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Glossary

Don’t know your Bitcrusher from your Bottom End? Can you Quantize a Zoom Slider? If you’re boggled, essential terms for following our DJ, Music Production and Live Recording Courses are explained in this handy glossary. Let us know if we’ve missed anything. Faders

Sample

– a sound or short piece of audio stored digitally in a computer, synthesizer or sampler. ‘Sample’ may refer to either a single moment in a digital audio stream (the smallest piece of data used to represent an audio signal at a given time) or a complete sound or digital audio stream made up of a collection of individual samples.

Sample Browser Window

– lets you access your samples from any location on the hard drive

Sample Rate

– the frequency at which an analog audio stream is sampled or converted into digital. The higher the sampling rate, the closer the digital file will be to the original analog source and the better the quality. A sample rate of 44,100 kHz (kilohertz) is considered CD quality

Sample Start Control

– selects at which point the sample starts playing

Sampler

– an electronic device used to play back a digital recording, whether acoustic or electronic. Feeding a sound into a sampler as a means of recording it is called ‘sampling’.

Sampler Window

– lets you edit parameters affecting your sample

Saw Synth

– a type of waveform pattern used in a synth; also known as ‘sawtooth’. (See also ‘Saw Wave’)

Saw Wave (or Sawtooth Wave )

– repeating waveform that rises from zero to maximum value linearly then drops back to zero and repeats

Scissors Tool

– cuts/splits blocks of MIDI or audio

Scroll Bar

– By clicking either on the up, down, left or right arrows or anywhere along the scroll bar, users can gain access to information that is not within view.

Scrub Mode

– allows the user to play the track from any point of the arrange timeline with one click

Semitone

– a half step, the smallest interval on the keyboard

Send Control

– A track’s send control regulates how much of the track’s output is sent to the corresponding return track’s input.

Send / Return

– allows the user to send sounds from different tracks to separate, stand-alone effects tracks and back again

Separate Pitches

– lets you dissolve a MIDI part into individual parts for each pitch

Sequencer Track

– a track containing sequenced information

Sequencing

– the process of arranging musical parts together over a timeline

Session

– another word for your project

Session View

– the window that lets you preview clips together and is used for both DJ sets and generating ideas in productions

Session Window

– provides an overview of all the clips, clip properties and effects that are currently in use

Shaker

– any percussion instrument that could be shaken; usually a hollowed-out container filled with beads or pebbles

Shift Controls

– aspect of the ‘Chord’ MIDI effect used for adjusting chord note parameters

Simpler

– a sample device packaged with Ableton Live

Slip Cue

– letting go of the cued-up record on the first beat

Slipmat

– a circular piece of slippery cloth or synthetic materials used by DJs instead of the traditional rubber mat to let the record slide back and forth while cuing

Snap

– When it’s turned on, parts and events are moved according to the grid created by the quantize setting (e.g. ¼ note)

Snap Value

– measurement to which your notes, loops, parts, events, etc. will drag to when dropped (e.g. ¼s, 16ths, etc.)

Snare Drum

– a small drum with two heads and a snare stretched across the lower head

Solo

– mutes everything, leaving the selected sound source to play on its own

Soundcard

– a hardware interface that is either built into a computer’s motherboard or inserted into one of the computer’s internal expansion slots. Soundcards allow the computer to play digital audio and/or other musical instrument sounds. Many soundcards also provide a MIDI interface.

Spindle

– metal pin in the centre of the platter which holds the record in place

Split Function

– function from within the Edit Menu allowing the user to splice clips into two parts

Stab

– in music, a stab is a single, staccato chord that adds dramatic impact to a composition. Stabs are usually provided by horns (real or synthesized) or an orchestral sample, and usually occur on a 1 beat

Start Time

– defines what point a sample starts from when played

Step Control

– increases the amount of notes played across the rhythmical pattern created by the Arpeggiator

Stereo

– audio split on two physical tracks, one on the right and one on the left

Stereo Field

– the area which holds the left and right audio channels, combining to produce stereo

Stereo Width

– describes the stereophonic sound-field; usually achieved by panning the instruments to both left and right within the track

Sub Folders

– folders within a folder

SubTractor Machine

– a 99-voice, polyphonic, subtractive synthesizer

Sustain

– a parameter of musical sound in time. As its name implies, it denotes the period of time during which the sound is sustained (held) before it becomes inaudible

Sync

– two devices are said to be ‘in sync’ when they are locked together with respect to the master tempo

Synth

– (or synthesizer): an instrument or ensemble which generates sound based on building blocks of simple sound waves. These sounds can be very complex. Some of the popular synthesis methods are subtractive, FM, and wavetable.

Synth Lead

– the most prominent line of music played using a synth

Synth Part

– a section of music played using a synth

Synth Stab

– a single staccato chord, played by a synth, that adds dramatic impact to a composition