Glossary

- a -

Ambient Music - is a musical genre in which sound is more important than notes. It is generally identifiable as being broadly atmospheric and environmental in nature.

- b -

Bass Clef - When the F-clef is placed on the fourth line, it is called the "bass clef". This is the only F-clef used today, so that the terms "F-clef" and "bass clef" are often regarded as synonymous.

Beat - is the basic time unit of a piece of music; for example, each tick sounded by a metronome would correspond to a beat. More technically, "the beat is the pulse of the mensural level", also known as the beat level, the metric level at which pulses are heard as the basic unit--"the denominator of the meter signature," admitting compound meters.

- c -

Compression - is a process that reduces the dynamic range of an audio signal.

Crescendo - refers to a passage of music during which the volume gradually increases.

- d -

Decrescendo - refers to a passage of music during which the volume gradually decreases.

Delay - is an audio effect which records an input signal to an audio storage medium, and then plays it back after a period of time. The delayed signal may either be played back multiple times, or played back into the recording again, to create the sound of a repeating, decaying echo.

Distortion - is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of an object, image, sound, waveform or other form of information or representation...such as electric guitar (where distortion is often induced purposely with the amplifier or an electronic effect to achieve the electric guitar's desired, electrifying, aggressive sound).

Dynamics - normally refers to the volume of a sound or note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic (staccato, legato etc.) or functional (velocity). The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics.

- e -

Eighth Note - is a musical note played for one eighth the duration of a whole note, hence the name.

EQ - is the process of changing the frequency envelope of a sound in audio processing. The goal of equalization is to correct, or make equal, the frequency response of a signal.

- f -

Firewire - The IEEE 1394 interface is a serial bus interface standard for high-speed communications and isochronous real-time data transfer, frequently used in a personal computer (and digital audio and digital video).

- g -

Gain - is a measure of the ability of a circuit (often an amplifier) to increase the power or amplitude of a signal. It is usually defined as the mean ratio of the signal output of a system to the signal input of the same system.

Genre - is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music.

- h -

Half Note - is a note played for half the duration of a whole note (or semibreve) and twice the duration of a quarter note (or crotchet).

Harmony - is the use of different pitches simultaneously, and chords, actual or implied, in music. The study of harmony may often refer to the study of harmonic progressions, the movement from one pitch simultaneously to another, and the structural principles that govern such progressions.

- i -

Interval - describes the relationship between the pitches of two notes.

- j -

- k -

- l -

Legato - indicates that musical notes are played smoothly. That is, in transitioning from note to note, there should be no intervening silence.

- m -

Measure - is a segment of time defined as a given number of beats of a given duration. The word measure is heard more frequently in the U.S., while bar is used in other English-speaking countries, although musicians generally understand both usages. The word bar derives from the vertical lines which separate one measure from another, and not the bar-like (i.e., rectangular) dimensions of a typical measure of music.

Melody - also tune, voice, or line, is a series of linear events or a succession, not a simultaneity as in a chord.

Meter - is a concept related to an underlying division of time characteristic of western music. The concept provides that the pattern, is usually 2, 3, or 4 beats long, (duple, triple, quadruple), and each beat may be normally divided into 2 or 3 basic subdivisions (simple, compound).

Microphone - sometimes referred to as a mic (pronounced /ˈmaɪk/), is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal.

MIDI - is an industry-standard protocol that enables electronic musical instruments, computers, and other equipment to communicate, control, and synchronize with each other. MIDI allows computers, synthesizers, MIDI controllers, sound cards, samplers and drum machines to control one another, and to exchange system data.

Mixer - In professional audio, a mixing console, or audio mixer, also called a sound board or soundboard, is an electronic device for combining (also called "mixing"), routing, and changing the level, timbre and/or dynamics of audio signals.

Music Loop - In electronic music, a loop is a sample which is repeated. Loops may be repeated through the use of tape loops, delay effects, cutting between two record players, sampling, a sampler or with the aid of Computer Based Looping Software.

- n -

- o -

- p -

Polyrhythm - is the simultaneous sounding of two or more independent rhythms.

Pulse - is beat (a series of identical, yet distinct periodic short-duration stimuli perceived as points in time.

- q -

Quarter Note - is a note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note

- r -

Reverb - is the persistence of sound in a particular space after the original sound is removed[citation needed]. When sound is produced in a space, a large number of echoes build up and then slowly decay as the sound is absorbed by the walls and air, creating reverberation, or reverb.

Rhythm - is the variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds or other events.

- s -

Sampling in Music - is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or element of a new recording.

Sixteenth Note - is a note played for one sixteenth the duration of a whole note, hence the name.

Sound Design - is a technical/conceptually creative field. It covers all non-compositional elements of a film, a play, a music performance or recording, computer game software or any other multimedia project.

Staccato - indicates that notes are separated in a detached and distinctly separate manner, with silence making up the latter part of the time allocated to each note.

Surround Sound - Multichannel audio denominates the techniques for enriching (expanding and deepening) the sound reproduction quality, of a recorded source, with additional, recorded sound channels reproduced via additional, discrete speakers. The three-dimensional (3D) sphere of human hearing can be virtually achieved with audio channels above and below the listener. To that end, the multichannel surround sound application encircles the audience (left-surround, right-surround, back-surround), as opposed to "screen channels" (center, [front] left, and [front] right), i.e. ca. 360° horizontal plane, 2D).

Synthesizer - is an electronic instrument capable of producing a variety of sounds by generating and combining signals of different frequencies.

- t -

Tempo - is the speed or pace of a given piece.

Time Signature - is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each measure and what note value constitutes one beat. Time signatures indicate meter, but do not necessarily determine it; the composer is free to write in a different meter than that indicated by the signature, so long as the measures contain the indicated number of beats.

Treble Clef - When the G-clef is placed on the second line of the staff, it is called the "treble clef". This is by far the most common clef used today, and the only G-clef still in use. For this reason, the terms G-clef and treble clef are often seen as synonymous.

Tone Color/Timbre - is the quality of a musical note or sound that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices or musical instruments.

- u -

USB - is a serial bus standard to interface devices to a host computer.

- v -

- w -

Whole Note - is a note represented by a hollow oval note head, like a half note (or minim), and no note stem. Its length is typically equal to four beats in 4/4 time.

- x -

- y -

- z -