Sound Vocabulary
¼” phone plug: Are often used for speaker lines. Three wire or balanced line connectors will have a division on the shaft.
A.M.: Amplitude Modulation
Antenna: is a pick up device used for either a radio or television set. It is receiving waves from the atmosphere and turning them into electrical impulses
Compact disc: one can easily access a precise point on the disk. The fact that there is much less chance of information jumping or skipping makes it a valuable tool in sound reproduction.
Cone: is a directional sound reproduction device.
Control: The 2nd major part of a sound system. Control provides for the amplification or increase of electrical pressure, and the switching required to select a source and path. Volume and Direction are the two things that can be controlled.
Driver: Horn or Driver speakers are quite directional and often have a divider type grille in the front, which allows for more control of sound distribution.
Earphones: Provide for extreme limitation of area covered. Really small speakers.
Feedback: is the result of a microphone picking up electronic signals from the output of a loudspeaker and causing it to be re-amplified.
F.M.: Frequency Modulation
Headphones: A pair of earphones.
Headset: A pair of earphones with a microphone attached. The wearer can carry on a conversation with someone else.
Impedance: or statement of the character of electrical output, of a microphone differs. Low impedance mics can send signal farther along a wire than high impedance mics.
Inter-communications system: Allows each person (crew member) so transmit and receive information.
Loudspeaker: comes in many different sizes and types and each has it own particular purpose. See Reproducers.
Microphone: Most common and most misunderstood pick up device. Each type changes audible sound into electrical impulses.
Mixer: Combines signals.
Monitor system: Provides microphones in the auditorium to pick up stage sound as well as audience reaction and feed it to dressing rooms and other backstage locations.
Phonograph cartridge: in the pick up arm is also a pick up device with a pair of wires transmitting electrical impulses.
Pick-up: A device that takes sound from one form or another and turns it into electrical impulses.
Pre-amplifier: adds amplification before the sound is sent on to the main amplifier.
Public-Address: Transmits sound from the stage to the audience.
RCA: The RCA is an unbalanced, mono connection commonly found on DJ mixers, CD players, Hi-Fi equipment, audio interfaces and frequently on the ‘tape in’ and ‘tape out’ connections on mixing desks, and usually (but not always) features a red, right channel connection and a white, left channel connection.
Reproducer: Turns electrical impulses into sound.
Shielded cable: The cable provides a wrapping of metal around the conductors to isolate them from outside interference of adjacent voltages.
Signal systems: These systems provide audible and visual signals in the form of sounds, tones, indicator lights which in turn must be translated by the individual..
Sound effect system: When a director requires that sound effects come from onstage; a set of speakers backstage will be set up so that F/X sounds can be mixed with actors voices onstage during a show.
Sound effect cue sheet: Indicates which pick up devices are being used, what the operating level is, and which reproduction devices are used. Also tells operators when a cue is to occur. Most important; it allows for someone else to take over if necessary.
Tape heads: Devices on tape players which read magnetic impulses from the metallic coated tape. These impulses are changed into tiny electrical charges.
TRS connector :connection iscapable of carrying two channels of audio(e.g. a stereo signal, with a separate left and right channel). This is done via a Tip, Ring, Sleeve (TRS) design, the plug itself now divided with two black hoops. The tip is the pointy end, the ring is the section after the first black hoop, and the sleeve is after the second. The tip and the ring carry the left and right channel signals, while the sleeve acts as a common earth. The most common use of a stereo jack connection is that of a headphone output, on keyboards, pianos, mixing desks, recording equipment, guitar amps and hi-fi equipment.
XLR: The standard for microphone connectors (XLR-3). This is a three-pin type providing connection for shield, high and low conductors.