So You Want To Sound Competent?
- by Tatiana Ryckman, Open Labs Staff Writer
Vocabulary. It's one of those things we don't usually think about once the quizzes stop in high school. And we are relatively content until someone says a word we don't understand – suddenly there is a tingle of embarrassment, a moment of insecurity. If you're new to recording lingo and entering the music industry, this is a sensation you are either going to have to grow accustom to, or you're just going to have to learn what VSTs and MIDI controllers are.
To start, plug-ins are audio processing modules. Still not clear? Plug-ins can be anything from effects to instruments and usually don't actually plug in to anything.
VSTs are Virtual Studio Technology. Designed by Charlie Steinberg, VSTs are emulations of effects, and VSTi's are emulations of instruments. Their purpose is to reproduce traditional analog recording equipment with software. So when you hear the guy in the music shop, or the girl in that band talk about how they love their Truepianos VSTi plug-in, they are raving about a software that's allowed them to reproduce the sounds of an actual piano on an electronic piece of hardware. What is the different between a plug-in and a VST, then? Not much. It's been described this way, “You can call a car a car, or you can call it a Lexus. VSTs are more specific and have sort of become the industry standard.”
Samplers start with multiple recordings (or “samples”) of different sounds, and then play each sound back, based on how the instrument is configured. You can read more about samplers in Carson Barker's brilliant article on the topic called Sample This.
An MPC is to a Sampler what a VST is to a plug-in – essentially the same thing, but brand-specific and something of an industry standard. MPC stands for Music Production Center, and while they look (to the untrained eye) like strange attachments to a 1980s video game, they are very viable pieces of equipment in music today (unless you have a MiKo or NeKo, of course). MPCs were designed by Roger Linn and originally intended to act as a very powerful drum machine, however, later models feature increasingly powerful sampling, storage, interfacing, and sound manipulation capabilities, which broaden the use of the instrument beyond just drum and rhythm tracks.
Like an actual bank, a musical Bank is where you store your valuable presets and preset groups for easy access. Cha-ching!
NAMM, pronounced with a nasal “a” (Nam and NAMM, though both stressful, no doubt, are not the same thing), stands for North American Music Merchants. They hold trade shows twice a year for the industry's finest to showcase products and keep an eye on their competitors. It's also exciting for musicians who have been waiting to see what their favorite companies are releasing.
A DAW, or Digital Audio Workstation, is a system designed to record, edit, and play back digital audio. One of the key features of a DAW is the ability to freely manipulate recorded sounds, much like a word processor manipulates typed words. There is a pretty wide range of recording quality that falls under this broad term. For those of you thinking, “Well, I have GarageBand on my Mac, do I have a DAW?” Yes, but so does the guy who has thousands of dollars worth of recording software loaded on the most high-tech pieces of hardware available. Besides having high-end sound cards most DAWs also require a large amount of RAM and fast processors.
You can read more about MIDI in the article appropriately titled, What is MIDI?, but for now, I'll give you a quick overview. The acronym stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. As early as the 1970s digital music technology was becoming affordable and practical, however, most equipment was not compatible between manufacturers, making it difficult for a consumer to use a variety of gear. So in 1983 Dave Smith proposed a digital standard for musical instruments (the MIDI standard). Since then, MIDI technology has been standardized and is maintained by the MIDI Manufactures Association. A common misconception is that using MIDI controllers and instruments produces a bad sound, even referred to as a “MIDI sound.” This is an inaccurate perception because MIDI does not actually transmit audio; it transmits digital information – zeros and ones – just like a computer. The poor sound quality is typically a result of a bad sound card, or that one sound card's synthesizer might not reproduce the exact sounds of another.
A Soft Synth, short for software synthesizer, is a type of plug-in that uses a MIDI controller to produce audio signals. For example, if you use a soft synth, such as Proteus, on a computer and plug a MIDI keyboard in, the keyboard will tell the synthesizer what to do.
ASIO, or Audio Stream Input/Output, is necessary for recording studios because it allows them to process their audio via software on the computer, instead of using thousands of dollars worth of separate equipment.
Sequencers are not machines used to make your great aunt's glittering Sunday best. The primary function of a sequencer is to create and manage computer-generated music. They are mainly software, although they were originally hardware devices. Sequencers send information from one MIDI device to another for editing. While they record MIDI data to be played back and edited, they do not record actual audio (analog or digital).
Racks, for what we are talking about, are not boobs. A 19” rack is a standardized cabinet designed to hold electronic equipment. With new music software, and thus less physical instruments, many virtual racks exist, such as Reason.
A common way to add a supplementary recorded sound to a previously recorded track is with Overdubbing. Many musicians can use overdubbing as a means of harmonizing with themselves, or as a way to play various instrumental parts when, clearly, they can only play one at a time. A famous example is Queen's fantastic “Bohemian Rhapsody” (where the band uses overdubbing to create a sweet choral effect).
You've heard something played in stereo before, I guarantee it. Stereo recording is why you don't always hear the same thing in both headphones; it helps create a natural impression of sound heard from various directions. This is accomplished by separating the sound over two channels and playing them, simultaneously, over two speakers – or through two headphones.
Mono, then, is not what you got from your girlfriend last Christmas, but the opposite of stereo. Mono, or monophonic, is a system where all audio signals mix together and are routed through a single audio channel.
You may remember being an irritated eight-year-old, forced by your piano teacher to learn Time Signatures. (I do). Fortunately they seem more bearable now. A time signature is indicated by two numbers, like a fraction. The top number tells you how many beats or counts in a measure while the bottom number tells you which type of note gets one beat. The common signature 4/4 means that there are four beats in the measure and that quarter notes will be worth one beat. If the bottom number were a two, a half note would get one beat, and so on.
A bar can be a good place to get a drink and listen to music, however when making music a Bar, or a Measure, is a segment of time defined as a given number of beats of a given duration. This amount of time is determined by the time signature, so if you have a 4/4 time signature you will have bars (or measures, they are the same thing) containing notes equaling four beats. This could be two notes worth one beat each and two rests or it could be one note held out for four counts – what matters is that all the notes in each measure equal the top number in the signature.
Scales are groups of musical notes that provide material for part or all of a musical work and are ordered in pitch or pitch class.
You've probably heard of chords, even if you've never made one. A Chord is three or more notes played simultaneously.
An Arpeggio is easier to understand than it is to spell. It is simply a chord where the notes are played in succession rather than all at one time.
And a Crescendo is the gradual increase in volume of a musical passage. Like your mother's voice when she finds out how much you spent on your new car when you still can't make rent.
A Hook is often a short riff, passage, or phrase that is used in popular music to make a song appealing. It's why everyone knows the line “Girls just want to have fun” and almost no one knows “The phone rings in the middle of the night, my father yells 'What you gonna do with your life?' Oh daddy dear, you know you're still number one, but girls just wanna ...” you know.
So, go have fun with your new music-biz vocabulary. Now you won’t even make a fool of yourself.