wait : One of the characters transmitted for the purposes of handshaking in a data transfer. The character is sent back to the transmitting device by the receiving device to indicate that the receiver wants the transmitter to pause.
walla : Background ambient sound added to a film soundtrack to give the affect of an external environment, e.g., street noise, background conversation.. See also ambience, room tone, NC Curve.
watt : A unit of electrical power. r. See power. (1) The SI Unit of power: 1 Joule per second. 745.7W=1HP. (2) A unit of electrical power, indicating the amount of work deployable into a given load by an electrical device such as an amplifier or motor. It is strictly the product of the potential difference in voltage, (V), current in amperes, (A), and power factor. In
practice, the power factor is often ignored and the term is reduced to VA. See output power.
WAV (.WAV) : The Windows audio file format. Typically encountered as filename.wav, developed as the standard format for multimedia sound applications. WAV is the most common of several file types that conform to the RIFF specification, and so may be referred to as the RIFF WAV format. WAV files can include mono or multichannel audio at 8-bit or 16-bit resolution at a variety of sampling rates up to 44.1kHz. The format supports different compression schemes, but the most common is IMA/ADPCM at 4:1 for 16-bit sounds."
WAV/multi-WAV driver : Used by PC-type system application programs to play sounds on audio cards. Unlike the Mac’s Sound Manager, WAV drivers can support multiple channels (i.e., more than stereo 2-channel), and depending on the hardware, resolutions above 16-bit, 48kHz.
waveform : The waveform of a signal is a two-dimensional graph of the instantaneous amplitude versus time. See spectrum. (1) A signal, either sampled (digitally recorded) or periodic, being generated by an oscillator. Each waveform has its own distinctive timbre. Also called a sample.
(2) The graphic representation of this signal, as on a computer screen.
See sound synthesis, Appendix C.
waveform modulation : A voltage-controlled change in the timbre of a note or entire samplepatch, independent of the he pitch or frequency normally ybeing designated by the keystrokes. See sound synthesis, Appendix C.
waveform selection : The waveform selection parameter allows the choice of the shape of the signal generated by the LFO. Typical shapes include sine, triangle (tri), square, and sawtooth (saw). The two most common waveforms used for vibrato or tremolo are the sine and triangle. The square wave is used for trills, and saw for special effects. Some LFOs offer a random (also called sample-and-hold) waveform, useful for "computer" sounds. See sound synthesis, Appendix C.
wavelength response : The distance spanned by one complete cycle of a sine wave, or the fundamental frequency of any complex musical tone, as it travels through an elastic medium, e.g., air, or as it is recorded on tape, film, or vinyl disc.
wavetable : The contents of the waveform ROM. A set of numbers stored in memory (ROM) and used to generate a waveform. The wavetable synthesizer on a soundcard typically plays sounds whose digital representations have been stored in a wavetable. See sound synthesis, wavetable synthesis.
wavetable lookup : The process of reading the numbers in a wavetable (not necessarily in linear order from beginning to end) and sending them to a voice channel.
wavetable synthesis : A method of generating waveforms through lookup tables. Digitized waveforms are organized in a bank, the wavetable, (or table) where they can be randomly accessed. In many wavetable synths, the resulting waveform is used in subtractive synthesis.
weave job : A type of musical track for a spot in which short segments of lead vocal or instrumental lines are interspersed between lines of narration or dialogue. The music weaves in and out, taking the foreground whenever there is no spoken copy.
weber : The basic unit of magnetic flux, defined as one volt-second.
weighting : In measuring frequency response, introducing a predetermined equalization to the signal before taking the measurement. See A-Weighting, B-Weighting, C-Weighting.
weighting network : A filtering network or active equalizer precisely designed or calibrated for use in weighting.
Westrex : The film sound company that, along with RCA, had a monopoly for over forty years, including the whole recording/playback chain. This equipment was leased to studios for royalty fees. By the mid-1970s, this equipment was being replaced by manufacturers of more highly specialized devices such as consoles by Quad-Eight, mag machines by Magna-Tech, and sound format processes by Dolby.
wet : Consisting entirely of processed sound. The output of an effects device is 100% wet when only the output of the processor itself is being heard, with none of the dry sy (unprocessed) signal.
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white label : A small pressing of a record of CD with an anonymous blank ("white") label, used for market-testing a track on a limited audience before release. Also used by artists to issue a track rejected by the record company to which s/he is under contract.
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white noise : A special type of random noise where the energy content is the same at each frequency. Strictly speaking, true white noise would have energy extending from DC, or zero frequency. In practice, we see only band-limited white noise, e.g., the noise heard when an FM receiver is tuned between stations is quite close to white noise over the AFaudible frequency range. Because of the ears’ peculiar method of determining loudness of sounds, white noise sounds as if it has more energy at high frequencies than low. Also (imprecisely) called thermal noise and resistance noise. See pink noise, noise floor.
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whole-step : The musical interval of a major second in a diatonic scale. The frequency ratio between the notes of a major second in just intonation is 8/9, and in equal t temperament, it is the , or about 12%. See half-step.
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wide-range curve : See X-Curve.
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wide-range monitoring : See X-Curve.
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wig-wag : Film slang for the warning lights outside sound stages to indicate when shooting is taking place.
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wild score : See scoring wild.
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wild sound/wild track : A film soundtrack recorded for motion picture where the audio elements are not recorded synchronously with the picture. Wild tracks are frequently used to get a clean recording of dialog that was otherwise unobtainable because of noise on the set. The opposite of sync sound. See also scoring wild.
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window : (1) The frequency band in which a device is operational, e.g., the passband of a bandpass filter.
(2) Short for timecodetimecode window.
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window dub : See BITC.
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windshield/windscreen : See pop filter.
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wiper : The movable contact in a pot is called the wiper, or sometimes, the arm.
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wireless microphone : A microphone, typically a Lavalier microphone, attached to a miniature FM transmitter, and that broadcasts to an FM receiver. Because the signal is transmitted, no cable is necessary between the microphone and the rest of the audio chain .inaudio recorder.
WMF Windows Media Format
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wobble : To vary between recording or sampling rates. See variable-rate digital converter.
wolf note : A term used to describe the inaccuracy in pitch which can occur when an instrument such as a harpsichord, which has not been tuned to equal temperament, is played on a remote key. Also used to denote the undue stridency of a note on an instrument such as a cello, where the pitch of that note is related to the resonant frequency of the instrument.
WOM : Write-Only Memory. Memory that can be overwritten by the user, but cannot be read by the user. An example is WOM/MA (Manufacturer-Accessible) is used by some hardware manufacturers as a sort of "black box" for units returned for service as a means of recording some of the history of the device.
woofer : A loudspeaker designed to reproduce low frequencies only.
word : The smallest possible unit of digital audio; a single number (sample word) that represents the instantaneous amplitude of a sampled sound at a particular moment in time. See bit depth.
word clock : A signal internally by all digital audio devices, and externally for locking together high-end digital audio devices. Word clock is , accurate to a single sample word, usually 44.1kHz or 48kHz, i.e., the sampling rate.. Specialized hardware is required for syncing a digital audio recorder’s word clock to SMPTE timecode or some other timing reference, usually through a BNC-type connector, rather than the XLR connector used by an AES/EBU null clock signal. . See self-clocking, master clock, Super Clock.
word length : See bit depth.
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workprint : Copies of the original film or video used as a reference during the sound and/or picture editing process or a linear editing system. Also used during sweetening. The workprint is usually the first print made of the camera negative with all or selected takes included in their entirety, slates and all, also called dailies. (2) The edited dailies of a film in an assembly, rough cut or fine cut. Workprint is often loosely used to refer to all the edited materials, including magnetic film tracks, etc. A film copy, usually black-and-white, is sometimes referred to as a slop print, and is used to save stress of repeated rollback during the mix on the much-spliced workprint. Workprints include Acmade edge numbers and key numbers. Video copies with BITC are known as window dubs.
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workstation : A synthesizer or sampler within which several of the tasks usually associated with electronic music production such as sequencing, effects processing, rhythm programming, and data storage on disk, and the editing of stored sequencer data can all be performed by components found within a single physical device, sometimes called a DAW by the acronym-friendly.
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worktrack : The sound analog of the workprint.
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worldize : To re-record a track or tracks, usually music, in the space where it would naturally occur in a film.
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WORM : Write Once Read Many. Any form of memory which allows data to be stored once only, but the information can be read an unlimited number of times. Recordable CDs are an example of this, although the term generally refers to programmable ICs.
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wow : A type of frequency modulation distortion which manifests itself as aof relatively slow variation in frequency of reproduced sound caused by slow speed variations in the transports of turntablesrecords, tape recorders, etc. Pitch fluctuations of 1Hz-2Hz are classed as wow, while faster variations are called flutter.
Wow and Flutter caused by any variation in the speed of the tape transport. The lower the figure the better and hence the lower the level of variation through the speakers.
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WPC : Watts Per Channel. A unit intended to give an indication of the output of a power amplifier. It should be qualified by a load condition such as the impedance of a loudspeaker, e.g., 200WPC/4Ω, otherwise it is meaningless.
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wrap : The parameter of tape-head alignment that determines how large an area of tape oxide is in contact with the front surface of the tape head, i.e., the surface containing the gap. Also called contact. The correct wrap is different for heads of different frontal design. The combination of wrap and tape tension determines whether the tape makes adequate contact at the gap itself.
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write mode : In mixerconsole automation, the operational mode in which the system scans channel fader levels and perhaps other parameters, making continuous note of the engineer-specified initial conditions for each channel and all changes made by the engineer in real-time during a mixdown. The scanned data is continuously written to storage, either on one track of the multitrack tape itself, or onto a floppy or hard disk. If stored to disk, the multitrack tape and disk must carry identical timecodetimecodes for later reproduction of the mix by the system when operating in its read or update mode.