A specialised IC at the heart of a computer which performs calculations and other data manipulations, following software instructions.

A device used to convert an acoustic sound wave into an electrical signal.

The nominal signal level generated by a microphone. Typically around -50dBu. Mic level signals must be amplified to raise them to line-level.

A display intended to indicate the level of a sound signal. It could indicate peak levels (eg. PPMs or digital sample meters), average levels (VU or RMS meters), or perceived loudness (LUFS meters).

A list of choices presented by a computer program or a device with a display window.

A computer's memory (RAM) used to store programs and data. This data is lost when the computer is switched off and so must be stored to disk or other suitable archive media.

Modular Digital Multitrack. An obsolete term for hardware digital recorders that can be used in multiples to provide a greater number of synchronized tracks than a single machine.

A term describing the tuning mechanism of a guitar.

Megabyte. Nominally 1,000,000 (one million) bytes of data, but in fact, because computer memory works in with binary, the actual value is 1,048,576 bytes (220).

The loudest sound pressure level that a device can generate or tolerate.