L : The left-hand part of a stereo signal. Also known as A.
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L-pad : A type of potentiometer that maintains constant impedance at its input while varying the signal level at its output. L-pads are most often used as an external balance control or variable attenuator (volume control).
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L/A synthesis : Linear Arithmetic synthesis. A sound synthesis method developed by Roland that creates new sounds by attaching the attack portion of a sampled waveform to a simpler waveform. Human sound recognition is heavily influenced by hearing the attack transient part of a sound, but simple waveforms require less storage than samples. By combining the two, L/A synthesis is capable of relatively sophisticated sounds with modest data storage requirements.
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labels : Special non-audio information encoded along with the audio in digital recording systems, used to encode information about the recording session, number of microphones used, dates, etc.
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lacquer master : The disc produced from a master recording tape which is used to press vinyl copies.
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land : (1) The flat area of vinyl between the grooves of a record. (2) The flat area between the laser-carved pits of a CD.
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largo : Italian for "broad." A slow or stately tempo, 48-60 bpm.
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later reflections : See early reflections.
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Lavalier microphone : A small microphone, either condenser or dynamic, which can be easily hidden in a piece of clothing so as not to be seen by the camera. Also called a peanut microphone.
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layback : Transfer of the finished audio mix back onto the video edit master. See layoff.
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layback recorder : A videotape recorder, usually 1" format, on which a mixed sound track with all DME stems can be re-recorded in sync with the edited video master. Because of its special purpose, a layback machine should have less flutter and higher quality audio heads and electronics than on standard 1" video decks. Some layback machines designed especially for that purpose have no video reproduction capability at all. They merely read time code and do an extremely high-quality job of recording audio, and nothing else. The layback process is also called re-laying. See layback, layoff.
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layer : See split point.
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layering : Sounding two or more voices, each of which typically has its own timbre, from each key depression. Layering can be accomplished within a single synthesizer, or by linking two synths together via MIDI and assigning both to the same MIDI channel.
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layoff : Transfer of audio and time code from the video edit master to an audio tape. See layback.
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layover/layup : Transfer of audio onto hard disk or multitrack tape.
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LBR : Laser Beam Recorder. The device used to create a CD master for duplication.
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LC Concept : A system, developed by a French company of the same name, for implementing digital audio for cinemas. The system relies on the presence of an optical time code on the film which is used to synchronize the digital audio soundtrack stored on a separate magneto-optical disc reader, i.e., the film carries no sound at all, allowing for multilingual presentation from the same film print. This also solves the problem of getting high-quality audio onto film.
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LCRC : See LCRS.
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LCRS : Left, Center, Right, Surround. The four playback channels used in 35mm motion pictures, now available on home hi-fi systems. L, C, and R speakers are located behind the screen. The S channel surrounds the audience and may be mono or encoded stereo. See matrix, surround-sound. Variants include LCRC, when the fourth track is to be assigned to the center, or even CCCC, as in a center-channel dialog premix.
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lead sheet : An abbreviated musical score, consisting of a melody line with chord names or symbols, and sometimes including lyrics.
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lead-in : See spiral.
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leader : Blank (unexposed) motion picture film attached to the beginning or end of a reel of film, usually used for threading a playback machine, and which contains information about the reel’s content such as film title, reel number, etc. as well as the count-down section. Opaque leader is used in A - and B roll B - Rolls, in editing workprints and film soundtracks, to fill spaces between specific sound effects or musical segments, or to fill in for picture or sound segments to be added later. See also Academy leader, SMPTE Universal leader, plastic leader, fill leader.
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leader tape : Nonmagnetic plastic or special paper tape that is spliced onto magnetic tape between musical selections and at the beginning and end of the magnetic tape, protecting the tape and delimiting the selections. Some leader is timed and has marks every 7" or 15" to allow the tape editor to insert the desired time between selections.
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leadering : The process of removing the out-takes, count-offs, and noises between takes in a magnetic tape (and by extension, digital) recording. In analog magnetic tape recording, this process also involves inserting leader tape between songs.
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leakage : The pick-up of unwanted, off-axis sounds by a directional microphone due to the fact that its directional pattern is not ideal or that the microphones and/or instruments are not sufficiently isolated from one another, as in a multitrack studio recording. Also called spill.
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learning curve : In mechanical or electronic systems controlled by computers, the computer’s ability to learn the hardware/software, input/output environment-particulars of a situation and use this information to control the system’s statemechanism.
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LEDE : Live End Dead End. A commercial trademark used to indicate a particular acoustical design of a recording studio control room. In this design, the area around the monitors is made acoustically absorbent, or dead, while the area behind the listener’s position is made reflective, or live, in an attempt to increase the accuracy of the reproduction. See also ESS, RFZ.
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legato : A musical effect whereby the decaytail of one note overlaps the attackhead of the next.
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leger line : See stave.
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Lemo : A Swiss company which makes high-quality, very dense connectors. Rarely used, Lemo connectors are found on some specialty audio equipment, such as Soundfield microphones (because of the large number of capsules or compact microphones which require a high density of pins in a small space). There is no standard for the pin-outs in Lemo connectors, a fact which contributes to their scarcity.
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lento : Italian for "slowly."
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Leq : Equivalent sound Level. The Leq of a sonic event is that constant SPL which has the same amount of energy as the actual event. Thus, the Leq is a long-term average, or integration, of an SPL. It is approximately the average of the powers of instantaneous levels taken at equal intervals over time during the measurement period. Leq is a convenient way of accurately measuring the level of a fluctuating sound over a range of a few seconds to several hours.
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Leslie cabinet : A type of loudspeaker cabinet, developed by Don Leslie in the 1930’s and used in electronic (especially Hammond) organs. The sound from fixed transducers is dispersed via a rotating horn or (for bass speakers) an aperture in a rotating chute. This causes a continuously varying Doppler shift of the pitches in the audio signal, which mixes, with some phase cancellation, to give a swirling, chorus-like effect.
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Leslie simulator : An effects unit which is intended to create the effect produced by a Leslie cabinet. It is similar to a chorus unit, but produces a richer effect.
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level : Loosely used when the magnitude of a signal is meant, usually voltage. Strictly speaking, the term should be reserved for the value of a power in dB. The measured level of an audio signal is the amplitude that is caused by the sum of the powers of all of the components of the sound.
level control : An envelope parameter which controls the level of certain synthesizer actions, such as the sustain portion of an ADSR envelope. Compare with rate control.
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level scaling : See keyboard scaling.
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level-sensing circuit : An electronic circuit that generates a control voltage in proportion to signal level. This control voltage can then be used to affect the amount or type of signal processing done by a separate device. Also called a detector.
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leveling : The use of a compressor set to high ratios and very slow attack and release times. With a digital recorder, it may be beneficial to have some kind of leveler followed by a processor that does peak-limiting.
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LFE : Low-Frequency Effects. The subwoofer channel signal in a 5.1 surround mix. The equivalent of the subwoofer designation for audio-for-video, where the low-frequency band between about 20 Hz-120Hz is matrixed or channeled for replay. In home audio systems, the subwoofer will frequently contain low frequency information from the main channels in addition to the original LFE track. See also in-band gain.
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LFE : Low Frequency Effect (film) or Low Frequency Enhancement (audio). The subwoofer channel signal in a 5.1 surround mix. See in-band gain.
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LFO : Low Frequency Oscillator. An oscillator whose output is infrasonic, typically used as a control source for modulating the sound to create vibrato, tremolo, trills, and so on. Unlike a normal oscillator which produces audio signals, an LFO is a generator module that produces a modulation/control signal. The LFO’s signal output is in the form of a slow, periodic waveform, usually less than 20 Hz. The most common parameters found in the LFO are depth, frequency (rate control) and waveform selection. See Appendix C.
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LFOA : See LFOP.
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LFOP : Last Frame of Picture. Film acronym for the length of a given reel of film, usually connoting the head leader up to and including the last frame of the reel. Because it is standard to start counting with the Picture Start from of the leader as 0000+00 (zero feet, zero frames), the actual running time of a reel can be calculated by subtracting 11+15 (eleven feet, fifteen frames) to account for the 12-foot, 8-second leader. The two-pop is at 0009+00, and the first frame of picture of a reel is at 0012+00, sometimes referred to as LFOA.
librarian (software) : Allows for computerized storage and organization of MIDI information for large numbers of synthesized or sampled sounds. Information is organized to be specific to synthesizer manufacturers’ protocols. Librarian software sends patch parameter instructions to the synthesizer via a MIDI cable. See editor/librarian.
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lift : A section of a longer piece of music which may be edited out and used independently. For example, a musical phrase which is part of a longer piece of commercial music which may be used for use for another purpose than which it was originally written.
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lifter : A tape transport’s head-lifter mechanism. Tape machines normally lift the tape off the threads when in fast-forward or rewind mode. The synchronizer intelligently controls the machine’s lifter operation to read timecode when required.
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light metronome : A metronome which silently marks beats by flashing a light on and off, as opposed to audible clicks, to mark the tempo.
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light valve : The mechanism which controls the intensity of light or the area on which light falls in the making of an optical track for a film soundtrack from the finished mix. For variable-density tracks, it consists of a narrow slit whose width is varied by the waveform reproduced from the mix, and which in turn modulates the width a beam of light that is focused on a continuously moving strip of photographic film.
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Lightpipe : A serial, multiplexing, eight-channel interface for digital audio on a single fiber-optic cable, terminating in a proprietary connector. The Lightpipe was invented by Alesis to connect its ADAT MDMs. The data rate is 256 times the sample rate, or four times the data rate of AES/EBU or S/PDIF. See also TDIF.
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Lightworks : A particular brand of nonlinear picture editing system. See digital dubber.
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LIMDOW : Light Intensity Modulation Direct OverWrite. A format for MO disks where the direct-overwrite technology eliminates the need for an erase cycle and allows for the writing of new data directly over existing data, with the result that the burst transfer time is cut in half.
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limiter : A special type of compressor which prevents the signal from exceeding a certain preset threshold setting, no matter what the input signal level may be, by using compression ratios of 20:1 or greater. Limiters are sometimes used in front of power amplifiers to prevent high-level signals from causing distortion. See compressor/limiter. Called a clipper in Europe.
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line : (1) A signal path or actual cable through which a signal passes. (2) One horizontal scan of the raster in NTSC, PAL, or SECAM video signals. See field(4).
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line amplifier : Any amplifier with a line-level output and an output impedance of approximately 600 ohms.
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line pad : A passive attenuation network that can be inserted in a line.
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line-level : The average audio voltage level of a signal at a particular point in an audio system above 25mV RMS. The output level of a preamplifier is typically line-level, and the input level of a power amplifier is line-level. In home or semi-pro equipment, the input or output operating level is usually -10dBV. In commercial audio systems, line-level is metered with a VU meter, where 0VU corresponds to 0.775V RMS of a signal. The line-level in professional audio systems may be +4dBm (1.23V RMS) or (archaic) +8dBm (1.95V RMS) or even +20dBm (~9V). Typical line-level audio signals include synthesizer outputs, mixer outputs, and effects outputs. As opposed to mic-level."
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line-matching transformer : An electronic component that matches the output impedance of one device with the input impedance of the next device in a signal path.
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line-up : The procedure carried out to ensure that recording, editing, playback, amplification, etc. equipment works to the highest possible standard. It consists of systematic adjustment of the equipment according to a schedule and may involve specialized calibration and test apparatus such as a multimeter, tone generator, oscilloscope, etc.
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line-up tone : (1) Also called a reference tone or reference frequency. A sine wave used for servo control, such as on a sync tone. See vari-speed.
(2) A sine wave tone at one of a range of standard frequencies (usually 100, 1,000 and 10,000 Hz). It is set to zero-level and is intended to be used for calibration, such as during a line-up procedure. The APRS-specified line-up tones for magnetic tape recording are:
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linear : (1) A system is said to be linear if it meets the conditions of proportionality and additivity: if its output level changes smoothly in proportion to input level changes, and if input x causes output X and input y causes output Y, then x + y at the input must cause X + Y at the output. Most tests in audio including frequency response, gain, phase, impulse response, etc. assume linearity.
(2) Uncompressed, i.e., an audio file that has not been processed by some kind of compression algorithm, such as ADPCM.
(3) A process which works in a sequential fashion, such as magnetic tape recording, playback the or editing tape media, etc., as opposed to a sequence of steps which can be taken in any order and/or in any location, such as the random-access editing and playback processes which are made possible by digital storage technology.
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linear distortion : Any type of distortion that a linear system is capable of producing, as opposed to nonlinear distortion. Some types of linear distortion are frequency response errors and time-delay errors such as phase-shift.
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link : See track-at-once.
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Link : A link is a dual simplex (Simultaneous bidirectional) transmission path between a pair of network elements, such as nodes (HCAs or TCAs) or switches. Link hardware is specified as dual-simplex which mean that send and receive wires each have their own grounds and transmit data unidirectional and independently. The more common simultaneous bidirectional method is “full-duplex.” In full-duplex hardware, both paths share a ground wire. Telephones are full-duplex while two-way radios (“walkie-talkies”) are wireless half-duplex, with one “talker” at a time.
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lip ribbon : A ribbon microphone with a guard which is placed on the upper lip. The proximity of mouth and microphone makes it useful in situations with high background noise, e.g., battlefields or boxing matches.
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lip sync : The process of matching dialog sound to the picture. See ADR.
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Lissajous : See X/Y function.
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little dipper : Nickname for a popular dip filter previously manufactured by UREI.
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Little Old Ladies with Umbrell : Film sound expression for how loud a film can be before the movie patrons will complain. The effect is, therefore, that the top end of the dynamic range available to mixers is not necessarily defined with regard to a theater’s ability to reproduce a mix. See also popcorn noise.
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live : (1) Acoustically reflective, as opposed to dead. See LEDE, reflections.
(2) In electrical systems, a conductor which carries current.
(3) A broadcast which is transmitted as it happens, i.e., in real-time.
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live side : The side of a microphone which is most sensitive to sound. See acceptance angle.
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live-to-two-track : See direct-to-two-track.
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Lmax/Lmin : Lmax/Lmin are measurements of the dynamic range of a recording, Lmax obviously representing the maximum measured level of the recording, and Lmin, its minimum-level counterpart. The dynamic range of an audio signal is Lmax-Lmin.
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Lo-Ro : Left only-Right only. Indicates a standard left-right stereo signal that has been downmixed from a larger format mix, such as 5.1. Because the surround information has been incorporated into the stereo signal without matrix encoding, a Lo-Ro mix cannot be subsequently decoded back into the larger format. See also Lt-Rt.
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load resistor : (1) A simple resistor placed across a transmission line in order to decrease the impedance, generally for impedance-matching purposes.
(2) A resistor wired across the outputs of a power amplifier, simulating the impedance of a speaker.
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loading : Placing a resistive load across a line, and generally one that is of lower impedance than the line or device to which it is connected. This draws additional current from the preceding device, and can cause electrical power capacity problems.
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lobes : In a microphone's polar pattern, the expanding curves represent the maximum value for each direction of highest sensitivity. For example, the bi-directional polar diagram of a figure-eight microphone shows two equal-sized lobes 180 degrees apart.
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local control : With Local Control on, playing a synthesizer or sampler does two things: it triggers built-in sound generators and sends data to the MIDI Out. With Local Control off, the keyboard still sends data to the MIDI Out but does not drive the internal sound generators, which now respond solely to data appearing at the MIDI In. In other words, Local Control off disconnects a synthesizer’s keyboard from its sound generator, while leaving them both active for MIDI purposes. See MIDI mode.
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local control: With Local Con : (1) Any component or device that consumes power produced by a separate source. Or, to connect such a device to a power source. (2) To copy the contents of a file, database or program from disk or other storage medium into memory.
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Local/DX : Two levels of sensitivity for tuner searching, local and distant.
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local/remote switch : The switch on a synthesizer that selects whether tones will be generated in response to its own keyboard, or from a remote device via MIDI.
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locate point : See autolocator.
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location sound : Sound recorded and/or mixed on location during the film or video shoot; also known as production sound, live sound, location recording, and live recording.
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logarithmic : Having to do with the logarithms of numbers rather than the numbers themselves. In graphs of audio phenomena, frequently the log of amplitude is plotted versus the log of frequency. The common log of a number is the power to which the number 10 must be raised to obtain the number. A log scale is a scale where distances are proportional to the logs of the represented numbers, while a linear scale has distances proportional to the numbers themselves. See Appendix A.
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logical editing : To set up note criteria (such as pitch range, velocity range, duration range, placement within a measure, etc.) to which digital editing operations (e.g., cut, transpose, quantize, etc.)
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loop : (1) A piece of material that plays over and over. In a sampler, loops are used to allow samples of finite length to be sustained indefinitely. See also sustain loop, release loop.
(2) A section of tape with the two free ends joined, used for creating repeated sounds. Tape loops were used in the first delay units, where a short tape circulated around a system consisting of a record head followed by a series of replay heads to pick up the increasingly delayed signal (as well as an increasing proportion of noise).
(3) In tape recorders equipped with zero-locators, a transport operating mode in which the engineer has designated a starting and ending point, either in tape time or SMPTE time code, and instructed the locator and machine to play the enclosed tape segment repeatedly, rewinding to the starting point each time the end point is reached. Most video interlock devices can be programmed to cause both video and any synchronized audio decks to repeatedly reproduce a loop of picture and its corresponding sound. The engineer may place the audio or video deck into record mode during a section of each repeat of the loop in order to replace dialog or other sync sound, or to perform insert edits.
(4) In cameras and projectors, a slack section of film located just before and after the gate. The loop prevents tearing of the film as it passes from continuously turning sprockets to the intermittent movement of the supply reel.
(5) A wire or cable system which has at least two ends joined together, usually creating ground loops.
(6) An electronic connection where a device has a circuit from its output back to its input. See feedback.
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Loop Points Request : A Universal System-Exclusive message of the non-real-time type, within the SDS, which allows a receiving device (e.g., a sampler) to request that a transmitter (e.g., a computer) should send information about the two sample numbers between which a loop will occur.
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Loop Points Transmit : A Universal System-Exclusive message of the non-real-time type, within the SDS, which allows a transmitting device (e.g., a computer) to request that a receiver (e.g., a sampler) should send information about the two sample numbers between which a loop will occur.
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loop tempo : To find the exact tempo of a loop when you know the sampling rate that was used to make the sample (assuming you are using the sample at its original pitch), set the start point and the loop point at the desired points, and subtract the start point’s value from the loop point’s to find the length of the sample. For example, assume a two-bar 4/4 loop = eight beats, sampled at 32kHz. The loop (according to the sampler) is 135,500 sample words: (8 x 32,000 x 60) / 135,500 = 113.35 bpm.
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looped recording : A sequencer option whereby a saved sample is played over and over again. The new data can either replace previously played data in real-time, or add to what was played previously.
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looping : See ADR.
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looping modes : A loop can play (1) forward from start to end, (2) in reverse from end to start, or (3) alternating between forward and reverse. Also called loop type. See also crossfade looping.
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loss : The opposite of gain. When a signal passes through a circuit or audio device, if the output power is less than the input power, the circuit or device is said to have loss, usually expressed in dB. See insertion loss, passive.
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lossy/lossless : If, upon decoding by a codec, an audio file compression algorithm restores the sound to its original fidelity, it is said to be lossless. To the extent that the exact sound quality of the uncompressed signal cannot be reconstructed, the algorithm is said to be lossy.
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loudness : Loudness is a subjective attribute of sound and cannot be quantified. If a large group of listeners is asked to adjust the strength of two signals so that one is twice as loud as the other, the average power difference will be about 10dB, and this will be almost independent of the absolute levels of the two sounds. The loudness of a sound, especially a complex sound containing many frequencies, has no simple relation to its SPL.
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loudness control : An addition to some amplifiers or preamplifiers which attempt to correct for the reduced aural sensitivity to low-frequency, low-level sounds. The loudness control is simply a bass-boost circuit which has a relatively greater effect as the volume is turned down so that the perceived loudness of each frequency is the same as the loudness of a 1kHz tone.
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loudspeaker : A transducer which converts electrical energy into acoustical energy. The most common type of loudspeaker today is the dynamic loudspeaker which has a resonant frequency, the frequency at which it will vibrate naturally if perturbed. The resonant frequency, also called the natural frequency, will be near the lowest frequency that the speaker will reproduce well, and is that frequency at which it is easiest to move the cone (the output from the speaker will be at a maximum). Damping must be added to a speaker system in order to reduce this peak in response.
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low-frequency oscillator : See LFO.
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lowpass filter : A filter that attenuates the frequencies above its rolloff frequency.
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LPF : See lowpass filter. In other circles, a Liquidity Preference Function. See TLA.
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LSB : Least Significant Bit. The smallest change in signal voltage level which an A/D converter can encode. The value of the LSB is also equal to the amplitude resolution of a digital system, in other words, the minimum nonzero difference in level between two successive samples is 1 LSB.
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Lt : See stereo optical print.
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Lt-Rt : Left total-Right total. Indicates the presence of matrix encoding of four channels on a 2-track stereo master. Compare with Lo-Ro. See downmix, stereo optical print.
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LTC (Longitudinal Time Code) : A common implementation of time code in audio, in which the time code signal is “striped” (recorded) on an analog audio track. Most current digital audio gear is capable of sending and receiving time code through a dedicated connection, rendering LTC stripping unnecessary. (See SMPTE).
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