Weight
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Definition
Weight is the primary expressive value of Foundation.
It answers one question:
“How heavy does this kick feel right now?”
Weight is a continuous value from 0.0 to 1.0. It is the single most important number in the entire model — the value that visual artists will use more than any other to drive the intensity, size, and presence of visual elements.
Weight Is Not Volume
This is the most important distinction to understand about Weight.
A quiet kick can feel heavy. A loud kick can feel thin. Volume (amplitude) is one component of perceived weight, but it is not the whole picture.
Weight is a combination of three perceptual qualities:
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ Sub-bass presence How much energy is in the │
│ lowest frequencies (30-60 Hz). │
│ This is what you feel in your │
│ chest on a sound system. │
│ │
│ Transient sharpness How hard the initial attack is. │
│ A sharp, snappy transient adds │
│ perceived impact even if the │
│ sub-bass is moderate. │
│ │
│ Body The harmonic content between │
│ the sub-bass and the transient. │
│ A kick with rich harmonics in │
│ the 60-200 Hz range feels full │
│ and physical. │
│ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘A floor-shaking kick has high sub-bass, a hard transient, and a full body. Weight = close to 1.0. A thin, clicky 808 ghost hit has minimal sub-bass, a soft transient, and no body. Weight = close to 0.0. A loud but tinny kick (lots of click, no sub) might sit at Weight = 0.3 despite being the loudest thing in the mix.
The Weight Spectrum
light ────────────────────────────────────────── heavy
0.0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1.0
│ │ │ │ │
thin airy solid punchy subs
808 ghost minimal driving industrial floor-
techno groove techno shakingWhat Each Range Feels Like
0.0 – 0.2: Light. The kick is barely there, or it’s a high-passed click with no sub content. Think of the faint ticking sound of a kick drum when a DJ has fully high-passed the incoming track during a mix. Visually, this drives subtle, restrained, almost ambient responses.
0.2 – 0.4: Airy. The kick has some body but it’s not dominating the low end. Minimal techno territory — enough to feel the rhythm but the kick isn’t the star. Visually, this drives moderate, clean, precise responses.
0.4 – 0.6: Solid. The kick has full body and clear sub-bass presence. This is standard driving techno — the kick is firmly anchoring the mix and you can feel it in your chest. Visually, this is the “home base” — confident, stable visual expression.
0.6 – 0.8: Punchy. The kick is hitting hard. Sub-bass is dominant, transients are sharp, the physical impact is unmistakable. Industrial techno, peak-time tracks. Visually, this drives aggressive, large-scale, high-impact responses.
0.8 – 1.0: Heavy. The kick is overwhelming the low end. The sound system is working. You feel it in your bones. This is the peak of physical impact. Visually, this is maximum intensity — full screen, maximum scale, maximum brightness, maximum everything.
How Weight Changes Over Time
Weight is a continuous, smoothed value. It does not jump between discrete states. It evolves gradually as the character of the kick changes over the course of a performance.
Weight over a 20-minute section of a set:
1.0 │ ████
│ ███ ███
0.8 │ ███ ███
│ ███ ██
0.6 │ ██████████████████ █████████
│██ ██
0.4 │ ██
│ █
0.2 │ █
│
0.0 └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
0min 5min 10min 15min 20min
What happened:
0-8min: Standard groove, solid weight (~0.6)
8-14min: DJ mixed into a heavier track, weight rises
14-16min: Peak weight — floor-shaking kick
16-20min: Track transitions, weight gradually drops
20min: Lighter track, weight settling around 0.3Weight changes can happen because:
- The DJ mixes into a track with a different kick character
- A filter is applied to the kick (high-pass filter removes sub-bass → weight drops)
- The kick is layered with additional sub energy (weight rises)
- EQ adjustments on the mixer change the kick’s spectral balance
Weight and Visuals
Weight is the PRIMARY visual driver. The model is designed so that a visual artist can use Weight as their first and most important input.
Simple mapping:
shape.size = weight * maxSize
shape.intensity = weight * maxIntensity
shape.depth = weight * maxDepth
More nuanced mapping:
// Weight below 0.3: subtle geometry, thin lines, fine detail
// Weight 0.3-0.6: solid shapes, medium scale, confident movement
// Weight 0.6-0.8: large forms, bold movement, high contrast
// Weight above 0.8: everything big, everything bright, maximum impactBecause Weight is continuous and smoothed, visual changes driven by Weight are inherently smooth. There is no jitter, no snapping. The visual intensity rises and falls with the perceived heaviness of the kick.
Weight vs. Other Foundation Properties
Weight is about intensity. It answers “how much.”
Presence is about clarity. It answers “how clearly.” A kick can be heavy (high Weight) but obscured (low Presence) — for example, a massive sub-bass kick buried under a wall of noise during a buildup. The kick is heavy, but you can barely hear it. Weight stays high, Presence drops.
Sustain is about character. It answers “how does it feel after impact.” A kick can be equally heavy with a dry, tight decay or a long, reverberant tail. Weight is the same, but Sustain is different — and the visual character should differ accordingly.
Edge Cases
What if the kick changes dramatically between beats? Weight is smoothed, so a single outlier kick (one much heavier or lighter than the surrounding kicks) will nudge Weight but not jerk it. The smoothing window prevents frame-to-frame instability.
What if there’s no kick (Presence = 0)? Weight holds its last confirmed value and stops updating. When the kick returns, Weight resumes from the new kick’s measured value, smoothed from wherever it was held. There is no “Weight during silence” — Weight is only meaningful when Foundation is present.
What about kick rolls / rapid repeated kicks? A kick roll (rapid successive kicks, common in build-ups) will read as high Weight with high transient density. The model doesn’t treat rolls specially — each hit contributes to the smoothed Weight value, which will trend upward due to sustained energy in the kick’s frequency range.
Related Pages
- Foundation — the parent concept
- Presence — how clearly the kick is perceived
- Sustain — how the kick decays
- For Visual Artists — how to use Weight in visual mappings