Glossary: S

S3M (Scream Tracker 3 Module) is a module file format, the successor to the STM format used by the original Scream Tracker. Both formats…

Sabamobil was a magnetic tape audio cartridge format made by SABA that came to the market in 1964. It used already-available four-track ¼…

Saccular acoustic sensitivity is a measurement of the ear's affectability to sound. The saccule's normal function is to keep the body…

The Sacher hexachord (6-Z11, a musical cryptogram on the name of Swiss conductor Paul Sacher) is a hexachord notable for its use in a set…

The SAE Institute (SAE) and SAE University College (in Australia), also branded as SAE Creative Media, is a global network of private…

Safe listening is a framework for health promotion actions to ensure that sound-related recreational activities (such as concerts…

The Safe-in-Sound Excellence in Hearing Loss Prevention Award is an occupational health and safety award that was established in 2007…

Saia v. New York, 334 U.S. 558 (1948), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that an ordinance which prohibited…

Salford Acoustics offers acoustics and audio engineering courses undertakes public and industrial research in acoustics, carries out…

Samarium–cobalt (SmCo) magnets belong to the category of rare-earth magnets and are composed of samarium (Sm), a rare-earth element, and…

Sample-based synthesis is a form of audio synthesis that can be contrasted to either subtractive synthesis or additive synthesis.

Sample-rate conversion, sampling-frequency conversion or resampling is the process of changing the sampling rate of a discrete signal to…

In sound and music, sampling is the reuse of a portion (or sample) of a sound recording in another recording. Samples may comprise…

In signal processing, sampling is the reduction of a continuous-time signal to a discrete-time signal. A common example is the conversion…

"San Antonio Rose" is a swing instrumental introduced in late 1938 by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. Quickly becoming the band's most…

The Sansui AU-11000 is a home audio integrated amplifier built by Japanese audio electronics manufacturer Sansui during the mid 1970s. The…

SAP is a file format that stores music data from Atari 8-bit computers, all of which use the POKEY sound chip. Most popular tunes were…

Saptak means "gamut" or "the series of seven notes". It denotes the set of swaras i.e. Shadja (Sa), Rishabha (Ri), Gāndhāra (Ga), Madhyama…

Seen in some magnetic materials, saturation is the state reached when an increase in applied external magnetic field H cannot increase the…

The savart is a unit of measurement for musical pitch intervals. One savart is equal to one thousandth of a decade (10/1: 3,986.313714…

In traditional Japanese music, sawari (さわり) is the name of a buzzy sound quality, or timbre, that is often found in and/or expected of…

In music theory, a scale is "any consecutive series of notes that form a progression between one note and its octave", typically by order…

The scale of harmonics is a musical scale based on the noded positions of the natural harmonics existing on a string. This musical scale…

Scanned synthesis is a technique for animating wave tables and controlling them in real-time. Developed by Bill Verplank, Rob Shaw, and…

A scanning acoustic microscope (SAM) is a device which uses focused sound to investigate, measure, or image an object (a process called…

The Schaffer–Vega diversity system (SVDS) was a wireless guitar system developed in 1975–76, engineered and prototyped by Ken Schaffer in…

Schlieren imaging is a method to visualize density variations in transparent media.

6-Z44 (012569), known as the Schoenberg hexachord, is Arnold Schoenberg's signature hexachord, as one transposition contains the pitches…

A scientific echosounder is a device which uses sonar technology for the calibrated backscatter measurement of underwater physical and…

Scientific pitch, also known as philosophical pitch, Sauveur pitch or Verdi tuning, is an absolute concert pitch standard which is based…

Scientific pitch notation (SPN), also known as American standard pitch notation (ASPN) and international pitch notation (IPN), is a method…

Scolica enchiriadis is an anonymous ninth-century music theory treatise and commentary on its companion work, the Musica enchiriadis…

Scordatura is a tuning of a string instrument that is different from the normal, standard tuning. It typically attempts to allow special…

Scratching, sometimes referred to as scrubbing, is a DJ and turntablist technique of moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable…

scRGB is a wide color gamut RGB color space created by Microsoft and HP that uses the same color primaries and white/black points as the…

Standard Definition Blu-ray aka SD Blu-ray disc (SD-BD) is a Blu-ray disc on which the main feature is standard-definition video instead…

SDIF, "Sound Description Interchange Format" is a standard for the well-defined and extensible interchange of a variety of sound…

Seashell resonance refers to a popular folk myth that the sound of the ocean may be heard through seashells, particularly conch shells…

The second inauguration of Calvin Coolidge as president of the United States, was held on Wednesday, March 4, 1925, at the East Portico of…

The Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf, commonly known as the Milan Conference or Milan Congress, was an international…

Secundus the Silent (Ancient Greek: Σεκοῦνδος) (fl. 2nd century AD) was a philosopher who lived in Athens in the early 2nd century, who…

See Hear is a monthly magazine programme for deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the United Kingdom, broadcast on BBC Two at various times…

Seismic or vibrational communication is a process of conveying information through mechanical (seismic) vibrations of the substrate.

A seismic source is a device that generates controlled seismic energy used to perform both reflection and refraction seismic surveys. A…

Sel-Sync or Selective Synchronous recording is the process of selectively using audio tape record heads as playback heads so that new…

Selective auditory attention, or selective hearing, is a process of the auditory system where an individual selects or focuses on certain…

Acoustic waves emitted by ultrasonics transducer crystals exhibit a property known as self-focusing (or natural focusing).

Self-publishing is an author-driven publication of any media without the involvement of a third-party publisher. Since the advent of the…

The semantic system is based on a microtonal musical scale tuned in just intonation, developed by Alain Daniélou.

Send tape echo echo delay (more commonly known as STEED, alternatively known as single tape echo and echo delay) is a technique used in…

Send tracks (sometimes simply called Sends) are the software audio routing equivalent to the aux-sends found on multitrack sound…

The sending loudness rating (SLR) is a measure of the loudness of the transmit audio sent through the microphone of a communication device…

The sensitivity of an electronic device, such as a communications system receiver, or detection device, such as a PIN diode, is the…

Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is a type of hearing loss in which the root cause lies in the inner ear, sensory organ (cochlea and…

Sensory deprivation or perceptual isolation is the deliberate reduction or removal of stimuli from one or more of the senses.

Sensurround is the brand name for a process created by MCA and developed by Cerwin-Vega in conjunction with Universal Studios to enhance…

Share Our Wealth was a movement that began in February 1934, during the Great Depression, by Huey Long, a governor and later United States…

In music, sharp – eqv. dièse (from French) or diesis (Greek: δίεσις) – means higher in pitch. The sharp symbol, ♯, indicates that the note…

Shazam is an application that can identify music based on a short sample played using the microphone on the device. It was created by the…

A Shepard tone, named after Roger Shepard, is a sound consisting of a superposition of sine waves separated by octaves. When played with…

Shi'er lü is a standardized gamut of twelve notes used in ancient Chinese music. It is also known, rather misleadingly, as the Chinese…

In Zen Buddhism, Shikantaza (只管打坐) is the practice of "just sitting." It is Dōgen's Japanese translation of the Chinese phrase zhǐguǎn…

The Shin-ei Companion FY-2 is a discontinued fuzz pedal, made by the Japanese Shin-ei effects pedal company from the late 1960s to the…

A shock mount or isolation mount is a mechanical fastener that connects two parts elastically to provide shock and vibration isolation.

In baseball, the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" was a walk-off home run hit by New York Giants outfielder and third baseman Bobby Thomson…

Show Boat is a musical with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on Edna Ferber's best-selling…

Showco was a sound equipment provider of touring sound reinforcement equipment and services to the concert touring industry. It was based…

Shrillness is the quality of sounds that have a high-pitched, strident, raucous, screeching or harsh character, such as those produced by…

The shruti or śruti [ɕrʊtɪ] is the smallest interval of pitch that the human ear can detect and a singer or musical instrument can produce.

The Sierra Sounds are audio recordings made by Ron Morehead and Alan R. "Al" Berry, allegedly capturing Bigfoot vocalizations in the…

Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning rather than spoken…

Sign-language media are media based on a media system for sign languages. Interfaces in sign-language media are built on the complex…

In signal processing, signal subspace methods are empirical linear methods for dimensionality reduction and noise reduction.

Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR or S/N) is a measure used in science and engineering that compares the level of a desired signal to the level…

A signature whistle is a learned, individually distinctive whistle type in a bottlenose dolphin's (Tursiops truncatus) acoustic repertoire…

Silence is the absence of ambient audible sound, the emission of sounds of such low intensity that they do not draw attention to…

A silence procedure, tacit consent, or tacit acceptance procedure (French: procédure d'approbation tacite; Latin: qui tacet consentire…

A silencer, also known as a sound suppressor, suppressor, or sound moderator, is a muzzle device that suppresses the blast created when a…

Silent birth, sometimes known as quiet birth, is a birthing procedure advised by L. Ron Hubbard and advocated by Scientologists in which…

A silent call is a telephone call in which the calling party does not speak when the call is answered. Most such calls are generated by a…

A silent disco or silent rave is an event where people dance to music listened to on wireless headphones. Rather than using a speaker…

A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible spoken dialogue). Though silent films convey…

In an alphabetic writing system, a silent letter is a letter that, in a particular word, does not correspond to any sound in the word's…

The silent majority is an unspecified large group of people in a country or group who do not express their opinions publicly. The term was…

The Silent Minute was an historic movement begun in the United Kingdom by Wellesley Tudor Pole. in 1940. During the Second World War…

The Negro Silent Protest Parade, commonly known as the Silent Parade, was a political protest in New York City on July 28, 1917.

Silent treatment refers to not talking to someone, possibly following conflict, hurt, anger, or emotional distress. It can take many forms…

Simultaneous communication, SimCom, or sign supported speech (SSS) is a technique sometimes used by deaf, hard-of-hearing or hearing sign…

A sine wave, sinusoidal wave, or sinusoid (symbol: ∿) is a periodic wave whose waveform (shape) is the trigonometric sine function.

"Singin' the Blues" is a 1920 jazz composition by J. Russel Robinson, Con Conrad, Sam M. Lewis, and Joe Young. It was recorded by the…

The Singing Ringing Tree is a wind-powered sound sculpture resembling a windswept tree set in the landscape of the Pennine hill range…

In music, a single is a type of release of a song recording of fewer tracks than an album (LP). As the name suggests, a single typically…

"Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" is a song by American singer Beyoncé from her third studio album, I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008).

A single-ended triode (SET) is a vacuum tube electronic amplifier that uses a single triode to produce an output, in contrast to a…

"Sitting on Top of the World" (also "Sittin' on Top of the World") is a country blues song written by Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon. …

A skyquake is a phenomenon where a loud sound is reported to originate from the sky. It often manifests as a banging, reoccurring…

In the entertainment industry, a sleeper hit is a film, television series, music release, video game or other entertainment product that…

Slew-induced distortion (SID or slew-rate induced distortion) is caused when an amplifier or transducer is required to change output (or…

A slicer is an effects unit which is similar to a tremolo, vibrato, phaser, or autopan. It combines a modulation sequence with a noise…

A smart speaker is a type of loudspeaker and voice command device with an integrated virtual assistant that offers interactive actions and…

People with extreme hearing loss may communicate through sign languages. Sign languages convey meaning through manual communication and…

In oceanography, a sofar bomb (Sound Fixing And Ranging bomb), occasionally referred to as a sofar disc, is a long-range position-fixing…

The SOFAR channel (short for sound fixing and ranging channel), or deep sound channel (DSC), is a horizontal layer of water in the ocean…

The soft dome tweeter is a particular type of tweeter invented and patented in 1967 by Bill Hecht, a renowned pioneer in the early days of…

The Super Lead Overdrive 100, typically shortened to SLO-100, is the debut guitar amplifier from Mike Soldano's Soldano Custom…

The Solid State Logic SL 4000 is a series of large-format analogue mixing consoles designed and manufactured by Solid State Logic (SSL)…

Solmization is a musical pitch identification system in which a distinct syllable is attributed to each note of a musical scale.

Solo tuning is a system of choosing the reeds for a diatonic wind instrument (such as a harmonica or accordion) to fit a pattern where…

"Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" (also known as "Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World") is a medley of "Over the…

Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in…

Sonar systems are generally used underwater for range finding and detection. Active sonar emits an acoustic signal, or pulse of sound…

The sone is a unit of loudness, the subjective perception of sound pressure. The study of perceived loudness is included in the topic of…

In the Northern Hemisphere, a song of the summer is an unofficial designation of a song that is dominant both culturally and commercially…

A sonic boom is a sound associated with shock waves created when an object travels through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic…

Sonic deception refers to a deception tactic on the battlefield that involves the projection of sounds to produce noises intended to…

Sonic interaction design is the study and exploitation of sound as one of the principal channels conveying information, meaning, and…

Sonic philosophy or the philosophy of sound is a philosophical theory that proposes thinking sonically instead of thinking about sound. It…

Sonic soot blowers offer a cost-effective and non-destructive means of preventing ash and particulate build-up within the power generation…

Sonic and ultrasonic weapons (USW) are directed-energy weapons of various types that use sound to injure or incapacitate an opponent. Some…

Sonication is the act of applying sound energy to agitate particles in a sample, for various purposes such as the extraction of multiple…

Sonido 13 is a theory of microtonal music created by the Mexican composer Julián Carrillo around 1900 and described by Nicolas Slonimsky…

Sonification is the use of non-speech audio to convey information or perceptualize data. Auditory perception has advantages in temporal…

A sonobuoy is a small expendable sonar buoy dropped from aircraft or ships for anti-submarine warfare or underwater acoustic research. The…

Sonocatalysis is a field of sonochemistry which is based on the use of ultrasound to change the reactivity of a catalyst in homogenous or…

In chemistry, the study of sonochemistry is concerned with understanding the effect of ultrasound in forming acoustic cavitation in…

A sonographer is an allied healthcare professional who specializes in the use of ultrasonic imaging devices to produce diagnostic images…

Sonology is a neologism used to describe the study of sound in a variety of disciplines.

Sonoluminescence is luminescence induced by sound waves, such as in the emission of light from imploding bubbles in a liquid when excited…

The sonomètre is a tuning device that French musician Étienne Loulié invented c. 1694 to facilitate the tuning of stringed instruments…

The Sonos Five (originally branded as the ZonePlayer S5 and later as the Play:5) is a smart speaker developed by Sonos. It was first…

The Sonos One is a smart speaker developed by Sonos, announced on October 4, 2017 and released on October 24. The speaker contains a…

The Sonotone 1010 hearing aid was introduced on 29 December 1952. It was the first commercial product to use transistors, which had been…

A sonotope is a physical site (Greek: -topos) that produces sound (Latin: sono-) in a particular way. It is characterized by sound…

In ultrasonic machining, welding and mixing, a sonotrode is a tool that creates ultrasonic vibrations and applies this vibrational energy…

Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (Japanese: ソニー・ダイナミック・デジタル・サウンド, Hepburn: Sonī Dainamikku Dejitaru Saundo; SDDS) is a cinema sound system…

The Sony Multimedia CD-ROM Player was a portable CD-ROM–based multimedia player produced by Sony and released in 1992. It was used to run…

Sopranino refers to a singing voice that is higher than soprano. It typically refers to a range of about E4 to E6, sometimes extending as…

Sopranissimo (from Italian Sopra "above" and -issimo "extremely") is a term used to describe a voice, instrument or pitch higher than the…

"Soul Man" is a 1967 song written and composed by Isaac Hayes and David Porter, first successful as a number 2 hit single by Atlantic…

Sound is a phenomenon in which pressure disturbances propagate through an elastic material medium. In the context of physics, it is…

Sound 360 was the name of a motion picture sound system used by 20th Century-Fox to enhance the premiere engagements of their 1977 feature…

Sound amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (SASER) refers to a device that emits acoustic radiation. It focuses sound waves…

A sound attenuator, or duct silencer, sound trap, or muffler, is a noise control acoustical treatment of Heating Ventilating and…

A sound baffle is a construction or device which reduces the strength (level) of airborne sound. Sound baffles are a fundamental tool of…

The sound barrier or sonic barrier is the large increase in aerodynamic drag and other undesirable effects experienced by an aircraft or…

Sound design is the art and practice of creating auditory elements of media. It involves specifying, acquiring and creating audio using…

A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other…

Sound energy is the energy carried by longitudinal mechanical waves in elastic media. The energy is periodically converted between kinetic…

Sound from ultrasound refers to the generation of audible sound from modulated ultrasound. Two distinct mechanisms have been demonstrated.

A sound generator is a vibrating object which produces a sound. There are two main kinds of sound generators (thus, two main kinds of…

Sound intensity, also known as acoustic intensity, is defined as the power carried by sound waves per unit area in a direction…

A sound intensity probe is a probe capable of measuring sound intensity. The sound intensity is the product of sound pressure and particle…

A sound level meter (also called sound pressure level meter) is used for acoustic measurements. It is commonly a hand-held instrument with…

A sound limiter or noise limiter is a digital device fitted with a microphone to measure the sound pressure level of environmental noise…

Sound localization is a listener's ability to identify the location or origin of a detected sound in direction and distance.

Most owls are nocturnal or crepuscular birds of prey. Because they hunt at night, they must rely on non-visual senses. Experiments by…

Sound maps are digital geographical maps that put emphasis on the sonic representation of a specific location. Sound maps are created by…

Sound masking is the inclusion of generated sound (commonly, though inaccurately, referred to as "white noise" or "pink noise") into an…

In musical composition, a sound mass or sound collective is the result of compositional techniques, in which "the importance of individual…

The imitation of natural sounds in various cultures is a diverse phenomenon and can fill in various functions. In several instances, it is…

SOT is an acronym for the phrase sound on tape. It refers to any audio recorded on analog or digital video formats. It is used in…

In continuum mechanics, specifically in acoustics, a sound particle refers to a material element in a medium through which an acoustic…

Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging literary and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded…

Sound power or acoustic power is the rate at which sound energy is emitted, reflected, transmitted or received, per unit time.

In acoustics, sound pressure or acoustic pressure is the pressure difference between the ambient (average or equilibrium) atmospheric…

Sound quality is typically an assessment of the accuracy, fidelity, or intelligibility of audio output from an electronic device.

Sound recognition is a technology, which is based on both traditional pattern recognition theories and audio signal analysis methods…

Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as…

A sound recording copyright is the copyright in a recorded fixation of sounds, as distinct from the underlying musical, literary…

The sound recording copyright symbol or phonogram symbol, ℗ (letter P in a circle), is the copyright symbol used to provide notice of…

The sound reduction index is used to measure the level of sound insulation provided by a structure such as a wall, window, door, or…

A sound reinforcement system is the combination of microphones, signal processors, amplifiers, and loudspeakers in enclosures all…

Sound Retrieval System (SRS) is a patented psychoacoustic 3D audio processing technology originally invented by Arnold Klayman in the…

Sound scenography (also known as acoustic scenography) is the process of staging spaces and environments through sound.

In acoustics, the sound speed gradient is the rate of change of the speed of sound with distance, for example with depth in the ocean,

A sound speed profile shows the speed of sound in water at different vertical levels. It has two general representations:

Sites for launching large rockets are often equipped with a sound suppression system to absorb or deflect acoustic energy generated during…

In linguistics, sound symbolism is the perceptual similarity between speech sounds and concept meanings. It is a form of linguistic…

Sound Transmission Class (STC) is an integer rating of how well a building partition attenuates airborne sound. In the US, it is widely…

Sound-in-syncs is a method of multiplexing sound and video signals into an analogue television channel designed to carry video, in which…

SoundBite Hearing System is a non-surgical bone conduction prosthetic device that transmits sound via the teeth. It is an alternative to…

A soundboard recording is a sound recording of a concert taken from a direct connection to the soundboard at the venue.

Soundbug is a small speaker that can turn a resonant flat surface into a flat panel speaker. The Soundbug is attached to a smooth resonant…

A soundcheck is the preparation that takes place before a concert, speech, or similar performance to adjust the sound on the venue's sound…

The Soundfield microphone is an audio microphone composed of four closely spaced subcardioid or cardioid (unidirectional) microphone…

Soundhawk was an American corporation headquartered in Cupertino, California.

A sounding board, also known as a tester and abat-voix, is a structure placed above and sometimes also behind a pulpit or other speaking…

Soundproofing is any means of impeding sound propagation. There are several methods employed including increasing the distance between the…

Soundrangers was the first online sound library of original sound effects and production music designed for specifically for interactive…

Sounds of New York City (SONYC) is an urban noise monitoring research project led by researchers at New York University to study and…

Sounds of North American Frogs is a 1958 album of frog vocalizations narrated by herpetologist Charles M. Bogert. The album includes the…

A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term, originally coined by Michael Southworth, was…

Soundscape ecology is the study of the acoustic relationships between living organisms, human and other, and their environment, whether…

SoundScriber is a dictation machine introduced in 1945 by The SoundScriber Corp. (New Haven, Connecticut, United States). It records sound…

SoundSticks are multimedia speakers sold by Harman Kardon, originally co-developed with Apple Inc. They were released in July 2000.

A soundwalk is a walk with a focus on listening to the environment. The term was first used by members of the World Soundscape Project…

South Pacific is a musical composed by Richard Rodgers, with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The…

The southern resident orcas, also known as the southern resident killer whales (SRKW), are the smallest of four communities of the…

Spatial hearing loss refers to a form of deafness that is an inability to use spatial cues about where a sound originates from in space…

A speaker grille (or speaker grill) is a hard or soft screen found on the front of many consumer and industrial loudspeakers, mounted…

A speaker pillow is a pillow that incorporates loudspeakers. It is generally designed as an alternative to headphones connected to…

Speaker stands are stands on which loudspeakers are placed with the aim of improving the quality of sound from the speaker.

Speaker wire is used to make the electrical connection between loudspeakers and audio amplifiers. Modern speaker wire consists of two or…

Speckle, speckle pattern, or speckle noise designates the granular structure observed in coherent light, resulting from random interference.

A spectral glide is a music-composition concept, consisting of a "modification of the vowel quality of a tone" (Erickson 1975, p. 72).

In radio electronics or acoustics, spectral splatter (also called switch noise) refers to spurious emissions that result from an abrupt…

A spectrogram is a visual representation of the spectrum of frequencies of a signal as it varies with time.

Spectromorphology is the perceived sonic footprint of a sound spectrum as it manifests in time. A descriptive spectromorphological…

A spectrum analyzer measures the magnitude of an input signal versus frequency within the full frequency range of the instrument. The…

Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of…

The speech banana is a banana-shaped region where the sounds (phonemes) of human languages appear on an audiogram. (An audiogram is a…

Speech enhancement or dialogue enhancement aims to improve speech quality by using various algorithms. The objective of enhancement is…

Speech perception is the process by which the sounds of language are heard, interpreted, and understood. The study of speech perception is…

Speech shadowing is a psycholinguistic experimental technique in which subjects repeat speech at a delay to the onset of hearing the…

Speech transmission index (STI) is a measure of speech transmission quality. The absolute measurement of speech intelligibility is a…

The speech-to-song illusion is an auditory illusion discovered by Diana Deutsch in 1995. A spoken phrase is repeated several times…

A speech-to-text reporter (STTR), also known as a captioner, is a person who listens to what is being said and inputs it, word for word…

The speed of sound is the distance travelled per unit of time by a sound wave as it propagates through an elastic medium. More simply, the…

The speed of sound in any chemical element in the fluid phase has one temperature-dependent value. In the solid phase, different types of…

Spill (also known as bleed and leakage) is the occurrence in sound recording (particularly in close miking) and live sound mixing whereby…

Spinto (Italian for "pushed") is a vocal term used to characterize a soprano or tenor voice of a weight between lyric and dramatic that is…

A spinto soprano is a type of operatic soprano voice that has the limpidity and easy high notes of a lyric soprano, yet can be "pushed" on…

In music theory, the spiral array model is an extended type of pitch space. A mathematical model involving concentric helices (an "array…

The spiral (cochlear) ganglion is a group of neuron cell bodies in the modiolus, the conical central axis of the cochlea. These bipolar…

The spiral of silence theory is a political science and mass communication theory which states that an individual's perception of the…

A split sharp is a kind of key found in some early keyboard instruments, such as the harpsichord, clavichord, or organ. It is a musical…

Squawks, or short wheezes, are brief, "squeaky" sounds; they are also referred to as squeaks. Their waveforms show a sinusoidal pattern…

Squeaky hinges produce a squeaking or rasping noise when they are moved.

Squidgygate or Dianagate was the controversy over pre-1990 telephone conversations between Diana, Princess of Wales, and her lover, James…

SRAS (spatially resolved acoustic spectroscopy) a non-destructive acoustic microscopy microstructural-crystallographic characterization…

The Stacked Volumetric Optical Disc (or SVOD) is an optical disc format developed by Hitachi Maxell which uses an array of wafer-thin…

A stage box is an interface device used in sound reinforcement and recording studios to connect equipment to a mixing console.

A stage monitor system is a set of performer-facing loudspeakers called monitor speakers, stage monitors, floor monitors, wedges, or…

Stage wash in professional audio is unwanted sound entering a microphone on stage during a concert. Stage wash can come from the main…

"Stand by Me" is a song originally recorded by American singer-songwriter Ben E. King in 1961, and written by him, along with Jerry Leiber…

The term standard day is used throughout meteorology, aviation, and other sciences and disciplines as a way of defining certain properties…

Standard-dynamic-range video (SDR video) is a video technology which represents light intensity based on the brightness, contrast and…

The stapes or stirrup is a bone in the middle ear of humans and other tetrapods which is involved in the conduction of sound vibrations to…

Statistical energy analysis (SEA) is a method for predicting the transmission of sound and vibration through complex structural acoustic…

Steered-response power (SRP) is a family of acoustic source localization algorithms that can be interpreted as a beamforming-based…

Stem-mixing is a method of mixing audio material based on creating groups of audio tracks called stems and processing them separately…

The Stem Player is an audio remix device and music streaming platform developed by British technology company Kano Computing in…

The Steno-Cassette is an analog cassette format for dictation, introduced by Grundig in 1971. Unlike Grundig's previous cassette format…

A stereo dipole is a sound source in an Ambiophonic system, made by two closely spaced loudspeakers that ideally span 10 to 30 degrees.

Stereo imaging refers to the aspect of sound recording and reproduction of stereophonic sound concerning the perceived spatial locations…

SQ Quadraphonic ("Stereo Quadraphonic") is a matrix 4-channel quadraphonic sound system for vinyl LP records. It was introduced by CBS…

Stereo-4, also known as EV (from Electro-Voice) or EV-4, was a matrix 4-channel quadraphonic sound system developed in 1970 by Leonard…

The Muntz Stereo-Pak, commonly known as the 4-track cartridge, is a magnetic tape sound recording cartridge technology.

In the inner ear, stereocilia are the mechanosensing organelles of hair cells, which respond to fluid motion in numerous types of animals…

Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, three-dimensional…

The stethoscope (from Ancient Greek στῆθος (stêthos) 'breast' and σκοπέω (skopéō) 'to look') is a medical device for auscultation, or…

Stevens' power law is an empirical relationship in psychophysics between an increased intensity or strength in a physical stimulus and the…

Sticky-shed syndrome is a condition created by the deterioration of the binders in a magnetic tape, which hold the ferric oxide…

A sting is a short drum sequence played by a drummer to punctuate a joke, especially an obvious one. A sting is often used as…

In acoustics, Stokes's law of sound attenuation is a formula for the attenuation of sound in a Newtonian fluid, such as water or air, due…

A stomach rumble, also known as a bowel sound, peristaltic sound, abdominal sound, bubble gut or borborygmus, is a rumbling, growling or…

Stonewalling is a refusal to communicate or cooperate. Such behaviour occurs in situations such as interpersonal relationships, marriage…

"Straighten Up and Fly Right" is a 1943 song written by Nat King Cole and Irving Mills and one of the first vocal hits for the King Cole…

Strategic silence is a communication tactic and rhetorical practice involving the intentional withholding of speech. It is a calculated…

Stretched tuning is a detail of musical tuning, applied to wire-stringed musical instruments, older, non-digital electric pianos (such as…

Stridulation is the act of producing sound by rubbing together certain body parts. This behavior is mostly associated with insects, but…

The strike tone, strike note, or tap note, of a percussion instrument (e.g. bell, chime or gong) when struck, is the dominant note…

Playing a string harmonic (a flageolet) is a string instrument technique that uses the nodes of natural harmonics of a musical string to…

A vibration in a string is a wave. Initial disturbance (such as plucking or striking) causes a vibrating string to produce a sound with…

Structural acoustics is the study of the mechanical waves in structures and how they interact with and radiate into adjacent media. The…

Strähle's construction is a geometric method for determining the lengths for a series of vibrating strings with uniform diameters and…

Studio City Sound is a recording studio located in Studio City, California. Grammy Award winning mixer, Tom Weir, purchased Fidelity…

A stump microphone, informally known as a stump mic, is a microphone embedded in a cricket stump. It was originally developed by Kerry…

In signal processing, sub-band coding (SBC) is any form of transform coding that breaks a signal into a number of different frequency…

Sub-bass sounds are the deep, low-register pitches below approximately 70 Hz (C♯2 in scientific pitch notation) and extending downward to…

In music, the subdominant is the fourth tonal degree of the diatonic scale. It is so called because it is the same distance below the…

A subharmonic synthesizer or subharmonic saturator is a device or system that generates subharmonics of an input signal. The nth…

Submarine signals had a specific, even proprietary, meaning in the early 20th century. It applied to a navigation aid system developed…

In music, the submediant is the sixth degree of a diatonic scale. The submediant ("lower mediant") is named thus because it is halfway…

In music, a subminor interval is an interval that is noticeably wider than a diminished interval but noticeably narrower than a minor…

Subterranean rumbling is a phenomenon in which the ground vibrates and makes sounds due to an earthquake.

In music, the subtonic is the degree of a musical scale which is a whole step below the tonic note. In a major key, it is a lowered, or…

Summing localization occurs when two or more coherent sound waves arrive within a limited time interval and only one sound sensation is…

Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Recorder (SUPER) is a closed-source front end for open-source software video players and encoders…

Super Audio CD (SACD) is an optical disc format for audio storage introduced in 1999. It was developed jointly by Sony and Philips…

Super Bit Mapping (SBM) is a noise shaping process, developed by Sony for CD mastering.

A super tweeter is a speaker driver intended to produce ultra-high frequencies in a multi-driver loudspeaker system. Its purpose is to…

The superior olivary complex (SOC) or superior olive is a collection of brainstem nuclei that is located in pons, functions in multiple…

In mathematics, a superpartient ratio, also called superpartient number or epimeric ratio, is a rational number that is greater than one…

A supersonic aircraft is an aircraft capable of supersonic flight, that is, flying faster than the speed of sound (Mach 1). Supersonic…

Supersonic speed is the speed of an object that exceeds the speed of sound (Mach 1). For objects traveling in dry air of a temperature of…

In music, the supertonic is the second degree of a diatonic scale, one whole step above the tonic. In the movable do solfège system, the…

Surround sound is a technique for enriching the fidelity and depth of sound reproduction by using multiple audio channels from speakers…

Suspense is a radio drama series broadcast on CBS Radio from 1940 through 1962.

Swara (Sanskrit: स्वर) or svara is an Indian classical music term that connotes simultaneously a breath, a vowel, a note, the sound of a…

The phrase "swan song" (Ancient Greek: κύκνειον ᾆσμα kýkneion ásma; Latin: carmen cygni) refers to a final gesture, effort, or performance…

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (often referred to simply as Sweeney Todd) is a 1979 musical with music and lyrics by…

"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" is a song by the British synth-pop duo Eurythmics. It was released in January 1983 by RCA Records as the…

"Sweet Lorraine" is a popular song with music by Cliff Burwell and words by Mitchell Parish that was published in 1928 and has become a…

The sweet spot is a term used by audiophiles and recording engineers to describe the focal point between two speakers, where an individual…

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is an African-American spiritual song and one of the best-known Christian hymns. Originating in early…

Sympathetic resonance or sympathetic vibration is a harmonic phenomenon wherein a passive string or vibratory body responds to external…

Symphonie pour un homme seul (Symphony for One Man Alone) is a musical composition by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, composed in…

A synthetic mode is a mode that cannot be derived from the diatonic scale by starting on a different note. Whereas the seven modes are all…

In music, a synthetic scale is a scale that derives from a traditional diatonic major scale by altering of one degree by a semitone in…

Synthetic-aperture sonar (SAS) is a form of sonar in which sophisticated post-processing of sonar data is used in ways closely analogous…