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Sound Atlas · V1Free · runs in your browser

Where every sound lives.

A field guide for producers and mix and mastering engineers. Every instrument's frequencies and waveform, the piano in Hz, chords placed against your kick, grooves timed to the millisecond. Drop in your own sample and get an EQ curve and compressor settings back.

Analyze a sampleOpen the sound map
17sounds mapped
88keys in Hz
3genres timed
0uploads: it all stays in your browser
01 · Sound map

Every sound, one spectrum.

Seventeen sounds of a modern club record on a single 20 Hz to 20 kHz axis. See who owns which octave, where the trouble piles up, and pick any row to open its file.

  • where it lives
  • character to shape
  • where trouble piles up
Drums

Kick

The heartbeat. A fast pitch drop into a low thump, with a click on top so it cuts through.

Range
30 Hz to 5 kHz
Fundamental
45 Hz to 80 Hz
First high-pass
28 Hz
Where the energy lives
20501002005001k2k5k10k20kfundamentalSubSub: 20 Hz to 50 Hz. Felt more than heard. Long kicks carry a lot here.FundamentalFundamental: 50 Hz to 80 Hz. The note of the kick. Tune it to the key.PunchPunch: 80 Hz to 120 Hz. The thump in the chest, usually around 100 Hz.ClickClick: 2 kHz to 5 kHz. The beater. This is what you hear on a phone speaker.BoxBox: 250 Hz to 400 Hz. Too much here and the kick sounds like a cardboard box.
  • Sub 20 Hz to 50 HzFelt more than heard. Long kicks carry a lot here.
  • Fundamental 50 Hz to 80 HzThe note of the kick. Tune it to the key.
  • Punch 80 Hz to 120 HzThe thump in the chest, usually around 100 Hz.
  • Box 250 Hz to 400 HzToo much here and the kick sounds like a cardboard box.
  • Click 2 kHz to 5 kHzThe beater. This is what you hear on a phone speaker.
Typical waveform
PunchBodyTail0 ms12 ms90 ms380 mspitch drop 300 Hz to 55 Hz in 45 ms

Attack 1 ms, transient over by about 12 ms, body to 90 ms, tail gone by 380 ms. Time runs on a square-root scale so the first milliseconds get room. A typical shape, not a rule: your sample will differ, which is what the analyzer is for.

Starting EQ

20501002005001k2k5k10k20k-6 dB0 dB+6 dB1234
  1. 1
    High-pass 28 Hz Q 0.71Clear rumble the speakers cannot play.
  2. 2
    Bell 60 Hz +1.5 dB Q 1.2A little more fundamental if it feels thin.
  3. 3
    Bell 320 Hz -3 dB Q 1.4Take out the boxy zone.
  4. 4
    Bell 3.5 kHz +1.5 dB Q 1Bring the click forward if it hides behind the hats.

Starting compression

Ratio
4:1
Attack
10 to 30 ms
Release
50 to 100 ms
Reduction
2 to 4 dB
Knee
3 dB

A slower attack lets the click through and fattens the body. Time the release so it recovers before the next hit.

From the studio

  • Tune the kick fundamental to the root or the fifth of the key so it locks with the bass.
  • Sidechain the bass and the sub from the kick so the two never fight for the same 50 to 100 Hz.
  • Check the click on small speakers. If it disappears there, the kick disappears in most rooms.

Sources: eMastered, Pause Play Repeat, iZotope. Zones and settings are starting points. Finish by ear.

02 · Keys in Hz

The piano, measured.

All 88 keys with their exact frequency (A4 = 440 Hz, equal temperament), the instruments whose fundamentals live over them, and the scale and chord you set in Harmony. Touch a key for its numbers and harmonics.

Kick
Sub bass
Mid bass
Log drum
Lead
Pluck
Pad
Chord stab
Vocal
C265.41 Hz
MIDI
36
One cycle
15.29 ms
Wavelength
5.24 m
Lives here
Kick, Sub bass, Mid bass, Log drum
f65.4 HzC22f131 HzC33f196 HzG3 +2c4f262 HzC45f327 HzE4 -14c6f392 HzG4 +2c7f458 HzA#4 -31c8f523 HzC5

in the minor scale · notes of the chord and its bass (3 notes)

03 · Harmony

What sounds good together.

Pick a chord and see where every note lands in Hz, where the bass has to sit against your kick, which chords belong to the key, and how each interval feels.

Chord root
Chord
Where Cm lands
roots and fifths only below C3mud zone20501002005001k2kKickBassChord55 HzC0C1C2C3Eb3G3

Cm note by note

NoteRoleHzFrom root
C1Bass (root)32.702 octaves under the chord
C3Root130.81Root
Eb3Third155.56Minor 3rd
G3Fifth196.00Perfect 5th

Voice the chord from about C3 (131 Hz) up and give the bass the root alone. Thirds and sevenths below C3 turn to mud.

Bass against a 55 Hz kick

  • C0 16.4 HzSeparate zones. Both can sit at full level with a light sidechain. This octave falls below 30 Hz, under what most systems reproduce well.
  • C1 32.7 HzBest fitSeparate zones. Both can sit at full level with a light sidechain.
  • C2 65.4 HzSeparate zones. Both can sit at full level with a light sidechain.

Key and mode

C Aeolian (natural minor): The home minor. Dark, open, a little sad. The default for melodic techno leads, pads and basslines.

Cm uses only notes from this mode.

Progressions to try in C minor

  • The big minor loopCm · Ab · Eb · Bb
  • Rocking between i and the VIICm · Bb · Ab · Bb
  • Darker turn through ivCm · Fm · Ab · Gm
  • Two-chord hypnoticCm · Ab
  • Lift into the rootAb · Bb · Cm

What sounds good with C

DbMinor 2ndWants to move
DMajor 2ndMild tension
EbMinor 3rdConsonant colour
EMajor 3rdConsonant colour
FPerfect 4thLocks together
GbTritoneWants to move
GPerfect 5thLocks together
AbMinor 6thConsonant colour
AMajor 6thConsonant colour
BbMinor 7thMild tension
BMajor 7thWants to move
COctaveLocks together

By genre

  • Melodic techno. Minor keys dominate. Producer guides point to G minor, F minor and F# minor because their bass notes sit well on club subs, and A minor for its moody colour.
  • Afro house. Start in a minor key, or try Dorian for a warmer minor. Chords tend to arrive as syncopated stabs, organ or plucks, leaving room for the vocal.
  • Peak time techno. Try one note or a minor drone and build tension with filtered stabs and noise instead of chord changes.
04 · Rhythm

Three grooves, to the millisecond.

Melodic techno, afro house and peak time techno: the tempo each one lives at, a one-bar skeleton of its groove, swing you can hear in milliseconds, and every delay time at your tempo.

Melodic techno 120 to 128
Afro house 115 to 125
Peak time techno 126 to 132
124
Lane1234
Kick
Clap
Hat
Bass
Arp

The feel

Straight 16ths, a rolling offbeat bass and long, evolving lines. The groove is hypnotic rather than busy.

  • The rolling bass fills the three 16ths after each kick. Sidechain it so the kick always owns the downbeat.
  • Movement comes from filter and modulation over 16 to 64 bars, not from extra drum hits.

Sources: Beatportal, EDMProd, Mixgraph.

Timing at 124 BPM

1 bar
1.935 s
1/2
967.7 ms
1/4
483.9 ms
1/4.
725.8 ms
1/8
241.9 ms
1/8.
362.9 ms
1/8t
161.3 ms
1/16
121.0 ms
1/16t
80.6 ms
Sidechain release
194 ms

Delays: the dotted eighth and the quarter. A reverb pre-delay of a 1/64 (30.2 ms) keeps the dry hit ahead of its room.

05 · Analyze a sample

Your sound, read back to you.

Drop in a one-shot. The Atlas finds the fundamental, locates the punch and the click, shows where the energy sits, and writes an EQ curve and compressor settings for the instrument it is.

No sample handy?

Next: the Atlas inside the plugins.

The same analysis is being wired into the Ark suite, so the EQ and compressor can set themselves from what they hear. The suite is free during the public beta.

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