Recording Studio Glossary
Here are the essential terms that you will come across when recording or collaborating with others from your DAW.
| A&R man | endangered species of record company executive tasked with finding and developing new talent but lacking the balls to do so |
| Advance | Bands used to get paid before their record was released, then were enslaved to pay it back with interest before they saw any money from their efforts. Typically you don't get true accounting as to how much you are earning |
| Automation | Re-playable commands controlling almost any aspect of a mix e.g. Increasing/decreasing volume (level) of parts or the whole track throughout a song. Essentially, hands free mixing. |
| Click track | a metronome click to help you keep time when recording but is not heard on the finished track |
| Collab | a mutually beneficial collaboration on a track. One artist, usually the instigator, releases under their name (and channel) with a credit. e.g. Ed Sheeran Ft. Dua Lipa |
| Comp | can mean 1) a redo of a section that your dumb-ass producer isn't happy with or 2) compositing the best bits of several takes to make one awesome one |
| Contract | an agreement to get stiffed by a record company - usually not worth the paper it isn't written |
| DAW | pronounced door - stands for Digital Audio Workstation i.e. your computer running software like Cubase or Pro Tools |
| Dep | Deputy, if a band member cannot make a gig/record session the band/manager may get a dep in |
| Desk | an analogue or digital mixing console with real knobs and faders for multi channels |
| Digital | Come on, you know what that is! |
| Drop in | replacing a mistake in a take by running it and hitting record to overdub for just the duration of the mistake |
| Dry/wet | a stem that has effects like reverb (wet) or no effects (dry) |
| Gig | playing live or, more likely for aspiring pro musicians, waiting tables |
| Groupie | mythical female fans who love your music so much they'll suck your dick! Only applies to lead guitarists, obviously. |
| Head | the most recognisable part of a (usually instrumental) track that appears at the beginning and is returned to at the end. |
| Interface | hardware to allow analogue signals to be inputted into your DAW |
| Overdub | redoing an existing part or take |
| Rip | A verb meaning write to media like CD's (remember them?) |
| Roadie | you, carrying your own gear |
| Rough | a mix requiring tweaking, usually done hastily to demonstrate |
| Royalty | Scraps off the table |
| Sample | a sound or musical section taken from another recording to get you sued for copyright infringement! |
| Stem | a part produced by a musician as a digital audio file that gets swapped between parties, and the finished result is integrated into a multi-track recording |
| Take | an instance of a part. Usually, you make multiple takes AKA tracking |
| VST | virtual instrument, a plugin that can be triggered by MIDI |
see also