Mackie 1642-VLZ Pro Owner's Manual Glossary - Page 11

mixer An electronic device used to combine various audio signals into a common output. Different from a blender, which combines various fruits into a common libation. "Why did you mult the flanger into every input in the board?" N monaural Long for mono. Literally, pertaining to or having the use of only one ear. In the audio field, monaural describes a signal or system which carries audio information on a single channel with the intent of reproducing it from a single source. One microphone is a mono source; many microphones mixed to one channel is a mono mix; a stereo (or, to be picky, a two-channel) mix of many microphones panned left and right is a stereo mix of mono sources. Monaural listening, and therefore mono compatibility of a stereo mix, is more important than you may realize. Most people hear television audio in mono. Most clock radios are mono. noise Whatever you don't want to hear. Could be hum, buzz or hiss; could be crosstalk or digital hash or your neighbor's stereo; could be white noise or pink noise or brown noise; or it could be your mother-in-law reliving the day she had her gallstone removed. noise floor The residual level of noise in any system. In a well designed mixer, the noise floor will be a quiet hiss, which is the thermal noise generated by electrons bouncing around in resistors and semiconductor junctions. The lower the noise floor and the higher the headroom, the more usable dynamic range a system has. monitor In sound reinforcement, monitor speakers (or monitor headphones or in-the-ear monitors) are those speakers used by the performers to hear themselves. In the video and broadcast world, monitor speakers are often called foldback speakers. In recording, the monitor speakers are those used by the engineer and production staff to listen to the recording as it progresses. In zoology, the monitor lizard is the lizard that observes the production staff as the recording progresses. Keep the lizard out of the mixer. mono Short for monaural. mult Short for multiple. In audio work, a mult is a parallel connection (in a patch bay or with specially built cables or wiring) used to feed an output to more than one input. A "Y" cable is a type of mult connection. Also used a verb, as in normal A wiring method which electrically ties together two jacks or two poles of one jack so that in normal operation, there is signal flow between them. Inserting a plug breaks this connection, allowing the signal path to be modified. Normal wiring is common in patchbays and insert jacks. Nyquist sampling theorem This theorem states that, when an analog signal is converted to a digital signal, it must be sampled at a frequency that is at least twice the highest audio frequency present in the analog signal. If the audio frequency should exceed one-half the sampling frequency, aliasing can result. Thus, if an analog-to-digital converter is sampling at 44.1 kHz, the audio signal should not exceed 22.05 kHz. 11