Accent Microphone: A closely-placed mic that is ultimately mixed with a distantly-placed mic to improve the tonal balance, can be used as a special effect, or it can to add presence to audio.
Adobe Audtion: Integrated audio recording, mixing, editing, and mastering software.
Ambiance: The acoustics or reverberation in a room.
Amplifier: A Valve amplifier (British English), also known as a tube amplifier or vacuum-tube amplifier (in American English), is a device for increasing amplidude of an electrical signal, typically sound.
ASCAP: American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.
Assign: Known as 'channel assign', to send or route an audio signal to one or more selected mixer channels.
Audacity: A free, open source software for recording and editing sounds in Linux, Mac OS X, and other operating systems.
Auto Punch: The process of automating punch in and punch out on a digital recorder, sequencer or tape recorder.
Auxiliary Bus: Known as 'Effects bus' or 'Aux bus', the bus that feeds signal processors, monitor mixes, or effects devices.
Auxiliary send: Known as 'Effects send' or 'Aux send', the control on a mixer that determines the level of channel signal sent to a signal processor, such as a reverb or chorus unit.
B.
Back-timing: A recording technique of cueing up a musical background to a voice track so that the music ends simultaneously with the voice-over.
Balance: The relative volume levels of various instruments or tracks.
Bandpass filter: A filter that passes a band or range of frequencies but sharply attenuates or rejects frequencies outside the band.
Bass trap: An assembly whose function is to absorb low-frequency sound waves.
Bi-directional communications: The ability of a digital instrument, sound module or drum machine to send and receive MIDI messages simultaneously from a computer or other device.
Bi-directional Microphone: A microphone whose pickup pattern is sensitive to sound arriving at the front and behind the microphone.
Blanketed: A track or mix with weak highs; muffled as though a blanket was covering the loud speakers.
Bloom: A sound or track with excellent reproduction of dynamics and reverberation, and a good low-frequency response. Also referred to as 'Spacious'.
Blumlein array: A stereo miking technique where two coincident bi-directional mics are angled 90 degrees apart (45 degrees to the left and right of center).
BMI: An acronym for Broadcast Music International. BMI is one of several performing rights organizations which protect artists' and publishers' performing rights. BMI collects, handles and distributes royalties for member and publishers whose music has been played or performed publicly.
Board: Also known as 'mixing console', a large unit having additional functions such as tone control, equalization, pan pots, channel assigns, monitoring sends, and control of signals sent to external signal processors.
Bottom: Another term for low frequencies, usually below 125 Hz.
Bouncing tracks: When two or more separate tracks are mixed onto an empty track. The submixed tracks can then be erased, freeing them up for new music.
Boundary microphone: A mic designed to be used on a hard, reflective surface. The mic is mounted as close to the surface as possible so that direct and reflected sounds arrive at the microphone diaphragm in phase at all frequencies.
Bright: A tonal balance with emphasized high frequencies or upper harmonics.
Brittle: A sound or mix with high-frequency peaks or weak fundamentals; lacking roundness and fullness.
Buffer: A storage or 'holding' area for data in the computer's memory until it can be processed.
Bus: Can mean the output of a mixer or submixer, or a channel that feeds a tape track, digital recorder, signal processor, or power amp.
Bus master: Located in the output section of a mixing console, a fader or knob that controls the output level of a bus.
Bus trim: Located in the output section of a mixing console, a control that provides variable gain of a bus, used in conjunction with the bus master for fine adjustment.
Boom Stand:
C.
Calibration: 'Alignment', the adjustment of tape-recorder electronics and head alignment to achieve the best performance for the type of tape being used.
Cans: A slang word for headphones.
CD ROM: Acronym for Compact Disc Read Only Memory.
Chase lock: A synchronization system for audio equipment.
Chorus: A special effect in which a single sound source is made to sound like several, through the use of time delay and detuning.
Clean: Free of noise, distortion, overhang, leakage. Not muddy sounding.
Clear: Easy to hear or differentiate; not distorted. Reproduced with sufficient high freqencies.
Click: A component of a bass drum sound, the attack of the beater on the head of the drum.
Click track: Audio 'clicks' recorded on one track of a multitrack recorder, to indicate the tempo of the music on the tape. Is used to keep musicians in time when overdubbing.
Cassette: A plastic cartridge containing magnetic tape with the tape passing from one reel to another
Cassette Deck:
Creative Commons: The Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative work available for others legally to build upon and share. The organization has released several copyright licenses known as Creative Commons licenses. These licenses, depending on the one chosen, restrict only certain rights (or none) of the work.
Coincident pair: Two separate mikes placed so that the microphone diaphragms occupy approximately the same point in space. The are mounted one directly above the other, and angled apart.
Coloration: Non-uniform frequency response resulting in distortion of the tonal quality of the source.
Colored: A sound that is not true to life, perhaps due to an unnatural use of external processors. A mix that has a not-flat response with peaks and dips.
Comb-filter effect: The frequency response caused by combining a sound with its delayed duplicate. The frequency response displays a series of peaks and dips caused by phase interference. The peaks and dips look like the teeth of a comb, with very narrow, deep notches where signals are attenuated.
Combining amplifier: An amplifier in which the outputs of two or more signal paths are mixed together, to feed a single track of tape or hard-disk recorder.
Complex wave: A sound wave with more than one frequency component.
Compressed: A sound, recorded track, or mix where the dynamics are restricted or narrowed.
Compression: The intentional reduction in dynamic range to increase sustain and/or add punchiness, caused by a the use of a compressor/limiter.
Compression ratio: Also known as 'slope', in a compressor/limiter, the ratio of change in input level (in dB) to the change in output level (in dB). For example, a 4:1 ratio means that for every 4dB change in input level, the output level changes 1dB.
Compressor: A signal processor that reduces dynamic range by using automatic volume control. Also, an amplifier whose gain decreases as the input signal level increases above a pre-set point.
Condenser microphone: Also known as 'Cardioid microphone, a mike that works on the principle of variable capacitance to generate an electrical signal.
Configure: To prepare a program, modem, keyboard, or other electronic device to operate with specific characteristics.
Connector: Also known as a 'plug', the physical interface on cabling or equipment used to connect or hold together a cable and an electronic component that permits a sound signal or data to flow into an external destination, such as a mixing board or a computer.
Console: Also known as 'mixing console' or 'board', a large unit having additional functions such as tone control, equalization, pan pots, channel assigns, monitoring sends, and control of signals sent to external signal processors.
Constricted: A sound or track with poor reproduction of dynamics; overly compressed or pinched, with distortion at high levels.
Contact pickup: A transducer that contacts a guitar or other musical instrument and converts its vibrations into an electrical signal.
Continuous controller: A type of MIDI message intended to control dynamics (volume, modulation, etc.) or continually changing aspects of a performance. Continuous controllers allow enhanced musical expression for keyboardists and previously sequenced tracks, and also can be used to modulate effects device parameters such as reverb time or chorus depth,
Control room: The room in which the producer and engineer monitor and control the recording.
Control voltage: An electrical signal used to adjust the values of settings in analog circuits. If you send a specific electrical voltage to a module of a synthesizer (such as an ASDR envelope, you can specify what you want the module to do (perhaps lengthen the decay time).
Crisp: A sound or track with an extended high-frequency response. A cymbal sound with sizzle and presence.
Crossover: An electronic network that divides an incoming signal into two or more frequency bands. Crossovers can be active (with amplifying components) or passive (non-amplifying).
Crossover frequency: The single frequency at which both filters of a crossover network are down 3dB.
CSA: An acronym for the Canadian Standards Organization, that regulates and controls Canadian data communications standards.
Cue: Also known as 'Cue send', in mixer input module, a control that adjusts the amount of signal feeding the cue mixer which, in turn, feeds a signal to headphones in the studio. Also, a section of music or sound effects used in film or video production. The points in the film where the cues are played to sync with elements of the picture are called hits or cue points.
Cue mixer: A submixer in a mixer input module that takes signals from cue sends as inputs and mixes them into a composite signal that can be used to drive headphones in the studio.
Cue sheet: Typically used during the mixdown stage, a chronological list of mixer control adjustments and fader movements needed at various points in the recorded tracks. The list may have tape-counter or elapsed-time readings to indicate exactly when the adjustments should be made.
Cue system: A monitor system that allows musicians to hear themselves and previously recorded tracks through headphones.
Cutoff frequency: The designated frequency of a filter after which the sound is not allowed to pass. In a high-pass filter, a high cutoff frequency will be excessively trebly and bright, as no low frequencies will be present. In a low-pass filter, a low cutoff frequency may be too muted and dark, as no high frequencies or overtones will be present.
D.
Dubbing: The transfer or copying of previously recorded audio material from one medium to another of the same or a different type.
E.
Effects: Adding reverb, echo, flange or any other effect to change the sound or quality of a production.
F.
Fostex: Fostex is a Japanese manufacturer of loudspeakers and professional audio equipment.
G.
Godcasting:
Goose Neck: A microphone extension, made of a twisted core of spring steel, allows for infinite adjustability in microphone placement.
H.
Headphones: (Also known as earphones, earbuds, stereophones, headsets, or by the slang term cans) are a pair of transducers that receive an electrical signal from a media player or receiver and use speakers placed in close proximity to the ears (hence the name earphone) to convert the signal into audible sound waves.
I.
iPod: A brand of portable media players designed and marketed by Apple computers.
J.
K.
L.
M.
Microphone: A device that converts sounds to electrical signals by means of a vibrating diaphragm. The signals can then be amplified, transmitted for broadcasting, or used for recording the sounds.
Mix:
Mixer: An electronic device used to adjust and combine various inputs, e.g. performed or broadcast sounds, to create a single output
Mixing:
Monitor: A speaker used on stage or in a studio to enable musicians to hear each other.
MP3:
MP4:
Multi-Track: A method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole.
N.
O.
P.
Player:
Podcast: A segment or a whole broadcast of a live or prerecorded media presentation, saved to a common format used by the mass of available media players.
Podsafe:
Production:
Q.
R.
Record:
Recording:
Rushpod: Podcast from conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
