Music Production Glossary

Term Definition
AIFF Short for Audio Interchange File Format. Similar to the WAV format, AIFF is a high-quality
audio file format created by Apple.

AU Acronym for Audio Unit, is a plugin format created by Apple. It's compatible with macOS
only.

Bar A musical term describing a measure of beats, with four beats being the most common, but
any number of beats can be counted in a measure depending on the time signature.

BPM Short for beats-per-minute; the tempo of a song, which is measured in the number of beats
per minute.

Bus An auxiliary track that is assigned audio from multiple other tracks in a DAW. This allows for
group effect processing such as reverb and compression.

Chorus This effect adds two or more delays with different time values, producing a detuning effect.

Compression A dynamic range effect that reduces the volume of a signal when its amplitude exceeds a
certain level, and increases the volume again when the amplitude drops below another set
level. It's often used to make the overall volume of audio signals more consistent.

DAW An acronym for digital audio workstation and is the term used to describe the software in
which music is created, recorded, and edited in a modern studio environment. Popular DAWs
include Logic Pro, Cubase, Ableton Live, and FL Studio.

Decibel A standard measurement for loudness. All dB measurements are relative to a reference
point.

De-esser A type of audio processing tool that takes sound from the frequency bands where hissing—
or sibilance—is likely to occur and raises or lowers their volume at certain times to create a
less irritable listening experience.

Delay The audio effect that creates a series of echoes occurring at intervals is called delay.

Distortion A process whereby audio is enhanced, giving it a bolder sound. It might help to make your
recordings sound fuller and more aggressive.

Dynamic range The difference in decibels between the highest and lowest points in a source's amplitude is
called its dynamic range. A high dynamic range means that there is a large difference
between the two, while low dynamic range means that there is not much of a difference.

Early A continuation of a reverb tail, early reflections are the first sound heard when there is
reflections natural or algorithmic reverberation.

Effect When you send an audio signal through an effect, the effect can modify it. Effects are often
used to enhance or distort sounds.

EQ The process of adjusting the levels of certain frequencies in a sound without changing the
rest of it.

Feedback A delay or distortion effect relies on the signal it is producing being fed back into its own
input, resulting in a sort of reverberation. The more feedback a delay has, the longer the
effect will last.

Filter It only lets a certain group of frequencies through. Different kinds of filters include low-pass
filters, high-pass filters, band-pass filters and band-reject filters.

Flanger A time-based effect in which a copy of the original sound is created with a few milliseconds
of difference, resulting in slightly different harmonic content or detuning effects.

Gain The initial amplification level of a sound source. With higher gain, all of the harmonic content
in the sound source is augmented. Simply put, it is how loud a sound is before it is put
through an amplifier.

Gating A means of cutting out unwanted signals that fall below a specific threshold.

Grain A short snippet of audio, often looped in quick succession to achieve oscillation.

Headroom The difference between the highest level a sound can reach and zero decibels on a master
channel; having adequate headroom makes it possible for a mastering engineer to boost the
volume without causing distortion.

IR Short for Impulse Response, it is an audio file that can be loaded into a convolution reverb to
apply a room or space’s natural reverb to any sound. It is useful to reproduce the specific
acoustics of a room or environment without having to actually be in it.

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Jitter The time distortion of recording/playback of a digital audio signal. Essentially, it is the
deviation of time between the sample rate and analog rates.

kHz The unit of measurement used to measure sampling rate, or how often a device samples an
audio input signal.

Knee The knee setting of a compressor refers to its gradual activation when the predetermined
volume threshold is reached. A hard-knee setting activates the compression immediately; a
soft-knee setting ramps up the compression as the signal gets louder, creating a smoother
effect.

Latency An audio delay between input from a sound source and output in a performer's headphones.

LFO A low-frequency oscillator (LFO) is an oscillator typically below the range of human hearing.
It is used as a modulation source to change the character of a sound over time.

Loop A repeated section of a song, often using an imported sample.

MIDI MIDI—or Musical Instrument Digital Interface—is a set of digital codes that represents
musical notes and instructions. These instructions are recorded by electronic instruments,
such as MIDI keyboards, and they can be played back using Digital Audio Workstations.

Mono A sound that has one source, rather than two.

Panning The practice of positioning a sound in the stereo field to the left or right speaker.

Parallel A type of multi-band compression, parallel compression mixes the effected signal in parallel
compression to the original sound.

Phase The vibration of air caused by the position of the signal and generated sound at the same
time.

Phono A commonly-used term for RCA inputs/outputs and the cable format used to connect line-
level devices like turntables, cassette decks, and mixers

Pitch A synonym to describe frequency.

Polyphonic A capability of some instruments to play more than one note at once.

Quantize A feature that analyzes MIDI or audio input and adjusts it so it is "on the grid" and in time.

Room tone The sound of reverb in a room. It also refers to how a room colorizes a sound.

Sibilance The "s" sound. It occurs in words such as sit, stay, masks, etc.

Stereo Opposite of mono; a sound that has two sources, rather than one, for the purpose of creating
the illusion of space or distance.

Threshold A control that sets the level at which a compressor, noise gate, or other effects device will
begin working.

Transient The very beginning section of a sound, which is also the loudest and most percussive part of
the sound.

Transport An area that contains the playback controls in DAW.

Velocity A MIDI parameter that determines the loudness of each performed and recorded note.

Wavetable A cycle of waveforms that can be scanned through, blended with one another, and modified.

WAV WAV, or Waveform Audio File Format, is the standard format or lossless audio files.

XLR An electrical connector that features three pins and is round. It is commonly used to connect
microphones or speakers.

Zone The keyboard mapping assigned to a sample or group of samples and controls pitch and
velocity.

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