Driver
A piece of software that handles communications between the main program and a hardware peripheral, such as a soundcard, printer or scanner. Also a term used to refer to a physical loudspeaker drive unit - eg bass driver.
Search
Found 25736 results
To find the exact phrase, put the words in quotes or join them together with a plus sign e.g. live+recording or "live recording".
To find, say, all live recording articles that mention Avid, enter: live+recording +avid - and use sidebar filters to narrow down searches further.
Dropout
A sudden brief loss of signal level. In analogue recording tape this is often caused by a defect in the oxide layer caused by damage (eg. creasing) or by a temporary clogging of the replay head, and typically affects the high-frequencies most. The effect is less likely and less noticable with wider and faster tape formats.
Drum Pad
A synthetic playing surface which produces electronic trigger signals in response to being hit with drum sticks.
Drum Booth
- See Isolation Room
Dry (cf. Wet)
A signal that has had no effects added.
Dubbing
The practice of transferring material from one medium to another, or of adding further material to an existing recording (cf. Over-Dub).
Ducking
A system for controlling the level of one audio signal with another. For example, in a broadcast radio context a music track can be made to 'duck' or reduce in volume whenever there's a voice over.
Dump
To transfer digital data from one device to another. A SysEx dump is a means of transmitting information about a particular instrument or module over MIDI, and may be used to store sound patches, parameter settings and so on.
DVS
'Digital Vinyl System' is a way of controlling and manipulating the playback of digital audio files in a computer by using conventional analogue turntables as the interface, thus maintaining a traditional 'disk-jockey' style of hands-on 'turntablism' control, including scratching. The system is based upon using special vinyl discs which carry standard timecode signals. The output of the vinyl replay chain is routed into the computer via an audio interface in the usual way, and the software is then able to analyse the timecode to determine changes in playback speed, direction, and position of the pickup on the vinyl disc, and apply that timing and speed information to the reproduction of a digital audio file. Some latency is inevitable in such a system, but it is usually very short.
Dynamics
A way of describing the relative levels within a piece of music.
E-PROM
Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. Similar to ROM, but the information on the chip can be erased and replaced using special equipment. (See ROM)
Equivalent Input Noise
A means of describing the intrinsic electronic noise at the output of an amplifier in terms of an equivalent input noise, taking into account the amplifier’s gain.
Erase
To remove recorded material from an analogue tape, or to remove digital data from any form of storage media.
EuCon
A control protocol developed by Euphonix which operates at high-speed over an Ethernet connection. It is used between control surfaces and DAW computers to convey information about the positions of faders, knobs, and buttons and to carry display information.
Event
In MIDI terms, an event is a single unit of MIDI data, such as a note being turned on or off, a piece of controller information, a program change, and so on.
Exciter (cf. Enhancer)
An audio processor that works by synthesizing new high frequency harmonics.
Expander Module
A synthesizer with no keyboard, often rack mountable or in some other compact format.
FET
Field Effect Transistor. A solid-state semiconductor device in which the current flowing between source and drain terminals is controlled by the voltage on the gate terminal. The FET is a very high impedance device, which makes it highly suited for use in impedance converter stages in capacitor and electret microphones.
File
A container for stored digital data that usually has a meaningful name. For example, a Standard MIDI File is a specific type of file designed to allow sequence information to be interchanged between different types of sequencer.
Filter Frequency
The ‘turnover’ or ‘corner’ frequency of a high- or low-pass filter. Technically, the frequency at which the signal amplitude has been attenuated by 3dB.