Audible Range

The range of frequencies that the human ear can hear. A healthy young human can usually hear from 20 cycles per second to around 20,000 cycles per second (20-20,000 Hz).

Audio

Most often referring to electrical signals resulting from the sound pressure wave being converted into electrical energy.

Audio Home Recording Act:

This 1992 legislation exempts consumers from lawsuits for copyright violations when they record music for private, noncommercial use and eases access to advanced digital audio recording technologies. The law also provides for the payment of modest royalties to music creators and copyright owners, and mandates the inclusion of the Serial Copying Management Systems in all consumer digital audio recorders to limit multi-generational audio copying (i.e., making copies of copies). This legislation will also apply to all future digital recording technologies, so Congress will not be forced to revisit the issue as each new product becomes available.

Audit

Conducted by an independent accounting firm, an audit verifies shipment and sales levels for each audio and music video format after returns. In addition, the audit calculates what product has been shipped for sale, net after returns, versus product used for promotional purposes. A formal certification report is issued and sent to the record company.

auditory filter

Term used to describe the concept of critical bands. Analogous to a bandpass filter with a rounded top ("rounded-exponential" after Patterson and Moore, 1986). The filter is slightly asymmetric, being wider on the low-frequency side.

Auto Correlation

A process that determines optimum start and ending loop points to produce minimum discontinuity.

Automatic Gain Control (Automatic Volume Control)

A compressor with a very long release time used to keep the volume of the audio very constant.

Automation

In consoles, a feature that lets the engineer program control changes (such as fader level) so that upon playback of the multitrack recording these changes happen automatically.

Aux Send

Short for the term Auxiliary Send (a control to adjust the level of the signal sent from the console input channel to the auxiliary equipment through the aux buss.

Auxilary Controllers

These are external controlling devices used in conjunction with a main instrument or controller. Some examples of such controllers are foot pedals, pitch bending and modulation wheels.

Auxiliary Equipment

Effects devices separate from but working with the recording console.

Axis

A line around which a device operates. Example: In a microphone, this would be an imaginary line coming out from the front of the microphone in the direction of motion of the diaphragm.

background music

Music used in place of silence that may or may not have lyrics. Contrast with foreground music.

Beat

Any pulsing unit of musical time is considered a beat. In metered music, the first pulse or beat of each bar is the "downbeat" and it is the accent which is normally most strongly emphasized. In some music -- notably jazz and rock -- the main emphasis often falls on one of the "afterbeats" or "backbeats" of the bar. Of course these descriptions betray Eurocentric attitudes. Beat also refers to the overall musical performance in jazz music.

Behind the Beat

This musical performance technique, usually a characteristic of an individual performer's style, occurs when a singer or instrumentalist deliberately sounds the notes slightly after the beat set by the rhythm section or as set by the rest of the ensemble. This technique is most often found in reference to jazz stylings but can be used in blues and rock as well. Behind the beat methods are never properly employed in any classical idiom.

Bikutsi

Bikutsi is a rhythmic style which originated with the Beti people of present day Cameroon. Literally it means to "thump the earth" which gives a strong indication that the Beti are what anthropologists would call "dirt affirming people"; that is, they recognize many aspects of human nature including those that are sexually driven. In origins the bikutsi rhythms were war and blood affirming. The music would call the people together by resounding through the forest. Such calls were made for requisite vengeance against other groups. These heavily energetic rhythms were meant to enjoin one's blood to boil -- in the figurative sense -- for the cause of war. Rhythmic dances of the bikutsi were preserved by the women as a response to Christian missionaries who attempted to "save" the people from their own "sinful" expressions. Story telling occurred followed by dances in which the shaking of the shoulders, back and buttocks were followed by a series of clapping. The dances are still performed and the fighting concepts have been removed. Sexual underpinnings and fantasies as told in the stories of the women clearly remain in the bikutsi rhythms.

Boost

To increase gain, especially to increase gain at specific frequencies with an equalizer.

Boot

Starting up a computer by loading a program that allows it to run other programs. The term comes from bootstrapping which means that the computer "pulls itself up by its own bootstraps."

Bridge

1. Transitional passage connecting two sections of a composition. 2. That part of a stringed instrument which supports the strings.

Broken Time

All pieces of music in the Western tradition state the time signature and key signature at the beginning of the score. Many works are written in 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, 3/8, and 6/8 time frames; other time signatures are used but these are the most common. In the process of composing a piece of music, the writer may chose to change the time signature. Sometimes it will be just for a measure or two and on other occasions the change will require a major divergence in the composition. These small measured changes are referred to as "broken time" where a transition may occur or syllabic composing will call for a slight interruption from the original time signature. 4/4, when interrupted, often changes to 2/4. Broken time can also refer to stuttered time signatures such a 5/4 or 7/8 which, for the novice performer and listener, can be quite unsettling.

Bug

An error in a computer program that causes it to work incorrectly.

Bulk Dump

Short for System Exclusive Bulk Dump (a method of transmitting data, such as the internal parameters of a MIDI device to another MIDI device).

Busker

A street performer; in music, a person who plays music on the street.

Buss (Bus)

A wire carrying signals to some place, usually fed from several sources.

Byte

A grouping of eight information bits.

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