What is Fattness?

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What is Fattness?

Postby JSynth » 14 Jan 2014 21:52

OK, so I keep hearing this term getting thrown around. I keep seeing tutorials that say things like "How to make your basses really fat." But I don't exactly get what that means. Can anyone explain what it means when something sounds "fat"?
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Re: What is Fattness?

Postby ClaviSound » 14 Jan 2014 22:51

In my experience, it's a buzzword that may have meant something at some point but has devolved into just a thing to say to sound hip, in the same way "warm" and "punchy" and "vintage" are. Yeah, you could argue that if something's fat it means there's some significant decay or reverberation applied that makes the particular sound linger in the mix, or if something's punchy it has a quick attack and pronounced relative loudness, but the words are used in such wide contexts now they've kind of lost any meaning they may have had in the first place.

I would say if someone is using a word as vague as "fat" to describe something, rather than a more technical and specific definition, warning flags should be going up. Of course, maybe they do still know what they're talking about somewhere along the line - you don't necessarily have to be a sound engineer to be a producer any more - but in my opinion it would behoove you to take it with a grain of salt if people are unable to define what they mean any more than using a word like "fat."
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Re: What is Fattness?

Postby JSynth » 14 Jan 2014 22:59

I can understand what you are saying. We use words like "warm" or "punchy" to describe the sounds. But when it comes to fattness I fail to grasp at what they mean.
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Re: What is Fattness?

Postby Facade » 14 Jan 2014 23:08

just add very slight distortion and a compressor and bam phatness
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Re: What is Fattness?

Postby S.P.P » 15 Jan 2014 01:59

Fatness is a word people on YouTube throw around to describe one of their sounds that they don't have a better description for.

To me, fatness refers to how large the sound is. For example, those massive chords you hear in house I would describe as fat. They are often stereo widened to some degree and are layered to fill a large portion of the frequency spectrum
(fig 1: see New World Sound - Flute.)
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Re: What is Fattness?

Postby HMage » 15 Jan 2014 07:35

It's actually very we'll defined term. Fat sounds span widely across the frequency range and usually have two, three or even four octaves.

Very fat sounds take all the audible frequency range.

Compare to thin sounds — they're piercingly narrow and don't take much frequency space and definitely don't span octaves.
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Re: What is Fattness?

Postby ClaviSound » 15 Jan 2014 12:47

HMage wrote:It's actually very we'll defined term. Fat sounds span widely across the frequency range and usually have two, three or even four octaves.

Very fat sounds take all the audible frequency range.

Compare to thin sounds — they're piercingly narrow and don't take much frequency space and definitely don't span octaves.

Perhaps it did mean this and only this at one time, but, like many words, it's become merely a phrase that can be said to sound "in the know." You, HMage, are able to define it as such, but I guarantee you that a lot of people who use the word (or at least, a lot of nonprofessionals) can't explain it other than "well, it's just 'fat'." Kind of like seeing "all-natural" on food packaging; even though it implies no artificial additives, there's no regulation for the phrase by any official body, so just about anything can be touted as "all-natural."
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Re: What is Fattness?

Postby Magnitude Zero » 15 Jan 2014 13:08

ClaviSound wrote:
HMage wrote:It's actually very we'll defined term. Fat sounds span widely across the frequency range and usually have two, three or even four octaves.

Very fat sounds take all the audible frequency range.

Compare to thin sounds — they're piercingly narrow and don't take much frequency space and definitely don't span octaves.

Perhaps it did mean this and only this at one time, but, like many words, it's become merely a phrase that can be said to sound "in the know." You, HMage, are able to define it as such, but I guarantee you that a lot of people who use the word (or at least, a lot of nonprofessionals) can't explain it other than "well, it's just 'fat'." Kind of like seeing "all-natural" on food packaging; even though it implies no artificial additives, there's no regulation for the phrase by any official body, so just about anything can be touted as "all-natural."

Evolution of language isn't necessarily linear - words have different meanings depending on the context and who's saying them. Everyday speech defines "theory" as "guess", but obviously in science the meaning is radically different. An audio engineer like HMage might use fatness to describe sounds that "span widely across the frequency range" while an average listener or even an average musician might define it as something a little bit less objective. Doesn't mean either one is particularly wrong.
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Re: What is Fattness?

Postby FLAOFEI » 15 Jan 2014 17:26

Fattnes is when the bass goes "BWUUUUUU BWUUUUUUU WOMP WOMP!!!"
Jk, I don't really know. But the phatest sound ever is a squarewave around 50Hz.
Yup, I have decided, squarewaves are phatness. Skip the first harmonic and be phatso pants.
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Re: What is Fattness?

Postby JSynth » 15 Jan 2014 22:30

HMage wrote:It's actually very we'll defined term. Fat sounds span widely across the frequency range and usually have two, three or even four octaves.

Very fat sounds take all the audible frequency range.

Compare to thin sounds — they're piercingly narrow and don't take much frequency space and definitely don't span octaves.


That dose help a lot, tough sometimes I feel that people mean something else as well.

Anyway, just to clarify, I hear the word "fat" being used by people who are fairly experienced in the industry, not by non-musicians. Like I was watching a video where the guy said "A few years ago, I almost got signed to my favorite label, but was rejected because by basses were not 'fat' enough."
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Re: What is Fattness?

Postby HMage » 16 Jan 2014 05:25

JSynth wrote:I was watching a video where the guy said "A few years ago, I almost got signed to my favorite label, but was rejected because by basses were not 'fat' enough."


The term is applied the same way. A thin bass won't have many harmonics, while fat bass will be easily recognizable if you remove the fundamental harmonic.
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Re: What is Fattness?

Postby Stu Beef » 25 Jan 2014 23:21

I thought it was just lingo that found it's way into producer speak cause producers are supposed to be hip? I like what HMage said about filling in the harmonics; I can imagine that to be a sound I describe as "fat". In my mind,I suppose "fat" and "warm" are very similar, tho fat has more of an aggressive connotation to it: a thick pad can be warm, but if it's a single HIT then I would probably call it fat.

Also, do not confuse "fat" with "phat". The former is character of tone while the latter is more character of style. "Phat" is basically "hip" ie not "square". If you are laughing/confused, it's because this lingo is older than all of us (probably).


ps some of y'all sound like robots (no offence, clavi). We have these nebulous terms for certain sounds because most people don't really think in terms of "MAN THIS FREQUENCY RANGE IS REAL NEATO!!"
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