Direct Coupling
A means of connecting two electrical circuits so that both AC and DC signals may be passed between them.
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Dither
A system whereby low-level noise equivalent to one quantising level is combined with a digitised audio signal in such a way as to perfectly linearise the digital system. Dither must be employed whenever the wordlength is reduced, otherwise quantising distortion errors will manifest.
Disc
Used to describe vinyl discs, CDs and MiniDiscs.
Disk
An abbreviation of Diskette, but now used to describe computer floppy, hard and removable data storage disks.
Dolby Surround-Sound
Dolby’s surround sound systems started with an analogue 4:2:4 phase-matrix system with a very elaborate active-steering decoder called ProLogic, before moving into the digital realm with Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD, and others.
Dolby HX
Invented by Bang & Olufsen and licensed to Dolby. HX (often marketed as HX Pro) stands for 'Headroom eXtension' and it is a record-processing system used on some analogue open-reel and cassette tape-recorders (there is no complementary replay processing). Dolby HX Pro varies the amount of recording bias depending on the strength of high-frequencies in the audio signal itself to avoid magnetic saturation and over-biasing. This makes it possible to record with a higher overall fluxivity on the tape.
DOS
Disk Operating System. Part of the operating system of PC and PC compatible computers
Dome
A specific shape of drive unit diaphragm intended to push and pull the air to create acoustic sound waves. Most tweeters use dome-shaped diaphragms which are driven around the circumference by the drive unit’s motor system. ‘Soft-domes’ are made of a fabric - often silk - while metal domes are constructed from a light metal like aluminium, or some form of metal alloy.
Double-ended Noise Reduction
A method for removing or attenuating the noise component of a recording or transmission system, in which the signal is pre-conditioned in a specific way which is reversed on playback. Most analogue noise-reduction systems are of the double-ended type, such as the Dolby and DBX systems.
Double-lapped Screen
Also known as a Reussen screen. The signal-carrying wires in a microphone cable are protected from external electrostatic and RF interference by a ‘screen’ which is a surrounding conductor connected to earth or ground. The Reussen screen is a specific form of cable screen, comprising two overlapping and counter-wound layers which are unlikely to ‘open up’ if the cable is bent, yet remain highly flexible
DSP
Digital Signal Processor. A powerful microchip used to process digital signals.
Drive unit
A physical device designed to generate an acoustic sound wave in response to an electrical input signal. Drive units can be designed to reproduce almost the full audio spectrum, but most are optimised to reproduce a restricted portion, such as a bass unit (woofer) or high-frequency unit (tweeter). A range of technologies are employed, with most being moving-coil units, but ribbon and electrostatic drive units also exist, each with a different balance of advantages and disadvantages. Also known as a ‘driver’.
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.
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.