This wiki is intended for students in A&HM 4029.001 at Teachers College Columbia University taught by Dr. James Frankel.

Students: Please select one of the music technology terms below and enter your definition. You will need to know the password to the site to edit. If you have the password, just click "Edit Page" and then "Save" when you are done editing. To get the password to the site, please email me at jtfrankel@hotmail.com. Feel free to edit any other definition on the site as well.

I look forward to seeing the results of your efforts!

 

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MIDI: MIDI is short for "Musical Instrument Digital Interface" and has been one of the most useful tools for electronic musicians throughout its 14 years of existence. It became very popular with composers, beginners and experts, and by now it is also used in school for musical education. – Anna Yoo

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MULTIMEDIA: The way to present things or to communicate using more than one medium. Media can include visual, audio, sensor (like touch screen), etc. Most technology now days use multimedia enhancing better quality. Multimedia is very effective in many fields of our life, especially in education. - Yoonhee Roberts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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GENERAL MIDI: General MIDI or GM is a standardized specification for synthesizers. These standards apply to all GM synthesizers. GM requires that all GM compatible synthesizers meet a certain minimal set of features including polyphonic abilities.

 

 

GM synthesizers are required to be able to:

Allow 24 voices to be active simultaneously

Respond to note velocity

Support all 16 channels simultaneously 

Support polyphony on each channel

 

-Joseph Fusca 

 

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MIDI INTERFACE: Musical Instrument Digital Interface is a connecting plug that allows electric keyboards and computers to communicate with other electronic equipment of same or different manufacturers. David S. Hilton

 

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SYNTHESIZER: an electronic musical instrument that creates sound through the creation of electrical signals, as opposed to acoustic sounds.  The musical product varies greatly and often imitates traditional music instruments or creates new timbres.  Synthesizers typically are operated as keyboards, and the sounds is transmitted through a loudspeaker or headphones.-Kim Sidey

 

 

 

 

 

 

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TOUCH SENSITIVE: Refers to a method of inputting data. Most commonly recognized as the way to interface with Iphone, literally, touching the icon on the screen. The pc input "guide", if you will, is the standard one or two button mouse.

 

 

 

Ruth Golden

 

 

 

 

 

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VELOCITY SWITCH:

 

 

 

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USB KEYBOARD CONTROLLER:

 

 

A keyboard with and USB port which can be connected to an USB-enabled computer, for example, to send and receive sound data. With an USB keyboard controller one can “control” the sound data in a computer to play back the music. Its main advantage is that it is simple to connect and to use. (Aline Schmidt)

 

 

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VST: 

 

 

 

 

 

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DAW:

DAW: A digital audio workstation is an electronic system designed to record, edit and play back digital audio. A key feature of DAW is the ability to freely manipulate recorded sounds. There are two varieties of DAWs: computer-based, which consists of a computer, an ADC-DAC, and digital audio editor software; and integrated, which requires a mixing console, control surface, audio converter and data storage in one device.  Many DAWs, especially computer-based, have MIDI recording, editing, and playback capabilities.

 

 

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MULTI TIMBRAL: 

 

An electronic musical instrument that is capable of playing two or more timbres at the same time.  One example is a keyboard that is configured to have one half play one type of instrument, such as a bass, and the other half to another, such as a piano.  The different sounds can be split between the left and right hands.  Synthesizers and external sequencers can enable the multi timbral effect on other electronic instruments such as guitars, basses, and drumsets.

-Caroline McCrossan  

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DRUM MAP:

 

 

 

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SEQUENCER: It is software or hardware designed to create and manage computer-generated music. The sequencer managed control information (such as control voltage or note on/off commands) to be sent to eletronic musical instruments to produce audio inputs.Most modern sequencers now feature audio editing and processing capabilities as well.- Shanshan Ma

 

 

 

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MP3: MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression. It is a common audio format for consumer audio storage, as well as a de facto satndard of digital audio compression for the transfer and playback of music on digital audio players.  -Greta

 

 

 

 

 

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AIFF:AIFF is an abbreviation for Audio Interchange File Format. It is a standard format for storing sound data on computers. It does not support compression, and therefore the files can be quite large and are functionally the same as WAV files. It was developed by Apple back "in the day" and now when we put cds in our macs, the contents appear as AIFF files. --- Nathan Cohen

 

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OGG VORBIS:

 

 

 

 

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WAV: WAV is an abbreviation for the digital Waveform audio platform. It is high quality, and un-compressed, and is the standard audio format for CDs at 44.1 samples per second, 16 bits per sample. It works on Microsoft, Macintosh and Linux servers, and its main use is on Windows operating systems. You can play a WAV file in Winamp, iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc. WAV files can also be edited and manipulated on editing software like Pro-Tools, Audacity, Garage Band, etc. - Steven D'Agostino

 

 

 

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CAI:

 

 

 

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ANALOG RECORDING: Analog recording is a technique of storing audio of video information signals and giving them ability to be played back.

Examples of audio recording:

• gramophone record (a.k.a. vinyl)
• CC - compact cassette (magnetic tape recorder)
• VCR - video cassette recorder

Belma Kokic

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DIGITAL RECORDING:

A sound or video recording when the analog signal  is converted into binary numbers.  The binary numbers represent the change of air pressure (for audio) through time which can be refigured into sound or a moving image.  The original analog signal is converted using an analog to digital converter (ADC) and is converted back using a digital to analog converter (DAC).  - Laura Seay

 

 

 

 

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P2P NETWORKS: P2P networks is short for peer-to-peer networks.  Basically it means people are both givers and consumers of information, as opposed to a more traditional system where as a user you only download/consume information and/or resources (and the server supplies).  The most widely known example of a P2P network is a file-sharing system like Napster.  For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to-peer.  - Lorna Beth Slee

 

 

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MUSIC PIRACY:  Music Piracy: Jarrrrr Matey.... (ok I had to do it) Music piracy is copyright infringement, stealing compositions, arrangements, sometimes even ideas that have been copyrighted, then claiming them as your own. Piracy also implies the selling of unauthorized media. - Marissa Hansson

 

 

 

 

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DRM: This stands for "digital rights management" and refers to the ways in which limitations can be placed on both hardware and software. While it is impossible to stop consumers from circumventing DRM, it is still used in an attempt to dissuade consumers from copying software, music, files, etc. or using hardware illegally. One example is the file format of many iTunes tracks: these can be played on a certain restricted number of computers and cannot be copied right on the computer. However, one workaround is that they can be burned onto a CD and that CD can thus be ripped onto another computer to result in DRM-free tracks. - Justine Dolorfino (Sorry for giving an illegal example.)

 

 

 

 

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PODCAST: A series of audio or video media files that are posted to the Internet for one to download (although you can select to have them downloaded automatically) about, well, anything! Podcasts can be about any subject and are often listened to on one’s iPod, hence the name “Podcast”. Podcasts can be found all over the Internet. - Carly Kulawitz

 

 

 

 

 

 

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VODCAST:  also called a "vcast" "vodcast" and "videocast," vodcast is a term that stands for a video podcast, or video clip designed to be viewed in a portable device. It is the video counterpart to the podcast and can also be described as the online delivery of video content via the podcast (digital media files). From a webserver, a video podcast can be distributed as a file or through streaming. Both have their advantages and disadvantages: Downloading complete vodcasts in advance gives the user the ability to play the video podcasts offline and multiple times on a portable media player. Streaming allows seeking without downloading the full video podcast; however, users may have pauses in playback caused by slow transfer speeds. --Cynthia Tobey

 

 

 

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SAMPLE RATE:  The frequency at which audio information is taken from a continuous analog recording in order to create a digital recording, usually measured in hertz (Hz). The higher the sampling rate (aka, the more samples taken per second), the more complete the representation of the original analog recording will be. If the sampling rate is not high enough, the result can sound distorted. This could be compared to playing only the notes that occur on every other beat of a piece; with just those notes, the piece may not sound much like the original. Audio CD tracks commonly have a sampling rate of 44100 Hz in order to avoid these distortions.  ~Steph Wong

 

 

 

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DIGITAL I/0: Digital Input/Output or DIO refers to the digital communication, or the transfer of digital values, to and from hardware.  For example, the mouse you use transfers your physical movements into digital values which your computer can understand, then outputs your movements onto your monitor as the cursor moves. 

 

 

 

 

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MIDI KEYBOARD CONTROLLER:

 

MIDI controller is a software that creates and transmits MIDI data to MIDI-enabled devices. A keyboard controller is the most common. They can be used for performance applications or used to make sound and rhythm loops.-Connie Kwon

 

 

 

 

 

 

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PITCH BEND WHEEL: This controller is usually located near the side of an electronic keyboard or synthesizer. By sliding the wheel up or down, it will raise or lower pitch gradually while you are playing notes. This enables to produce pitches between steps or slide to the next note. It is a self-centered controller: when you release, it will automatically return to the normal pitch.  - Yuka Harimoto

 

 

 

 

 

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MODULATION WHEEL: Device found usually on synthesizers and most MIDI controller keyboards.  Pushing the wheel up sharpens the pitch and pushing the wheel down flattens.  The modulation wheel is commonly used to add a ‘vibrato’ effect to the synthesized sound.  Adam Wemple

 

 

 

 

 

 

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FM SYNTHESIS:

 

 

 

 

 

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LOSSLESS COMPRESSION:  this is a technique of compression that takes data and decompresses it back to its original state without loosing anything so the original file and decompressed file are exactly the same.  A ZIP file is a form of lossless compression. -Stephanie Smith

 

 

 

 

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LOSSY COMPRESSION: Loosy compression describes a process in which when a file is compressed, elements that are redundant in the original file are taken out, thus making the compressed file lose data contained in the original file.-Chris Inniss

 

 

 

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BIT RATE:

 

 

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Can't find a technology term that you'd like to define? Just add your own word and define it. Just click "Edit Page" and then save it when you are finished.