COMM 2303 Final Exam Vocabulary

bright

term used to describe a sound rich in high frequencies.

tinny

term used to describe a sound that has an almost telephone-like quality to it; a very narrow-band sound that sounds as if it were coming through a tin can or over a telephone.

fatter

term used to describe a sound with a good, solid, low-frequency response with emphasis in the 100 to 300 Hz range.

crispy

term used to describe a sound with extended high-frequency response, like the sizzle of crisp bacon frying.

muddy

term used to describe muffled-sounding audio, not clear, with too much reverb at the lower frequencies.

tag

A 10- to 15-second space at the end of an agency ad over which the local station puts copy.

XLR connector

A balanced microphone connector, sometimes referred to as a Cannon connector, after the man and the company that invented it. A connector in which there are pins or sockets for the positive, negative, and shield, or earth ground.

stop-set

A break in a station's music programming, composed of a jock talking, commercials, and promotional announcements.

daypart

A broadcast industry term that classifies a specific time period of radio listening. For example, 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM, Monday through Friday is generally accepted as the morning-drive daypart.

bus

A common point in an audio device into which several inputs feed and are joined together.

electret-condenser microphone

A condenser microphone that, although it does not require a polarizing voltage, does require a battery to run the preamplifier.

listener fatigue

A condition brought on by misadjusted audio processing, causing the listener to become consciously, or subconsciously, tired of listening to a musical selection or radio station.

feedback

A condition that occurs when a microphone is left open near a monitor speaker, creating a loud howling or whistling sound. The microphone picks up the amplified sound from the speaker and sends it back through the system, regenerating the signal over and over.

shock mount

A device designed to hold a microphone and isolate it from vibrations that might enter the microphone body and cause undesirable sounds.

acoustical phase

A difference in time between two or more sine waves, measured in degrees.

low-pass filter

A filter that blocks audio frequencies above a specific frequency, allowing those frequencies below the specified frequency to pass; sometimes referred to as a high-cut filter, a term that is more descriptive of what the filter actually does.

high-pass filter

A filter that blocks audio frequencies below a specific frequency, allowing those frequencies above the specified frequency to pass; sometimes referred to as a low-cut filter, a term that is more descriptive of what the filter actually does.

pop filter, popper stopper or pop screen

A fine mesh screen placed in front of a microphone to prevent popping plosive sounds from reaching the microphone element. Can also be an acoustic foam filter within a microphone used to prevent popping plosive sounds from reaching the microphone element.

unity gain

A gain of one; the position on a fader at which the ideal operating level of 0 VU occurs. Unity gain does not raise or lower the volume, or gain, of a signal.

unidirectional

A generic term for a directional microphone, meaning one direction.

harmonic

A harmonic is a sound created by multiplying the fundamental frequency, or first harmonic. The second harmonic is two times the fundamental; the third harmonic is three times the fundamental, etc.

cardioid

A heart-shaped microphone pattern with maximum sensitivity at 0 degrees and maximum rejection at 180 degrees.

super-cardioid

A heart-shaped microphone pattern with maximum sensitivity at 0 degrees and maximum rejection at 180 degrees. Super-cardioid microphones are even less sensitive to the sides than a cardioid microphone.

carrier wave

A high-frequency radio wave transmitted by a radio station that has been amplitude or frequency modulated.

LAN

A local area network is a computer interconnection system for sharing data between or among computers within a company or media facility at one location.

ribbon microphone

A member of the dynamic class of microphones; the ribbon uses a thin ribbon of metal as the sound pickup element.

interruptible foldback (IFB)

A method for sending a monitor signal to the talent while also being able to talk to him or her through an earpiece or headphone; a sophisticated intercom system.

metro area

A metropolitan city's area as defined by the Office of Management and Budget; also generally accepted by the major rating services as a designated geographical area.

balanced microphone cable

A microphone cable or line in which there is a positive wire, a negative wire, and a shield or earth ground surrounding the positive and negative wires.

unbalanced microphone cable

A microphone cable or line that only has one positive conductor, with the shield acting as both the negative and the shield.

shotgun microphone

A microphone designed with a long tube in front of the microphone element to focus the sound and increase the microphone's direct-to-reverberant sound ratio.

omnidirectional

A microphone pattern that allows the microphone to pick up sound from all directions equally.

bidirectional

A microphone pattern that has maximum sensitivity at 0 and 180 degrees and maximum rejection at 90 and 270 degrees.

condenser microphone

A microphone that uses an electrostatic field to convert sound into audio and requires a polarizing voltage and a preamplifier.

lav (lavalier)

A microphone worn on the body. Lav is pronounced like lava from a volcano, just drop the last a. Lavalier comes from the French word lavaliere, or pendant.

dynamic microphone

A moving-coil microphone.

skywave propagation

A phenomenon that occurs as the long wavelengths of AM signals interact with the radically shifting layers of the ionosphere several miles above the earth's surface at night, causing AM signals to travel great distances.

frequency-response curve

A plotted chart that shows how a microphone responds to various frequencies; called flat if the microphone treats all frequencies equally.

wet signal

A processed audio signal that is returned to a control board after audio processing, such as reverb or delay.

pan (panoramic) control

A sonic positioning control that allows the input to a mixer channel to be assigned to the left channel or the right channel, or to remain in the center channel for a mono signal.

overtone

A sound or audio signal that occurs in between the harmonics or multiples of a fundamental frequency.

subwoofer

A speaker designed to handle those sounds from 16 Hz to about 100 Hz.

de-esser

A specialty compressor that has a variable frequency range used to reduce sibilant "ess" sounds in speech between 6 kHz and 8 kHz.

branding

A station's marketing plan that provides a clear differentiation from other stations in the marketplace; based on the station's identity and attitude.

dead studio

A studio or a location that has NO natural reverberation or echo, as opposed to a "live" space that has lots of reverberation

streaming

A term used to describe transmitting audio or video on the web. Usually used to describe a continuous, real-time audio feed, such as an on-air signal.

donut

A type of agency-supplied commercial that has a hole in the middle of the ad for the insertion of local copy.

domain

A unique name for a location on the web. Domains can be either generic (such as .com for commercial websites or .org for nonprofit organizations) or geographic (such as .uk for the United Kingdom or .fr for France).

positioning statement

A unique selling proposition, or slogan, used by a station to separate itself from the competition.

decibels

A unit of measurement developed by Alexander Graham Bell to measure the loss of signal over one mile of telephone line. Because the bel is such a large unit, most measurements are made in tenths (deci) of a bel, thus the decibel. A decibel can be expressed as a volume of acoustic sound-pressure level or, for audio signals, as a voltage reading.

preamplifier

A voltage multiplier used to boost the weak signal of a microphone to a usable audio level.

AM

Amplitude modulation. The AM radio band extends from 535 kHz to 1,605 kHz.

amplitude

Amplitude represents the strength, or loudness, of a sound or audio signal without regard for its frequency. The height of the sine wave can be measured either in decibels (for sound) or voltage (for audio signals).

broadband

An Internet connection capable of transmitting data at a speed over 200 Kbps. Typical broadband connections include cable TV modems, DSL lines, and wireless connections.

windscreen

An acoustic foam cover for the head of a microphone used to block wind outdoors.

time spent listening

An audience ratings measurement indicating the number of quarter-hour time segments the average person spends listening to a radio station in a given time period, such as a week.

hard clipping

An audio condition in which the audio is driven beyond distortion to the point that the edges of the sine waves start breaking up.

notch filter

An audio filter designed to eliminate a very narrow bandwidth of sound, creating a notch in the frequency. Generally used to eliminate unwanted sounds.

band-pass filter

An audio filter that has a high and low cutoff frequency, allowing only the frequencies in between to pass unaffected.

compression

An audio processing technique in which the highest audio peaks are automatically turned down, reducing the dynamic range of the audio signal in a direct ratio to the audio input level; a form of automatic volume control.

gating

An audio processing technique that acts just as its name implies, as a gate. When audio is above a preset level, the gate allows it to pass. When the audio level drops below the preset level the gate closes, blocking the background noise.

limiting

An audio processing technique that automatically controls audio levels that approach a preset maximum audio level. When the pre-set level is reached, the audio is turned down so that it does not exceed the preset level.

sensitivity

An electrical measurement in either dBV (decibel volts) or millivolts that tells what the audio output of the microphone will be at a given sound-pressure input level.

hyper-cardioid

An elongated, heart-shaped cardioid pattern used primarily in shotgun microphones to allow the microphones to be moved farther from the sound source without increasing the apparent room reverberation.

driver

An individual speaker within a speaker cabinet; each driver consists of a moving-coil transducer that converts analog electrical energy into acoustic energy.

needle-drop basis

An old radio term used to describe paying for production music on a per cut used basis.

dry signal

An original, unprocessed audio signal sent from an audio console to an outboard audio processor, such as a reverb or delay unit.

bass boost

Another term for proximity effect.

CPM

Cost per thousand; a universal media term for the cost to make 1,000 impressions. M is the Roman numeral for 1,000.

metrics

Data collected about the performance of a website, including such things as number of pages displayed or page views, session length, number of unique visitors, etc. Often referred to as website ratings.

DMCA

Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which ruled that Internet radio stations have to pay royalties for songs played online, based on the revenue of the station

noise

Electrical noise, which appears as hiss in an audio signal, measured in negative dB. The larger the negative figure, the lower the noise level.

FM

Frequency modulation. The FM radio band extends from 88 mHz to 108 mHz.

HAAT

Height above average terrain. Applied to an FM radio station, the term specifies in meters the height of the station's transmitting antenna above the average terrain that surrounds it.

Hertz, Heinrich

Hertz (1857-1894) proved that electricity could be transmitted in electromagnetic waves, which travel at the speed of light. In 1933 his name was adopted as the international metric term used for radio and electrical frequencies (e.g., Hz, kHz, and mHz).

audio

Latin, "to hear"; sound that has been converted into electrical energy.

gain staging

Matching a microphone's maximum output voltage to the preamplifier's maximum input voltage to prevent overload.

constructive interference

Occurs when two sine waves are just slightly out of phase with one another but are still together in their cycles of compression and rarefaction. Constructive interference tends to increase amplitude, reinforcing the sound waves.

destructive interference

Occurs when two sine waves are out of phase with one another and their cycles of compression and rarefaction occur at different times. Destructive interference tends to decrease amplitude and weaken the sound waves.

off axis

Outside of the centerline of a microphone's directional pattern, usually measured in degrees.

phantom power

Power supplied to a condenser microphone from a source such as a control board, portable mixing board, or other outside source through the microphone cable.

mic

Pronounced "Mike"; industry abbreviation for microphone (mics is used for more than one mic).

dubs

Slang for the word duplicate; a term used for a copy or copies of an original.

near-field monitors

Smaller monitor speakers placed very near the mixing position, often at the front of the console.

SPDIF

Sony/Philips Digital InterFace is a standard digital audio file transfer format using 75-ohm coaxial cable.

ultrasonic

Sounds or audio signals occurring above the average person's hearing range, typically above 20 kHz.

infrasonic

Sounds or audio signals that fall below the average person's hearing range, typically 20 Hz and lower.

pot

The abbreviation for potentiometer, the technical term for a volume control.

headroom

The additional capacity of an audio device to handle level increases above average working levels to protect from transients, overload, and distortion.

off-axis coloration

The change in the frequency response and sensitivity of a microphone as it is turned away from a sound source and aimed in a different direction.

proximity effect

The closer you move to a directional microphone, the more bass your voice appears to have.

dynamic range

The difference between the softest and loudest part of a sound, measured in decibels (dB). A dynamic range of 95 dB, for example, indicates that the loudest sound is 95 dB louder than the softest sound.

DVD

The digital versatile disc is an optical storage medium that offers a number of both audio and video storage formats. Depending on the format, a DVD can store data on both sides of the disc, two layers deep.

attack time

The fixed or adjustable length of time it takes for an audio processor to sense the presence of audio and react to the audio, measured in milliseconds.

compression ratio

The fixed or adjustable ratio of the input to the output of an audio compressor.

release time

The fixed, or adjustable, length of time it takes for an audio processor, such as a compressor or limiter, to return a signal to its normal level after processing, measured in milliseconds.

polar frequency response

The frequency-response curve of a microphone measured at various points in the microphone pattern.

maximum sound-pressure level (SPL)

The maximum dB-SPL that a microphone can reproduce before going into distortion and then failure.

frequency

The number of complete cycles that occur in one second of time; expressed as cycles per second or hertz (Hz).

frequency

The number of times a radio ad airs during a given period of time.

sound design

The overall sound quality of a radio station that sets it apart from others. ALSO, in a more general sense, the art of acquiring, combining and processing sounds for any media project

sweet spot

The physical location in a concert hall or studio where there is the least phase cancellation of live sound and where the direct-to-ambient sound ratio is in proper proportion.

overload

The point at which a microphone stops functioning under extremely high sound-pressure levels.

Arbitron

The primary radio audience measurement service. Arbitron ratings are often referred to as "the book," since the ratings were originally published in book form each quarter. Most stations now take electronic delivery of the data.

core audience, target audience

The primary target demographic of a radio station.

quantization

The process of assigning a binary number to each of the samples or voltage readings taken during the analog-to-digital audio conversion.

modulation

The process of changing a silent carrier with either amplitude or frequency modulation.

groundwave propagation

The property of physics that allows amplitude-modulated radio carrier signals to follow the earth's surface through conduction.

slate

The radio equivalent of the beginning of a scene in a television or motion picture shoot, when someone holds a slate in front of a camera with information to identify the material later. In radio, this is done audibly with a slate mic so that a production person can identify the audio cuts.

digital audio workstation (DAW)

The term generally applied to a computer-based digital recording system that incorporates the ability to record, store, manipulate, transport, and deliver digital audio products.

pickup pattern

The term used to describe the directional characteristics of a microphone.

threshold

When used in relation to an audio processor, a threshold sets the audio level at which the device will become active and begin processing.

bandwidth

With reference to a radio carrier wave, bandwidth is the space on the radio band occupied by the radio carrier-wave frequency and the audio that has been superimposed upon it.

dead-studio sound

a studio is said to be dead studio when there is little or no natural reverberation - the less reverberation, the more dead the studio.