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Music Comp. Final
Omg kill me now, tho
36
Music
Undergraduate 1
12/13/2011

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Cards

Term
Atmospheric Pressure
Definition
The force exerted against an object by the weight of the air above it to the top of the Earth's atmosphere.
Term
Hertz
Definition
Cycles per second
Term
Frequency
Definition
The number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time (measured in hertz)
Term
Wavelength
Definition
The distance travelled to complete one cycle of a wavelength
Term
Amplitude
Definition
The magnitude of change in the oscillation of a sound wave (how high and low the wave goes.) This translated to how loud we hear the sound.
Term
Phase
Definition
The comparison of where in a wave cycle two sine waves of the same frequence are at the same point in time. It is measured in 360 degrees.
Term
Specular Reflection
Definition
Mirror like reflection. The angle that the sound wave first strikes the surface is the same angle with which it reflects back.
Term
Diffusion
Definition
The breaking up of sound by reflection back in many directions
Term
Diffraction
Definition
The ability of sound to move around physical barriers and through small opening in barriers with little to no effect on the wave energy
Term
Fundamental
Definition
The lowest frequency in a complex tone
Term
Partial
Definition
Any sine waves that make up a complex tone
Term
Harmonic
Definition
Partials that are whole integer multiples of the fundamental
Term
Acoustic Envelope
Definition
The amplitude change over time of a complex sound. Broken down into 3 parts-- attack, internal dynamics, decay
Term
Transducer
Definition
Any device that converts one form of energy to another
Term
Decibel
Definition
A ratio measured against a constant reference point-- in sound, the reference could be voltage, SPL, of full-scale digital clipping for example.
Term
SPL
Definition
Sound Pressure Level. The pressure of sound vibration measured at a specific distance.
Term
Threshold of Hearing
Definition
The quietest sound a human could hear
Term
Threshold of Pain
Definition
The point at which sound pressure causes pain in the human hearing mechanism
Term
Reverberation TIme (RT)
Definition
The time it takes for the reverberation to decrease by 60 dB from its original level
Term
Transmission Loss (TL)
Definition
THe reduction of SPL of a sound source as it passes through a physical barrier.
Term
Electrical Insulators
Definition
Materials that can't conduct electricity very well
Term
Electrical Conductors
Definition
Materials that conduct electricity very well
Term
Voltage
Definition
The difference in charge (electrons) between two points. The greater the difference, the more the charge wants to move (more potential energy).
Term
Conduction
Definition
How well charged particles (electrons) can move through a given material.
Term
Impedance
Definition
A measurement of total opposition to the flow of current in a circuit
Term
Electromagnetic Induction
Definition
A changing magnetic field will induce a current in a circuit.
Term
Electromagnetic Interference
Definition
EMI- electromagnetic induction that occurs accidentally or creates a current that we don't want (or corrupts the signal that we do want)
Term
Dynamic Range
Definition
The difference between the noise floor and the maximum volume before the distortion of the signal is considered too much. The total potential useable range.
Term
Signal-to-Noise (SNR)-
Definition
This is an active measurement of how much difference there is between a signal as it is moving through an amp and the noise floor. The actual range as it is happening.
Term
Amplifiers
Definition
Any device that changes (usually increases) the amplitude of a signal. An amplifier circuit is usually created using one of the 3 following components: tubes, transistors, op-amps
Term
Binary
Definition
Composed of two piece and is the language used to represent digital data of any kind.
Term
Fourier Transform
Definition
Every complex sound is made up of a bunch of sine waves (single frequencies). ANY complex sound can be broken down into these individual frequencies and then reconstructed.
Term
Nyquist-Shannon Sampling Theorem
Definition
If you know the highest frequency present in a complex sound, as long as you have any two evenly spaced samples charted along that wave, you can reconstruct the complex wave perfectly.
Term
Quantization
Definition
The process of mapping a large set of input values to a smaller set. In digital audio, this is the technique used to represent dynamic range.
Term
Sampling rate
Definition
How many 'snapshots' are taken of an analog signal over time. Ex: (44.1khz (CD), 48.kHz (DVD and vid)...)
Term
Bit Depth
Definition
a Measurement of dynamic range in digital audio where one bit equals roughly 6db increments. Ex: 16bit (CD), 24bit (DVD Blu Ray), 32bit (used for extra headroom when changing volume digitally)
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