What is "woody"?

[DougH]

LOL!! 

[Sam]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T70-HTlKRXo&feature=fvst

[jonnyeye]

Take a look at Juergen Haible's String Filter project: http://www.jhaible.de/string_filter/jh_string_filter.html.  About halfway down the page there are frequency response graphs of his circuit and some sound samples that demonstrate that the circuit does in fact have a strong woody character (in fact, at times it sounds cartoonishly woody).  Note that the spacing of his notches are distributed equally on a logarithmic scale (as opposed to a flanger, which has linearly spaced notches).

Ok, so it's partly a series of frequency response notches, which begs the question: why does wood produce those notches?  If we were to think of a nodal system, produced by vibrations in a board fixed at its edges, then that might account for such notches... except that the speed of sound in wood is about 3600m/s, so a node at 500Hz would require a board 3.6m wide, rather larger than most instruments! (if I were to guess, I would say that perhaps the grain of the wood increases the effective width of the vibrating surface, but this is shaky conjecture).  Speaker cones, particularly paper ones, create their own sets of nodes under excursion (the paper ripples when stretched), which might explain the phenomenon as it applies to speakers.

[birt]

-softer than metallic. but what is metallic?
-an actor.
-a director.
-made of wood.

[Gordo]

I find it hard to believe that everyone has taken the high road on this discussion and not gone for the obvious smart-assed comment! I associate "woody" with a thick but indistinct midrange. Early Peter Frampton, like "Camel" era studio stuff is the first thing that comes to mind. I never understood how he got those tones from Marshalls and Ampegs, and it's not quite as pronounced on the "Comes Alive" stuff.

[WGTP]

A set of resonances, both peaks and dips, high and low Q that vary over time (dynamic EQ) that set off some chemicals in our brain when heard, that reminds us of similar tones emitted by objects made of wood.  I don't know the frequencies or how they vary vs. time.  There may be some dominant frequencies emitted by wooden objects, as apposed to metallic objects.  Different electronics may boost or cut these frequencies to accentuate the e/affect.  Pickups for example have a dynamic EQ that would interact with the acoustic guitar resonance.  Are these tones associated with semi-hollow guitars and the resonances produced?  Different guitars "Flex" more when picked than others.  Paper cone speakers are made of wood.   Is this related to the Brown Sound?  Is Woody similar to Reedy?