Look at the top
High frequencies tell the quality story:
- High quality — Bright colors reach 20+ kHz
- Medium — Sharp cutoff around 16 kHz
- Low — Black above 15 kHz
Reading colors
- Yellow/White — Loud sounds
- Red/Orange — Medium volume
- Dark red — Quiet sounds
- Black — Silence
Problems to spot
- Sharp horizontal line — Compression cutoff
- Missing sparkle — No cymbal detail up top
- Flat top — Over-compressed/clipped