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This wiki is intended for students in A&HM 4029.001 & .002 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@gmail.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 stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface - James Thomas Frankel

 

 

 

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MULTIMEDIA: The use of computers to present text, graphics, video, animation, and sound in an integrated way. -Celeste Kim

 

Multimedia is integration of sound, text, graphics, pictures and video in a digital format. --Alfrida Tozieva

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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GENERAL MIDI:  General MIDI or GM is a standardized specification for music synthesizers that respond to MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) messages.

 

GM synthesizers are required to be able to:

 

• Allow 24 voices to be active simultaneously (including at least 16 melodic and 8 percussive voices)
• Respond to note velocity
• Support all 16 channels simultaneously (with channel 10 reserved for percussion)
• Support polyphony (multiple simultaneous notes) on each channel

 

~Austin Becker 

 

 

 

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MIDI INTERFACE:  A MIDI Interface is any device that is used to generate MIDI data for transmission.  MIDI interfaces most frequently take the form of electronic musical instruments, such as a MIDI keyboard, or an electric drum set.  There are other examples, such as an MPC or an iPad. - Brielle Korn

 

 

 

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SYNTHESIZER: A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electric signals of different frequencies. -Tiffany Chung 

 

Synthesizers are often controlled with a piano-style keyboard, leading such instruments to be referred to simply as "keyboards". Several other forms of controller have been devised to resemble guitars, violins, wind instruments, drums and percussion instruments.  The most common is the keyboard.  Synthesizers without controllers are often called "sound modules", and they can be controlled using MIDI or CV/Gate methods.  ~Lindsay Weiss

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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TOUCH SENSITIVE:

Keyboard, switch, or screen (iPod, iPad, iPhone) can be touch sensitive.
When we talk about something that is touch sensitive (in the digital world sense) what we mean refers to devices that enable the users to interact with the computer. In brief, the device responds to the touch by transmitting the coordinates of the touch point to a computer. If that “responsive” area is a screen this type of movement with hand or finger(s) causes the cursor to move around the screen. There are three forms of touchscreen: pressure-sensitive, capacitive surface and light beam. -- Alfrida Tozieva

 

 

 

 

 

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VELOCITY SWITCH: Velocity-Switch is a software based telecommunication services and subscriber management platform that allows VoIP service providers, carriers, ISPs, and modern communication network operators to unify voice, data, Internet and fax traffic within a single converged network. - Julia Weldon

 

 

 

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USB KEYBOARD CONTROLLER: In popular parlance, piano-style musical keyboards are called "keyboards", regardless of their functions or type. Amongst MIDI enthusiasts, however, keyboards and other devices used to trigger musical sounds are called "controllers", because with most MIDI set-ups, the keyboard or other device does not make any sounds by itself. MIDI controllers need to be connected to a voice bank or sound module in order to produce musical tones or sounds; the keyboard or other device is "controlling" the voice bank or sound module by acting as a trigger. The most common MIDI controller is the piano-style keyboard, either with weighted or semi-weighted keys, or with unweighted synth-style keys. Keyboard-style MIDI controllers are sold with as few as 25 keys (2 octaves), with larger models such as 49 keys, 61 keys, or even the full 88 keys being available. Different models have different feature sets, the simplest being only keys, while the more extravagant have sliders, knobs, and wheels to provide more controlling options.^[5] These include a variety of parameters that can be programmed within the controller, or sent to a computer to control software. ~Wikipedia    ~Lindsay Weiner

 

 

 

 

 

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VST: virtual studio technology

Melissa Shapiro

 

 

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DAW:  A DAW is a digital audio workstation.  It is an electronic system designed solely or primarily for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. - Elisabeth McPeak

 

 

 

 

 

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MULTI TIMBRAL: 

Some MIDI modules are "multi-timbral". This means that the module can listen to all 16 MIDI channels at once, and play any 16 of its "patches" simultaneously, with each of the 16 patches set to a different MIDI channel. It's as if the module had 16 smaller modules inside of it, with each being able to play a different patch (think of a patch as a "musical instrument") on its own MIDI channel. --Alfrida Tozieva

 

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DRUM MAP: In general MIDI, MIDI channel 10 is reserved for percussion instruments only. Each note on the MIDI keyboard (or virtual keyboard) is associated or mapped, to a particular percussion sound. This image shows the standard drum mapping for general MIDI:

 

Modern notation software, such as Sibelius or Finale, supports custom drum mapping, which can even include specific sounds being mapped to notes using particular noteheads. This feature can be particularly useful when using specialty percussion sound samples in conjunction with the notation software.

 

— Ari Decherd

 

 

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SEQUENCER: 

 

 

 

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MP3: A format or way to store audio files- Meryl Sole

 

 

 

 

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AIFF: Audito Interchance File Format-mostly used for storing sound and data on personal computers and various electronic audio devices

-Taylor Shapiro

 

 

 

 

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OGG VORBIS:  OGG Vorbis is a completely open, patent-free, professional audio encoding and streaming technology with all the benefits of Open Source. - Vera Tymochko

 

 

 

 

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WAV: A sound format developed by Microsoft and used extensively in Microsoft Windows. Conversion tools are available to allow most other operating systems to play .wav files.
.wav files are also used as the sound source in wavetable synthesis, e.g. in E-mu's SoundFont. In addition, .wav files are also supported by some MIDI sequencers as add-on audio. That is, pre-recorded .wav files are played back by control commands written in the sequence script.

 

 

 

 

 

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CAI: computer assisted instruction

The first examples of CAI for music was developed around 1967 for use in universities. These early programs were created primarily for "drill-and-practice" in aural and written music theory. Elizabeth Green

 

 

 

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 ANALOG RECORDING: A technique used for the recording of analog signals which include audio frequency, analog audio and analog video information for later playback. Analog recording methods store signals as a continual wave in or on the media, such as with cassette tapes or records. The wave might be stored as a physical texture on a phonograph record, or a fluctuation in the field strength of a magnetic recording.

 

 

 

Displacement of the microphone diaphragm is transformed into a groove on a moving piece of vinyl. A stylus tracing the grooves exactly reproducing the motion of the diaphragm at the time the recording was made.

 

 

The tape is a strip of plastic which has been coated with a material that is easily magnetized. (The most commonly used material is highly refined rust, or iron oxide.) The capstan is a spinning post. The tape is held tightly against the capstan by the pinch roller and dragged across the three heads at a steady rate. All three heads are essentially the same in construction: a C-shaped piece of metal with the very narrow gap of the "C" near the tape. A coil of wire around the metal can serve to either detect or produce magnetic fields at the gap. If a strong current is passed through the coil, a field is produced which creates a magnetic spot on the nearby tape. The amount of magnetism will be proportional to the amount of current. If the tape is moved and the current varied in a periodic way, a "track" of magnetic areas will be imprinted on the tape. All of this happens at the record head. When the tape subsequently passes the play head, the varying magnetic field on the tape produces a varying current in the play head coil, which can be detected by some sensitive electronic circuitry. (The erase head works just like the record head, but at a super high frequency which will not be recorded but which will obliterate any existing information.)

 

Jenna Calderon 

 

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DIGITAL RECORDING:

 

digital audio and digital video is directly recorded to a storage device as a stream of discrete numbers, representing the changes in air pressure (sound) for audio and chroma and luminance values for video through time, thus making an abstract template for the original sound or moving image.

Analog audio (sound), or analog video made of a continuous wave must be converted into a stream of discrete numbers, representing the changes over time in air pressure for audio, and chroma and luminance values for video.

Beginning in the 1980s, music that was recorded, mixed and mastered digitally was often labelled using the SPARS code to describe which processes were analog and which were digital.

 

Dustin Kaufman

 

 

 

 

 

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P2P NETWORKS: P2P is an acronym of Peer to Peer. P2P is a kind of internet browser application such as Internet explore. It runs on your computer and allows you to share files. Each computer communicates directly with other computers through the P2P software which can allow people to search files from other's computer, and then users can download the files freely.   - Sunah Park 

 

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MUSIC PIRACY: The copying and distributing of copies of a piece of music for which the composer, recording artist, or copyright-holder did not give consent. - Ami

 

(Digital) music piracy is an illicit copying of music files which arose from innovations involving the compression and electronic distribution of files over internet. Musical piracy is de facto a form of online intellectual property theft and it is extensible to crimes that are nontraditional in content and in context. The phenomenon of music piracy is facilitated by a computer (computer-related criminality) and occurs online, over the Internet in an intangible, nonphysical, virtual realm. That is the reason why is not so easy to track and prevent. -- Alfrida Tozieva

 

 

 

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What is DRM? Digital Restrictions Management

 

Big Media describe DRM as Digital Rights Management. However, since its purpose is to restrict you the user, it is more accurate to describe DRM as Digital Restrictions Management. DRM Technology can restricts users’ access to movies, music, literature and software, indeed all forms of digital data. Unfree software implementing DRM technology is simply a prison in which users can be put to deprive them of the rights that the law would otherwise allow them.

After months of campaigning during 2006, DefectiveByDesign.org declared Tuesday October 3rd 2006, an international "Day Against DRM". With more than 10,000 technologists having joined in the campaign and pledged to take direct action to stop DRM, and with more than 200 "actions" planned across the globe on October 3rd, we had achieved our goal of raising public awareness to the threats posed by DRM.

Now we must move from awareness of DRM to rejection of DRM. DRM technology is not vanquished. It is still a growing problem for all computer users, and by extension all of society. DRM is being used to restrict individuals' use of their own copies of published works. To enforce these restrictions, DRM software, and now hardware, must monitor and control a computer users' behavior. Frequently it reports on what it sees.

Products with DRM

Certain categories of products are disproportionately impacted by DRM. When you're considering buying a product in one of these categories, it's a good idea to do a quick search (on Defective by Design or the web at large).

            Music

            Movies (see: bluray)

            ebooks (see: Kindle Swindle)

            Computers (Mac and Windows)

            Mobile phones (e.g. the iPhone)

            Games

The Fight

You might be aware that the DVDs (or Bluray disks) you buy are encrypted. All of the video and audio on these disks are coded using a key that the hardware attempts to keep secret. Hollywood requires that all DVD manufacturers participate in this restrictive practice, and they can use the DMCA to make any device that doesn't participate in their scheme illegal.

This type of nuisance is but the foreshadow of greater ones to come. Standing behind the technology companies, the film and music industry (Big Media) loom large. To increase their control, they demand technology companies impose DRM. The technology companies no longer resist. Of course many of the technology companies now see themselves as part of Big Media. Sony is a film and music company, Microsoft is an owner of MSNBC, and Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, sits on the board of Disney. These technology companies cannot be expected to serve the interests of the technology consumer.

Big Media hope that DRM will deliver to them what their political lobbying to change copyright law never has: they aim to turn our every interaction with a published work into a transaction, abolishing fair use and the commons, and making copyright effectively last forever. They will say that you accepted DRM and willingly surrendered your rights. That you did so under duress, they will call irrelevant.

Amazon's new movie download service is called Unbox and it outlines what DRM implies. The user agreement requires that you allow Unbox DRM software to monitor your hard drive and to report activity to Amazon. These reports would thus include a list of: all the software installed; all the music and video you have; all your computer's interaction with other devices. You will surrender your freedom to such an extent that you will only be able to regain control by removing the software. But if you do remove the software you will also remove all your movies along with it. You are restricted even geographically, and you lose your movies if you ever move out of the USA. You of course have to agree that they can change these terms at any time. Microsoft's newly upgraded Windows Media Player 11 (WMP11) user agreement has a similar set of terms.

Each time Big Media force you to upgrade your software, they downgrade your rights. Every new DRM system will enforce a harsher control regime. Apple's added more restrictions to their music service, and their new video service is yet more restrictive. And so it goes. But this is not just happening with music and video, DRM is being applied to knowledge and information. Libraries, schools, universities are adding DRM, sometimes under duress, often without understanding the consequences.

What does this mean for the future? No fair use. No purchase and resell. No private copies. No sharing. No backup. No swapping. No mix tapes. No privacy. No commons. No control over our computers. No control over our electronic devices. The conversion of our homes into apparatus to monitor our interaction with published works and web sites.

If this type of invasion of privacy were coming from any other source, it would not be tolerated. That it is the media and technology companies leading the way, does not make it benign.

Users of free software are not immune to DRM either. They can be locked out, and their computers won't play the movies or music under lock. Products can "tivoize" their code (remove their freedom through DRM), delivering it back with malicious features and blocking removal. The RIAA and the MPAA are actively lobbying Congress to pass new laws to mandate DRM and outlaw products and computers that don't enforce DRM. DRM has become a major threat to the freedom of computer users.

When we allow others to control our computers and monitor our actions we invite deeper surveillance. With our personal viewing, listening, reading, browsing records on file, are we not to be alarmed?

In September 2005 a Disney executive named Peter Lee told The Economist, "If consumers even know there's a DRM, what it is, and how it works, we've already failed,". A year later, on October 3rd we made that prediction come true. Now with your help, we can work to put an end to DRM. You are encouraged to Join the campaign at DefectiveByDesign.org and take action.

Peter Brown
Defective By Design
Free Software Foundation

 

-Seungyoung (hehehe... Sorry Jamie Bineau)

 

 

 

DRM: Digital Rights Management. DRM refers to a collection of systems used to protect the copyrights of electronic media. These include digital music and movies, as well as other data that is stored and transferred digitally. DRM is frequently used to prevent things like the sharing of MP3s on file-trading networks or to make sure that people buy the songs they download from the Internet. Digital Rights Management is important to publishers of electronic media since it helps ensure they will receive the appropriate revenue for their products. By controlling the trading, protection, monitoring, and tracking of digital media, DRM helps publishers limit the illegal propagation of copyrighted works.

Jamie Bineau

 

 

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PWM: Pulse-width modulation (PWM), is a commonly used technique for controlling power to inertial electrical devices, made practical by modern electronic power switches. PWM is sometimes used in sound (music) synthesis, in particular subtractive synthesis, as it gives a sound effect similar to chorus or slightly detuned oscillators played together. -Costas

 

 

 

 

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PODCAST: Podcasts were created by Steve Jobs in 2004. Ipods didn't have access to radio, so podcasts were audio/video segments of radio shows that exist online for people to subscribe to through rss feeds.  Podcasts link ipods to broadcasting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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VODCAST:

VIDeo podCAST: An online delivery of video on demand video clip content via Atom or RSS enclosures / a video clip designed to be viewed in a portable device. Also called a "vcast," "vodcast" and "videocast," a vidcast is the video counterpart of a podcast and uses the same RSS syndication method for delivering material to users. Vod stands for Video On Demand and the cast comes from the word broadcast. -- Alfrida Tozieva

 

VLOG:
Video bLOG: A Weblog (blog) that includes video clips to be downloaded and viewed immediately or transferred to a portable player. Also called a "vog," "vid-blog" and "movie blog," the vlog can be exclusively videos with text used only for captions, or text entries may be included. A venue for people who like to remix audio, video and graphics in some artistic expression, as well as novice and experienced videographers and movie makers, the material is distributed in popular video formats such as Windows Media, QuickTime and Flash. --Alfrida Tozieva 

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SAMPLE RATE:

 

In developing an audio sound for computers or telecommunication, the sample rate is the number of samples of a sound that are taken per unit of time (usually second) to represent the event digitally.

The more samples taken per second, the more accurate the digital representation of the sound can be. For example, the current sample rate for CD-quality audio is 44,100 samples per second. This sample rate can accurately reproduce the audio frequencies up to 20,500 hertz, covering the full range of human hearing.

(Claudia)

 

 

 

 

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DIGITAL I/0:

 

 

 

 

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MIDI KEYBOARD CONTROLLER:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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PITCH BEND WHEEL:  The pitch bend wheel is used to slide a note's pitch up or down usually by  +/-  2  half-steps.  It is typically featured on a midi keyboard synthesizer.  An example of a pitch bend wheel is seen here alongside the modulation wheel.   --Paul Leiner

 

 

source

 

 

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MODULATION WHEEL: The modulation wheel is used to add expression or to change elements of a synthesized sound.  For example, the modulation wheel could be used to create vibrato on a keyboard synthesizer.  Typically situated near the Pitch Bend Wheel (see above for photo)  

--Andrea Courchene

 

 

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FM SYNTHESIS: a form of audio synthesis where the timbre of a simple waveform is changed by frequency modulating it with a modulating frequency that is also in the audio range, resulting in a more complex waveform and a different-sounding tone. The frequency of an oscillator is altered or distorted, "in accordance with the amplitude of a modulating signal." - Yaeji Chun

 

 

 

 

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LOSSLESS COMPRESSION: 

 

 Lossless data compression is a class of date compression algorithms that allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data- Refik Ismail

 

 

 

 

 

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LOSSY COMPRESSION:

Lossy Compression refers to data compression techniques in which some amount of data is lost. Lossy compression technologies attempt to eliminate redundant or unnecessary (bits and bytes) of information. Most video compression technologies, such as MPEG, use a lossy technique. The same technique is often used for reducing the file size of bitmap pictures (fairly large). With lossy compression, you cannot get the original file back after it has been compressed. Rather what you get is the compression program's reinterpretation of the original. Thus, it is not wise to use this type of compression for anything that needs to be reproduced exactly (ex. a software application). --Alfrida Tozieva

 

 

 

 

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BIT RATE:  The number of bits processed per unit of time. A bit is a basic unit of information in telecommunications and computing. Bit rate is written as bits per second. The higher the bit rate the better the audio quality in music as more information is being conveyed each second. -Chelsea B.

 

 

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