words describing sound quality

[mediumswing]

hi,
this is my first post
so i am a newbie
I am from Greece, 37 years old, mechanical engineer, and a double bass player too.
I think you could help me to do an experiment about the subjective evaluation of sound?
Actually, this is the first stage of the whole experiment.
I am sending a list of words that describe qualities of MUSICAL SOUND.
You are asked to give the most suitable antonym (opposite in meaning) to each word.
You may use words already in the list or one of your own choosing.

Bear in mind that we are not loooking for an antonym in "grammatical terms", but the one that best describes your perception of sound
e.g. the antonym of "intimate" could be either "non intimate", or "far", "strange" or anything else

THERE ARE NO RIGHT OR WRONG ANSWERS

Feel free to provide as many answers as you wish
Even one or two pairs will be very usefull for my work (especially if these pairs are not the most usual ones)

at the links below you ll find these words in EXCEL and in .txt format (it s better for me to fill the EXCEL spreadsheet)

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/18/659363/SoundWords%20Questionary.xls
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/1/18/659363/SoundWords%20Questionary.txt

please answer as many words as you wish, or add some words or some pairs. Send your answers at my email (www.mediumswing@hotmailcom) or post them here .

below you ll find the list in case you don't want to download files and send emails (though it would be valuable for me to fill the questionaire)

airy
annoying
balanced
bassy
big
blurred
boomy
brassy
breathy
bright
brilliant
broad
calm
cheerful
clean
clear
close
cold
colored
cool
crisp
crunchy
crystal
dark
dead
deep
delicate
dense
detailed
dim
dispersed
distant
dry
dull
dynamic
easy
edgy
empty
enjoyable
even
faint
fat
flat
friendly
full
full bodied
gentle
hard
harsh
hazy
heavy
hollow
honky
hot
intimate
light
limited
live
loud
lyrical
massive
mellow
metallic
mild
muddy
muffled
narrow
nasal
near
open
out of tune
piercing
poor
pretty
punchy
pure
quick
raspy
relief
remote
resonant
responsive
reverberant
rich
ringing
rough
round
saturated
shallow
sharp
small
smeared
smoky
smooth
solid
sonorous
soulful
spacious
static
strident
surrounding
sustained
sweet
synthetic
tense
thick
thin
tight
tinny
toneless
transparent
uptight
veiled
velvet
volatile
voluminous
warm
well defined
well pitched
wet
wide
withdrawn
wooden

please answer AS MANY AS YOU WISH

Thank you in advance
GIANNIS

[forumuser646589]

Thanks great topic! Which is rare these days...

Maybe add:

Articulated
Controlled
Define
Precise
Roaring

To name a few...

Sorry, I wold love to give you some more, but I don't have much time lately.

PS: I am saving this list - will be useful some day;)

Love
xoxo

[Richard Graham]

Ear-splitting/Inaudible
Silky/Harsh
Polite/Evil
Glassy/Velcro-ey

[duffycolm]

Vibrant
Roomy
Wispy

[mediumswing]

thank you very much

if you have more words, pairs of words, or antonyms of the words of my list please post them

i want them to built one quite interesting experiment on subjective evaluation of sound quality

[thefruitfarmer]

boxy

[molecular]

hmmmm.

I'm not trying to usurp the thread here, but at the moment I am struggling to come up with an adjective that cannot be used to describe sound in one way or another. The english language (particularly here in scotland) is pretty keen on cross pollenating in this respect...

hairy?
earthen?
red?

and john lennon's 'make it sound like an orange' quote...

[mediumswing]

Actually my list started with about 500 words, but i decided to put out a lot of them because it would be a very difficult questionary. Don't forget that i am looking for the antonyms, the words with the opposite meaning.

now i really wonder what would be the opposite of the John's Orange.

[J-Popp]

Cool topic. You might as well want to check out http://www.pitchformula.com/wordlists.html

A guy has collected a lot of words describing music and sound from Pitchfork.

[Dan LB]

..........Velcro-ey

Mmmmmmmm..........................Velcro-ey!

[cfb4]

one-note-bass
fluid
gritty
grainy
junky but loud (JBL)
soggy
shrill
piggy
slam
heft
extension
transistor-y
euphonic
brittle
gnarly

Ben Duncan (of High Performance Audio Amplifiers fame) has a list in his book.

[mediumswing]

all these words are very interesting but i am certainly looking for their antonyms.

Please provide some pairs

[Zukan]

I believe Bruce and Jenny Bartlett did something similar in one of their book's glossaries.

I don't understand why you posted this thread. Is it for personal knowledge or for some kind of course work?

[mediumswing]

for a course work

but it works as a personal knoweldge too

[mediumswing]

do you know the exact title of that "Bruce and Jenny Bartlett's glossary"?

[necromunger]

it sounds as good as my ad da converters!
192khz

[cfb4]

all these words are very interesting but i am certainly looking for their antonyms.

Please provide some pairs

Too much work bro - hard enough dredging all of those up to begin with. This site will create antonyms for you
http://www.synonym.com/antonym/
That reference that I gave you is in many libraries - it's a really good place to start. If you refer to it, it could show that you grok audio perception......

[Gelled_Fringe]

Banging

[moo the magic cow]

"Boxy" has always been an enigma to me

The opposite of harsh would be crisp or smooth
The opposite of warm would be sterile I suppose.

[mediumswing]

This site will create antonyms for you
http://www.synonym.com/antonym/

very cool link

thank you

but i steel need your subjective evaluation
please keep on answering and providing some antonyms here
(or fill the excel questionnaire and send it at [email]mediumswing@hotmail.com)[/email]

[Ian Stewart]

Words I sometimes use to describe sound are :

Focused (unfocused)
Energetic (leaden?)
Conviction (lacking conviction)

However there is one word I don't want included. My recent compositions are quite lyrical and my wife (and she is female) has described them as girlie.

[Guy Johnson]

Sorry. I quit when I found 'Chaucerian'!

[cfb4]

"Boxy" has always been an enigma to me

I think this refers to unpleasant low midrange colouration - caused by:
a) incorrectly damped boxes
b) cabinets that use thin ply
c) inadequately braced cabs
d) mistuned port


Don't think there is an antonym - the absence of negative characteristics in the lo-mid would be seen as a positive thing. I mean, it is possible for a speaker to express a lot of lo-mid energy w/o it sounding boxy. OK I'll shut up now