157 terms
Audio glossary
Concise meanings, practical examples, and links between concepts. Search in English or Indonesian.
A
Acoustic Simulator
Processing a clean electric signal toward an acoustic-style character.
Active instrument
An instrument with active circuitry that needs power.
ADC
A converter that turns analog voltage into digital samples.
Air
A sense of upper-frequency detail or openness.
Aliasing
Frequency components that fold back because sampling cannot represent them correctly.
Amplitude
The size of a signal's displacement from zero.
Arpeggiator
A process that plays a sequence of notes or intervals from a trigger.
Attack
How quickly the initial change in a process happens.
Audio device
The audio input or output device selected for a stream.
Audition
Trying a sound temporarily before deciding whether to keep it.
Auto Swell
An automatic fade driven by the input envelope.
B
Bass focus
The frequency boundary for centering low frequencies in stereo-width processing.
Bell filter
A filter that boosts or cuts a region around a center frequency.
Bias
A setting that changes the balance or character of a nonlinear response.
Bit depth
The number of bits used to represent a sample in a particular format.
Blend
The balance between the original signal and the processed signal.
Bluetooth MIDI
Transporting MIDI messages over Bluetooth supported by the device.
Body
The sense of weight or resonance associated with an instrument's body.
BPM
The number of reference beats per minute.
Brightness
A clear or bright quality related to the distribution of highs and upper mids.
Buffer
A block of samples processed or transferred in one cycle.
C
Cabinet
A speaker and enclosure response, or a block representing it.
Calibration
Mapping a reference level so processing or measurement has a known basis.
Ceiling
A limiter's target output limit.
Chorus
A mix of the dry signal with moving delayed copies.
Clipping
Limiting peaks when a signal exceeds a boundary or enters a nonlinear response.
Comb filter
A repeating pattern of peaks and notches caused by mixing a signal with a delayed copy.
Compressor
A dynamics processor that controls level increases according to a defined response.
Control Change
A MIDI control message containing a control number and a value.
Crossover
The transition boundary between frequency regions in processing.
Cutoff
The reference frequency of a filter's transition.
D
DAC
A converter that turns digital samples into an analog signal.
Damping
Attenuation of part of a tail as it develops.
dB SPL
Sound pressure level in air, using a physical reference.
dBFS
Digital level relative to full scale.
dBu
RMS voltage level relative to 0.775 volts.
Decay
How quickly or how long a sound or tail fades after its peak.
Decibel
A logarithmic measure of a ratio, with a specified reference.
Delay
A repetition of the signal after a time interval.
Denoise
Reducing noise based on its characteristics.
Depth
The amount of change applied by modulation.
Direct monitor
Listening to the interface input through a direct monitoring path.
Distortion
A nonlinear change in waveform, and the name of an effect family.
Drive
How strongly an effect is pushed into nonlinear response or saturation.
Dropout
An audio interruption caused by processing or transfer missing its deadline.
Dry
The signal before the particular effect being discussed.
Duty cycle
The portion of a pulse period spent in its high state.
E
Empty state
An explanation shown when there is no data or selection to display.
Envelope
The way a sound's level changes over time.
EQ gain
Boost or cut applied to a filter band.
Equalizer
A processor that boosts or cuts frequency regions.
Expression pedal
A continuously variable pedal that changes or sends a control value.
F
Feedback
A signal fed back into a process's input.
Fizz
A rough or hiss-like texture in the high frequencies of a driven sound.
Flanger
A short moving delay that produces comb filtering.
Frequency
The number of cycles per second, measured in hertz.
Fundamental
The base frequency of a musical note.
Fuzz
A saturation family with strong harmonic and limiting character.
G
Gain
A change in level at a particular point in the signal path.
Gain reduction
The amount of level removed by dynamics processing.
Gain staging
Setting levels between stages so each process behaves as intended.
H
Hard clipping
A more abrupt limiting near a boundary.
Harmonics
Components at multiples of the fundamental frequency.
Headroom
The level margin between a signal and a stage's limit.
High-pass
A filter that attenuates lower frequencies while passing higher ones.
I
Impedance
Effective opposition to an AC signal, including reactive elements.
Impulse response
A description of a linear system's response to an impulse.
Intermodulation
Additional components produced when multiple frequencies enter a nonlinear stage together.
IR resampling
Adjusting the sample grid so a response can run at the intended sample rate.
K
Knee
The width of the transition into compression ratio.
L
Latency
The delay between an input event and the result you hear.
Level
The strength of a signal at a point, or a control that changes it.
Level-matched listening
Comparing sounds with controlled source material and playback level.
LFO
A slow oscillator used to control modulation.
License
The permission and conditions for using material, assets, or captures.
Limiter
A dynamics processor that controls peaks toward a ceiling.
Lookahead
Delaying a signal so processing can inspect upcoming audio.
Loop
Repeated playback of a section of audio.
Low-pass
A filter that attenuates higher frequencies while passing lower ones.
M
Makeup gain
Gain used to balance level after compression.
Master
A level control whose position depends on context.
MIDI
Musical control messages, rather than a guitar-audio stream.
MIDI channel
One of sixteen logical channels used by certain MIDI messages.
MIDI feedback
Messages sent back from an application to a controller.
MIDI Learn
Capturing a controller message to create a mapping.
Mono
One audio channel, or a signal without left/right differences.
N
Neural Amp Modeler
A trained model that maps an audio system's input to its output.
Noise Gate
A processor that attenuates the signal when its level is low.
Noise profile
An estimate of noise characteristics taken from a section without playing.
Notch
A narrow filter that attenuates a particular frequency region.
Nyquist
Half the sample rate: the ideal frequency-representation limit.
O
Octave
An interval with a 2:1 frequency ratio.
Overdrive
A family of effects that adds breakup or saturation.
Overdub
Adding a new recording over a playing loop or session.
Oversampling
Temporarily processing at a higher sample rate with filtering.
P
Parallel
Routing that splits the signal into paths and combines them again.
Pattern
An arpeggiator's sequence of steps or notes.
Peak
The greatest absolute amplitude within a measurement window.
Peak hold
A peak marker kept visible for a short time.
Period
The time needed to complete one cycle.
Phase
A wave's relative position within its cycle.
Phaser
Phase or filter modulation that creates moving notches when mixed with the signal.
Pitch tracking
Estimating a note, fundamental, or harmonic groups from the input.
Pivot
The reference frequency around which a Tilt EQ changes direction.
Polarity
The sign of a signal; inversion multiplies it by −1.
Polyphony
The number or type of notes a processor can handle as simultaneous voices.
Power Amp
The final amplifier stage within an amp-chain model.
Pre-delay
The initial gap between the direct signal and the start of ambience.
Preamp
An early stage that amplifies and/or shapes the signal.
Presence
A high-frequency character control whose behavior depends on the amplifier design.
Preset
A snapshot of sound and routing settings that can be recalled.
Program Change
A MIDI message that selects a program according to the receiver.
Q
Q
A measure of a filter's sharpness or bandwidth.
Quantization
Mapping continuous or higher-precision values to a limited set of representable steps.
R
Rate
How quickly a process repeats or changes.
Ratio
The input-level increase compared with the output-level increase above threshold.
Reduced Motion
A preference for reducing unnecessary animation.
Release
How quickly a process recovers as its triggering condition decreases.
Resonance
Emphasis or response character around a particular frequency region.
Reverb
Reflections that create a sense of space and a decaying tail.
Ring modulation
Multiplying a signal by a carrier to produce sum and difference components.
RMS
The square root of the mean of squared samples over a time window.
Rotary
A moving texture inspired by rotating speakers.
S
Sag
Envelope-compression character inspired by changes in an amp's power supply.
Sample rate
The number of audio samples per second.
Saturation
Nonlinear processing that adds harmonics and changes dynamics.
Scene
A rig snapshot for a section or arrangement of a live performance.
Scope
The range over which a setting is stored or applied.
Semitone
One step in the twelve-note equal-tempered division of an octave.
Serial
Routing in sequence: one process's output enters the next process.
Shape
The form of a modulation cycle, as defined by the effect.
Shelf filter
A filter that broadly changes level on one side of a frequency.
Shimmer loading
A placeholder resembling the content's structure while data is loading.
Shimmer reverb
Reverb with pitched or octave components in its tail.
Signal
A representation of sound that changes over time.
Slope
How quickly a filter's attenuation changes with frequency.
Soft clipping
A more gradual limiting of signal peaks.
Spectrum
The distribution of a signal's level across frequencies.
Stereo
Two channels that can carry different signals or spatial information.
Stereo width
The amount of spatial difference between the left and right sides.
Stutter
Repeating a short audio slice to create rhythmic texture.
Subdivision
A division of beat time used for an effect's rhythm.
Sustain
The part of a sound that continues after the initial pick.
T
Taper
The relationship between a control's position and its gain.
THD
A measure of harmonic content relative to the fundamental in a controlled test.
Threshold
A reference level that triggers a change in processing.
Tilt EQ
Balancing low and high frequencies around a pivot.
Timbre
The character that distinguishes sounds playing the same note.
Tooltip
A short explanation near the term or control being referenced.
Top
The character of the simulated body's top contribution.
Transient
A brief, rapid change at the start of or within a sound.
Tremolo
Periodic modulation of amplitude or level.
Trim
A level multiplier used to adjust the signal at a given point.
True peak
An estimate of the reconstructed waveform's peaks between samples.
U
Unity gain
A 1:1 gain at a specified point or for a specified measurement.
V
Vibrato
Small periodic changes in pitch.
W
Wet
The processed signal or the effect component of a mix.
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