Audio Terms

Ambience - sound from the surrounding environment rather than from the sound source.

Attack - The rate the sound begins and increases in volume.

Decay - The fade out of the reverberation of a sound

dB – abbreviation for Decibel, a measure of volume.
Envelope – How a sound or audio signal varies in intensity over a time span.
Gain – The amount of increase in audio signal strength, often expressed in dB.
Hertz (Hz) – cycles per second, the unit of frequency, the pitch of a sound.
Hum - The 60 Hz power line current accidentally induced or fed into electronic equipment.
Loop - where the ends of a recording are spliced in such a manner that it will continually repeat
Mic - microphone.
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) - a standard for communication between electronic musical instruments and computers.
Mix - To blend audio signals together into a composite signal.
Monitor – to listen, or a device to listen.
Noise - Any unintentional or objectionable signal.
Normalize - adjust the level of a selection so the highest peak is at maximum recording level
Peak - The highest point in the audio waveform.
Post Production - done after film or video is shot, including the recording of replacement dialogue, adding sound effects and the mixing of dialogue, effects and music.
Sample – To record a short segment of audio for the purpose of playback later.
Voice Over – adding a vocal track to video or music.
Vox - vocal.

adapted from http://www.recordingeq.com/glossary/glosae.htm

see also http://www.rolandus.com/glossary_main.asp

Citation: lschilli. (2008, February 05). Audio Terms. Retrieved May 20, 2012, from Notre Dame OpenCourseWare Web site: http://ocw.nd.edu/computer-applications/applied-multimedia-technology/mini-lectures/audio-terms.