THE SOUND GLOSSARY / 64 PLAIN-ENGLISH EXPLANATIONS
A word for
what you hear.
Terms become useful when they connect to an audible detail. Find a definition, try a small experiment, and follow the idea back into the music.
64 TERMS
A
- Arpeggio
- The notes of a chord presented successively rather than sounding only as a simultaneous block.
- Attack
- The initial development of a sound or envelope; on an amplitude envelope, it commonly controls the rise toward its first peak.
- Automation
- Recorded or programmed changes to a parameter over time, used to shape an arrangement or performance.
B
- Bar
- A grouping of beats defined by the musical meter, also called a measure.
- Beat
- A recurring unit in the musical timing framework; its duration depends on the tempo and the chosen counting level.
- Beat grid
- A software timing map that places beat and bar references over a recording for cueing, analysis or synchronization.
- Beatmatching
- Aligning the beat rates and positions of two recordings so their rhythmic pulses remain coordinated during an overlap.
- Breakdown
- An arrangement section that reduces or reconfigures established material to create contrast and redirect attention.
C
- Clipping
- A form of waveform limiting that occurs when a signal exceeds a stage’s available range, altering its shape.
- Compression
- Level-dependent dynamic processing that reduces gain according to a detector and chosen response settings.
- Crossfader
- A mixer control that changes the relative contribution of assigned audio channels along a shared travel range.
- Cue point
- A marked location used to start, prepare or identify a meaningful moment in an audio recording.
- Cutoff
- A frequency reference associated with a filter’s transition or characteristic region; its exact meaning depends on the filter type and design.
D
- Decay
- In a common ADSR envelope, the transition from the initial peak toward the sustain level.
- Decay time
- A description of how long a sound or reverberant field takes to diminish, with the exact measurement or control meaning depending on context.
- Delay
- An effect that produces an output after an interval relative to its input, often heard as one or more echoes.
- Dynamics
- Changes and differences in level or intensity within musical material, described at the scale relevant to the discussion.
E
F
- Feedback
- The return of part of a system’s output into an earlier point, used in effects such as repeated delay echoes.
- Fundamental
- The base frequency associated with a periodic pitched tone, used as the reference for its harmonic series.
G
H
K
- Key lock
- A playback mode intended to preserve musical pitch while changing playback tempo, with quality and behavior depending on the processing tool.
L
- Legato
- A connected manner of note transition; in a synthesizer, overlapping note behavior may also control retriggering or glide.
- LFO
- A low-frequency oscillator commonly used as a repeating modulation source rather than a directly heard musical tone.
- Loop
- A selected span of material that repeats, used as a compositional pattern or a performance tool.
- Loudness
- The perceived magnitude of a sound, influenced by the signal, duration, spectrum and listening conditions.
M
- Masking
- A perceptual interaction in which one sound makes another harder to hear under the listening conditions.
- Mono
- A single-channel audio presentation; a mono sum combines stereo information into one channel according to the chosen mixing method.
- Motif
- A small recurring musical idea identifiable through a feature such as rhythm, contour or interval relationship.
O
- Octave
- An interval corresponding to a two-to-one frequency relationship; notes an octave apart share a note-name class in standard Western naming.
- Oscillator
- A source that produces a repeating signal, commonly used to generate a pitched tone in a synthesizer.
P
- Phase
- The position within a repeating cycle relative to a reference, relevant when periodic signals interact.
- Phrase
- A musical span that feels organized as a related gesture or statement, often extending across several bars.
- Phrase mixing
- Planning an overlap so larger musical events and section boundaries relate intentionally between recordings.
- Polarity
- The sign orientation of an audio signal; a polarity inversion multiplies the waveform by minus one.
- Polymeter
- The coexistence of repeating patterns organized around different metrical group lengths.
- Portamento
- A continuous pitch transition from one note toward another, often called glide on a synthesizer.
- Pre-delay
- An interval before the onset of a reverb response relative to the source signal.
- Pulse
- The recurring timing reference a listener follows through music, even when no instrument marks every occurrence.
R
- Register
- The relative pitch range occupied by a note, phrase or instrument, described broadly as lower, middle or higher.
- Release
- The stage or behavior after a note is released, often controlling how the sound fades following note-off.
- Resonance
- An emphasized or sustained response around a characteristic frequency region, commonly controlled near a synthesizer filter’s transition.
- Reverb
- A field of reflections and decay that suggests a surrounding space, produced acoustically or by an audio effect.
S
- Sidechain
- A control or detector path that can influence an audio processor, sometimes using a signal different from the material being processed.
- Soundstage
- The perceived spatial scene of a recording, including impressions of lateral placement, depth and relative scale.
- Stereo image
- The perceived lateral arrangement and distribution of sound across a two-channel presentation.
- Sub-bass
- A very low bass region or a sound used to provide a low foundation; exact frequency boundaries depend on context.
- Subdivision
- A division of a beat or another time span into smaller equal parts, providing positions for rhythmic detail.
- Sustain
- The level maintained during the sustained portion of a common ADSR envelope while the note remains held.
- Swing
- A timing treatment that changes the spacing between selected subdivisions, often creating alternating longer and shorter gaps.
- Syncopation
- An emphasis or event placement that plays against an established rhythmic expectation, often highlighting a weaker position or withholding a strong one.
T
- Tempo
- The rate of an underlying beat, commonly expressed in beats per minute, or BPM.
- Tension
- A sense of expectation or instability created by musical relationships and context, rather than a single measurable control.
- Texture
- The perceived surface and density of musical sound, shaped by layers, articulation and their changing relationships.
- Timbre
- The qualities that distinguish sounds beyond their nominal pitch and duration, including spectral and temporal behavior.
- Transient
- A brief, rapidly changing part of a sound, commonly associated with the onset of a percussive event.
- Transition
- The musical handover or change connecting sections, ideas or recordings over time.
V
- Voicing
- The placement and distribution of notes within a chord or harmonic texture, including their register and spacing.
W
- Waveform
- The shape of a signal over time, associated with its frequency content and audible character.
- Wet/dry balance
- The relationship between an effected signal and its unprocessed counterpart.
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