NAKAMOTO PRODUCTIONS GLOSSARY OF TERMS
ACCOUNT A term commonly used within the advertising business to refer to the
corporate entity employing an advertising agency.
ACCOUNT COORDINATOR The advertising agency employee responsible for much of
the day-to-day business of servicing an account
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE (A/E) The agency employee responsible for a client's marketing
and administrative efforts.
ACOUSTICS Term used to describe the science of sound as well as how sound travels
through particular environments. Sound waves reflect and disperse off of various
surfaces in our environment, such as a wall or trees or even people. These sound
waves travel through the air, bouncing off objects before they reflect back
to our ears. We rarely ever hear the pure direct vibration of a sound wave before
it is masked or altered by the coloration of thousands of small reflections.
ACTORS talent that has the ability to interact with other talent and create
realistic emotions with their voice
AD COPY written dialogue for recording by voice talent.
ADVERTISEMENT a paid public announcement appearing in the media
ADVERTISING making known, calling public attention to a product, service, or
company by means of paid announcements
ADVERTISING MANAGER A client representative responsible for overseeing marketing
efforts related to product, including budgeting, creative activities and liaison
with agency.
ADVERTORIAL An advertisement that resembles a newspaper editorial or a television
program but promotes a single advertiser's product, service, or point of view.
AFFORDABLE VOICES voices that are great talent as well as reasonably priced
AGE GROUP A target audience defined by age.
AGENCY A company in the business of creating advertisements, packaging and names
for products and services, as well as providing marketing and merchandizing
advice and general business and promotional counsel to its clients.
AMBIENT NOISE Constant noise present in all forms of telecommunications paths;
a condition that most Packet communications networks operate with.
AMPLITUDE Magnitude or size; voltage or power of an electronic sign.
AMPLITUDE MODULATION (AM) Modifying a "carrier" signal by varying
its instantaneous power to represent the information it carries; most commonly
called "AM."
ANALOG SIGNAL A signal in a form that varies in step with the actual transmitted
information. The retransmitted analog signal is not always an exact replica
of the input.
ANALOGUE (player) a monophonic cassette player.
ANNOUCER a person that explains events and activities
ATTENUATION Term denoting a decrease in power between that transmitted and that
received due to loss through equipment, lines, or other transmission devices.
Usually expressed as a ratio in dB (decibels). - Synonym: Loss; Antonym: Gain
ATTITUDE VOICES stand offish, and somewhat mean sounding, a real "cool"
sound
AUDIO COMMERICALS refers to commercials on the radio that are entirely of audio
AUDIO PRODUCTION recording, mixing, and producing of audio
AUDIOSUITE A Digidesign plug-in specification for file-based, non-real-time
processing. AudioSuite Plug-Ins do not require any additional hardware and work
with the entire Pro Tools and Pro Tools LE product line.
AUDIOVISUAL (A/V) Pertaining to the use of recordings, videos, slides, and other
media for presentation.
AUDITION TAPE A short recording of one or a few voices, submitted by a voice
artist for a specific job. A producer will request audition tapes, either to
replace live auditions or to narrow down the people to be brought in for an
audition. Audition tapes can also be short samples of a person's work, requested
by an agent to decide whether they want to represent the voice artist. Different
from a demo tape because it is not a comprehensive or fully-produced sample
of the person's voice. Audition tapes usually don't require music or sound effects.
AUDITION A try-out for possible talent on a particular audio production
AUTOMATION (or automated mixing) Storage of all real-time mix parameters including
fader movement, panning, and plug-in parameters to allow very precise control
over a final mix.
BAND In analog transmission, the range of frequencies between two defined limits.
BINARY A two state numbering system represented by the 0 (zero) and 1 (one).
A binary digit is called a "bit". Digital data is represented by a
one or zero bit when used in packet communications.
BIT Notation for a binary digit. The smallest unit of digital information. The
bit can represent a choice of a one or zero (mark or space) in digital communications.
A contraction of the words," binary digit."
BIT Used to describe digital audio resolution. The higher the resolution (or
bit depth), the better the sound. Bit resolution refers to how closely digital
audio represents the sound of the actual recorded source.
BIT DURATION The time taken for one bit to pass a point on a transmission link.
Also called: bit length, bit time, bit interval, bit period, bit interval .
BOOK A talent agency's listing, with pictures of actors and models.
BOOKING A scheduling of the talent and staff that will work on a shoot or photo
session.
BROADCAST In telecommunications, a transmission mode in which every message
is transmitted to all stations. Similar to the broadcast that is used in conference
or converse nodes.
BROADCAST AUDIO audio designed for radio or some other transmission medium
BUS A common physical conductor, to which several units of compatible type are
connected in parallel, sharing use of the bus.
BYTE In computers, a very specifically-sized unit containing 8 bits for the
computer to operate on. Sometimes called a "word" in computer systems.
BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS (B-TO-B) Communications or commerce between companies (as
distinguished from dealings between a company and a consumer); frequently conducted
through trade journals.
CALIFORNIA RECORDING STUDIO
CAMPAIGN The total planned, coordinated sales effort on behalf of a specific
client or product, often multimedia in nature and run over a period of time.
CASTING The choosing of a particular voice talent for a audio production
CENTER FREQUENCY In peak/dip equalizing, the frequency at which maximum boost
or attenuation occurs
CD-ROM (Compact Disc - Read Only Memory) A non-volatile optical data storage
medium using the same physical format as audio compact discs, readable by a
computer with a CD-ROM drive. CD-ROM is popular for distribution of large databases,
software and especially multimedia applications. The maximum capacity is about
600 megabytes. A CD can store around 640 megabytes of data - about 12 billion
bytes per pound weight. CD-ROM drives are rated with a speed factor relative
to music CDs (1x or 1-speed which gives a data transfer rate of 150 kilobytes
per second). 12x drives were common in April 1997. Above 12x speed, there are
problems with vibration and heat. Constant angular velocity (CAV) drives give
speeds up to 20x but due to the nature of CAV the actual throughput increase
over 12x is less than 20/12.
CHANNEL A communications transmission path via any transmission medium - wire,
radio, optical fiber etc.
CHARACTER VOICES These consist of voices that are not common in everyday encounters
CLIENT An organization that employs an advertising agency to create advertisements.
THE CLIOS Annual awards given for excellence in radio and television advertising.
COLD READ When you are asked to read a piece of copy that you've never seen
before. A really skillful voice artist should be able to cold read at about
80 - 90% of final performance level.
COMMERCIAL An audio or video advertising announcement, usually presented on
television, radio or in a movie theater.
COMPRESSION In data communications, compacting the number of bits used to represent
the information, losing the character structure while reducing the circuit time
or capacity needed to transfer the data. Decompression is then needed at the
receiving end to again render the data useful. Example; ZIPPED files.
CONCEPT The general idea behind a slogan, pitch, or campaign.
CONSUMER A private individual at whom advertisements are aimed; a buyer.
CONTROL SURFACE A hardware mixing surface that allows you to mix and
in some cases record with Pro Tools like a traditional console.
CONSUMER MARKET A defined group of consumers.
CO-OP The practice of a national brand subsidizing local advertising costs incurred
by a company that sells its product. Typically, the national brand has stringent
rules about the advertisement in which the product appears. SUN, Pepsi, and
Cadillac are just a few of the thousands of brands that make co-op dollars available.
COPY The written part of an advertisement. Effective copy is critically important,
even in visually-oriented advertising messages; Industry term for a script,
most commonly applied to commercial scripts, but it can also mean any written
piece of text you're reading.
COPY a duplicated tape (made from a custom or sweetened recording).
COPYWRITER A person responsible for writing advertising copy and generating
creative concepts, often in collaboration with an art director or creative director.
CUSTOM MUSIC Music that is made-to-order for a particular audio production
CUT & SPLICE EDITING Editing tape or film by physically cutting the material
and joining the ends with splicing tape
CROSS TALK Unwanted energy (speech, tone or digital pulses) transferred from
one transmission path to another. Comprises part of the "noise" observed
on analog communications circuits.
DATA Multiple units of information. Singular is " datum ".
DAW Digital Audio Workstation. A hard-disk based audio production system used
for a recording, editing, mixing, and/or mastering.
DECIBEL (DB) The logarithmic unit or measure of a ratio between two powers,
P1 and P2. The equation is: db = 10 log10 P2/P1; A unit of measurement representing
the logarithmic ratio of two voltages, currents or power levels; used in telecommunications
to express transmission loss or gain; defined as one-tenth of a Bel, hence the
appropriate notation is dB, shown here.
DIALECT VOICES talent with a unique accent quality
DIGITAL SIGNAL An electrical signal that changes in discrete steps each representing
a numerical data value, or logic state.
DIRECT RESPONSE An advertising technique that urges the audience to respond
in a particular manner, usually to buy a product, and provides that audience
with the means to do so. A business reply card (BRC) is a direct response tool.
DITHERING A process that makes it possible to master 24-bit audio to a 16-bit
format (e.g. for CDs). It eliminates less essential bits while preserving audio
quality through sophisticated mathematical modeling and noise shaping.
DOG AND PONY SHOW (colloquial) An elaborate pitch or presentation of an advertising
campaign.
DOWNLAD Transfer programs or data from a computer, usually a server to a personal
computer.
DRAMATIC VOICE talent that has a strong, grabbing feeling
DRIVE TIME The hours when the most commuters are in their cars. During "drive
time," radio advertising costs more because of increased listenership.
DSP Digital Signal Processor. DSP allows digital audio to be manipulated and
changed with algorithms (programs that perform complex mathematical calculations),
usually referred to as plug-ins; A modern technique of analyzing analog signals
by converting the analog signal to a digital form and processing it with a specialized
computer circuit.
DUB The act of copying a recording, usually a taped recording. When your agent
asks for dubs of your tape, they want copies made. The term also refers to the
adding of sound, usually a person's voice, to a video or film.
DUPLICATION (see Copy, Dub).
ECHO A signal that has been reflected or otherwise returned with sufficient
magnitude and delay to be perceived at the far end of the circuit.
EDIT Preparation of data for a later operation; may include rearrangement or
addition of data, deletion of unwanted data, format changes, code conversion,
or data compression.
EDITING The ability to move, copy, loop, piece together, and arrange audio to
create the perfect track from various different takes.
ELECTRONIC MAIL (e-mail) Messages, usually text, sent from one person to another
via computer. Can be sent automatically to a large mailing list.
EQUALIZATION The procedure of compensating for fluctuation in circuit amplitude,
or envelope delay distortion.
ESTIMATE The proposed or expected budget for an advertising effort. Prior to
the inception of any promotional project or ad campaign.
EXPOSURE The number of potential consumers reached through specific medium.
FM - Frequency Modulation This is a method of transferring data or voice information
over a carrier signal. FM is achieved by changing the frequency of the carrier
in proportion to the wave form of the superimposed audio signal be it voice
or data. In most FM voice applications, the FM deviation is set to 5 kHz or
less. In Packet or digital FM communications the deviation is set between 3
and 3.5 kHz. Never set Packet Radio deviation to more than 3.5 KHz.
FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL (FTP) FTP is used for file transfers across a wide variety
of systems.
FOCUS GROUP A group of potential consumers used in a market research effort,
which is usually designed to determine the likely effectiveness of a product
or advertising strategy.
FREQUENCY The number of complete cycles of an event (in communications typically
an alternating current signal) per unit of time; usually expressed by means
of the unit ' Hertz," named after Heinrich Hertz an early German investigator
of the properties of high-frequency alternating current waves.
FREQUENCY RESPONSE The measurement of how well a transmission channel or device
transports all the frequencies sent into it; a measure of how faithfully signals
are transported or reproduced. In Bell terms, the arithmetic is reversed and
the name " amplitude response " or " amplitude variation "
is used for the same expression.
FTP - File Transport Protocol. This is a part of TCP/IP which allows a user
of a TCP/IP host to request or send files from another TCP/IP station.
GAIN Denotes an increase in signal power in transmission from one point to another;
usually expressed in decibels. Antonym: " Loss ," a reduction in signal
power.
GENERATION a measured loss of fidelity on tape due to duplication.
GIVEAWAY A novelty or gift used in a promotion. Banks frequently offer giveaways,
or prizes, to customers opening accounts.
HARD SELL A general term to describe any aggressive advertising technique.
HARMONIC An exact multiple of a "fundamental" frequency. Examples:
Second harmonic = double the fundamental frequency; third harmonic = three times,
and 12th harmonic = one dozen times and so on. Sometimes an expression of the
required bandwidth for transmission, as in the case of binary transmission where
it is well established that a bandwidth equal to the tenth odd harmonic is needed
for accurate reception of the pulses; this means the fundamental, third, fifth,
seventh, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth, fifteenth, seventeenth, nineteenth and
twenty-first harmonics must be passed; thus a 50 bps binary pulse requires a
bandwidth of 50 x 21 or 1050 Hertz for accurate capture of the pulses ... unless
it is somehow encoded for transmission.
HARMONIC DISTORTION The ratio, expressed in decibels, of the power at the fundamental
frequency, to the power of a harmonic of that fundamental. Odd harmonics, particularly
third harmonics, are especially harmful to many forms of telecommunications
by both wire and radio; as well, they are annoyingly difficult to design out
of electronic circuitry.
HIP VOICES talent with fresh and cool feel to there voice
HISPANIC VOICES voices with a Latin quality
HOOK A clever phrase or melody used to capture the consumer's attention and
help make the advertising message more memorable.
HYPE Extreme promotion of a person, idea, or product.
IMAGE VOICES
IMPACT The degree of success of a campaign; the reaching of consumers.
IN THE RED This means that a recording has gone beyond the maximum level and
distortion of the sound can occur. The term originated with volume meters (VU
meters, for volume units) that used needles to display the strength of the recording
level. The point before distortion occurs (which varies from machine to machine)
was marked as zero, and everything over that was colored in red as a warning.
The fluorescent display meters of current cassette and other recording decks
also have red displays when the recording surpasses zero.
INDEPENDENT An agency which functions alone, not controlled or influenced by
a larger corporation.
Internet Originally called ARPANET after the Advanced Research Projects Agency
of the U.S. Department of Defense. This electronic network connects the hosts
together so that you may go from one web page to another efficiently. The electronic
connection began as a government experiment in 1969 with four computers connected
together over phone lines. By 1972, universities also had access to what was
by then called the Internet, and is now a world-wide collection of inter-connected
networks that all use the TCP/IP protocols. As of July 1998 the Internet connects
more than 36 million independent networks into an enormous global internet.
I/O Input/Output. The path through which audio signals are sent to and from
a recording medium; In computers, the hardware function, usually a bus of parallel
wires, hence "channel," that transports data in parallel form between
the CPU and peripherals like storage, printers or communications.
INTERNET The Internet is a public system of computers which communicate over
commercial lines (usually telephone or fiber optic leased telephone lines) using
TCP/IP. Usage of the Internet network is free. Usage of the computers that are
connected through other services to the Internet are not free. Most people who
have access to the Internet either pay a fee or having a connection to the network
from work or school.
ISDN (INTEGRATED SERVICES DIGITAL NETWORK) A global plan under auspices of the
CCITT to provide any information service users may desire on a single worldwide
public switched network. The ultimate ISDN has as its goal the elimination of
need for discrete telephone, telegraph, data, packet and other networks as well
as physically dedicated " special services " circuits as now required
to provide broadcast, video, high-speed data and numerous functions users want
JINGLE a catchy musical refrain delivering an advertising message, frequently
used on radio and television
KIDS VOICE talent that is young, happy and high pitched
LAUNCH The introduction of a new product or service.
LINEAR Descriptive of tape recorders because they record and play back audio
in a straight line, physically passing the audio over the recording and playback
heads in order to produce sound.
LED (LIGHT EMITTING DIODE) A semiconductor device that emits light under proper
electrical conditions. Used both for simple indicators on electronic equipment
and (with proper selection and use) as the source of signals for short-range
(multimode) fiber optic transmission systems.
LIVE TAG The voice-over at the end of a prerecorded commercial that provides
current or local information, dealer addresses, etc.
LOOPING Copying one instance of recorded material to multiple places within
a sound file. For example, a 4-bar bass pattern can be looped several times
to fill an entire verse.
MARKET The prospective customers for a given product or service.
MARKET RESEARCH A study of consumer groups and business competition used to
define a projected market.
MEDIA Forms of mass communication. Newspapers, magazines, direct mail, billboards,
bus signs, radio, television and internet are some important media that carry
advertising.
MEDIA PLANNER An employee of an advertiser or agency who coordinates media aspects
of a campaign and selects the most effective media to use. Important factors
in media planning include: the campaign; the budget, size and character of the
market profile; and the positioning opportunities in the media.
MEDIA RESEARCH A study of radio, television and print media for the purpose
of reaching the optimal consumer audience.
MASTERING The art of making an audio program sound consistent using EQ and gain
adjustment. The final step in the audio production chain before distribution.
Often involves writing a CD master direct from your DAW with software such as
MasterList CD.
MEGAHERTZ (MHZ) a unit of a million Hertz; meaning millions of cycles per second
of AC current.
MENTION A brief item in the press or broadcast media referring to a person,
product, or service.
MESSAGE The underlying theme or idea in advertisement.
MIDDLE AMERICA The moderate, middle-class segment of the U.S. population that
comprises the largest consumer group.
MIC PRE-AMP (or mic pre) A microphone pre-amplifier that boosts mic-level signals
for recording. Necessary for recording any source with a microphone.
MODULATION Alterations in the characteristics of analog carrier waves, impressed
on the amplitude, phase and/or the frequency of the wave.
MOH telecom industry acronym for Music On Hold.
MULTICHANNEL SOUND Any output format that allows you to pan the audio across
three to eight speakers, according to the standard multichannel format used.
Pro Tools lets you group, display, and edit audio to produce mixes in all standard
multichannel formats.
Multimedia Human-computer interaction involving text, graphics, voice and video.
Often also includes concepts from hypertext. This term has come to be almost
synonymous with CD-ROM in the personal computer world because the large amounts
of data involved are currently best supplied on CD-ROM.
MUSIC SCORING The creating of custom music to support or enhance video or radio
commercials and other productions
NAKAMOTO PRODUCTIONS a professional audio production, video sweetening, music
recording studio, as well as the home of the Rock 'N Radio Museum
NATIONAL A commercial running throughout the country.
NAKAMOTO PRODUCTIONS A professional video sweetening, music recording, and audio
producing studio. Also the home of the Rock 'N Radio Museum
NEEDLE-DROP common music from a library used in broadcasting.
NET Short for Internet.
NOISE Unplanned energy introduced into a communications channel, resulting in
transmission errors.
NON-DESTRUCTIVE EDITING Editing that doesn't change, erase or delete the original
material.
NON-LINEAR Nonlinear systems like Pro Tools allow instant access to any audio
file, in any order, at any location, and at any time.
PAYOFF The results of an advertising campaign.
PITCH The presentation of an advertising message to a prospective or existing
client.
PLAYLIST An alternate take or arrangement for a track in Pro Tools and Pro Tools
LE.
PLUG A favorable mention or a picture of a product in the non-advertising portion
of a media presentation. Examples of plugs are a Cheerio's box visible on a
breakfast table in a film, a character in a TV movie drinking a Coca-Cola, or
James Bond driving a BMW.
PLUG-IN Software programs that provide additional capabilities for your system.
There is a plug-in for every conceivable audio application, from EQ to reverb
to sound replacement to surround metering.
PLUG-IN A (usually small) piece of software that adds features to a larger piece
of software. Common examples are plug-ins for the Netscape browser and web server.
Adobe Photoshop also uses plug-ins. The idea behind plug-in's is that a small
piece of software is loaded into memory by the larger program, adding a new
feature, and that users need only install the few plug-ins that they need, out
of a much larger pool of possibilities. Plug-ins are usually created by people
other than the publishers of the software the plug-in works with.
POLITICAL VOICES voices that can sound concerned, helpful and knowledgeable
POP FILTER A device used to shield a microphone from loud percussive vocal sounds.
A filter can consist of a foam covering on the microphone or a small screen
that can be moved in front of the microphone. The screens are also helpful for
keeping performers a consistent distance away from the microphone. The most
common type of "pop" that filters work to prevent, is popping your
P's.
POPPING YOUR P'S A common error in speech, this refers to an overly-loud vocalization
of the letter P, usually at the beginning of a word. On a microphone, the percussive
action of too loud a P, produces a "popping" sound and makes the recording
unusable. The effect can sometimes occur with other consonants, such as T or
B or C, etc. Even pop filters can't cope with some popping and it's always best
if you can cure yourself of the problem. A good book or tape on vocal technique
can help you with this. In the meantime, ask the studio technician to help you
avoid this problem.
PRESENTATION A pitch or a description of a proposed advertising campaign.
PRODUCTION MANAGER The person responsible for overseeing details in the creation
of a television or print advertisement.
PROMOTION A method of increasing sales of merchandise through advertising; any
activity designed to enhance sales.
PUBLICIST A person hired to promote a cause, individual, or product by generating
free advertising; a press agent.
PUBLICITY The dissemination of promotional material to draw interest or generate
sales.
PUBLIC RELATIONS (P.R.) The business of generating goodwill toward an individual,
cause, company, or product.
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT (P.S.A.) Announcement on television or radio serving
the public interest and run by the media at no charge. For example, a utility
company might do a series of PSA's on the subject of saving energy in the home.
Each one would feature the company's name.
QUICKTIME The video and audio playback software created by Apple Computer. Most
often used in multimedia CD-ROMs and advanced video editing, Quicktime can also
provide Internet Streaming or Progressive Download capabilities.
RANDOM ACCESS Used to describe nonlinear systems, where you can instantly access
any audio at any time, with no need for rewinding or fast-forwarding.
RATE A cost-per-space-unit of print advertising or cost-per-time-unit in radio
and TV advertising. Newspapers usually publish rates per column inch or line.
The electronic media sell 15-, 30-, or 60-second time units.
READ FOR LEVEL The term for having a voice artist read through a script so that
the technician can get a proper recording level. It's important, therefore,
to read at performance level during this test. If not, you'll probably speak
at a lower volume, and then, when recording actually begins and you're at performance
level, you'll be too loud and go into the red. Also, during the test, keep reading
until you're asked to stop, even if you have to go back to the beginning. Don't
just read a sentence and ask if that was enough -- the technician will let you
know when the level is set and you can stop reading.
REALTIME Processes that occur instantly as they occur; closely related to "online.
When a signal is sent and a result is expected back with a short enough time
to fall within a person's attention span the operation is said to be in Real
Time. Keyboard to keyboard operation is real time. Keyboard to server is realtime.
Sending a message to a friend via a pack BBS is not real time because the sender
doesn't know how long it will be before the receiver answers back.
RECORDING STUDIO A place where music and other audio can be recorded, mixed
and produced
REGION A piece of audio, MIDI, or automation data. Examples of audio regions
are a guitar riff, a verse of a song, a sound effect, and an entire sound file.
RETAIL VOICES talent used to advertise retail goods
SACRAMENTO RECORDING STUDIO
SAMPLE RATE This describes how many times per second the digital recorder "samples"
or analyzes the audio.
SAMPLING The art of manipulating previously recorded audio files to create new
sounds.
SCSI The SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) bus is an interface that connects
a personal computer's operating system with various peripheral devices, such
as hard disks and CD recorders. It allows for very high data transfer rates
resulting in improved audio performance.
SENIOR VOICES voices that have a mature and wise quality
SESSION Recording session for a radio or TV commercial; also, a photo session.
SESSION FEE The amount paid to talent or artist for a day's work in a single
session.
SHOCKWAVE A Web standard for powerful multimedia playback. It lets you view
interactive Web content like games, business presentations, entertainment, and
advertisements from your Web browser. You've probably seen Shockwave in action
on Disney.com, IBM, Palm Computing, and thousands of other Web sites.
SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO Ratio of the signal power to the noise power in a specified
bandwidth, usually expressed in decibels; the smaller the ratio, the poorer
the channel. Generally speaking, a ratio of 20 db or more is a channel subjectively
"excellent" for voice, while broadcast television video requires 30
db or more, but 1200 bps can function with only 12 db, requiring greater S/N
as the baudrate increases.
SITEA place on the Internet. Every web page has a location where it resides
which is called it's site. And, every site has an address usually beginning
with "http://."
SLATE A vocal identification prior to a take. Sometimes the voice artist is
asked to do their own slate (especially at auditions) or it is done by the producer
or studio technician.
SMPTE The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
SOFT SELL Subtle or "unpressured" advertising technique.
SOUND RECORDING the converting of sound wave to a medium
SOUND STUDIO a place to record and produce audio
S/PDIF Sony Philips Digital Interface. A digital transfer protocol.
SPOKESPERSON A well-known person serving as a regular advocate of specific product
or cause. Skiing star Picabo Street is firmly associated with Chapstick; Candice
Bergen, with Sprint.
SPOT ADVERTISING Any advertising presented in selected locales rather than on
a national level.
SPOT recorded commercial advertisement
SPOT (SPOT ANNOUNCEMENT)15- or 30-second radio or television commercial.
SWEEPSTAKES A lottery in which winners are randomly selected, often used to
induce purchase of a product as a condition of entering the contest.
SWEETENING The process of adding sound effects or otherwise manipulating the
audio to enhance the soundtrack.
SWEETENING a tape made with past recorded messages and new music.
SYNC Abbreviation for synchronization. Sync peripherals allow you to lock up
a Pro Tools rig to components such as video decks and tape machines.
TAG A short bit of copy at the end of a commercial. Usually this is a company
slogan, or a sponsorship message, or other information such as locations, availability,
or "the fine print". Sometimes tags are done by the voice in the main
body of the commercial or by a "spokesperson" for a company, or by
a local announcer.
TAKE One run-through of a piece of copy. Each run-through is identified by a
"take number". How many takes does it take to get something right?
All depends on how prepared the voice artist is, or what the director is looking
for. 20 or 30 takes for a 30 second commercial aren't uncommon, for example.
TALENT Actors, models, and singers employed in advertisements.
TALENT AGENCY An organization that represents actors and models appearing in
advertisements.
TALKING WEB PAGES audio enabled web pages
TALKING WEBSITES a website that has audio enabled, allowing it to utilize a
user's speakers to convey information
TARGET AUDIENCE The consumer group most likely to buy a specific product and
identified by region, age, demographics, or economic status. The target audience
might be as wide as "adults aged 35-54," or as narrow as "female
high school prom-goers in Wabash, Indiana." Effective ads are created and
placed in media with the target audience clearly in mind.
TARGET MARKET Target audience.
TDM (or Digidesign TDM Bus) Short for "Time Division Multiplexing,"
TDM is a 24-bit, 256-channel "data highway" that provides digital
mixing and real-time DSP capabilities. Used to power our Pro Tools|24 MIX, MIXplus
and MIX3 family of DAWs. Also refers to our extensive TDM line of plug-ins.
TEENAGE VOICES voices that have have a young and teen quality
TELEPHONE VOICES voices that sound concerned about you and happy
TESTIMONIAL A statement, often given by a celebrity, affirming the value of
a product, event or service. The authority, glamour, character or special knowledge
of a celebrity can reflect on the advertised product. Michael Jordan, perceived
as an expert on sports footwear, speaks for Nike. Customer testimonials are
also commonly used.
TIME SLOT A specific time bought for airing a commercial on radio or television.
TRACKING Refers to recording single or multiple audio inputs
TRS Refers to quarter-inch Tip-Ring-Sleeve cables for transmitting audio signals,
and the input and output jacks that accept such cables.
TV AUDIO sound that is synchronized with a television broadcast
UNDO The ability to go back to previous editing or mixing actions in order to
correct or change them. Pro Tools supports multiple levels of undo, allowing
you to go back several steps in a mix to revert to what existed previously.
VIRTUAL TRACKS Independent tracks that can be recorded on and cued up for playback,
but cannot all be played back simultaneously.
V/O Short form for Voice Over. The term comes from script instructions which
required the voice to be placed over top of background music or sounds, etc.
It's applied generally to all voice work now, whether or not there's anything
"under" the voice.
VOICE BANK A library of talented voice performers
VOICE LOOPING The art of replacing poorly recorded film or video audio (recorded
on a set or on location) with higher quality audio recorded in controlled conditions
(as in a recording studio).
VOICE STUDIO a place where voice talent can be recorded
VOICE TALENT professional actors who do voice recorded work.
VOICE OVER the recording of a voice over an existing soundtrack
VOICE-OVER (see VOICE OVER)
VOICES Number of audio streams or tracks that can be played back at the same
time. Pro Tools TDM systems can have more tracks (see virtual tracks) than the
total number of available voices.
WEBSITE VOICES announcers for the web
WILD SPOT A radio spot, appearing in various slots and locales, neither regional
nor national, or on a non-network station.
WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW or Web) The global collection of HTTP Servers that allow
the display and function of text, audio, and graphics. The WWW is accessed by
means of a Web browser like Netscape's Navigator or Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
XLR Refers to cables that transmit balanced audio signals, typically used for
microphones or routing outboard gear. Also refers to the input and output connections
that accept such cables.
ZIP or ZIPPED Data, and other ASCII or Binary files compressed in an encoded
manner that enables the data to be stored and transferred in smaller space or
less time. Reference is ZIP or WinZip.