About This Project
The HiMMP Heaviness Lab is an interactive pedagogical tool demonstrating findings from psychoacoustic research into metal music production. Through the "one song, many mixes" methodology, this project reveals how specific production techniques shape the perception of "heaviness", a defining aesthetic in metal music.
This website showcases nine professionally produced mixes of the same original recording, an original composition titled "In Solitude", each created independently by internationally recognized metal producers. By allowing users to compare these mixes and interact with their constituent elements, we make complex research findings tangible and accessible to producers, educators, researchers, and fans alike.
Research Team
University of Huddersfield
School of Arts and Humanities | School of Computing and Engineering
Jan-Peter Herbst
HiMMP Project Lead & Principal Investigator
Researcher in music production, metal music, and psychoacoustics
Mark Mynett
HiMMP Project Lead & Co-Investigator
Researcher in metal music production and record production
Steven Fenton
Co-Investigator
Expert in perceptual models of punch and transient impact
Isabella Czedik-Eysenberg
Co-Investigator
Developer of the acoustic hardness model
Eric Smialek
Co-Investigator
Researcher in metal music and cultural studies
Christoph Reuter
Co-Investigator
Researcher in systematic musicology and music perception
Producer Participants
We are deeply grateful to the following internationally recognized producers who generously contributed their time and expertise to create the mixes featured in this study:
Jens Bogren
Modern metal clarity with controlled density
Mike Exeter
Balanced modern metal with dynamic contrast
Adam "Nolly" Getgood
Clean, precise modern progressive metal
Josh Middleton
British metal with controlled aggression
Fredrik Nordström
Classic Swedish metal production
Buster Odeholm
Hyperreal, maximally saturated wall-of-sound
Dave Otero
Dense, saturated modern metal production
Andrew Scheps
Naturalistic, wide dynamic range, spacious
HiMMP Research Team
Research reference mix
Related HiMMP Research
This lab is part of the broader HiMMP (Heaviness in Metal Music Production) project, investigating the acoustic, perceptual, and cultural dimensions of heaviness in metal music.
Key Publications
This interactive lab demonstrates findings from two articles currently under peer review:
- Herbst, J-P., Mynett, M., Fenton, S., Czedik-Eysenberg, I., Smialek, E., & Reuter, C. (under review). "Hard and Heavy: A Perceptual Study of Acoustic Hardness and Heaviness Aesthetics in Metal Music Production." Music Perception.
- Herbst, J-P., Mynett, M., Fenton, S., Czedik-Eysenberg, I., Smialek, E., & Reuter, C. (under review). "Musical Heaviness as a Conceptual Blend: The Asymmetrical Roles of Textural Hardness and Temporal Punch." Psychology of Music.
Funding & Acknowledgments
Funding
The HiMMP (Heaviness in Metal Music Production) project is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in the United Kingdom.
Grant Number: AH/T010991/1
Project Duration: September 2020 – August 2024
This research was made possible through the contributions of 79 listening experiment participants, the musicians and engineers involved in the original recording, and the broader metal music community whose aesthetic preferences and production innovations drive this field forward.
We acknowledge the University of Huddersfield for institutional support, and express gratitude to the developers of the open-source tools that made this research possible: LibROSA and Essentia for audio feature extraction, and the creators of the hardness model (Czedik-Eysenberg et al., 2017, 2024) and punch model (Fenton & Lee, 2019).
The technical implementation of this interactive website, including code development and content organization, was assisted by Claude Code (Anthropic). All scientific analysis, interpretation of results, and accountability for the research content remain solely with the human authors listed above.
License & Usage
All materials from the HiMMP project (audio files, research data, and website content) are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
You are free to share and adapt these materials for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you provide appropriate attribution. The website code is available under the MIT License.
Contact & Further Information
For academic inquiries, collaboration opportunities, or questions about this research, please visit the main HiMMP website for contact information.
Privacy & Analytics
This website collects anonymized usage data to understand how users interact with educational features. This helps us improve the pedagogical value of the tool and contributes to research on interactive learning systems.
What We Track
- Page views - Which sections are most visited
- Audio playback - How users engage with audio comparisons
- Interactive features - Stem mixer usage, scatter plot interactions
- Comparison patterns - Which producers and sections are compared
What We Don't Track
- No personally identifiable information (PII)
- No cookies or persistent identifiers
- No IP address logging beyond session duration
- No third-party analytics services (Google Analytics, etc.)
Your Privacy Choices
We fully respect the Do Not Track (DNT) browser setting. If DNT is enabled, no analytics data will be collected. You can enable DNT in your browser settings.
All data is stored temporarily for research purposes and is not shared with third parties. Analytics data is anonymized and used solely for educational research.