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RE: Is a human voice “dry”? (in reply to gerundino63)
I get just the opposite when I hear great sopranos or tenors. I hear depth, richness and color. I could not call Placido's voice dry by any description.
RE: Is a human voice “dry”? (in reply to gerundino63)
Internet says a dry sound is unprocessed raw sound. I would say human voice is dry. Raw sound on guitar is what flamenco guitars sound like - moderate sustain and less overtones. I don't know if you've mentioned the word tenor on purpose or not. As we know guitar music sounds one octave lower than it's written. A tenor falls more or less in that range.
So I would say dry sounding guitars sound like human voice. Maybe a dry sound of flamenco guitars is the one of the reasons why it goes to the deepest of our soul. Flamenco guitar literally speaks to us.
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RE: Is a human voice “dry”? (in reply to devilhand)
@ Etta,
ofcourse there is depth, richness and color in their tone, but I mean less overtones etc.
@Devilhand,
yes, I mean a tenor, I listen from very young age to Beniamino Gigli, and the same inner experience in tone I have with my old, very, very dry, (sometimes it sounds a bit like an Oud) Gerundino. When I was young, I was very touched by the sound of his voice (Beniamino Gigli) and, later, I was touched the same way by some guitarists. Especially the sound they produced.
I never knew what caused this feeling in tone, but your post helped me a lot understanding it. Thanks for that.
RE: Is a human voice “dry”? (in reply to gerundino63)
quote:
Is a human voice, like a tenor in the opera considered as “dry”?
"Dry" is engineering slang for reverb-free close-recorded sound, thus references to "before processing is done". Processing typically adds reverb to create spaciousness.
When you record a sound source from close to it with a focused mic, you get a very "dry" sound - meaning you get only the sound travelling directly from the sound source to the mic, without any secondary sound after reflections from different parts of the room or walls.
Therefore, 'dry' and wet' are not characteristics of the sound source; they do not refer to inherent sound qualities. These terms refer to the presence of reflected sound - reflected off of geometry around the sound source.
So, any sound recorded from close to its source in a way which incorporates only direct path sound, from source to mic, is a dry sound; conversely for wet sounds - whether achieved by adding reverb artificially in post-processing or naturally by recording from far enough and unfocused enough to get a significant fraction of the sound from reflected sound waves.
Consequently, dry sound sounds as if someone is playing or singing very close to us, like directly in our ears; wet sound is as if coming from somewhere farther away - just like it would be if we were to listen live.
A tenor voice can be wet or dry depending on the circumstances - on the degree or reflected sound; same with guitar.
RE: Is a human voice “dry”? (in reply to gerundino63)
Just for the bit of trivia, in French a "dry guitar" ("guitare sèche") means an acoustic guitar. So if ever you have a French friend who asks you to bring your "dry guitar", don't waste your time trying to work out the tonal qualities of your guitars. He just means anything that doesn't need an amp.
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RE: Is a human voice “dry”? (in reply to gerundino63)
Human voice can modulate sounds in different ways, as any good singer will tell you. As a matter of fact it can be described as "dry" as there are no overtones there; In other words the fundamental note is not reverberate by overtones as it would happen with a piano or a guitar (in a smaller scale). Per converso, human voice is extremely efficient in modulation and all in all in projecting.
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