808

A bass and drum sound originally from the Roland TR-808 drum machine, now a staple of hip-hop and trap where its long, tuned kick doubles as the bassline. Wikipedia ↗

AAX

Avid Audio Extension, the plugin format used by Pro Tools. It replaced the older RTAS format. Wikipedia ↗

Acapella

A vocal recording isolated from its instrumental, used for remixing and mashups. Wikipedia ↗

Acoustic Treatment

Absorbers and diffusers placed in a room to control reflections and make it sound more accurate.

Additive Synthesis

A synthesis method that builds complex tones by stacking many simple waveforms, usually sine waves, on top of one another. Wikipedia ↗

ADSR

The four stages of a sound's envelope: Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release. It describes how a parameter such as volume or filter cutoff changes from the moment a note is triggered to when it fades out. Wikipedia ↗

Aftertouch

MIDI data generated by pressing harder on a key or pad after the initial note, commonly routed to control vibrato, filter or volume. Wikipedia ↗

AIFF

An uncompressed, lossless audio file format developed by Apple, comparable in quality to WAV. Wikipedia ↗

Aliasing

Unwanted high-frequency artefacts that appear when digital audio is sampled or processed above what the sample rate can accurately represent. Wikipedia ↗

Amplitude

The size of a sound wave, which the ear perceives as loudness. Wikipedia ↗

Arpeggiator

A tool that takes a held chord and plays its notes one after another in a set pattern and rate. Wikipedia ↗

Arpeggio

The notes of a chord played one after another rather than together. Wikipedia ↗

Arrangement

The structure of a track over time: how its sections, parts and instruments are ordered and develop from start to finish. Wikipedia ↗

Articulation

How a note is performed and shaped, such as legato, staccato or accented. Wikipedia ↗

ASIO

A low-latency Windows audio driver protocol that lets a DAW talk to an audio interface with minimal delay. Wikipedia ↗

Attack

How quickly a sound reaches full level after a note starts. Fast attack gives a sharp transient; slow attack fades the sound in. Wikipedia ↗

AU

Audio Unit, Apple's native plugin format for macOS, used by Logic Pro and GarageBand. Wikipedia ↗

Audio Interface

Hardware that converts signals between the analog world and your computer, handling inputs, outputs and monitoring. Wikipedia ↗

Auto-Tune

Pitch-correction software that snaps vocals to the nearest note; pushed hard, it becomes a deliberate robotic effect. Wikipedia ↗

Automation

Recorded or drawn changes to a parameter over time, such as a fader rising through a chorus or a filter opening across a build. Wikipedia ↗

Balanced Audio

A cabling scheme that uses two signal wires to cancel out noise over long runs. Wikipedia ↗

Bandpass Filter

A filter that lets a chosen band of frequencies through while cutting everything above and below it. Wikipedia ↗

Bar

A unit of musical time containing a set number of beats, usually four in most modern music. Wikipedia ↗

Bass Trap

An absorber placed in room corners to tame the build-up of low frequencies. Wikipedia ↗

Beat

The steady underlying pulse of a piece of music. Wikipedia ↗

Beat Lease

A licence granting an artist limited rights to use a beat while the producer keeps ownership.

Beat Switch

A sudden change in beat or feel partway through a track.

Beatmatching

A DJ technique of aligning two tracks to the same tempo and phase so they can be mixed together seamlessly. Wikipedia ↗

Bit Depth

The number of bits used to describe each audio sample, which sets the available dynamic range. 24-bit is standard for recording. Wikipedia ↗

Bitcrusher

An effect that lowers bit depth and sample rate to add gritty, digital, lo-fi distortion.

Bitrate

How much data an audio file uses per second, measured in kbps. Higher bitrates generally mean better quality and larger files. Wikipedia ↗

Boom Bap

A classic hip-hop style built on hard, swung drum breaks and sampled loops. Wikipedia ↗

Bounce

Exporting a mix or selection of tracks down to a single audio file. Wikipedia ↗

BPM

Beats per minute, the measure of a track's tempo. Wikipedia ↗

Breakbeat

A drum break sampled and rearranged into a syncopated rhythm, foundational to jungle and hip-hop. Wikipedia ↗

Breakdown

A stripped-back section that lowers the energy before building again. Wikipedia ↗

Bridge

A contrasting section that breaks up the verse-chorus pattern, often before the final chorus. Wikipedia ↗

Buffer Size

How much audio your computer processes at once. Smaller buffers lower latency but raise CPU load.

Build-Up

A rising section of tension that leads into a drop or chorus.

Bus

A signal path that several tracks are routed into, letting you process or control them together, for example a drum bus. Wikipedia ↗

Bypass

Temporarily switching an effect off so you can hear the signal without it.

Cadence

A chord movement that creates a sense of pause or resolution at the end of a phrase. Wikipedia ↗

Cardioid

A heart-shaped polar pattern that captures the front and rejects the rear, the most common mic pattern. Wikipedia ↗

Chop

Slicing a sample into pieces and replaying them in a new order or rhythm.

Chord

Three or more notes played together to form harmony. Wikipedia ↗

Chord Progression

A sequence of chords that gives a section its harmonic movement. Wikipedia ↗

Chorus

A modulation effect that layers slightly detuned, delayed copies of a signal to make it sound wider and thicker. Wikipedia ↗

Chorus (Section)

The repeating high point of a song that delivers its main idea, distinct from the chorus effect. Wikipedia ↗

Clip Gain

Level adjustment applied directly to an audio clip before it reaches the channel's processing.

Clipping

Distortion that occurs when a signal exceeds the maximum level a system can handle, flattening the tops of the waveform. Wikipedia ↗

Comb Filter

A filter that adds a signal to a delayed copy of itself, creating evenly spaced notches and peaks. Wikipedia ↗

Comping

Assembling the best moments from several takes into one ideal performance.

Compression

A dynamics process that reduces the gap between the loudest and quietest parts of a signal, making it more even and controlled. Wikipedia ↗

Condenser Microphone

A sensitive, detailed mic that needs phantom power, favoured for vocals and studio detail. Wikipedia ↗

Construction Kit

A pack of stems and loops in the same key and tempo that fit together as a starting track.

Control Change

MIDI messages, abbreviated CC, carrying continuous data such as mod wheel, sustain or expression. Wikipedia ↗