Integrated Circuits, 24-bit conversion
If any of these confusing ones are really important to my question then please tell me.
Integrated Circuits (IC) are a silicon board with electronics built into them, in a nutshell. It is the foundation of modern electronics manufacturing. A computer chip is essentially an IC on some serious steroids. Before IC's electronics were pretty much hand soldered out of large components. IC technology made electronics easier to make, more efficient, more reliable and infinitely more complex.
24-bit conversion is very important. The early standard of digital audio (still used on CD's) was 16 bit. This was a hard compromise between cost and quality: it was commercially viable to mass produce cheap 16 bit hardware and it didn't sound *too* bad...
Only it did. 16 bit sucks compared to anything except maybe cassette tape. It just doesn't sound very real compared to the analog technology that was primarily used at the time the 16 bit standard was adopted.
24 bit recording is a MUCH more accurate way of translating audio into a digital format- so much so that studios began to chose it over the analog technology that was now expensive and difficult to maintain in comparison.
So, from what I understand. Multi-track software like Pro Tools, Logic, etc. is a specific term to indicate DAWs (Digital Audio Workstation) or Sequencers, which is the idea of Nonlinear Editing.
So...
Non-Linear Editing
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DAWS = Sequencer = Multitrack Recording
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Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, Fruity Loops, etc.
Correct me if I'm wrong at all.
Correct.
Though it is VERY important to note that multitrack recording actually started with analog tape. Computers weren't powerful enough to handle multiple streams of hi def audio until fairly recently. Now a simple home computer can record and play back WAY more than the largest tape deck system.
Also, when someone(s) mentioned Plugins? How should I define that? Or what does that mean? I know the term is used a lot. But, I don't know a lot about music recording.
plugins are software versions of hardware that was used with analog mixing. It used to be if you wanted an echo you would record you sound on a small loop of tape and play it back to create the echo. Reverb was created by sending the sound to a large plate that resonated like a speaker and recording that sound. A plugin is a bit of software that does the same kinds of things.
Nonlinear editing has the ability to overdub, Loop, sample, and splice. Yes? Also, it has Plug-ins like... reverb?
Almost= NLE's make all that stuff MUCH easier- as simple as copy/pasting text in a word processing program. It was all possible with analog tape, though.
Multitrack recorder = Mixer?
Portable Recorder = Tape recorder and..?
Multitrack recorder is a device that has he ability to record more than 2 separate signals at a time. 2 is technically "multi-track" but we call it stereo instead. It doesn't matter what medium it records to (tape, hard disk, minidisc, flash memory)- as long as its more than 2 tracks its a multitrack.
Mixers are used with multitrack recordings because all home playback systems are stereo. Those 4, 8, 12, 24, 48 tracks of audio have to be mixed down to 2 (right and left) tracks in order to be put on a record, tape or CD and played back at home.
], there are tons of synthetic instruments, samples, and digital processing. In many, many cases there's just vocals (digitally tuned of course) together with synthesized sounds and samples. Like it or not, I think it's a pretty big deal that one person can very easily program all this stuff as opposed to calling in live musicians.