Welcome to TriggerTone — the searchable online guide to audio post production terminology.
For more than a century, those who work with audio have developed a vocabulary all their own - a lexicon where cans are worn over your ears, clipping has nothing to do with coupons, bias never refers to favoritism, sweetening contains no sweetener, a matrix does not star Keanu Reeves, and "wow" is one thing you never want to hear.
TriggerTone signals the start of your search through the multitude of terms used in audio post. Curious why motor boating has sunk your track or how an anomaly with a name as innocuous sounding as flutter could cause so many rejections? The definitions herein were written for professionals not necessarily familiar with the physics of sound or the mind numbing details of an audio engineering textbook. Rather, the goal of TriggerTone is to provide concise, clear interpretations of terms as they relate to audio post embellished with sound clips and illustrations where helpful.
The gate is open; soon your head will be filled. To get you started, please remember that in the world of sound you do not need to layback to laydown, and you absolutely can not eat the pancakes.
Browse the most popular viewed terms.
Lt/Rt |
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Sync-pop |
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Optical Sound Track |
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Mixing Console |
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DAT |
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Patch Bay |
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Ornament Sound Experiments
The 1932 film Ornament Sound Experiments, created by experimental filmmaker Oskar Fischinger, utilized the optical sound track in a very unique way. Using precise graphical icons in place of the usual waveforms in the soundtrack area of the film, a "synthesized," or "pure" sound, as
Bias
Bias is a very high frequency signal that is incorporated in the recording of any magnetic medium. Magnetic recording equipment generates a bias current that is required to enable the magnetic oxide to record the audio portion of a signal - somewhat like an audio catalyst. The signal generated
Amplitude
A sound wave moving through the atmosphere pushes air. As the air in front of the wave gets compressed, the air pressure goes up. The magnitude of change in the air pressure from that sound wave is its amplitude. The bigger its amplitude, the louder the wave will sound.