Encyclopedia

A signal wave is a pattern of electricity which can be converted into a sound wave (for example by a Loudspeaker), or can be used to drive other processes an manipulations…

The purest of sounds, looking like a sequence of hills and troughs, the sine wave (or sinusoid) creates the sound of a single frequency with no harmonics or interference.  …

Sounds that are connected or blended together with no intervening silence. In traditional music the term legato is used. (Legato is the Italian word for ‘tied together’.)

A sonogram is able to show the relative distribution of sound wave energy within a sound, over time. It can be a useful visual tool for understanding how sounds operate…

This term generally designates the art form in which the sound is its basic unit. A liberal view of sonic art would take it to be a subset of music.…

Sound cards are used in the Compose with Sounds software. They are sound files with an accompanying image.

These are collections of sound cards. Providing a range of different sounds organised around a theme.Sound card packs might be related to a specific project, or a specific style of…

Sound marks are the sonic equivalent of landmarks. They are key sound objects within a soundscape which help us to orientate ourselves. Sometimes Sound Marks are also Keynote sounds, but…

A tool for recording and capturing sounds. There are many many different types of sound recording equipment. These days, even mobile phones are able to record sounds. The more expensive…

This is the perceived cause of a sound. It may be referential, relating to a recognised contextual source, or an abstract description of the characteristics necessary for a description of…

a walk where the participant (or participants) concentrate on listening [paraphrase of Schafer 212–213]. The main goal of the activity is to facilitate Heightened listening. When more than one person is…

Wherever we are, we are surrounded by sound. Soundscapes (just like landscapes) can be urban/rural, industrial/agricultural, busy/quiet, and so on. Soundscapes can change over the course of a day, and…

A way of visualising sounds that provides information about the frequencies that make up the sound. The horizontal axis of the spectrogram displays Time (the further to the right the…

To cut up a sound file. Usually to remove unwanted bits, leaving only the sounds that the composer wants to use. When composers used magnetic tape they would splice the…

A grouping of electronic modules intended for sound processing. Such equipment usually incorporates a combination of oscillators (tone generators), filters, mixers, envelope generators, noise generators, reverberation units, etc. The term…