Glossary and Terminology

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Glossary of the letter "s"
All words also link to dictionary.com definitions for further information.

s/pdif - Sony/Phillips (as in the company) Digital InterFace. It was created by Sony/Phillips to be a standard in digital audio data transfer.

sample - A small chunk of audio that represents an instrument sound or sound effects. such as one note of a bass guitar, or a single hit on a snare drum.

sample rate - Refer to sample speed.

sample speed - One aspect of a digital sample. Often to referred to as sample rate. Common current sample rates are 44.1k, 48k and 96k. e.g. 48k equals 48,000 samples per second. Primarily effects how high of a frequency can be represented.

sawtooth (waveform) - The name comes from the fact that the waveform resembles with the form of a sawtooth of a wood saw, it is slowly going up to then steeply fall down.

scoop - Generally used as a "cut" in the EQ. Cutting a range of frequencies in the middle of the spectrum is referred to as a "scoop".

scsi - Small computer system interface. Parallel data interface used to connect storage devices to a computer (hard drives, CD-ROMs, and so on).

sequencer - Recording, editing and playback software. Most sequencers now include audio recording and editing as well as the usual MIDI functions.

shockmount - A little contraption that condensor mics are often put into to prevent noise from bleeding into the mic from little bumps into the mic stand and such. They are equiped with rubber or elastic suspension to absorb the shock of bumps.

siab - Shortened acronym for "Studio in a Box"

sibilance - Of, characterized by, or producing a hissing sound like that of (s) or (sh)

sidechain - The control circuit of a dynamics processing device

sine (waveform) - The Sine waveform is a waveform following the mathematical function of sin. To the ear will it sound like a very pure tone.

snap - Tool used in most audio/midi recording/editing apps to align audio or midi clips, and midi notes to time. This can be either to the beggining of a measure, 1/2, 1/4 note etc. And usually as small as the app will count time to.

soft knee - A rounded drop off at the cutoff frequency of a filter.

soundcard - An internal or external device which provides analog to digital and digital to analog conversion of signal providing a sound I/O interface for a computer. The term is often used to mean Studio Quality soundcard as many grades are available.

square (waveform) - The square waveform has got it's name from the fact that it is similar to an square. It has two levels, they are equally long in time and they are alternated with very quick jumps (very steep slopes).

stereo - Sound broadcast from two seperated sources. e.g. speakers or headphones. Each source contains unique sound creating a field of sound. Both sources may contain the same "voices" at different amplitudes & or time.

sustain - Sustain is a term used for envelopes. It is the level that the decay will strive for. One can speak of a sustain phase such that the envelope is very close to the sustain level and the decay changes are very small.