Attention Newbies: Copy and Save This For Reference!!! (Pt 2)

Buck62

噛んでくれ
Here's the rest of it......


L pad - A control that is used to set the sound level on a loudspeaker. This can only reduce the sound coming out of the speaker.

LED - Light Emitting Diode. These are common panel lights on the front of mixers or other equipment.

LED bar - usually a line of LEDs that are used to make up a lighted VU meter.

LED array - Usually a line of LED's that are used to make up a lighted VU meter.

Level - A term for the amount of audio that is present.

Level control - A means of adjusting the amount of audio. Other terms are volume or gain controls.

Limit LED - A light on the mixer that tells the operator that the limits on the electronics have been reached and that therefore there may be some distortion.

Limiter - A device that will not allow sound to be any higher than a certain level, but does nothing to the sound as long as that level is not reached.

Limiting - Where an audio signal is not allowed to have excursions beyond a certain point, either positive or negative. This can be done either deliberately, as with a limiter, or accidentally where the signal is clipped and therefore distorts.

Line cord - A cord that connects the electronic equipment to the 110V power.

Line level - Audio that is used to go from one piece of equipment to another. Depending on the system this can be anything from -10 dB to +4 dB in a high impedance system. It is usually 0dBm in a balanced system. Another term is auxiliary level.

Low equalization - another term for bass control. Usually adjusts the lower frequencies of audio.

Low impedance - A method of sending the signal from one piece of electronic equipment to another where the voltage is relatively low and the current is relatively high. This is the system that is commonly used in broadcast stations for everything and most churches for the microphones.

Low impedance amplifier - An amplifier that is used in a mixer to increase the voltage used with a low impedance microphone so that it will have the same voltage as high impedance microphones or line level signals.

Low impedance microphone - A microphone that has a low impedance output.

Low level - Referring to an audio signal that has a much lower strength than line level. Usually it is the microphone level signals, although it can be referring to line level signals if they are being compared to speaker level.

Low Z - Low impedance.

Main controls - These are often called the master controls.

Main Speaker - This is the primary speaker used in a church auditorium.

Master - The main signal in a device. It is what the final signal comes down to.

Master adjust - Another term for the final adjuster in a mixer.

Master fader - Another term for the final adjuster in a mixer.

Master level - The amount of signal that is on the master output of a mixer.

Master control - The master fader or adjuster on a piece of equipment or the room where the main controls are located.

Master tape - The tape that is the final version of what is recorded. All tapes made from this tape are dubs, or duplicates.

Master recorder - The tape recorder that is used to make the master tapes. It is sometimes used with a slave player.

Matching transformer - An impedance matching transformer that is used to match a low impedance source to a high impedance destination or vice versa.

Microphone - A device that converts power in the form of sound waves into electrical power. This can be directional or nondirectional, flat frequency response or contoured, fixed or mobile, condenser or dynamic or one of many other types, wired or wireless, high or low impedance, with or without preamp, etc.

Microphone level - A term for the amount of signal that comes out of a microphone. Usually very low. Also it is a term for the adjuster for a particular channel on a microphone mixer.

Microphone snake - Another term for snake.

Microphone transformer - A matching transformer that is used to match the impedance of a microphone to the impedance of the amplifier to which it is connected. It may be low to high impedance or high to low.

Mid equalization - Adjusts the middle range of frequencies.

Mixer - The piece of equipment that takes the different sources of audio and blends them together to get a final sound from all sources of sound at once.

Mixing - The act of mixing together all of the different sources of audio.

Monitor - To listen to the sound. This may be a musician on the platform, the sound man or anyone else listening. It may also be the loudspeaker that is used by the musician on the platform to listen to the sound.

Monitor send - An output from the mixer board that sends audio to the monitor amplifier. There is usually a level control associated with this.

Monitor speaker - A speaker that is used by those on the platform to hear what they are really doing and what others are doing. This is where there is either too much ambient sound, or there is too much distance from the source of the sound to hear properly.

Mute - A term for the stopping of sound from the speakers. It is like a mute person that cannot talk.

Mute switch - The switch on a mixer or other device that when engaged cuts the output.

Noise, electrical - Random signal that is present in all electronic equipment to some extent or another.

Noise gate - A device that entirely turns off the audio when the audio goes below a pre-set level. That way random noise will not be heard on the output because the only time the system is turned on is when there is wanted sound that drowns out the noise.

Omni-directional microphone - This kind of microphone picks up sound from all directions equally well.

Output - The place that the audio signal goes out of a piece of equipment. Examples would be the speaker output from an amplifier or the tape output from a mixer.

Pan - A knob on stereo mixers that routes the audio signal from a particular input channel to either the left or right stereo channels or a mixture of both.

Patch - A cord that is used with a patch panel.

Patch panel - A group of jacks in a panel that can have cords plugged into them so that signals can conveniently be routed and changed.

Phantom power supply - The power supply that can be used with a condenser microphone instead of having to use batteries in the microphone or the microphone cord. This will either be a part of the mixer/amplifier or an external box that is added to the microphone line and plugged in.

Phone plug - Usually 1/4 inch. Used with tip and sleeve or tip, ring and sleeve - for carrying electronic signals. The sleeve is used for ground and the tip and ring carry the signals.

Phono plug - A common plug used to connect audio between different pieces of equipment. Also called an RCA plug.

Play - The action of a tape recorder to reproduce the audio that has been recorded on a tape. The button that is used to cause a tape recorder to play. What children do. The act of causing a tape recorder to reproduce the audio that has been recorded.

Polarity - The wiring of a microphone or speaker to make sure that the movement of air will be in the same direction as the electrical signal. Also of concern between equipment in a balanced system.

Post equalizer - A signal that is taken from the mixer or inserted into the mixer after the channel equalizer but before any other part of the mixer.

Post fader - A signal that is taken from the mixer or inserted into the mixer after the channel fader but before any other part of the mixer.

Pre equalizer - A signal that is taken from the mixer or inserted into the mixer before the channel equalizer but after all the circuitry that is before the equalizer.

Pre fader - A signal that is taken from the mixer or inserted into the mixer before the channel fader but after all the circuitry that is before the fader.

Power amplifier - An amplifier that takes line level audio signals and make them strong enough to power a speaker.

Power supply - The part of a piece of equipment that provides the electricity for other parts.

Preamp - An amplifier that is used before the main amplifier in a system. Usually this is an amplifier that takes microphone level signals and brings them up to line levels.

Processor - A piece of equipment that changes the audio in some way. Example: Reverb, Compressor, Limiter, Delay, etc.

Proximity effect - The phenomena where the sound picked up by a directional microphone has a bass boost that is caused when the source of sound is within a few inches. Vocal mics have a bass "roll off" to compensate for this.

RCA plug - a common plug used to connect audio between different pieces of electronic equipment. (See previous page.)

Record - The act of storing an audio signal for later playback. The input to a tape recorder.

Resonance - The systematic bouncing of sound around a room where certain sounds are reinforced and others are canceled. This reinforcement produces standing waves and flutter echoes.

Resonant path - The path in which sound can continue to bounce back and forth, causing standing waves.

Reverb unit - An echo chamber or electronic/acoustical device that is used to make the sound that goes through it seem like it came from a larger, more reverberant room.

Reverberation - The bouncing of sound around a room until it is completely absorbed.

Reverberation time - The length of time that it takes for the reverberation to be down to one millionth its original strength. It is measured in seconds.

Ring - The signal carrying part of a phone plug.

Sea of knobs - This refers to the large number of rows of knobs that are found on many newer and bigger sound mixers. These knobs all do things to the audio and most audio people know what they do. However, with so many knobs it is hard for most other people to understand what they are all for.

Sensitivity - A term used with microphones to indicate how well a microphone will pick up the sound from the voice or instrument. Sensitivity is affected by such things as distance to the sound source, manufacturer (some mics just pick up better than others), gain on the amplifier, directionality, resonance of the room (feedback), etc.

Shelving - A means of rolling off the high or low frequencies. It is similar to a bass or treble control.

Signal to noise ratio - The difference in audio levels between normal audio and no audio. The noise is just the random electrical noise that is in the electronics or on the tape when no sound is wanted. Measured in dB.

Sleeve - The grounded part of a phone plug.

Snake - A long cable that is usually used for multiple microphone lines. It will almost always have a box for microphones to plug into at one end and plugs that go into the sound mixer at the other end.

Source - The place that an audio signal comes from. A microphone or a tape recorder are sources to a mixer. A mixer can be a source to an amplifier.

Spade terminal - End connection for a wire to go under screw terminal.

System noise - The total random noise that comes from an electronic system without any other source of sound.

Speaker - A device that is used to convert an electrical signal to sound waves that can be heard.

Speaker transformer - A transformer used with a speaker to allow a certain amount of sound power to go to the speaker.

Sound reinforcement system - A means of assisting the voice of the communicator so that it may be heard by the audience.

Sound system - The electronic hardware of the sound reinforcement system.

Stage Mix - Adjustment of stage monitor controls affecting balance of sound output to the stage monitor speakers (Musicians and Singers)

Standing Wave - The appearance that the sound wave from a pure tone is not moving anywhere. It produces spots where the pure tone is loud (called a lobe) and other spots where the same tone cannot be heard at all ( this is a null). These spots will occur at distances of only a few inches to a few feet apart, depending on the wavelength of the tone. It will be difficult to tell the direction that these tones are coming from because these waves are not moving.

Stereo - A method of producing sound where the audio is mixed in two different channels. This is so that the human ears can detect direction that the sound is coming from. Usually it is used with music to give a fuller, more natural sound. It has two separate audio channels.

Stereo chorus - A special effect that produces a fuller sound to music by using a delay and modulating the frequencies. It uses a longer delay than flanging.

Stereo microphone - A microphone that is used to receive a stereo sound. It is usually two directional microphones in the same package.

Stereo power amplifier - Two mono power amplifiers in the same box.

Sub master - A secondary master control that sends its signal to the master level control.

Sum - The addition of several signals together.

Sum control - The control that adjusts the level of several signals that have been added together.

Tape - A storage medium that is used to record the audio. Used in churches to both record what was said and sung and to also play back music and messages through the sound system.

Tape in - Input to the mixer that uses the audio from the output of the tape recorder.

Tape machine - A device that uses the magnetic storage medium of tape to make a record of the audio that is on the sound system, or else uses what has already been recorded on the tape to play back the stored audio onto the sound system.

Tape monitor - A means of hearing what has been or what is being recorded on tape. It is also the control knob on a mixer that can adjust the level of sound that is being used to monitor the tape.

Tape out - Special audio output from the mixer that goes to the tape machine. Some mixers don't have this so the tape machine uses the audio output from either the mixer or the amplifier.

Tip - The signal carrying part of a phone plug.

Track - A part of the audio tape that has one channel of audio recorded onto it. It is in parallel with the length of the tape. On a standard stereo audio cassette there are four tracks, two for each direction.

Transformer - A device used to change the voltage, current or impedance of an electronic circuit. The power stays relatively the same both into and out of the transformer. Common uses are for microphone impedance matching, speaker power matching and plug in power supplies.

Trim, input - A volume control on the input to a mixer that will control the amount of audio signal that goes into the electronics. It is used so that the signal will not be so weak that you can hear the electronic noise in the circuitry and not so strong that the circuitry will clip the audio signal and distort.

Tweak - Another term for adjustment.

Tweeter - A speaker that is used for high frequencies.

Unbalanced microphone - A term used to describe the number of wires used in the mic cord between the microphone and the amplifier. There is one wire in the center and the other wire is also the shield. High impedance microphones are usually unbalanced.

Volume - This is how loud the sound is.

Volume control - The knob that controls the gain or loudness on a mixer or an amplifier. Another term is level control.

Volume unit - The long name for VU.

VOX - Voice actuated relay. It turns on when audio is present and turns off when audio is not there.

VU - A method of measuring audio on a piece of equipment. 100 VU is 100 percent of the audio that is supposed to be there. The level should not exceed 100 VU. This is used in recording and broadcasting, not sound reinforcement.

VU meter- A means of measuring the VU in a piece of equipment. Cannot be use for sound reinforcement but it is used extensively in broadcasting and recording.

Vocal microphone - A hand held microphone that is designed to be used with a person's voice. It has a bass roll off to help compensate for the proximity effect of a bass boost when held near the mouth. It also has a slight high frequency boost to help with clarity.

Wide band - Audio or sound that covers the human hearing range of 20 Hz to 20 KHz.

Wireless microphone - A microphone that uses a radio transmitter either inside the case of the microphone or worn as a small body pack. This radio transmitter sends the signal from the actual microphone to a receiver a short distance away so that there doesn't have to be any wires that tie down the user of the microphone.

Woofer - This is a speaker that is used for low frequencies.

XLR - A type of connector that has 3 pins along with the metal case. Commonly used for balanced microphone connectors where pin 1 is ground or shield, pin 2 is plus and pin 3 is minus.
 
i dub Buck62 the Head help page offical ;) you go dude...

compile the most frequently ask questions post and make the mod keep it at the start/top of the forum page for new users as well as newbi's or people just brushing up...

sure would save a ton of time, imho...
 
total novice

hi there,

could really use some help in getting set up. Have got powerful computer, cubase sx (which has been installed for me beyond the setup stage) phonic helix 17 mixer and casio gm midi keyboard plus microphone ?

What do i need to do to hook it all up ?
 
total novice

hi there,

could really use some help in getting set up. Have got powerful computer, cubase sx (which has been installed for me beyond the setup stage) phonic helix 17 mixer and casio gm midi keyboard plus microphone ?

What do i need to do to hook it all up ?
 
Back
Top