waveform basics

[dobro]

I've got two newbie questions about waveforms when you record digitally.

* What's the significance of a fat waveform? When I record the AKG C-1000 and the Rode NT-1, the Rode has a fatter waveform, although both of them are tracking just short of clipping. Ever since I started using a compressor, the AKG waveform is much fatter and closer in fatness to the Rode waveform.

* What's the significance of differences in the bottom and top halves of a waveform? Sometimes there's a spike in the top half that isn't matched in the bottom half of a waveform. What does it mean when the waveform isn't symmetrical?

I've been tracking since January and haven't paid any attention to this until now...

[S8-N]

Good question. I thought the positive and negative peaks represented stereo centering... But when you record with one mic, that doesnt make sense... I dont know...
A fat waveform will be more mid-heavy than a thin one... but I dont know why...
A "scooped out" dry sound will be represented by a thin, spikey waveform... again, I dont know why...
Waveforms seem to be misleading to me... I try to ignore them when mixing... Turn your back to the monitor and remix things... Then try it facing the monitor with your eyes closed...
I dont understand 100% of what is going on with visual waveforms... but I do know that they dont seem to correlate with what my ears pick up...
Maybe I'm iggnant.

[drstawl]

Since the waveform is a composite of the entire signal and most sounds consist of more than one frequency playing at the same time, don't be surprised when you see weird assymetric shapes instead of a pure sine wave.
The top half of the wave is the "push" and the bottom half of the wave is the "pull"
of the motion that generates sound waves.
Or the other way around if your speakers are wired that way.
The "fatness" of the waveform simply indicates a larger proportion of samples that are close to the maximum sample value.
The "loudness" is a function of this and the actual frequencies involved because human hearing has a big midrange hump.

[dobro]

Laughing out loud... You know, there are two kinds of responses I like - the ones that answer my question in a way I understand and the ones that answer my question in a way that surprises me and makes me laugh. You both get a prize for the latter. This bbs is fun, but I wish we were actually talking in the same room with real beers in real hands right now.

S8-N: there's all kinds of shit that happens on my screen that I worry about while my ears are saying 'that's okay, let it go'. It's got worse since I got a compressor.

Drstawl - "a larger proportion of samples that are close to the
maximum sample value."

Well, okay, is this larger proportion of samples that are close to the maximum sample value good news then? It *seems* to be good news, and when I look at the waveform it *looks* like good news. Is it better, or just different? If you say, it's 'louder', I'll go home happy. Or is it qualitative?

[dobro]

The day I get my first really killer sounding mix, you will see a very full looking smile all over the front of this face. Thanks you guys. Thanks, Ed - now I understand what doc and S8-N were talking about.