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BAFFLE
1. The surface or board upon which a loudspeaker is mounted. 2. A movable barrier employed in a recording environment to achieve separation between different sound sources.
BANDPASS FILTER
A filter that attenuates signal both below and above the desired frequencies (pass band).
BAND SPLITTING
The Dolby noise reduction systems splits the audio spectrum into different bands before any processing.
BANDWIDTH
A range of frequencies.
BANTAM
A type of jack connectors. Often used in high end applications.
BAR
Metered music is divided into units; each bar or measure contains the number of beats denoted in the time signature, in the form of notes or rests.
BAR LINE
Vertical line through staves or systems; denotes the division of metered music into bars or measures.
BAROQUE CHORD NOTATION
System of chord notation, which describes a chord through the vertical interval spacing. The flexibility and accuracy of description of this system has lead to its common inclusion in jazz chord notation.
BASILAR MEMBRANE
A membrane inside the cochlea that vibrates in response to sound exciting the hair cells.
BASS
The lower range of the audible frequencies.
BASS BOOST
An increase in level of the lower range in frequencies (colloquially termed the 'bass frequencies'). This is usually achieved by electrical means.
BCD
Binary Coded Decimal
BEATS
1. Periodic fluctuations that are heard when sounds of slightly different frequencies are superimposed. 2. Unit of measurement within a bar of notated music.
BEAT SPACING
Referring to western notation. Music spaced to the beat gives an absolute graphical representation of time values relative to the durations present in each measure. It is a more complicated system than note spacing, which provides an absolute allocation of space for each duration.
BIAS
a high frequency signal that is introduced during the magnetic recording process to overcome the non-linearity of the system.
BINARY
A term describing the possibility of making a choice between two alternatives in a system. Music form a piece of music in binary form consists of two sections commonly called A and B.
BINAURAL
A situation involving listening with two ears.
BINAURAL DELAY EFFECT
A perceived sound reaches one ear before it reaches the other (this is true for all cases except if the sound comes from the tip of any isosceles triangle directly in front or behind the head). This introduces a delay in the two signal that reach the brain from the left and the right ear
BINAURAL MICHROPHONE TECHNIQUES
A special head dummy is used. Two microphones are placed in the position occupied by the ears. This stereo recording technique is best monitored back with some headphones, to fully appreciate the advantages.
BIT
Abbreviation for Binary Digit. The elemental 'high' or 'low' state of a binary system.
BOOMY
Colloquial expression for excessive bass response in a recording, playback, or sound-reinforcing system.
'BOUNCING DOWN'
Colloquial term to describe the mixing down of two or more track to a single or stereo pair of track. This is often done to 'free up' some tracks on a multitrack machine.
BPM
Beats per Minute.
BNC
Bayonet Neill-Concelman. A type of bayonet-lock coaxial cable connector used for video and telecommunications.
BRASS
Commonly applied to group of Western musical instruments related by their material and means of producing a sound.
BUG
A colloquial expression to describe an error in a computer program that causes it to work incorrectly. The word "Bug", comes from the early days of computing, when computers filled big rooms with large amounts of valves. The glow and the heat given off by the valves would regularly attract "Bugs" or insects, which would fly into the valves causing them to short out or overheat and burn out. Thus, these computers had to be literally DE-BUGGED. In other words, technicians had to go around regularly, removing dead insects & repairing the damage. We still use the term 'De-bugging' when referring to the process of fixing problems in the program of a computer.
BYTE
A term used in digital systems. A computer word made up of eight bits of data. |
