Music Technology Term Definitions

2/14/2013

Term Definitions: Analog: An audio signal is an electrical replica, or analog, of the waveform of the sound it represents. The voltage of the signal varies up and down (negatively and positively, in electrical terminology) the same way as the sound pressure varies up and down at the microphone (Louie and White 2004). Digital: Any one of the keys comprising the kbd. of a pf. or similar instrument (Kennedy 1996). Doppler Effect: General Physics a phenomenon, observed for sound waves and electromagnetic radiation, characterized by a change in the apparent frequency of a wave as a result of relative motion between the observer and the source. Also called Doppler shift (Anderson 2005). Synthesizer: Strictly speaking, a purely electronic musical instrument which can be used to imitate many different conventional instruments (Louie and White 2004). Digitalization: In digital audio systems, the audio signal (analog) must first be converted to digital form before it can be further processed. This entails sampling the signal at very short successive time intervals, and converting the height of each sample to a digital word, which is simply a binary number indicating the amplitude of the waveform at that instant (Louie and White 2004). Binary: A binary number system uses only two digits, as opposed to the decimal system, which uses ten. Binary numbers consists of a series of ones and zeroes, and are easy to implement in computer systems because the presence of a voltage can indicate a 1, while the absence of a voltage indicates a 0 (Louie and White 2004). Hexadecimal: Meaning 16. The base 16 numbering system is used as shorthand for representing binary numbers. Each half byte (four bits) is assigned a hex digit as shown in the following chart with its decimal and binary equivalents (Mifflin 2006). Amplitude: Is the strength of a signal or a sound, without regard to its frequency content. Amplitude measurements of audio signal generally refer to signal voltage rather than power, which is proportional to voltage per square (Louie and White 2004). Frequency: In its simplest form, is a measure of how often (how frequently) an event repeats itself. AA sound course, such as a tuning for, which vibrates back and forth 1,000 times per second, it is said to have a frequency of 1,000 hertz (Louie and White 2004).

References Anderson, Sandra, 2005. Collins English Dictionary. 7th ed. London: Harper Collins. Mifflin, Houghton, 2006. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 4th ed. United States of America: Houghton Mifflin.

Kennedy, Michael, 1996. Oxford Concise Dictionary of Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Louie, Gary J. & White, Glenn D., 2005. The Audio Dictionary. 3rd ed. Washington: University of Washington Press.