Detailed Frequency Ranges of Instruments and Vocals

In our reviewing, we use words like “mid-bass” or “upper midrange” to describe the frequency ranges of sounds. We also refer to frequencies of sounds, as in “400-800 Hz” or “3 kHz”. It can be helpful to have a “decoder ring” for these terms, and we aim to provide that here.

First, let’s be clear that sounds we can hear occur as waves. Your speakers (or an instrument or a vocalist) have surfaces, e.g., the speaker cone, that move back and forth with the musical signal. As the cone or the vocal cords, or guitar string move back and forth, waves of positive and negative pressure are created. When these reach the ear, your eardrum and complex internal mechanisms convert the pressure variations to signals you hear in your brain as sounds.

The pitch of a sound wave can be characterized by its frequency. “Frequency” here just means how often the pressure waves go from positive to negative and back to positive. We quantify this by measuring how many times per second the pressure alternates from high to low to high. Frequency is measured by a unit called “Hertz” (not the car rental company but the German physicist), abbreviated Hz. 1 Hz is 1 cycle (high pressure to low pressure to high pressure) per second. 1 kHz is 1000 cycles per second.