Audio & Sound

The territory

30 core terms mapped for this field, ranked by how often builders reach for them. Each one is a future entry. Want to bust one? One entry, one file, one pull request.

• LUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale)perceived-loudness measurement platforms normalize playback to"how loud it should be for YouTube" · "the volume standard"
• Compressionnarrows loud-to-quiet range so everything sits even"make the quiet parts louder" · "even out the volume"
• EQ (equalization)boosting/cutting specific frequency ranges"make the voice warmer" · "less muddy, more crisp"
• Noise floorconstant background hiss/hum under a recording"the hiss underneath" · "background static level"
• Noise reduction / spectral repairremoving hum, hiss, or isolated unwanted sounds"clean up the background noise" · "get rid of the hum"
• Duckingmusic automatically dips when voice speaks"music gets quieter when someone talks" · "sidechain the background track"
• Clippingsignal exceeds ceiling, distorting harshly"it's crackly and distorted" · "went into the red"
• Gain stagingsetting levels correctly at each stage"not recording too hot" · "getting the input level right"
• Normalizationscaling audio to a target peak or loudness"make everything the same volume" · "auto-level it"
• True peak (dBTP)inter-sample peak level after conversion to analog"the real loudest moment" · "peaks that only show up after export"
• Limiterhard ceiling preventing any peak overshoot"stop it from ever getting too loud" · "the volume ceiling"
• Dynamic rangedistance between quietest and loudest content"the gap between loud and quiet" · "how much the volume jumps"
• Mixing vs. masteringbalancing elements versus final loudness/tonal polish"the final polish pass" · "making it sound finished"
• DAWmultitrack audio editing and mixing application"the audio editing program" · "software like Audition or Logic"
• Room tonerecorded silence of a space, used to patch edits"the sound of the empty room" · "silence that isn't dead silence"
• De-essertames harsh "s" and "t" sibilance in vocals"the spitty S sounds" · "hissy consonants"
• High-pass filter (low cut)removes rumble below a frequency"cut the boominess" · "get rid of low rumble"
• Plosivepopping burst from P and B sounds"the pop on P's" · "mic punches"
• Pop filter / windscreenscreen or foam blocking plosives and wind"that mesh thing in front of the mic" · "the foam ball"
• Microphone polar patterndirectional shape of what a mic picks up"cardioid mic" · "mic that only hears the front"
• Voiceover (VO)narration recorded separately from picture"the narrator track" · "person talking over the video"
• Reverbsimulated space tail after a sound"make it sound like a big room" · "echoey"
• Dry vs. wetunprocessed signal versus effected signal"with and without the effect" · "how much echo"
• Stemgrouped submix bounced separately (dialogue, music, FX)"the separate tracks" · "voice and music as separate files"
• Sound designcrafted non-musical sounds that sell an action"the whoosh and click sounds" · "sound effects for the UI"
• Bed (music bed / underscore)low-level continuous music under narration"background music behind the voiceover" · "the vibe track"
• Panning; stereo widthplacement across the left-right field"sound coming from the left" · "make it wider"
• Mono vs. stereo (mono compatibility)single-channel versus two-channel and safe collapsing"one speaker or two" · "still sounds right on a phone"
• Fade in / out and crossfadegradual level change or overlapped blend"ease the sound in" · "blend two clips smoothly"
• Bitrate and sample ratedata-per-second and samples-per-second quality settings"the quality setting on the export" · "kHz and kbps"

Deeper in the field

• Decibel (dB) logarithmic unit used to express level differences and gain
• Headroom safety margin between signal peaks and clipping
• Threshold level where a compressor, gate, or limiter begins acting
• Compression ratio how strongly levels above the threshold are reduced
• Attack and release how quickly dynamics processing engages and stops acting
• Makeup gain output gain restoring level after compression
• Integrated loudness average perceived loudness measured across the complete program
• Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) desired signal level compared with background noise
• Frequency spectrum distribution of sound energy across low-to-high frequencies
• Transient brief onset spike giving a sound punch and definition
• Phase cancellation signal weakening caused by mismatched waveform timing
• Noise gate mutes signal below a threshold
• Dereverberation reducing recorded room echo after the fact
• Proximity effect bass boost from speaking close to mic
• Waveform visual amplitude-over-time shape of audio
• Automation programmed level, pan, or effect changes over time
• Audio bus routing that groups tracks for shared processing or control
• Bounce / render / mixdown exporting the finished mix to a file
• Lossless vs. lossy WAV/FLAC versus MP3/AAC compressed formats
• Spatial audio; binaural audio head-related processing giving 3D placement
• Foley everyday sounds performed to picture
• Ambience / atmos bed continuous environmental background sound
• UI sound / earcon short functional tone signalling an interface event
• Whoosh (transition sweep) rising swept noise covering a cut
• Riser; impact; braam building tension then a heavy hit
• Sting / bumper short branded musical punctuation
• Sync point / hit point moment audio locks to a visual beat
• Lavalier microphone vs. shotgun microphone clip-on body mic versus directional boom mic
• Double-ender separately recorded local audio for remote sessions
• Punch-in; pickup re-recording a small section to patch a flub
• Auto-transcription and text-based editing editing audio by deleting words from a transcript