Musical slang and terminology are confusing to me sometimes

Anything that doesn't fit into other topics goes here!
I can kind of get along with the terms of cassical music theory (sometimes at least) - I know stuff like staccato and legato. Then there's other kinds of musical slang terms like "riff" and "lick" I understand less.

But what I'm really confused by is the slang sorrounding electronic music and music production. For example, synth instruments seem to be categorized in broad categories like "Lead" or "Pad". From experience the "Lead" instruments are always in the higher to mid frequency range and stick out really well, so I'm guessing they're for melodies, and the "Pad" ones never stick out too much and are really good for layering underneath. There's probably some origin to these terms I'm not just old enough to know about.

Other than that I usually have to stick to just trying them out to know what they sound like with all the wierd fantasy names, that admittedly sound pretty cool (with words like "Neon", "Massive", or "Silky", my favorite is a preset called "Antarctic Sun" included in GarageBand), but don't really speak to me. Also they can be confusing, for example the term "noise" makes a chiptune composer like me think of the non-melodic, so-called noise channels of old soundchips (they make kind of a buzzing sound in several variations which is great for percussion if you're unfamiliar with them), when as it turns out, what this actually means is distortion. Also there's terms like "glass" (which goes in kind of rhodes sounding direction?) or "dirty". Some are just called "crazy", "odd" or "wierd".

Maybe there's some kind of master plan behind this and someone more in the know will be able to explain it to me. Or maybe you eventually just pick it up as you go along. Right now it's somewhat confusing, though admittedly it's pretty amusing and I do really like colorful language like this.
In reality, it's more of whim than actual terminology. Whatever you see everywhere, is like an unspoken standard, but the rest is subjective. However, even this whim has something beneath it, common between the preset makers. So it's just an unspoken agreement that enforces itself upon people the more time they spend with music.
I think a riff is like a characteristic melody in a song, that is unique, and may be memorable, and can be traced back to that song. There's that riff of Megalovania. Riffs are usually used multiple times in the song.
A lick is comparatively shorter than a riff, and is a short sequence used in many songs of similar genre (rather than being unique to a single song), and is usually just "included," typically in a solo or main instrument. Unlike riffs, licks are always short and musically simple, and the idea is typically of only one note at a time as opposed to possible chords in riffs.

You're right. Lead sounds lead the melody (ie main instruments), while pads are more useful for the holding-together thing. I don't know if there's an origin story here.

When you have fantasy, you have more free reign over your presets than other sorts of sounds. You can decide what sort of "vibe" the presets give you. Is it cold? Is it daylight breaking through fog? Is it soft and featherlight and melty but impersonal? Accordingly, you can generate words that describe that vibe to you. Fantasy also means that any name doesn't make any sense until paired with the sound of the preset itself... after which it may start making undefined amounts of sense, from anywhere between -75% to +163%.

"Dirty" usually implies a sound that sounds either distorted, or has very strong "rough" harmonic content, like that of a saw wave. Similar with noise. This is because the idea of noise is typically associated with messy content, usually but rarely only on the high-end of the frequency spectrum, and this happens to be a characteristic of distortion.

"Massive" usually refers to a "fat" sound, ie one with strong harmonic content that isn't localised to high-end, or with a distinct use of chorus effect, which makes it sound as though there are multiple instruments. But I'm not sure about this. They say the instrument sounds "rich," and I can tell the instrument sounds "rich," but I cannot tell what exactly is meant by this "rich" and "thick".

Usually, tapping glass, you get a percussive result with a volume envelope similar to that of other percussive instruments like marimbas, xylophones, or certain types of low-sustain/high-decay pianos. Check out the Mallets plugin in LMMS, it's an inbuilt plugin with different sorts of percussive musical options.

"Crazy," "Odd," "weird" etc just mean it sounds unusual. This terminology can be used in many cases. Is your instrument detuned? Does your instrument have an overtone on a non-harmonizing key? Is it sequence-based, and have an unusual sequence? Does it have an LFO, especially pitch-based? Sometimes it sounds like a piano on some keys, but as you progress you can distinctly hear another layer that is unlike one present with pianos. This might add an unusual touch.

This may not help much, since the most helpful thing is only spending more time with your presets and playing around with synthesizers and effects yourself, but I hope this is at least informative.
Monospace wrote:
Fri Apr 22, 2022 12:45 pm
When you have fantasy, you have more free reign over your presets than other sorts of sounds. You can decide what sort of "vibe" the presets give you. Is it cold? Is it daylight breaking through fog? Is it soft and featherlight and melty but impersonal? Accordingly, you can generate words that describe that vibe to you. Fantasy also means that any name doesn't make any sense until paired with the sound of the preset itself... after which it may start making undefined amounts of sense, from anywhere between -75% to +163%.
Valid point, my mindset towards these things is probably too technical, while music (and sound in general) are really mainly emotional experiences. And it makes more sense to be creative with names considering what kind of multifaceted sounds synthesizers can create, otherwise everything would be called something like "Saw-wave-with-really-low-attack-a-lot-of-reverb-and-analog-filters-plus-diode-with-detuning", which would give no idea of the specific sound either.
Mampfwurm wrote:
Sat Apr 23, 2022 5:44 pm
Valid point, my mindset towards these things is probably too technical, while music (and sound in general) are really mainly emotional experiences. And it makes more sense to be creative with names considering what kind of multifaceted sounds synthesizers can create, otherwise everything would be called something like "Saw-wave-with-really-low-attack-a-lot-of-reverb-and-analog-filters-plus-diode-with-detuning", which would give no idea of the specific sound either.
This trully made me laugh hard, because this kinda describes my issues when starting to do music. (with LMMS)

It took me months to not see a fraction when I saw 4 4 , my mind almost instantly added a stripe making it an fraction 4/4.

I had to learn to turn off my analytic, technical mind and tune in to my intuition.
If it sound nice / right it is right.

Do not get lost too much into technical details. Listen to it, does it fit your use case ?

Visage 'Fade to Grey' explained.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmF_jeokUX8

Christopher Payne used a brass preset. I am pretty sure this was not the intended use of that sound by the people making the synthesizer. ;)

Interesting vid and about 5 min he gets into the synth parts.
Vox Humana is a preset on a polymoog.
Then he explains that other main synthpart, the bassline. ( a trumpet like sound for a bassline, I rest my case ;) )
Actually, I don't understand how a rhodes piano is different in working and sound from other pianos?
Monospace wrote:
Sun Apr 24, 2022 3:59 am
Actually, I don't understand how a rhodes piano is different in working and sound from other pianos?
Afaik Rhodes has a more distinct attack, almost like a 'Bell' or 'Bar' added to the start of the sound
musikbear wrote:
Sun Apr 24, 2022 2:39 pm
Afaik Rhodes has a more distinct attack, almost like a 'Bell' or 'Bar' added to the start of the sound
Ah. Then the "Glass" comment makes more sense.
EDIT: I messed up the links. Now the second one links to Riders on the Storm like it's supposed to instead of just Supertramp again.
Gps wrote:
Sat Apr 23, 2022 8:21 pm
I had to learn to turn off my analytic, technical mind and tune in to my intuition.
If it sound nice / right it is right.
Do not get lost too much into technical details. Listen to it, does it fit your use case ?
Very true, especially when coming from certain backgrounds like chiptunes (where technical trickery can be half of the art so you really have to know your soundchip) or sheet music and classical music theory. I tend to think in technical categories of instruments like "Brass", "Woodwind" or "Strings" rather than the complete free reign of synthesized sound. Very interesting video by the way.
Monospace wrote:
Sun Apr 24, 2022 3:59 am
Actually, I don't understand how a rhodes piano is different in working and sound from other pianos?
The Fender Rhodes (like the popular Wurlitzer) is a classic, oldschool electric piano from the analog age, which means there is an actual mechanism to it, with hammers hitting reeds. So there are some similarities to pianos, but of course it's sound is very different. The Wurlitzer somewhat defined the standard E-Piano sound, sometimes sweet, sometimes agressive (used for intro chords here for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlqoYPR9G7w), while the rhodes is a bit softer and a little more glassy (like in the intro here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G2-FPlvY58). Nowadays almost every collection of software instruments has a so called "Rhodes", which usually has a somewhat glassy, soft sound. This actually isn't too accurate to the original, which could be adjusted with vibrato knobs and such, but that certain sound has become attached to the name "Rhodes". As for the name itself, I have no idea where it came from, but it is no technical term with some connection to its mechanism or something like that.

Sorry if some of that information was already known to you and I end up sounding too much like I'm lecturing. I felt I'd rather explain too much than too little.
Thanks for the explanation. It's clearer and seems more helpful than what wikipedia says. Noted!
Monospace wrote:
Sun Apr 24, 2022 3:56 pm
Thanks for the explanation. It's clearer and seems more helpful than what wikipedia says. Noted!
By the way I just realized I messed up the links, so if you were confused by that, it has now been corrected.