Occlusion effect
The occlusion effect occurs when an object fills the outer portion of a person's ear canal, causing that person to perceive echo-like…
Occupational hearing loss
Occupational hearing loss (OHL) is hearing loss that occurs as a result of occupational hazards, such as excessive noise and ototoxic…
Occupational noise
Occupational noise is the amount of acoustic energy received by an employee's auditory system when they are working in the industry.
Ocean Tracking Network
The Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) is a global network research and monitoring effort using implanted acoustic transmitters to study fish…
Ocean Way Recording
Ocean Way Recording was a series of recording studios established by recording engineer and producer Allen Sides with locations in Los…
OCL amplifier
An OCL amplifier (output capacitor-less amplifier) is any audio amplifier with direct-coupled capacitorless output. Typically, OCL…
Octave (electronics)
In electronics, an octave (symbol: oct) is a logarithmic unit for ratios between frequencies, with one octave corresponding to a doubling…
Octave illusion
The octave illusion is an auditory illusion discovered by Diana Deutsch in 1973. It is produced when two tones that are an octave apart…
Octave species
In the musical system of ancient Greece, an octave species (Greek: εἶδος τοῦ διὰ πασῶν, or σχῆμα τοῦ διὰ πασῶν) is a specific sequence of…
Octavia (effects pedal)
The Octavia is an effects pedal made by Roger Mayer. First produced in 1967, early versions of the unit doubled the input signal from an…
Odyssey Studios
Odyssey Studios was a recording studio based near Marble Arch in London and opened in 1979. It was set up by Wayne Bickerton as an…
Off-key
Off-key is musical content that is not at the expected frequency or pitch period, either with respect to some absolute reference…
Oh, Pretty Woman
"Oh, Pretty Woman" (or simply "Pretty Woman") is a song recorded by Roy Orbison and written by Orbison and Bill Dees.
Ohm's acoustic law
Ohm's acoustic law, sometimes called the acoustic phase law or simply Ohm's law, states that a musical sound is perceived by the ear as a…
Oklahoma!
Oklahoma! is a musical written by the duo of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Based on Lynn Riggs's 1931 play Green Grow the Lilacs, it is set in…
Old Carpet Factory
The Old Carpet Factory is a historical mansion located in Hydra island, Greece and a private home of music producer Stephan…
Olivocochlear system
The olivocochlear system is a component of the auditory system involved with the descending control of the cochlea. Its nerve fibres, the…
Olivopontocerebellar atrophy-deafness syndrome
Olivopontocerebellar atrophy-deafness syndrome is a rare genetic disorder characterized by olivopontocerebellar atrophy which begins in…
Ombak
Ombak (Balinese/Indonesian: wave) is the characteristic beating (“shimmer”) produced in many Balinese gamelan ensembles when paired…
Omertà
Omertà is a Southern Italian code of silence and code of honor and conduct that places importance on silence in the face of questioning by…
Once a Day
"Once a Day" is a song written by Bill Anderson and recorded as the debut single by American country artist Connie Smith. It was produced…
One small step
On July 21, 1969, when Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the Moon, he said "That's one small step for [a] man, one…
One Square Inch of Silence
One Square Inch of Silence is a noise control project symbolized by a small red stone symbolically placed in Hoh Rainforest at Olympic…
One-way wave equation
A one-way wave equation is a first-order partial differential equation describing one wave traveling in a direction defined by the vector…
Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology
The Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology (OIART) is a privately operated career college in London, Ontario, Canada which is…
Oom-pah
Oom-pah, Oompah, Ooumpah or Umpapa is an onomatopoeic term describing the rhythmic sound of a deep brass instrument in combination with…
Open Control Architecture
The Open Control Architecture (OCA) is a communications protocol architecture for control, monitoring, and connection management of…
OpenEXR
OpenEXR is a high-dynamic range, multi-channel raster file format, released as an open standard along with a set of software tools…
Operation Easy Chair
Operation Easy Chair was a joint covert operation of the US Central Intelligence Agency, the Dutch Internal Security Service (BVD), and…
Optical disc drive
In computing, an optical disc drive (ODD) is a disc drive that uses laser light or electromagnetic waves within or near the visible light…
Optical recording
The history of optical recording can be divided into a few number of distinct major contributions. The pioneers of optical recording…
Orchestra hit
An orchestra(l) hit or stab is an isolated staccato note or chord synthesized from the sounds of many orchestral instruments together, or…
Organ of Corti
In anatomy and physiology, the organ of Corti or spiral organ is the receptor organ for hearing, located in the cochlea of mammals.
ORTF stereo technique
The ORTF stereo technique, also known as side-other-side, is a microphone technique used to record stereo sound. It was devised around…
Ossicles
The ossicles (also called auditory ossicles) are irregular bones in the middle ear of humans and other animals, and are among the smallest…
Ostinato
In music, an ostinato is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch.
Otari MTR 90 MKII
The Otari MTR 90 MKII is an analog 2" magnetic tape Multi Track Recorder (MTR) machine produced by the Otari corporation, Japan, between…
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, often shortened to Othello, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603.
Otitis media
Otitis media is a group of inflammatory diseases of the middle ear. One of the two main types is acute otitis media (AOM), an infection of…
Otoacoustic emission
An otoacoustic emission (OAE) is a sound that is generated from within the inner ear. Having been predicted by Austrian astrophysicist…
Otolith
An otolith (Ancient Greek: ὠτο-, ōto- ear + λῐ́θος, líthos, a stone), also called otoconium, statolith, or statoconium, is a calcium…
Otonality and utonality
Otonality and utonality are terms introduced by Harry Partch to describe chords whose pitch classes are the harmonics or subharmonics of a…
Otorhinolaryngology
Otorhinolaryngology, also known as otolaryngology, otolaryngology – head and neck surgery (ORL–H&N or OHNS), or ear, nose, and throat…
Otosclerosis
Otosclerosis is a condition of the middle and inner ear where portions of the dense enchondral layer of the bony labyrinth remodel into…
Ototoxic medication
Ototoxic medications are drugs or pharmaceutical agents which induce ototoxicity. Ototoxicity is defined as the toxic effect on the…
Ototoxicity
Ototoxicity is the property of being toxic to the ear (oto-), specifically the cochlea or auditory nerve and sometimes the vestibular…
Output impedance
In electrical engineering, the output impedance of an electrical network is the measure of the opposition to current flow (impedance)…
Oval window
The oval window (or fenestra vestibuli or fenestra ovalis) is a connective tissue membrane-covered opening from the middle ear to the…
Overhead microphone
Overhead microphones are those used in sound recording and live sound reproduction to pick up ambient sounds, transients and the overall…
Overtone
An overtone is any resonant frequency above the fundamental frequency of a sound (or of any oscillation). An overtone may or may not be a…
Oxford University Tape Recording Society
The Oxford University Tape Recording Society (OUTRS) was a student's club of recording enthusiasts that has existed at Oxford from at…