Glossary of Terms
31
External Clock
- A clock signal derived from an external source. (See “Clock”)
FET
- Short for “Field Effect Transistor” which is a type of transistor that relies on an electric field to
control the shape, and hence the conductivity, of a “channel” in a semiconductor material.
Front End
- Refers to a device that provides analog and digital input/output (I/O) to a digital audio
workstation (DAW). (See “DAW”)
Hi-Z
- Short for “High Impedance.” The 4-710d’s Hi-Z input allows direct connection of an instrument
such as electric guitar or bass via a standard unbalanced 1/4" jack.
High Resolution
- In digital audio, refers to 24-bit signals at sampling rates of 88.2kHz or higher.
Hz
- Short for “Hertz,” a unit of measurement describing a single analog audio cycle (or digital
sample) per second.
Impedance
- A description of a circuit’s resistance to a signal, as measured in ohms or thousands of
ohms (K ohms). The symbol for ohm is
Ω
.
Internal Clock
- A clock signal derived from onboard circuitry. (See “Clock”)
I/O
- Short for “input/output.”
kHz
- Short for “kiloHertz” (a thousand Hertz), a unit of measurement describing a thousand analog
audio cycles (or digital samples) per second. (See “Hz”)
JFET
- Abbreviation for Junction Field Effect Transistor, a specific type of FET which has some
similarities to traditional bipolar transistor designs that can make it more appropriate for use in some
audio circuit designs. (See “FET”)
Jitter
- Refers to short-term variations in the edges of a clock signal, caused by a bad source clock,
inferior cabling or improper cable termination, and/or signal-induced noise. A jittery signal will contain
spurious tones at random, inharmonic frequencies. Usually, the jitter will be worse with higher signal
frequencies. The internal digital clock of the 4-710d was designed for extreme stability and jitter-free
operation, and its onboard phase aligned clock conditioner circuitry removes jitter from external
sources, so conversion quality is unaffected by clock source.
Light Pipe
– A digital connection made with optical cable. This was a phrase coined by Alesis to make
a distinction between the proprietary 8-channel optical network used in their ADAT products and
standard stereo optical connectors used on CD players and other consumer products.
Line Level
- Refers to the voltages used by audio devices such as mixers, signal processors, tape
recorders, and DAWs. Professional audio systems typically utilize line level signals of +4 dBm (which
translates to 1.23 volts), while consumer and semiprofessional audio equipment typically utilize line
level signals of -10 dBV (which translates to 0.316 volts).
Low Cut Filter
- An equalizer circuit that cuts signal below a particular frequency.
Mic Level
- Refers to the very low level signal output from microphones, typically around 2 millivolts
(2 thousandths of a volt).
Mic Preamp
- The output level of microphones is very low and therefore requires specially designed
mic preamplifiers to raise (amplify) their level to that needed by a mixing console, tape recorder, or
digital audio workstation (DAW).
Native
- Refers to computer-based digital audio recording software controlled by the computer’s
onboard processor, as opposed to software that requires external hardware to run.