5
SolStice
TM
6
eXTernaL Mic
Generally referring to the good old practice of standing in front of a mic
on stage as opposed to installing a mic in your guitar. You’ve seen them,
you’ve used them, and now you know what they’re called. There are now
some bracket devices for mounting an external mic on your guitar.
FeedBacK
Yowl, howl, etc., feedback by any name is the sonic nemesis of the per-
former. it happens when amplification goes beyond control, and the ampli-
fied sound itself is re-circulating and becoming further amplified. The sonic
equivalent of chernobyl—-audio meltdown. “ringing” is the precursor of
feedback and refers to a barely controlled resonance just shy of feedback.
d-Tar’s “equinox” features two notch filters designed to combat feedback.
FLoaTinG PicKuP
a magnetic pickup mounted to the end of the fingerboard on a guitar or
to some other non-vibrating part of a musical instrument. Floating pickups
are sometimes used on archtop acoustics so the adding of a pickup will
not interfere or change the vibration pattern of the top. seymour duncan
makes a variety of floating pickups including the Bob Benedetto signature
pickup for use with archtop guitars.
GraPhic eQuaLiZer
an equalizer that uses sliding potentiometers (slide pots) to control the
level of the signal in various frequency bands. called so because the knobs
form a graphic representation of the frequency contouring. Graphic equal-
izers are generally either “1/3rd octave” or “1/10th octave” referring to the
width of the audio bands covered.
huMBucKinG PicKuP
a type of pickup using two coils to cancel magnetically induced hum.
invented by seth Lover at Gibson in the 1950’s, the “humbucker” is noted
for it’s loud and warm sound. check the seymour duncan website for the
world’s most complete selection of humbucking pickups.
iMPedance
a measurement of the resistance to the flow of ac (which is what audio
signals are); impedance is affected by resistance, capacitance, and induc-
tance in a circuit and is also frequency dependent. impedance is often
mistaken for resistance and is also incorrectly thought of as being a mea-
surement of the voltage from a pickup. in practical terms, you want low
impedance sources feeding into high impedance loads; this gives maximum
accuracy in signal transfer.
inTernaL Mic
a microphone, generally an electret condenser mic, mounted inside an
instrument.
LiMiTer
a limiter keeps hot signals from overloading the next stage of electronics.
Les Paul takes credit for inventing the limiters as used in recording studios.
he related that he got the idea from watching Mary Ford turn her head
while singing loud passages as she watched the recording Vu meters. she
physically limited the input signal to the mic with this technique.
Line-LeVeL
The voltage level at which most pro gear sends pre-amplified signals to
other devices such as equalizers, limiters, compressors and power ampli-
fiers. Generally considered to be +4(dBm) or 1.2 Volts rMs.
MaGneTic PicKuP
a pickup that consists of a magnetic structure and one or more coils of
very fine wire which “transduce” or transform the vibration of plain steel or
steel cored wound strings into an electrical signal.
Midi
Musical instrument digital interface, the computer language used in
modern synthesizers and signal processors to “communicate” with other
devices.
Mini-Mic
Miniature mics derived from hearing aid and cia “mic in the martini olive”
technology. These are generally electret mics, a simpler variation on the
condenser mic.
MiXer
used to combine or mix multiple sound signals into a mono, stereo, or other
simpler signal to go onto tape, a cd, or through a Pa system. also refers
to the person who does the mixing, not to be confused with re-mixer, the
person who doesn’t mix live, but works on mix-downs of pre-recorded mix-
ups. if you’re reading this, you probably have a solstice mixer/blender.
MoniTor
Generally referring to a set of speakers aimed at musicians used to give
performers a chance at hearing themselves on stage. Watch for “in-ear”
monitors the latest thing in stage monitoring; these are like hearing aids
for musicians. The term “Monitor” implies accuracy as well as in, “studio
monitor speaker.”
“naTuraL” sound
often achieved with the most unnatural of means, natural sound is the holy
Grail of most acoustic musicians. To hear it, try listening to truly acoustic
music - no, no, not MTV unplugged! our goal at d-Tar is to help you
achieve the most natural sound you can get … plugged in.
noTch FiLTer
a specialized kind of equalizer that can be tuned to “notch out” problem
frequencies without affecting neighboring frequency bands. usually used
to kill feedback frequencies. d-Tar’s “equinox” equalizer features two
switchable notch filters.
oMnidirecTonaL MicroPhone
a mic that picks up sound more or less equally in a spherical pattern all
around the mic’s diaphragm.
onBoard and ouTBoard
Generally refers to where pickup buffering and/or eQ stages are located.
onboard in your instrument, outboard is somewhere else, man.
Pa sYsTeM
originally “Public address” system. do you remember, “Would Johnny
Brown please come immediately to the principal’s office?” some of the first
Pa systems were used in department stores and schools. now the term
refers to sound systems designed for amplifying live music.
ParaMeTric eQ
a type of equalizer that allows continuous control over three parameters:
frequency, bandwidth, and amount of boost or cut. While a bit harder to
intuitively understand than graphic equalizers, parametric eQ is preferred
by pro audio engineers for fixing specific sonic problems without affecting
other frequencies as happens often with graphic eQ. d-Tar’s “equinox” is
a three band parametric eQ with two bands of notch filtration.
PhanToM PoWer
a system wherein dc current is run up the same cable used to send the
signal down to a mixer. used most often in the studio to power high end
condenser mics, but sometimes used for powering mics and other elec-
tronics inside guitars.
PhasinG
The relative polarity of two or more signals that contain similar information.
in-phase signals add together while out-of-phase signals tend to cancel.
see appendix “c”.
PicKuP
any device that changes vibrations of a soundboard or strings into an elec-
trical signal. The most common pickups are magnetic and piezoelectric.
