Sound

Acousmatic

The term derives from the Greek “akouw,” for “hearing” (as opposed to deaf) and a range of associated meanings: to hear, to listen or […]

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Acousmatic voice/ Acousmêtre

A term popularized by the work of Michel Chion. In his 1982 book The Voice in Cinema, Chion details the presence of an acousmatic […]

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Amplitude

A recorded signal is a stream of numbers called samples.  Each such sample denotes an instantaneous amplitude, theoretically corresponding to the air pressure (or sometimes velocity […]

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Bel canto singing

Bel canto singing refers to the classical (Italian) operatic singing tradition where an emphasis is placed on bringing sung pitch and the resonance of […]

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Chora

In the theory of subjectivity of Bulgarian linguist, psychoanalyst, and sometime “French feminist” Julia Kristeva, the “chora” is a space shared by mother and […]

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Consonant

Consonants are classified as fricatives (generated by moving air turbulently through some part of the vocal apparatus), unvoiced plosives (bursts of air resulting from opening a […]

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Formant

To an electronic musician, a formant is a peak in an audio signals’s spectral envelope. Formants are specified by giving their peak frequency, peak […]

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Fundamental Frequency

If a recorded audio signal is nearly periodic (as is much voiced speech), it is said to have a fundamental frequency, sometimes denoted “f0” […]

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Harmonics

A periodic audio signal can be represented as a sum of harmonically tuned sinusoids called harmonics.  Their frequencies are multiples of the signal’s fundamental frequency, and […]

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Listening

An ethical, social, and cultural practice. As opposed to simply hearing, listening requires one’s full attention. The event of listening and its meaning are […]

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