The Music Dictionary
Recording, Sound and Technology Terms
Every sound and technology term in The Music Dictionary, with its meaning in music.
- ADSR envelope
- A sound-shaping model describing attack, decay, sustain, and release stages.
- Aliasing
- False lower frequencies that appear when a signal containing frequencies above half the sample rate is digitized.
- Ambisonics
- A spatial-audio technique encoding a sound field for flexible reproduction.
- Amplitude
- The size of a sound wave or signal variation, related to perceived loudness.
- Analog synthesis
- Sound generation using continuously varying electrical signals.
- Audio interface
- Hardware that connects microphones and instruments to a computer and converts their analog signals to digital audio and back.
- Bit depth
- The number of bits used to represent sample amplitude, influencing digital noise performance.
- Bouncing
- Rendering multiple tracks or processing stages into a new audio file.
- Clipping
- Distortion caused when a signal exceeds the maximum level a system can represent.
- Compression
- Dynamic-range processing that reduces level differences above a chosen threshold.
- Convolution reverb
- Reverberation produced using a recorded or modeled impulse response.
- DAW
- A digital audio workstation used to record, edit, arrange, and mix sound.
- Decibel
- A logarithmic unit expressing ratios of sound pressure, signal level, or power.
- Delay
- An effect that repeats or offsets sound in time.
- Dithering
- Low-level noise added during quantization to reduce correlated distortion.
- Dynamic range
- The span between a system’s or performance’s quietest and loudest meaningful levels.
- Equalization
- The adjustment of level across frequency bands to shape a sound.
- Feedback loop
- A signal path returning output to input, producing effects from resonance to instability.
- Filter cutoff
- The frequency around which a filter begins attenuating selected components.
- Frequency
- The number of cycles per second, measured in hertz and associated with pitch.
- Gain staging
- The management of signal levels across a recording or processing chain.
- Granular synthesis
- Sound construction from short fragments or grains, often densely layered.
- Harmonic distortion
- The creation of new frequency components related to an input’s fundamental.
- Headroom
- The available level margin before a signal reaches a system’s limit.
- Impulse response
- A recording or measurement of how a system reacts to a brief excitation.
- Latency
- The delay between an action or input and the resulting sound or response.
- Limiter
- A processor designed to prevent signal levels from exceeding a chosen ceiling.
- Loudness normalization
- The adjustment of audio level toward a specified perceived-loudness target.
- Mastering
- Final technical and aesthetic preparation of a recording for distribution.
- MIDI
- A protocol carrying musical performance messages rather than recorded audio waveforms.
- Mixing
- The balancing and processing of recorded parts into a coherent sound presentation.
- Noise floor
- The background noise level of a recording or electronic system.
- Overdubbing
- Recording a new part while listening to previously recorded material.
- Overtone
- A frequency component above a sound’s fundamental, whether harmonic or inharmonic.
- Panning
- Positioning audio between channels or within a spatial sound field.
- Phantom power
- A standardized microphone power supply, commonly 48 volts, delivered through balanced cables.
- Phase cancellation
- A reduction in level when related waveforms combine with opposing phases.
- Pitch correction
- Processing that adjusts detected pitch toward specified musical targets.
- Psychoacoustics
- The study of how listeners perceive pitch, loudness, timbre, space, and other sound qualities.
- Reverb
- The persistence and blending of reflections after a sound occurs in a space.
- Sample rate
- The number of discrete measurements taken per second in digital audio.
- Sidechain compression
- Dynamic processing controlled by a signal other than the audio being processed.
- Signal-to-noise ratio
- A measure comparing useful signal level with unwanted background noise.
- Spectrogram
- A visual display of how a sound’s frequency content changes over time.
- Subtractive synthesis
- Sound design that begins with harmonically rich material and removes frequencies through filtering.
- Transient
- A brief, rapidly changing portion of sound, often associated with an attack.
- Tuning system
- A framework specifying relationships among pitches and intervals.
- Waveform
- A representation of how a sound signal’s amplitude changes over time.
- Wavetable synthesis
- Sound generation by reading and modulating stored waveform tables.
- Zero crossing
- A point where an audio waveform passes through its center amplitude value.
More subjects: Theory and Harmony · Rhythm and Tempo · Melody and Form · Performance · Instruments · Voice and Stage · Jazz and Popular Music · History · World Traditions
Search The Music Dictionary →