Music Technology

Software used for recording, editing, mixing, and producing audio files. A DAW serves as the central hub of modern music production, integrating virtual instruments, effects processing, MIDI sequencing, and audio recording into a single environment.

A technical standard established in 1983 that allows electronic musical instruments, computers, and other devices to communicate performance data such as note pitch, velocity, duration, and control changes. MIDI transmits instructions rather than audio.

The electronic generation of sound using techniques such as subtractive, additive, frequency modulation (FM), wavetable, granular, and physical modeling synthesis. Each method constructs timbres differently from oscillators, samples, or mathematical models.

Sampling rate is the number of times per second an analog signal is measured during analog-to-digital conversion (measured in Hz), while bit depth determines the number of possible amplitude values per sample. Together they define digital audio resolution and dynamic range.

The manipulation of audio signals using tools such as equalization (EQ), compression, reverb, delay, distortion, and filtering. Signal processing shapes the tonal balance, dynamics, spatial characteristics, and overall character of recorded or synthesized sound.

The process of converting continuous analog audio signals (such as those from a microphone) into discrete digital data that a computer can store and process. The reverse process, digital-to-analog conversion (DAC), reconstructs the analog signal for playback through speakers.

The process of adjusting the balance of frequency components in an audio signal. Parametric EQ allows control over the center frequency, bandwidth (Q), and gain of individual frequency bands, while graphic EQ divides the spectrum into fixed bands.

A signal processing technique that reduces the volume of loud sounds or amplifies quiet sounds, thereby narrowing the dynamic range of an audio signal. Key parameters include threshold, ratio, attack time, release time, and makeup gain.

The use of absorption, diffusion, and bass trapping materials to control how sound behaves in a physical space. Room modes are resonant frequencies determined by a room's dimensions that create standing waves, causing uneven bass response at different listening positions.

Technologies that reproduce sound in three-dimensional space, going beyond traditional stereo or surround sound. Object-based audio formats like Dolby Atmos and ambisonics allow sound to be placed and moved freely in a 3D sound field around the listener.