Chromatic
A scale of pitches rising or falling in semitone steps.
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Click Track
An audible metronome pulse which assists musicians in playing in time.
Clipping
When an audio signal is allowed to overload the system conveying it, clipping is said to have occurred and severe distortion results. The ‘clipping point’ is reached when the audio system can no longer accommodate the signal amplitude –either because an analogue signal voltage nears or exceeds the circuitry’s power supply voltage, or because a digital sample amplitude exceeds the quantiser’s number range. In both cases, the result is that the signal peaks are ‘clipped’ because the system can’t support the peak excursions - a sinewave source signal becomes more like a squarewave. In an analogue system clipping produces strong harmonic distortion artefacts at frequencies above the fundamental. In a digital system those high frequency harmonics cause aliasing which results in anharmonic distortion where the distortion artefacts reproduce at frequencies below the source fundamental. This is why digital clipping sounds so unlike analogue clipping, and is far more unpleasant and less musical.
Clocking
The process of controlling the sample rate of one digital device with an external clock signal derived from another device. In a conventional digital system there must be only one master clock device, with everything else ‘clocked’ or ‘slaved’ from that master.
Clone
An exact duplicate. Often refers to digital copies of digital tapes.
Close-Miking
A mic technique which involves placing a microphone very close to a sound source, normally with the intention of maximising the wanted sound and minimising any unwanted sound from other nearby sound sources or the room acoustics. In classic music circles the technique is more often known as 'Accent Miking'.
Cloud
Essentially an internet communications network (either a Wide Area Network [WAN] or a private network) in which a data-centre performs a range of services such as data storage (cloud storage) or remote apps and programs (cloud computing). The term comes from the way network engineers used to draw system diagrams with a cloud symbol to simplify a very complex (and irrelevant) network of routers, switches, drives and cables into something that just showed the relevant external connection points.
Codec
An abbreviation formed from coder-decoder, implying a 'double-ended' processing system where a signal is encoded into a specific format before transmission or recording, and then decoded on reception or replay. An example of an analogue codec might be the Dolby A or Dolby B tape noise-reduction systems, while a digital codec might be something like the FLAC data-reduction system where redundant data is removed in the coding process and fully restored in the decoding process.
Coincident
A means of arranging two or more directional microphone capsules such that they receive sound waves from all directions at exactly the same time. The varying sensitivity to sound arriving from different directions due to the directional polar patterns means that information about the directions of sound sources is captured in the form of level differences between the capsule outputs. Specific forms of coincident microphones include ‘XY’ and ‘MS’ configurations, as well as B-format and Ambisonic arrays. Coincident arrays are entirely mono-compatible because there are no timing differences between channels.
Colouration
A distortion of the natural timbre or frequency response of sound, usually but not always unwanted.
Common Mode Rejection
A measure of how well a balanced circuit rejects an interference signal that is common to both sides of the balanced connection.
Compact Cassette
Originally conceived as a recording format for dictation machines in the early 1960s, it became a mainstream music release format in the form of the Musicassette. A plastic shell protected 3.81mm wide (1/8-inch) recording tape which ran at 4.75cm/s. A stereo track was recorded in one direction, and the tape could be turned over to play a second stereo track recorded in the opposite direction.
Compander
An encode-decode device typically employed to pass a wide dynamic range signal over a channel with a lower dynamic range capability. The source signal is compressed in the encoder to reduce the dynamic range, and subsequently expanded by the decoder to restore the original dynamics. The Dolby noise reduction codecs are examples of companders.
Computer
A device which can be instructed (or programmed) to carry out arithmetic or logical operations. Although mechanical 'analogue' computers do exist, most are now electronic and digital, and process digital data.
Condenser Microphone
see Capacitor Microphone
Conductor
A material that provides a low resistance path for electrical current.
Cone
A specific shape of drive unit diaphragm intended to push and pull the air to create acoustic sound waves. Most bass drivers use cone-shaped diaphragms, where the electromagnetic motor of the drive unit is connected to the point of the cone, and its outer diameter is supported by some form of flexible membrane.
Console
An alternative term for mixer (See also Desk).
Contact Cleaner
A compound designed to increase the conductivity of electrical contacts such as plugs, sockets and edge connectors. (cf. De-Oxidising Compound)
Continuous Controller (CC)
Type of MIDI message used to translate continuous parameter changes, such as from a pedal, wheel or breath control device.