High Hardness

Buster Odeholm

Section 2

🎸

Anthemic, weight-focused section

Slower, half-time section emphasising sonic weight via low palm-muted chugs, kick drum, and floor tom; more rhythmic space and low-frequency emphasis.

Half-time Palm mutes Low-end weight Anthemic

Study Stimulus (Section 2)

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🔊 Acoustic Hardness

5.27 Very High

Key Predictors

Spectral Complexity 39.41

Spectral Contrast (1.6–3.2 kHz) 14.59 dB

Dissonance 0.490

HPCP Entropy 2.45

Very high spectral complexity and textural density indicate a maximally saturated "wall-of-sound" profile. This spectral-textural hardness is the primary psychoacoustic driver of perceived heaviness in our studies.

💥 Temporal Punch

-25.00 dB Moderate

PM95 (Peak-to-Loudness) -25.00 dB

PLR (Dynamic Range) 7.17 dB Very Compressed

Moderate PM95 values suggest some transient clarity, but in spectrally saturated mixes, hardness (β ≈ .688) remains the dominant predictor of heaviness.

Key Finding: While listeners perceive punch as salient, acoustic PM95 fails to track subjective punch in dense mixes. The production trade-off favors spectral saturation (hardness) over transient preservation (punch).

🎧 Perceptual Ratings

0.23 Perceptual Heaviness

Perceptual Heaviness 0.23

-1 (Low) 0 +1 (High)

Subjective Punch 0.30

Brightness 0.47

Roughness 0.08

Clarity 0.25

Key Insight: Perceived heaviness and subjective punch show strong correlation (listeners associate them), but acoustic PM95 fails to track subjective punch in dense mixes. This disconnect reveals that heaviness perception in metal is driven primarily by spectral-textural hardness rather than transient impact.

Producer Profile

High Hardness cluster; extremely dense spectral content with heavy saturation and maximal textural complexity.

Aesthetic: Hyperreal, maximally saturated wall-of-sound