Dictionary

itaughttremonti

itaughttremonti

Paul McCartney died?
What's up fellas? And ladies, assuming there are some on here.

A little background. I have been playing guitar for about 11 years and writing songs/in a band/light gigging for about 4 years. My approach on guitar was always a plug-and-play approach, tone wasn't of the greatest importance to me, I just wanted it to be technically correct. Let the board guy fix my sound, I just wanna play! Well, now I'm older and have tons of techniques and tricks up my sleeve, and got into the "gear" aspect of the music, and with that, came the want to record my stuff. So I'm starting to get my act together and planning a buying spree for a start-up home studio, I've read quite a bit on the forums here, talked briefly with my buddy (who told me about these forums) and will continue to pick his brain...but my lack of paying attention to gear for all these years has caught up with me. I am a total noob when it comes to what stuff is. So I was wondering if anyone here has a link to a "dictionary" of sorts with audio terms in it (in words dumb guys can understand)? Or maybe, this could get stickied and someone just posts a word they dont know about, and then someone answers it to the best of their abilities?

Just a thought....*catches breath*....with all that out of the way, what is a "pre" and how does it work? What is it's significance to me?
 
A pre is a term meaning Microphone Pre Amp. It raises the low voltage of a microphone to a level usable by other equipment, like a mixer, an interface/converter, etc.

A mic pre can be clean, meaning it doesn't impart any changes to the audio signal except amplification... or it can add character or color, meaning it will subtley alter the signal, hopefully in a desireable or musical way. It depends on which mic pre you use. So much so, that a mic pre has almost as much influence on an audio signal as the microphone itself. And because there are many and they are different from one another, some people will like one over the other. And so, many discussions, some heated, will arise about the differences in mics, mic pre's, and mic/pre combos....

You need a mic pre if you are going to use a mic. A lot of equipment will have mic pre's built in, like mixers and many interfaces. Some interfaces do not and you will need an external mic pre.

hth,
 
An envelope is basically where you set automation parameters for stuff like volume, panning, effects etc.
Say you want your song to fade out, you would set that in the master volume envelope.
 
But it is not an effect correct? It's not something like an eq or phaser...it's simply for those adjustable mediums you mentioned?

btw, thanks:)
 
itaughttremonti said:
But it is not an effect correct? It's not something like an eq or phaser...it's simply for those adjustable mediums you mentioned?

btw, thanks:)
Click to expand...

Right, an envelope is not really an effect in itself, but effects can have envelopes. For example, you could have an envelope that causes an EQ or phaser to turn on or off, or you could have an envelope that causes a phaser's frequency sweep to move from wide to narrow. Almost any knob or fader in your DAW can probably be controlled with an envelope.
 
The envelope of a sound is made up of four parts: Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release (ADSR).

Attack: The time taken for the sound to go from starting point to the loudest. On a snare (for example), this would be milliseconds. On a synth or something more "fadey in", it could be seconds. Think of the initial pluck of a guitar string, or the key sound from a piano.

Decay: The time taken for the sound to go from the loudest (pluck etc.) point, into sustain. This is usually a very short time, however it all varies on the instrument/sound (see above)

Sustain: I like to think of piano or synth pads for this one. After the attack+decay have passed, while you're still holding the key, sustain is the amount of time the note will hold (keep producing tone).

Release: Also another piano/synth example. After you "release" the key, this is the time taken for the sound to fade out (or stop producing tone).

Hope that helps. Here's a helpful diagram to give you a better idea of what I was talking about.

asyn_MP-compose-adsr-spec.png


Mini-hijack here, sorry. Guys, the "sustain" pedal on a piano allows the notes to continue ringing out after the key has been released, correct? Shouldn't it be called a "release" pedal then? :confused:

Just a thought/spanner in the works. :D
 
... pretty sure tremonti knows this stuff! :laughings:

Feel free to neg me... you have about 0 rep at the moment, so I don't think you'll do much damage!

Philby's diagram of an envelope provides a good explanation in synth terms, but let me have a swing at his question / conundrum...

Chicken and egg situation - what came first? ... the piano with the sustain pedal.... or the synth with ADSR envelope methodology?

So piano wins because it was there first! It can call it whatever it likes....

If that won't do, then perhaps this...

Whether you keep your fingers on a piano key or not doesn't make a huge difference as it's a strike, so it's a simpler envelope - the sustain pedal does extend the next stage, which is, really, the sustain stage - or you can say there is no sustain stage, if you like, but even after you take your foot off the sustain pedal, there is still a release stage.... so it's still the sustain pedal from that standpoint....

DISCLAIMER - I'm not a pianist so this could all be rubbish... :D

Welcome back Philby... where you been? Go and introduce yerself to the other Irish guy who was wandering lost and lonely round the noobs forum in search of countrymen last week sometime...
 
Armistice said:
... pretty sure tremonti knows this stuff! :laughings:

Feel free to neg me... you have about 0 rep at the moment, so I don't think you'll do much damage!

Philby's diagram of an envelope provides a good explanation in synth terms, but let me have a swing at his question / conundrum...

Chicken and egg situation - what came first? ... the piano with the sustain pedal.... or the synth with ADSR envelope methodology?

So piano wins because it was there first! It can call it whatever it likes....

If that won't do, then perhaps this...

Whether you keep your fingers on a piano key or not doesn't make a huge difference as it's a strike, so it's a simpler envelope - the sustain pedal does extend the next stage, which is, really, the sustain stage - or you can say there is no sustain stage, if you like, but even after you take your foot off the sustain pedal, there is still a release stage.... so it's still the sustain pedal from that standpoint....

DISCLAIMER - I'm not a pianist so this could all be rubbish... :D

Welcome back Philby... where you been? Go and introduce yerself to the other Irish guy who was wandering lost and lonely round the noobs forum in search of countrymen last week sometime...
Click to expand...

I'm gonna neg the shit outta you for disagreeing with me, you disagreeable SOB... :mad: :mad: :mad:

:D:D:D

I'll post the personal talk to your profile instead. Try keep this OT ;)
 
I think we may be heading toward "the blind men and the elephant" here...

Basically, an "envelope" describes a set of design and/or operating parameters. The specific parameters are device dependent.

I noticed that someone gave a very good explanation about the envelope for a synth. Unfortunately, he was wrong...:D

Look at where the power cord is connected to the synth. It will usually say something like "100 - 120 VAC". Which means the operating envelope for that synth is between 100 volts AC and 120 volts AC; that's the voltage that needs to be present at the outlet (mains) the synth is plugged into.

The point is, "envelope" is very much context specific...

Consider a microphone, which typically has a "maximum SPL" as one of its specifications. In simple terms, SPL is the amount of air pressure generated by a sound. Most of the mics we use in music have an SPL envelope ranging from the SPL found in an anechoic chamber (a "soundless" room or space) to that of a fairly loud singer at a reasonable distance from the microphone. But duct tape that mic to a jackhammer and you will usually get either an unacceptable amount of distortion, or you will have turned the mic into a possibly expensive paperweight.

So, like many of the terms in English, "envelope" is not an absolute term. It can only be used in context to discuss the parameters of a specific device...
 
@Armistice: I wont neg rep you lol. Your joke wasn;t quite funny enough to warrant that. ;)

@everyone else...thanks for the input. When it comes to all this stuff, I think I need to just sit down with a book and read....for days.
 
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