown note is somewhere near that frequency.

[sl1200ltd]

WARM - tunog luma (tube)
COLD  - tunog bago     

[alien_inside]

here is another WARM topic:

http://talk.philmusic.com/board/index.php/topic,169909.0.html

[chiqgarcia]

"Air" - the high mids to high frequencies

isn't 'air' 12 khz and above?

regardless of which frequency, at least itong word na ito ay readily definable.

[MixMan]

air is 12Khz above..
other mixers like mackie is on 16KHz..

[chiqgarcia]

a metastatic pulmonary nodule is a nodule that has changed in size in 2 years or less.

ganito lang sana kadali ang mag-define. kung kaya itong gawin sa larangan ng medicine, tingin ko lang kaya rin itong gawin sa audio (na science din naman).

i visited the link posted by alien... still quiao-quiao, pero thanks pa rin.

thanks to kitc for pointing out that it is an EQ thing or at least pretty much related to it. after all, playing the same note on two different instruments would still sound different, kahit na pareho pa principal nila.

so im assuming that no one 'kind' enough has ever tried recording a singer with two mics going through two different preamps just to demonstrate 'warm' vs 'cold'? baka naman may mabait diyan?

will warm vocals still sound 'warm' on MP3? if you say that it won't sound warm on MP3... then why bother recording it 'warm'?

sa mga sumagot... thank you! thank you!  

[lighttech]

In photography and videography, warm light means more  towards the red end of the spectrum, like those during sunset and that of a candle/incandescent lamp. And cool lights are more towards the blue end of the spectrum, like the bluish white light reflected off the snow and that of the florescent lamp.  We know that red has longer wavelength(lower frequency) than that of blue.  So maybe it kind of stuck that more of lows and less of highs are considered warm even when pertaining to audio. So tube amps sounds warmer due to subtly lower high frequency response (due to the output transformer's (which is almost always present in a tube amp) inductance) when compared to solid state amps. Either this (from photography passed on to audio) or the other way around (from audio passed on to photography)..

[KitC]

so im assuming that no one 'kind' enough has ever tried recording a singer with two mics going through two different preamps just to demonstrate 'warm' vs 'cold'? baka naman may mabait diyan?

It's been done.

The tube preamp vs. solid state preamp is probably the best example of most attempts to demonstrate the meaning of warmth. In essence, warmth is characterized by a pleasing, natural sound that isn't fatiguing to listen to, and more often than not, warmth is 'located' in the low to mid area of the audio spectrum. Another thing that defines warmth, is the presence of even order harmonic distortion. We often associate analog gear with warmth like in this SoS article: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb10/articles/analoguewarmth.htm

Going back to the tube vs. SS example, you can compare it yourself if you have a cheap electronic distortion pedal vs. a very good analog distortion pedal. The analog pedal will sometimes have a fullness that is often associated with 'warmth'.

[chiqgarcia]

In essence, warmth is characterized by a pleasing, natural sound that isn't fatiguing to listen to, and more often than not, warmth is 'located' in the low to mid area of the audio spectrum. Another thing that defines warmth, is the presence of even order harmonic distortion. We often associate analog gear with warmth like in this SoS article: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb10/articles/analoguewarmth.htm

uy wow! thank you.

one last thing... even order harmonic distortion is...
assuming principal is A440 hz then multiply by... 2 , 4 , 8 etc? ganun ba yun?
i.e. 440 hz with 880 hz, 1760 hz, 3520 hz etc etc?
Tama ba? at any rate, i can go on from here even if you don't answer this one... thank you!