You are here

Glossary

Glossary-AZ-image

Welcome to Sound On Sound's indispensible, regularly updated, explanations of technical terms from the fields of Recording, Audio Production, Music Technology, MIDI, Music Software, Audio Plug-ins, Mac and PC Computing, Live Sound, Acoustics, Electronics and more...

If we do not explain a particular term below, please email glossary@soundonsound.com and we will add it to our next update.

Last updated: 01/02/24

3 (1)   A (59)   B (40)   C (59)   D (75)   E (23)   F (29)   G (15)   H (17)   I (22)   J (5)   K (3)   L (28)   M (64)   N (14)   O (22)   P (73)   Q (4)   R (24)   S (80)   T (28)   U (5)   V (13)   W (14)   X (3)   Y (1)   Z (4)
Sustain

Part of the ADSR envelope which determines the level to which the sound will settle if a key is held down. Once the key is released, the sound decays at a rate set by the Release parameter. Also refers to a guitar's ability to hold notes which decay very slowly.

Swan Neck

See Gooseneck.

Sweet Spot

The optimum position for a microphone, or for a listener relative to monitor loudspeakers.

Switching Power Supply

(Also SMPS) A type of power supply that uses mains power to drive directly a high frequency oscillator so that a smaller, lighter transformer may be used. These power supplies are commonly used because they can be made to accept a wide range of mains supply voltages, and are thus universal.

Sync

A system for making two or more pieces of equipment run in synchronism with each other.

Synthesis

The creation of artificial sound.

Synthesizer

An electronic musical instrument designed to create a wide range of sounds, both imitative and abstract.

SysEx

(System Exclusive) A part of the MIDI standard that allows manufacturers to define their own specific message formats, commonly used to dump and load a specific product’s patch data.

Pages