[A6] What is fat anyway?

[MelloT at aol.com]

>>In a sound design context, an organic sound is so called because it 
contains elements within that evolve without being predetermined by its programmer, 
noise modulation aside this is the purest way it can be explained, the term 
organic can also be applied to the way in which a musician sequences (plays) the 
audible notes as it is the human element that is looked upon as organic, the 
word organic being used loosely to describe something that resembles the 
signature of something living / created by a living organism.>>>

That MAY be the longest sentence ever written. It almost makes no sense, 
until you try and break it down into pieces!

Intersting though - trying to find a solid reason for what sounds fat/phatt. 
In my observation, it matches what you say; sounds that have harmonic content 
that resemble real-world sounds tend to do this. In other words, too much 
high-end or low-end makes it sound unbalanced and NOT fat. Same for harmonics - 
natural sounds have certain relative proportions; this sounds "good" to us. 
(Some sounds outside of this realm sound good too, just not as easily). It's 
something I keep in mind when doing synth sounds or mixing - "how much COULD this 
balance (of highs, mids, and lows) come from a REAL object?"

BrianK