Baffle – A panel or structure used to control sound reflections, improve isolation, or influence how sound is radiated from a speaker.
Balance – The relative loudness of individual tracks or instruments in a mix.
Band – A defined range of audio frequencies. Equalizers, for example, use frequency bands to boost or cut specific portions of the audio spectrum.
Band-Pass Filter – A filter that allows certain frequencies within a selected range to pass through while attenuating frequencies above and below that range.
Bar – A musical unit containing a specified number of beats, determined by the time signature, for example 4 beats per bar in 4/4
Beat (Unit) – A basic unit of musical time. Multiple of these make up a bar.
Beat – An informal term to refer to an instrumental backing track built around rhythm, percussion, bass and other elements.
Beat Matching – Aligning the tempos and rhythmic beats of two audio sources so they play in time. Used in DJing.
Bit Depth – The number of bits used to represent each digital audio sample’s amplitude. Higher bit depth provides greater theoretical dynamic range and lower quantization noise.
Bitrate – The amount of digital data encoded per second of audio, commonly expressed in kilobits per second (kbps).
Binaural Audio – Audio designed to reproduce spatial hearing and create an immersive, three-dimensional listening experience, particularly over headphones.
Bite – An informal term describing a sound’s aggressive, cutting, or clearly defined character, often associated with upper-midrange frequencies, often around 2.5-5kHz.
Bleed – The unintentional pickup of one sound source by a microphone intended for another source. For example, a vocal microphone picking up the vocalist’s headphone mix, or one drum microphone picking up other drums.
Blend Control – A control that mixes a processed signal with the original, unprocessed signal. Commonly used in parallel compression, distortion, and other effects. Can also be labelled as a ‘Mix’ control.
Blumlein Pair – A stereo microphone technique using two coincident figure-eight microphones positioned at 90 degrees to each other to capture a stereo image.
Body – The perceived fullness, weight, or substance of a sound, often associated with its fundamental frequencies and low-midrange energy, roughly around 250-400Hz.
Bottom End – The low-frequency portion of a mix, particularly the kick drum, bass guitar, and sub-bass. Anything around 250Hz and below. Also called the ‘Low-End’
Bounce – The process of rendering or exporting audio from a DAW into a new audio file. A bounce may contain an individual track, a sub-group or an entire mix.
Bounce in Place – A DAW function that renders a track or selected region into audio within the project, often including its effects. This can simplify a session and reduce processing demands.
Boxiness – An undesirable tonal quality that makes audio sound hollow, congested, or as though it is coming from inside a cardboard box. Often associated with excessive low-midrange energy or room resonances. Usually around 350-500Hz
Boom – An excessive low-frequency thump or rumble. Usually around 150-200Hz.
Boost – An increase in signal level or in a selected frequency range. Such as boosting a specific band of an EQ.
Brickwall Limiter – A limiter designed to prevent audio peaks from exceeding a specified ceiling. Commonly used to control peaks during mixing and mastering.
Brightness – The perceived amount of high-frequency energy in a sound. Bright audio can feel crisp and clear, while excessive brightness may sound harsh or sibilant. In the region of 5-10kHz
Broadband – Describes a signal or processing technique that affects a wide range of frequencies rather than a narrow frequency region. Broadband compression, for example, typically applies gain reduction across the full signal. Can also be used to describe Acoustic Treatment, with a ‘Broadband Absorber’ aiming to absorb at a wider range of frequencies.
Buffer Size – The amount of audio data an audio interface or DAW processes in each buffer. Smaller buffer sizes generally reduce monitoring latency but increase CPU demands; larger sizes generally improve stability at the cost of latency.
Bus – A signal pathway that combines multiple audio channels and routes them to a shared destination. A drum bus, for example, groups drum tracks for collective processing.
Bus Processing – Any effects or processing applied to an entire bus, rather than to a specific individual track.
Bypass – Temporarily disabling a plugin or processing stage so the audio can be compared with and without the effect.