Sound Vocabulary
¼” phone plug: Are often used for speaker lines. Three wire or balanced line connectors will have a division on the shaft.
Antenna: is a pick up device used for either a radio or television set. It is receiving waves from the atmosphere and turning them into electrical impulses
Compact disc: one can easily access a precise point on the disk. The fact that there is much less chance of information jumping or skipping makes it a valuable tool in sound reproduction.
Cone: is a directional sound reproduction device.
Control: The 2nd major part of a sound system. Control provides for the amplification or increase of electrical pressure, and the switching required to select a source and path. Volume and Direction are the two things that can be controlled.
Cue: See Monitor System
Driver: Horn or Driver speakers are quite directional and often have a divider type grille in the front, which allows for more control of sound distribution.
Earphones: Provide for extreme limitation of area covered. Really small speakers.
Feedback: is the result of a microphone picking up electronic signals from the output of a loudspeaker and causing it to be re-amplified.
Headphones: A pair of earphones.
Headset: A pair of earphones with a microphone attached. The wearer can carry on a conversation with someone else.
Horn: See driver above.
Impedance: or statement of the character of electrical output, of a microphone differs. Low impedance mics can send signal farther along a wire than high impedance mics.
Inter-communications system: Allows each person (crew member) so transmit and receive information.
Loudspeaker: comes in many different sizes and types and each has it own particular purpose. See Reproducers.
Microphone: Most common and most misunderstood pick up device. Each type changes audible sound into electrical impulses.
Mixer: Combines signals.
Monitor system: Provides microphones in the auditorium to pick up stage sound as well as audience reaction and feed it to dressing rooms and other backstage locations.
Non-shielded cables:
Phonograph cartridge: in the pick up arm is also a pick up device with a pair of wires transmitting electrical impulses.
Pick-up: A device that takes sound from one form or another and turns it into electrical impulses.
Pre-amplifier: adds amplification before the sound is sent on to the main amplifier.
Public-Address: Transmits sound from the stage to the audience.
RCA: is the type of connector used for phonographs, CDs, tape decks and other A/V equipment.
Reproducer: Turns electrical impulses into sound.
Shielded cable: The cable provides a wrapping of metal around the conductors to isolate them from outside interference of adjacent voltages.
Signal systems: These systems provide audible and visual signals in the form of sounds, tones, indicator lights which in turn must be translated by the individual..
Sound effect system: When a director requires that sound effects come from onstage; a set of speakers backstage will be set up so that F/X sounds can be mixed with actors voices onstage during a show.
Sound effect cue sheet: Indicates which pick up devices are being used, what the operating level is, and which reproduction devices are used. Also tells operators when a cue is to occur. Most important; it allows for someone else to take over if necessary.
Stage managers’ system: See inter communications system.
Tape heads: Devices on tape players which read magnetic impulses from the metallic coated tape. These impulses are changed into tiny electrical charges.
XLR: The standard for microphone connectors (XLR-3). This is a three-pin type providing connection for shield, high and low conductors.