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An Audio Dramatist's Lexicon
Useful terms and concepts for the actor, director, and producer of audio drama
I have included here terms that prove handy either as professional shorthand or conceptual reminders. Some terms come from theater, some from broadcasting, some from criticism. Theatrical argot tends toward fluidity. Where more than one sense of a word exists, or when a precise sense is not universal, I have included only those definitions useful to audio dramatists. When more than one meaning commonly arises, as with such terms as atmosphere and track, the meaning is usually clear from the context. Digital technology is increasing the audio dramatist's vocabulary faster than I can take note of it; hence the paucity of digital references below. For more technical terms related to audio and acoustics, see The Rane Dictionary or The Recording Institute Glossary. By the way, thanks to sound designer Richard Fairbanks and producer Lars Hoel for their suggestions.
- ACOUSTIC. 1) n. A sonic overtone; 2) adj. acoustical.
ACOUSTICAL. Not electronic or prerecorded; analogue [q.v.]; produced mechanically, manually, or vocally.
ACT. 1) n. Originally, the major division of dramatic action [q.v.] within a play; on the contemporary stage, the major division of a play on opposite sides of intermission(s); in broadcasting, the major division of a tele- or audio play separated by breaks; 2) v., to perform a role in a dramatic production; 3) v., to make a living performing roles in dramatic production; to be an actor.
ACTION, DRAMATIC. Gesture, action or dialogue that advances the plot of a dramatic work.
ACTION, FALLING. Action following the climax [q.v.], in which tension wanes and loose ends are tied up.
ACTION, RISING. Action leading up to the climax [q.v.], characterized by mounting tension.
ACTOR. n. One who acts, variously called bum, comedian, mummer, player, talent [q.v.], Thespian (after Thespis, the legendary inventor of Greek tragedy), tragedian; an often infuriating, ultimately likable, neurotic — plagued by narcissistic disorders that compound a hopeless addiction to an impossible profession.
ACTUALITY. n. Unrehearsed or documentary sound, speech or music recorded in the field.
ADR STUDIO, ADR ROOM. A studio designed for "automated dialog replacement," the process of recording a new vocal performance by an actor to replace an existing performance acoustically flawed but visually acceptable. In the U.S. where audio drama rooms do not exist, ADR studios are often acoustically right for audio drama.
AFFILIATE. n. A station accepting programs or services under contract from, but not owned by, a national or regional network [q.v.]. See also independent, o & o.
AFM. The American Federation of Musicians; the musicians' union.
AFTRA. The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists; the talent [q.v.] union that has jurisdiction over radio and audio.
AGENT, CASTING. A licensed professional who assists producers with casting.
AGENT, LITERARY. A licensed professional who represents writers before publishers and producers.
AGENT, TALENT. A licensed professional who helps actors get work. A theatrical agent specializes in dramatic television, film, and theater; a commercial agent handles TV and radio commercials and voice-overs.
ANAGNORISIS. [Greek "recognition"] n. In drama, a character's self-revelation or self-discovery, especially one that precipitates a turning point in the action.
ANALOG or ANALOGUE. adj. pertaining to non-digital or pre-digital audio recording and playback technologies, such as magnetic recording tape. See DIGITAL.
AGC. See AUTOMATIC GAIN CONTROL.
AIR CHECK. A recording of a program made by the broadcaster during broadcast for archival or legal purposes.
ALLITERATION. n. The purposeful repetition of sounds, particularly the beginning consonants of words. "The fickle finger of fate."
AMBIENCE. n. A sound bed [q.v.] used in lieu of scenery to indicate environment or setting. Also called atmosphere.
AMBIENCE TRACK. n. A track devoted to atmospheres.
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF COMPOSERS AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS. A membership association of U.S. composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers of every kind of music that licenses and distributes royalties for the non-dramatic public performances of their copyrighted works. See also BROADCAST MUSIC, INC.
ANTAGONIST. n. A character whose dramatic function is to oppose the protagonist [q.v.]; the bad guy.
ANTICLIMAX. n. A minor climax [q.v.] or drop in dramatic tension, which, depending on how it's used, can enhance the climax, dilute it, and produce numerous wanted or unwanted effects.
ARCHETYPE. n. The first, prototypical, and quintessential expression of a theme, character type, style, genre [q.v.], etc.
ARGUMENT. A summary or short statement of the plot or subject of a literary work.
ARIA. n. In opera, a solo number; hence, in drama, any long speech that suspends the flow of dramatic action, especially a long, reflective soliloquy [q.v.].
ARISTOTLE. Among his achievements, this Greek philosopher (384-322 BC) was the first dramatic theorist of the Western World. His Poetics, apparently written as lecture notes, describes Greek Tragedy and attempts to explain how it moves an audience. Aristotelian terms and principles, such as hubris, puerility and catharsis, are still useful to critics and dramatists.
ART, AUDIO. A type of audio production akin to "performance art," which may or may not include dramatic elements.
ARTISTIC DISTANCE. A psychological distance between fictive events of a literary or dramatic work and the life experience of the audience, theoretically necessary before the work can be appreciated as art. If a work relates too personally to the audience, the audience will lose its aesthetic objectivity.
ASIDE. n. A dramatic convention in which a character speaks his inner thoughts aloud to himself; or speaks in a stage whisper [q.v.] to another character or the audience, as if the other characters in the scene can't hear him/her. In radio, asides are often distinguished from regular speech by a change of sound quality, mike position, or filter, rather than by a stage whisper.
ASPIRATION. The vocal sound made by turbulent airflow preceding or following vocal fold vibration, as in "ha" or "ah."
ASSEMBLY. n. 1) The first part of the editing process in which outtakes are removed from the masters and the remaining keepers [q.v.] are edited in sequential order, 2) the tracks [q.v.] so assembled.
ASCAP. See American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
ATMOSPHERE. n. 1) See ambience; 2) The prevailing mood (calm, mysterious, gay, etc.) of a play or other work of fiction; 3) (television) extras, supernumeraries, walla.
ATTACK. 1) v. to begin a scene, line or action; 2) n. the beginning of a scene, line or action; n. an approach or concept for the production of a drama, writing of a script, playing of a role, or reading of a line.
AUDIO. 1) n. Electronically enhanced, recorded, or broadcast sound; 2) adj. of or pertaining to such sound or sound technology.
AUDIO ART. n. A kind of performance art that often includes dramatic as well as other elements, designed for sound recording or radio.
AUDIOBOOK. n. a commercial sound recording, usually on cassette or compact disk, of a narrator reading a literary work aloud; hence, any commercial recording of dramatic or narrative speech.
AUDIO DRAMA. See Drama, Audio.
AUTEUR. n. From cinema criticism. A producer or director of a dramatic production, who creates such a strong and pervasive artistic vision over a stage, optisonic [q.v.] or audio production, often contributing decisively to the script, that s/he is for all intents and purposes, the production's author, no matter how many other creative persons contribute to it. The term is rarely used in the theater, because a production most often needs to be fixed and definitive before it can be said to have an auteur. American radio drama auteurs include Norman Corwin, Arch Oboler, and Orson Welles, also a cinema auteur.
AUTHOR. n. In copyright law, the person entitled to hold a copyright, usually the "author" in the usual sense, but not always, as in a "work for hire" situation, in which the individual or organization commissioning a work may become the author for copyright purposes.
AUTOMATIC GAIN CONTROL or AGC. n. An electronic device for automatically regulating volume.
Screen display of AGC (compressor/limiter) and noise gate for digital audio workstation AUTO SLATE. n. A "silent" digital version of movie clap sticks.
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BACK. A script indication signaling that a sound or voice is in the background. Usually applied to outdoor sounds. See OFF MIKE.
BACKGROUND MUSIC. n. See music, background.
BACK STORY. n. Background information on the characters or events of a drama that need to be revealed during the action [q.v.] so that the ramifications of the action can be fully exposed.
BACK TIME. v.t, To determine the length of a program fragment, or to line up two production elements, such as selected lines and a musical bed, by timing them backwards from their end points.
BAFFLE or SOUND BAFFLE.1) n. A partition used in studio to isolate or cushion sound; 2) v. to isolate or cushion sound by using a portable partition.
BALANCE. 1) n. in audio, the relative levels between channels of a stereo [q.v.] production, or of individual sounds in any audio production; 2) v. to adjust levels or stereo position to achieve a desired effect; 3) in the theater, when actors are positioned to make best use of the performing area without crowding each other, the stage is said to be "balanced;" to "balance the stage" is for actors to spread out from a cramped or crowded grouping.
BATHOS. n. Excessive pathos, often unintentionally funny.
BEAT. n. A stage direction indicating a brief pause the length of one stroke in the rhythm of the scene, signified by the expression BEAT or an ellipsis (. . .); the smallest unit of dramatic action; it is sometimes handy for preparation, rehearsal or taping purposes to divide scenes into beats or French scenes [q.v.].
BED. n. Sound or music playing continuously under speech, as a musical bed for announcements, or a sound bed (ambience) under a scene.
BG. n. Background.
BIAS. n. An ultrasonic tone that an analogue tape recorder inserts on the tape while recording, to prevent sound distortion. Different types and brands of tapes require different biases during recording. Distortion may result when one type of tape is used for recording on a machine biased for another type.
BIBLE. A treatment for a dramatic serial, series, or soap showing the continuity over a number of episodes.
BILLBOARD. 1) n. The opening announcements to a program; 2) v. To make or record these announcements.
BILL. v. To advertise, publish, identify, or announce the name of an artist or artists involved in a production.
BILLING. n. The order and manner of publishing or announcing the names of the artists involved in a particular production; hence TOP BILLING, the artist mentioned most prominently.
BINAURAL SOUND. A method of recording in conventional stereo [q.v.] that gives the listener the impression, not only of right and left, but also up and down, forward and back. The listener must wear earphones to perceive the binaural effect.
BLANK VERSE. A type of verse popular in verse drama because it approximates the rhythm of natural prose speech in English. It is unrhymed iambic pentameter — that is, lines of five iambs, metrical feet consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in "The rose is in the garden of the king."
BLOCK. v. To design the flow of movement and traffic patterns of objects (such as vehicles) and characters in a play, such as the placement of their entrances, exits and crosses [q.v.]; hence, to teach the blocking to, or work it out with, the performers during rehearsal.
BLOCKING. n. The choreographed movement of a play.
BMI. See BROADCAST MUSIC, INC.
BOARD, MIXING. The dashboard of the sound studio housing the main controls for volume, stereo position, EQ, etc.. Also called CONSOLE or BOARD.
BOOM. n. A hand-operated mechanical "arm," in a wide array of sizes, to assist in holding a device (such as a microphone) at a desired point where an arm is not possible or practical.
BOOM CHANNEL. (Also called "low frequency effects.") Very low frequency sounds that are fed only to a subwoofer.
BOOM MICROPHONE, or BOOM MIKE. See MICROPHONE, BOOM.
BOOK RATE. n. The prices that a commercial sound studio publishes for its services. The book rate may have no relationship to real prices, except as a starting point for haggling.
BOOTH. n. The control room of a studio.
BOUNCE. v.t. to move the signal [q.v.] from one track [q.v.] or recording to another.
BOY also JUVENILE. n. The youthful male love interest in a play; an actor playing the role or specializing in such roles.
BREAK. 1) n. An interruption in the program for announcements such as commercials and station I.D.s; 2) v. to interrupt a program in this way.
BREAKDOWN/BREAKDOWNS. (The singular and plural are used interchangeably.) n. Written project description used for casting purposes, of which the most important parts are thumbnail descriptions of the cast of characters.
BREAK-UP. n. A distortion of sound caused by over-modulation in which the sound becomes fuzzy or intermittent.
BRIDGE. 1) n. Sound or, most commonly, music linking two scenes; 2) v. to employ a bridge.
BROADCAST MUSIC, INC (BMI). An American performing rights organization that represents more than 250,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. BMI collects money from the businesses that use music in the course of their day and then pays out that money as royalties to the composers and publishers of the songs and compositions they play. See also ASCAP.
BUILD. 1) v.t. to increase the emotional level of a speech, sequence, scene, or act; 2) n., the increase thus made; 3) v.t., to overdub [q.v.].
BUTT SPLICE. 1) v. In editing, to join cues tightly together; 2) n. a splice so made.
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CADENCE. n. 1)A falling inflection of the voice, as at the end of a sentence; 2) General inflection or modulation of the voice.
CADENCE, DESCENDING. n. A monotonous vocal pattern in which the voice descends in pitch to the same musical note in the same rhythm at the end of every phrase or sentence.
CALIBRATION. The adjustment of reading devices, especially on a recorder, to conform to a determined standard or another device.
CALIBRATION TONES (also TEST tones). See tones, calibration.
CALL. n. The time and date at which one or more production personnel are scheduled to begin a casting, rehearsal, taping, or posting session. "My call tomorrow is for 6 in the morning, but Tiffany doesn't have to show up 'til noon."
CALL BACK or CALLBACK or CALL-BACK. 1) n. A secondary or follow-up casting call, during which talent who have appeared at a previous call are called back to audition further; 2) v. to hold a call-back.
CALL, CASTING. n. An audition session.
CALL, CATTLE. n. An audition session, in which actors are herded in and out as quickly as possible, so that they have only a few minutes to show what they can do.
CALL SHEET. See Sheet, Call.
CAMEO. n. A secondary or tertiary role in a dramatic work, sometimes lasting no more than one scene, that is played by a name who normally accepts only major roles.
CANCELLATION, PHASE. See PHASE.
CAN, IN THE. Finished, recorded. "The tracks are in the can."
CANNED. adj. Removed or recorded, not benefiting from the synergetic interaction of spectators and performers sharing the same space, said of performance media such as video, cinema, and audio; prerecorded, as canned laughter.
CANS. n. Earphones.
CARRIER. n. 1) A radio frequency wave that can be sent long distances by transmitting it from an antenna; 2) a station or network that picks up a given syndicated program.
CART. 1) n. A cartridge containing tape that can be instantly cued; 2) v. to transfer a recording to cart.
CAST. 1) n. The talent hired to play the characters in a dramatic production, or the characters themselves (cast of characters or dramatis personae); 2) v. to choose and hire the talent for one or more dramatic productions.
CASTING. n. The process of choosing talent for dramatic production.
CASTING CALL. n. See CALL, CASTING.
CATHARSIS. (from a Greek word meaning purgation) The effect narrative and musical art sometimes have on an audience of purging it of or purifying its emotions, especially the emotions of fear and pity.
CATTLE CALL. See CALL, CATTLE.
CD QUALITY. adj. An industry phrase denoting that a recorded or transmitted audio signal is comparable to sound recorded on a compact disk; that is, high quality.
CHANNEL. n. The electronic horizontal division of recording tape for stereo or multitrack recording, synonymous with track.
CHARACTER MAN/WOMAN. An actor or actress specializing in mature roles or roles that call for great skill with superficial detail, such as regional accents and physical quirks.
CHORUS. n. 1) A narrator, as in the Elizabethan theater; 2) the group of singers and dancers of the ancient Greek theater who performed choral odes commenting on the action between scenes, and who, singly and as a group, interacted with the actors during the scenes; 3) the singing and dancing ensemble of a musical theater production; 4) any character or characters in a dramatic work whose dramatic function is to comment on the action.
CLIMAX. n. The highest point of tension in the dramatic action.
CLIP. v. 1) To cut off the beginning or end of a syllable, sound or musical note, usually by accident, as in a bad edit or improper setting of a sound-processing device, such as a noise gate [q.v.]; 2) to rush; to top[q.v.].
CLOSE-MIKE. v. To track each actor with his or her individual microphone, which requires close proximity of actor and mike . Close-micing adds warmth to the voice (called THE PROXIMITY EFFECT) and reduces the signal to noise ratio.
CLOSET DRAMA. See drama, closet.
COLD. adj. and adv. Unrehearsed, as to lay down tracks cold, or without even seeing the script in advance, as in a cold reading.
COLLOQUY. n. An extended passage of dialogue between two characters in a play.
COMMEDIA DEL' ARTE. n. A popular, long-lived and seminal theatrical genre originating in Renaissance Italy, typified by stereotyped characters played by actors wearing masks, improvisation, recurring gags, and physical humor; it profoundly influenced Molière, Chaplin, Buster Keaton, the early Marx Brothers, burlesque and vaudeville comedy, Punch and Judy Shows, mime, circus clowns, and contemporary improvisational comedy.
COMEDIAN. n. 1) A performer of any kind specializing in comedy; 2) an actor specializing in comedy; 3) (poetic or archaic) an actor, even one who performs serious plays.
COMEDY. n. A play intended primarily to amuse; any play, especially a romantic one, with a happy ending, or employing comic structure.
COMEDY, SITUATION. n. A type of comedy, usually domestic, in which characters are made to react absurdly to farcical situations.
COMMERCIAL SOUND STUDIO. A sound studio that hires out its facilities, equipment and engineers to ad agencies, producers, and others, but produces little, if anything of its own.
COMPLICATION. n. A factor in the dramatic action that intensifies the conflict or a previous complication.
COMPRESSION. n. A type of automatic gain control (AGC) that reduces loudness above a preset ceiling and amplifies sounds below a preset floor.
COMPRESSOR. n. A device for effecting compression.
CONFLICT. n. A factor or person that opposes the protagonist and causes tension.
CONSOLE. n. See MIXING BOARD.
CONTACT SHEET. See SHEET, CONTACT.
CONVENTION. n. A stereotype artifice that an audience agrees to accept, as, in drama, an aside, or, in audio drama, a three-legged horse, a musical bridge or, for that matter, background music.
COPY. n. Text, as in "announce copy," the text the announcer is to read.
COPYRIGHT. n. A legal protection of an artistic or literary intellectual property, such as a script or audio production, against unauthorized use; to legally protect an intellectual property, especially by registering a published work with the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.
COPYRIGHT, COMMON LAW. A legal protection of an unpublished intellectual property, created when an author (or producer) mails the property to him/herself and keeps the sealed mailing container, the cancellation date of which provides the protection. Once a fairly common practice, common law copyrighting has diminished since the revamping of the U.S. copyright law in the 1980s.
CORE. A hub around which recording tape or film is wound for storage, to save money by conserving reels.
COUNTER, n. 1) in the studio, a device, somewhat like a timer, to count the expenditure of tape as it winds on the take-up reel; 2) v. in theater, to make as an actor an unmotivated movement on stage that balances the stage picture, hence, in a radio play, to pan a voice or sound to balance the stereo field.
CURTAIN LINE. The final line of a scene, act or play that provides a kind of punctuation, a sense of conclusion, or suspense.
COVER, v.int. In stage parlance, to position oneself on stage so that your back is mostly or completely to the audience. One is thus said to be in a covered position. See UNCOVER.
CRISIS. A minor or major point in the dramatic action in which the risk arising from conflict or complication requires a response from the protagonist.
CROSS. 1) v. To move across the stage or, in radio theater, across the stereo field; 2) n. a movement thus made.
CROSSFADE. 1) n. The simultaneous reduction of one sound, set of sounds or scene and simultaneously raising of another; 2) v. to make a crossfade.
CROSSTALK. See PRINT-THROUGH.
CUE. 1) v. to give a beginning signal, as when the director points to the actor or the studio cue light goes on; hence, to deliver a line, effect or musical passage that signals another line, effect or musical passage; 2) n. a beginning signal such as in the above examples; 3) the beginning or end of a sound, musical passage or line of dialogue.
CUE IN. The first line, sound or music of a program or tape.
CUE, OPERATIVE. The operative cue is the word or phrase in a line that motivates another character to speak or perform an action, even though it is not the final word or phrase of the speech.
CUE OUT. The sound or line that ends the tape or program, and that cues the live station engineer or announcer to go on with whatever is next.
CUE SHEET. See SHEET, CUE.
CUE, SYSTEMS. Same as cue out, usually consisting of the name and audio logo of the program's distributor.
CURTAIN. The final punctuation mark of a major division in a dramatic work; in theater, a black out, fade-out or lowering of the stage curtain; in audio drama, a fade-out, musical passage, or ring-out of a sound effect.
CURTAIN LINE. The last line of an act or play, usually, in the former instance, giving the audience a sense of anticipation for the next act, or, in the latter, giving a sense of finality; so-called because, on stage, it is the line that cues the curtain to fall.
CUT. 1) v. To edit; 2) n. an edit; 3) v. to record, as "to cut a track;" 4) v. (command) stop!
CUT TO: v. To transition instantly from one scene to another.
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DAT. n. Digital audio tape, a compact cartridge, like a miniature video tape cartridge, that stores electronic information that can be transformed into sound in the playback.
DAW. See DIGITAL AUDIO WORKSTATION.
dbx ® – A brand name for a device that reduces unwanted noise in an analog recording.
DEAD. adj. Lacking reverberation and overtones, said of an acoustical environment.
DEAD ROOM. A studio with neutral acoustics used to record outdoor scenes.
DEAL MEMO. In show business and elsewhere, a summary of contract stipulations, sometime used in lieu of a contract, but most often as a preliminary document.
DECAY. n. The diminution of sound, especially residual or ambient sound, such as an echo; also ring out.
DECIBEL or DB. n. A unit of sound volume.
DELIVER. v. 1) To speak a line effectively; 2) to get a product (in our case, a program) to consumers (audiences), which, in audio drama, could be by commercial recording, broadcast, cable cast, satellite radio, or live presentation.
DELIVERY. 1) The affective speaking of lines by an actor — the employment of cadence, timbre, quality, volume, etc. to imbue lines with meaning, emotion, beauty, and interest; 2) the method or system by which a program or product is put before audiences or consumers; delivery system.
DENOUEMENT. n. (from Fr., "end") dramatic action following the climax that resolves the plot; the falling action.
DESIGNER, SOUND. An audio engineer who assumes principal artistic responsible for composing and orchestrating sounds, music and voices in a production.
DEUS EX MACHINA. n. (from Gr., "God out of the Machine") An improbable or inorganic (see ORGANIC) plot contrivance to resolve the various complications of the dramatic action, such as the cavalry coming to the rescue, an unexpected inheritance, or a sudden remission.
DIALOGUE. The words uttered in a play; the lines given actors to speak.
DICTION. 1) The artistic choice and order of words; the vocabulary and syntax of a literary work; 2) the clear pronunciation and enunciation of consonants and vowels.
DIGITAL. adj. Pertaining to a method of turning sound informations [q.v.] into computer or electronic informations and then back again for recording, processing, and playing back; as opposed to analogue [q.v.] methods.
DIGITAL AUDIO WORK-STATION (DAW) – A computer with software capable of recording, editing, playing back, and otherwise manipulating audio. It is possible to produce entire radio programs on a DAW.
DIPLOPHONIC. adj. A diplophonic voice is one in which two simultaneous pitches are perceived.
DIRECTION. n. The guidance and instructions of the director, as in the phrase "to take direction," meaning to follow the director's orders, something actors are not equally capable of doing.
DIRECTOR. In American theater, television, cinema, and audio drama, the person who conducts performances and rehearsals and who supervises, defines, and gives unity to the performances; called, in Britain and elsewhere, the producer.
DIRECTOR, CASTING. A person, often licensed, hired to take charge of casting details for a production, series, or theater company.
DISPLACE ACTION. To call attention to an unimportant production element at the expense of an important one; to upstage.
DOCUDRAMA or DOCUMENTARY DRAMA. A presentation combining elements of theater and documentary; either a dramatization of historical or current events that makes, or purports to make, extensive use of authentic elements, or a purely fictive work, the documentary elements of which contribute to a sense of realism and immediacy.
DOLBY. A brand name. The Dolby company owns and licenses various technologies for noise reduction during recording and separately to allow surround sound reproduction during broadcast and film/video viewing.
DOPPLER EFFECT. An apparent pitch change that takes place as a sound approaches (getting higher) or recedes (getting lower) from a sound receiver.
DRAMA. (as opposed to theater [q.v.]): 1) The field of performance art concerned with the acting out of a story from a written script primarily using speech and movement; especially as pertains to the substantive and literary aspects of such performance art; 2) a type of play, serious in tone, but lacking the elevation and fatalism of tragedy.
DRAMA, AUDIO. Drama for the ear, whether performed live before an audience or transmitted via radio, cable audio, cassettes, compact disks, or other media; distinguished from play readings by its reliance on the electronic amplification, homogenization and manipulation of music, sound effects, and voices.
DRAMA, CLOSET. A type of play written to be read rather than performed, or a narrative poem cast as a play but meant to be read, e.g. Milton's Samson Agonistes, Goethe's Faust, Ibsen's Peer Gynt.
DRAMA, REMOTE. Dramatic performance employing technology to reach an audience physically removed from the performance space, and sometimes removed in time as well; the most far-reaching theatrical innovation of the twentieth century.
DRAMATIC. adj. Pertaining to drama; possessing values appropriate to drama, as considered exclusive of theatrical [q.v.] values.
DRAMATIC ACTION. n. See ACTION, DRAMATIC.
DRAMATIC LITERATURE. See LITERATURE, DRAMATIC.
DRAMATIC THEORY. See THEORY, DRAMATIC.
DRAMATIST. n. A playwright, particularly one who writes with distinction on serious subjects.
DRAMATIST, AUDIO (or RADIO DRAMATIST) n. A sonic auteur: one who writes, produces and directs audio drama professionally; a great unsung and persecuted benefactor of mankind.
DRAMATIZATION. n. A dramatic work adapted from non-dramatic source or sources.
DROP OUT. n. A technical aberration in which sound disappears or drops out of a section or sections of a sound recording.
DRY. adj. Lacking sound processing, especially equalization [q.v.] and reverb, said of a recording signal [q.v.].
DUB. 1) v. To copy recorded material; 2) n. a copy so made; hence, DUBBING, the copying of recorded material; sometimes refers to the process of mixing. See also OVERDUBBING.
DUMP. v.t. In digital recording, to save or store a sound file on a DAT or another medium, in order to free computer memory and disk space.
DYNAMICS. The variation or contrast in volume from the softest to the loudest sounds from a given source.
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EAR CANDY. Sound elements added for aural richness, but that do not significantly alter the dramatic story-line (bird ambience as opposed to a car crash, for instance).
ECHO. Reverberant sound, acoustically or electronically induced.
ECHO CHAMBER. An acoustic environment that enhances reverberation.
ENSEMBLE. 1) n. the quality of a performance in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; that is, the rapport among and the combined performances of the cast have a personality and importance greater than that of the performers individually; a work benefiting from strong ensemble is often called an ENSEMBLE PIECE; 2) adj. of such a quality; 3) n. a) The cast of a production; b) the performers in a repertory company.
EPIPHANY, EPIPHANAL MOMENT. (from Gr., "showing forth") 1) In drama, especially in tragedy, the protagonist's sudden insight into his/her condition or circumstances, caused by his/her struggle with antagonistic forces, that leads him/her to take action that brings on the climax or reversal (called by Aristotle anagnorisis); 2) a literary expression introduced by James Joyce to denote a gesture or action that sums up or reveals the essence of a fictional character to an audience.
EPISODE. 1) In broadcasting, a discrete program in a series or serial; 2) in drama, a unified portion of a plot, an incident.
EPISODIC. 1) adj, Containing many totally or partially self-contained episodes; 2) used pejoratively, containing too many scenes or episodes, and, hence, structurally weak or unwieldy; 3) n. a broadcast series of self-contained episodes, usually melodramas, featuring recurring lead characters and any number of transient secondary characters.
EQ. 1) To "equalize," or electronically adjust, the pitch of recorded sound; 2) equalization.
EQUALIZATION. The balance between the various frequencies of sound that affect pitch.
EQUALIZER. An electronic device that adjusts EQ.
EXCHANGE. n. In drama, a more or less unified chunk of dialogue between two or more characters; a question or statement by one character and its response from another.
EXPANDER. n. A form of automatic gain control [q.v.] that reduces low-level noise or expands the dynamic range of the recorded material.
EXPOSITION. Presentation of information essential to the understanding of the dramatic action, especially of events that occurred prior to the opening scene or off-stage.
EXPRESSIONISM. A stylized and highly personal form of theater in which reality is distorted by the passionate and distorted vision of the writer.
EXT. n. script abbreviation for "exterior."
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FADE. 1) v. To gradually diminish volume; 2) n. a change in volume so made.
FADE OUT.1) v. To gradually lower volume until the sound disappears; 2) n. a change in volume so made.
FADE UP. 1) v. To gradually raise volume; 2) n. a change in volume so made.
FADER. Manually operated, usually sliding, volume control on a mixing console [q.v.].
FAIR USE. (law) A stipulation in the Copyright act of 1976 (Section 107) under which some limited "fair use" may be made of a protected work without permission "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching . . . scholarship or research." Whether fair use includes such things as excerpting sections of commercial recordings _derived/Lexicon.htm_txt_ for background music in audio drama is not clear.
FARCE. A broad style of comedy that relies on ridiculous situations.
FAST-WIND. To spool or wind tape around a reel or hub at high speed. See also SLOW-WIND.
FAVORED NATIONS or FAVORED NATIONS CLAUSE. A contractual stipulation guaranteeing that no other contractee is receiving more favorable conditions (although others may receive conditions equally favorable).
FIELD. 1) An area out of the studio or controlled conditions where a recording is made; recordings thus made are FIELD RECORDINGS; 2) the area before or around a microphone effective for picking up sound.
FILTER. 1) v.t. To remove frequencies from a sound to remove unwanted sounds or to produce an effect, such as to reproduce the sound of telephone reception; 2) n., a device that produces such an effect, an equalizer; a script indication prescribing the use of such a device.
FLASHBACK. 1) v.i. To show events in retrospect; to interrupt a scene or scenes of current events with a scene, scenes, or scene fragment(s) of past events; 2) n., a retrospective scene.
FLIES. n. Area over the stage in a theater, where weights (typically sandbags), curtains, cycloramas, special effects, and scenery may be raised and stored out of the audience's view.
FLOAT. v.t. To protect a recording or broadcast environment from outside vibration, as from passing traffic, by building it as an inner room connected to an outer room by shock absorbing springs, or raising a false floor over the real one.
FLUB. 1) n. An actor's mistake of delivery; 2) v.i. to make such a mistake.
FLYING/ON THE FLY. "Winging it," especially overdubbing or punching in a sound or piece of music without preparation.
FOIL. A character whose dramatic purpose is to set off another character by contrast; a side-kick.
FOLDBACK. n. Sound which is fed into an earphone during a recording or ADR session.
FOLEY or FOLEY EFFECTS. (from Jack Foley, a film sound mixer) In broadcast drama and film, sound effects laid in live during mastering or overdubbing, and not prerecorded. A studio built for the production of such effects is a FOLEY STAGE, FOLEY ROOM, or (rarely) ADR room.
FOLEY WALKER. One who specializes in foley effects, so called because making footfall sounds is a principal responsibility.
FORESHADOW, FORESHADOWING. In a play or other literary work, it is often necessary to drop hints of a major happening or revelation, so that when it occurs it will not appear to come out of nowhere. This is called foreshadowing. It also helps build suspense and provide unity.
FRAMING DEVICE. A plot device to set off the dramatic action within the context of an amplifying situation, which opens and closes, or frames, the main action, as when the play unfolds in retrospect, or in a "play within a play."
FRENCH SCENE. See SCENE, FRENCH.
FRICATIVE. A vocalization — such as the letters f, s, v, and z — produced by forcing breath through a narrow opening in the mouth. These sounds tend to pop [q.v.] the mike.
FULFILLMENT. The segment of business operations dealing with fulfilling orders, as when listeners order cassettes, transcripts, or other premiums. A firm that specializes in this is called a FULFILLMENT HOUSE.
FUNCTION, DRAMATIC. The author's theatrical purpose in including a character, scene, or other element into a dramatic work.
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GAIN. Loudness, sonic volume.
GATE or NOISE GATE. A machine that reduces tape hiss, room tone, and other unwanted noise during transmission or recording by reducing or shutting off sound below a preset floor.
GATING. Employing a device that shuts off sound under a preset minimum and turns it on again when it exceeds the minimum. Used for noise reduction.
GENERATION. A recording considered in relation to its distance from the original live sound; the original recording of the live sound, the master, is the first generation; a dub of that recording, which may or may not include additional sounds, is the second generation; a dub of the dub is third generation, etc.
GENERATION LOSS. A degradation in quality that frequently occurs when recorded sound goes down another generation.
GENRE. A literary "species" or form, such as tragedy, sitcom, Western, soap, docudrama, etc.
GENRE WRITING. Writing in a genre subject to highly prescripted structure, tone, atmosphere, style, dialogue and characterization.
GLOTTAL STOP (or click). A transient sound caused by the sudden onset or offset of phonation [q.v.], as in the common American pronunciation of the word "button."
GOBO. n. (studio slang) a free-standing, usually portable, sound baffle [q.v.].
GOTHIC. adj. as applied to drama and literature, an atmosphere of foreboding, oppressive gloom, suspense and the other-worldly.
GRAMS. (BBC usage, short for "gramophone") 1) A script indication, usually in documentaries, that signifies the use of a prerecorded, often historical or vintage, sound byte, or bed; 2) recorded effects.
GRAMS OPERATOR. (BBC) The studio technician in charge of laying down prerecorded music, sounds, and voices.
GRAND GUIGNOL (from Fr. Theâtre du grand guignol [Theatre of the Big Puppet] in Paris, a notorious hole-in-the-wall playhouse at the turn-of-the-century where such performances originated), sometimes simply GUIGNOL (pronounced geen-YOLE). n. adj. A theater movement or style characterized by excessive melodrama, violence, gore, and spectacle; hence, anything graphically shocking, violent, and gory.
GRAVEL BOX, GRAVEL PIT. A Foley device for making the sound of footfalls on various surfaces, whether of gravel or another material.
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HAMARTIA. See TRAGIC FLAW.
HASH or GROTZEL. Unwanted random sounds, such as tape hiss, print-through, clicks from bad edits and punches, intrusive room tone, etc.
HEAD/TAPE HEAD. The magnetic device on a recorder that touches the tape and either records (RECORD HEAD) or reproduces (PLAYBACK HEAD) sound.
HEAD, SYNC. A head that plays back previously recorded sounds in synchronization to new sounds as they are being laid down on the same tape.
HEADROOM. n. The dynamic area between the median or average level of a sound recording and the loudest undistorted sound possible.
HISS. n. see NOISE, WHITE.
HIT ONE'S MARK. See MARK.
HOLD BOOK. v.i. To read the script while talent [q.v.] performs and note errors, interpolations, transpositions that may necessitate retakes.
HOT. A microphone or track that has been turned on or receiving sound informations is said to be hot.
HOT ON MIKE. Intimate and very close to the microphone to take advantage of the proximity effect [q.v.], said of delivery.
HOUSE. n. 1) The portion of an auditorium in front of the stage, including the seating area, foyer and box office, hence, 2) the audience present in an auditorium during a live performance.
HOUSE MANAGER. The person in charge of managing the house (q.v.) during a live performance, including supervising ushers, box office staff, concessionaires and custodial personnel; co-equal to and liaison with the stage manager (q.v.).
HOUSE STAFF. The resident personnel of a theater or auditorium who maintain the facility, man the box office, handle crowd control, operate and maintain equipment and supplies, etc.
HOUSE. 1) A "live" audience, i.e., an audience bodily present in the performance environment. "What a great house we had today" translates as "What a receptive and responsive audience we had today;" "nice house" = "large audience;" etc.; 2) the area of a performance space reserved for the audience, as distinguished from the stage, wings, and back stage.
HUBRIS. (from Gr.: "pride") Excessive confidence, cosmic arrogance, overweening pride, usually the mistaken overestimate of one's capacity to control one's destiny or contend with God; often the one tragic flaw in an otherwise noble character.
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INDEPENDENT. A station neither owned nor affiliated with a network.
IN MEDIAS RES. (from Gr.: "in the middle of things") A plot device wherein the action begins close to the climax or at an exciting point, flashes back to the beginning and then proceeds to the end.
INAMORATA. 1) the role of female love interest; 2) the actress playing or specializing in such roles; 3) the leading lady of a commedia dell'arte troupe.
INBOARD. adj. Built-in, as opposed to outboard, frequently used in relation to sound equipment.
INDEX. 1) n. An electronic signal that can be laid on a DAT or CD to mark the beginning of a take or passage to be played, so that in playback the DAT can be instantly cued to that point; hence 2) v. to mark a DAT with such a signal.
INDICATE. To play a quality as an actor superficially and without investment or sincerity, usually obviously so; to employ indication.
INDICATION. A conventionalized or broad physical or vocal gesture substituting for one that the audience could not perceive, such as a stage whisper; hence the affectation of emotion, display of all the outward signs of emotion with no inner truth; the going through the motions; in script writing, an instruction to the actor, director or engineer written into the script; a stage direction.
INFORMATION / INFORMATIONS. The code inscribed in a transmission substance (film emulsion, radio waves, electro-magnetic energy) captured on or flowing through a medium (film, tape, air, cable) that is made from light and sound that can be transformed back into light and sound.
INGÉNUE. [ON-zhah-noo] 1) The conventional role of attractive, young female lead; 2) an actress playing or specializing in such roles.
IN POST. During post-production.
IN REPERTORY. adv. Said of an engagement, season, or set of performances of a star performer or performance ensemble, especially a theatrical one: in a revolving repertory of performance pieces or plays; broadcasts in repertory are rare in American radio, but not unheard of.
INT. n. script abbreviation for "interior."
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. See PROPERTY, INTELLECTUAL
INTERCUT. 1) v. To interrupt the recording of a scene because of a flub and then to resume recording from or just prior to the stopping point; 2) n. a correction thus made.
INTERIOR MONOLOGUE. n. A soliloquy representing the unspoken thoughts of a character in a play; in radio often electronically set-off from normal dialogue.
INTERLUDE. n. A conversation, skit, scene, musical number, often only tangentially related to the plot, that suspends the flow of dramatic action.
IPS. Inches per second, a standard unit of analogue [q.v.] recording and playback speed in America. Professional recordings are made no slower than 7-1/2 ips, and may be made at 15 ips, 30 ips, or faster, to increase sound quality.
IRONY. n. A literary device, and one particularly used in drama, in which what is stated contrasts or conflicts with what is wryly suggested.
ISBN. The International Standard Book number, used to accurately and swiftly identify books, audios, videos and software by publishers, stores, libraries, universities, wholesalers and distributors.
ISO BOOTH. (isolation booth), a small room, often adjacent to or within a larger studio, for recording a sound in isolation from other sounds.
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JUMP or JUMP CUT. n. A sudden transition between scenes of a radio and teleplay, indicated in scripts by the phrases JUMP TO . . . or CUT TO . . . .
JUVENILE. n. See boy.
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KEEPER. (studio) n. A good take. _derived/Lexicon.htm_txt_
KUNSTKOPF. (Ger.: "art head") n. The head-shaped microphone assembly used in recording binaural audio.
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LAMPOON. 1) n. A light, good-humored satire; 2) v.t. to satirize light-heartedly.
LAVALIERE. n. A type of small, personal microphone that may be worn unobtrusively on the body.
LAW OF DIMINISHING RETURNS. In all types of performance and presentation, whether theatrical, literary, musical, sports-related, journalistic, or otherwise, the effect of boredom produced by _derived/Lexicon.htm_txt_ duration on an audience; the longer a performance or presentation, the more the law of diminishing returns must be counteracted by ever more impressive effects or ever more absorbing content.
LAY DOWN. v.t. to record (something).
LAY IN. v.t. To overdub.
LAZZO, plural LAZZI. n. Recurring or running gag, skit, stage business or comic routine of the commedia dell'arte, hence any such business recurring or imbedded in various contexts and various works, such as the "Slowly I Turned" lazzo of Vaudeville.
LEAD. (Pronounced with long "e") n. The most or one of the most important actors or roles in a dramatic production; a principal role or player.
LEADER. 1) n. A length of non-recordable film, tape or paper that can be edited to analog recording tape or film to mark cues or protect the ends from damage; 2) v. to separate tracks with leader.
LEADING MAN or LEADING LADY. n. An actor who usually plays only the most important roles in dramatic productions; the actor playing the most important role in a specific production.
LEAK. v.i. to leak from one track [q.v.] or microphone to another; said of sounds.
LEAKAGE. n. Sound leaking into a microphone not intended to pick it up.
LEVEL. n. Sound volume.
LIBRETTO. n. The spoken portion of a musical play script; in opera, the entire text.
LIMIT. v. To use an electronic device to keep transmitted or recorded sounds below a preset threshold of volume.
LIMITER. n. An electronic device that limits sound — that is, keeps loud sounds beneath a preset ceiling of volume; similar to a compressor [q.v.].
LIMIT, PEAK. v., to set an AGC [q.v.] so that it brings down the volume of only the "peaks," or loudest sounds, thus preventing distortion.
LINE. n. A unit of dialogue equivalent to a phrase, sentence, or speech, depending upon the context in which the word is used.
LINES. n. Dialogue.
LITERATURE, DRAMATIC. n. The body of written drama, especially that which possesses literary merit as well as, or more than, theatrical merit; drama considered as a branch of literature.
LIVE. [pronounced with long "i"] 1) adj. An acoustical environment possessing reverberation; 2) adj. & adv., unrecorded, in real time, during performance, as "a live broadcast."
LOMBARD EFFECT. n. The adjustment of vocal loudness according to the level of auditory stimulation, particularly in noisy environments.
LOOP, or TAPE LOOP. n. A tape that has been spliced into a loop so that the sound recorded on it can be extended indefinitely, usually to provide a bed for other sounds.
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MANNERISM, to be MANNERED. An actor's often repetitious affectation of performance, used to disguise fatigue, indifference, jitters, or a lack of real technique; in art and literature, any overused and stale stylistic device.
MARQUEE VALUE. The ability of the publicized name of a performer, author, director, composer, et al., to attract audiences to a production.
MARK. n. In film and television, a position on a set where an actor is to stand or is to move to, in order to be in the frame of the camera; hence, in audio, the actor's mike position as spiked [q.v.] on the studio floor; TO HIT ONE'S MARK is to arrive at the mark after a cross [q.v.].
MASK or MASQUE. n. A character of the commedia dell'arte (e.g. Harlequin, Pierrot, Pantalone); hence any stereotyped comic character (e.g. Chaplin's Tramp, Mickey Mouse, Paul Rubens's Peewee Herman) whose name, personality, costume, and make-up recur in various otherwise disconnected theatrical works.
MASTER. 1) n. The raw first generation recording from which the overdub and mix is made; also VOICE MASTER, MUSIC MASTER, etc.; 2) n. the final mix or completely packaged program from which all copies are to be made; also BROADCAST MASTER, TRANSMISSION MASTER; 3) v. to record a master.
MEIOSIS. Rhetorical understatement.
MELODRAMA. 1) Used pejoratively, an inflated, unctuous style of writing or performing; hammy performance; 2) a style of drama in which good and evil are personified in opposing characters, and often including sensational elements; 3) a theatrical form of the 18th Century in which spoken lines are heavily underscored by instrumental music, which evolved into a popular 19th century form, incorporating elements of definition 2 with songs or ballads, which heavily influenced grand opera and led to melodrama in the modern senses.
METAPHOR. The comparison of essentially unlike things, such as "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." (Shakespeare) When the things compared are joined by a connective, it is a SIMILE, as in "Life is like a sewer; you get out of it exactly what you put into it." (Tom Lehrer.) Sometimes the metaphor is submerged or implied, as in this 16th century lyric comparing love's absence to drought:
Western wind, when wilt thou blow,
The small rain down can rain?
Christ, if my love were in my arms
And I in my bed again!METONYMY. The substitution of the name for one thing for another that it closely relates to, as when speaking of someone's hand to mean someone's handwriting.
MIKE 1) n. microphone; 2) v.t. to use a microphone.
MICROPHONE, BOOM. A microphone held at the end of a boom [q.v.].
MICROPHONE, SHOTGUN. A long thin microphone which is designed to reject all sounds except those directly in front of it.
MIKE TECHNIQUE. the skill and methodology by which talent uses a microphone to advantage.
MIS EN SCÈNE (Fr. literally "placement/setting in the theater."). 1) n. the staging or production design of a dramatic work, considering such factors as blocking, scenery, props, lighting, costuming, sound plot and direction of the actors as they form an artistic physical, optisonic, [q.v.] or sonic interpretation of the work; hence, 2) in cinema (and by extension in any form of theater), a director's, especially an auteur's, style, as manifested in a particular work, or in the director's collective ouvre.
MIX. 1) n. a recording made from a master and sounds, music and voices blended together in final or near final form; 2) n. the process by which such a recording is made; 3) v. to combine prerecorded sound, music and voices into final or near final form.
MIXER. The engineer who handles post-production.
MIXING BOARD. See BOARD, MIXING.
MONO (monophonic sound). Sound originating from one sound source or speaker.
MOS. Man-on-the-street; when MOS occurs as a script indication, it means that the dialogue that follows comes from an interview with an ordinary citizen recorded in the field.
MOUNT. v.t. To produce or direct a theatrical event, as "to mount a production."
MP2: (MPEG layer 2), A commonly used digital picture compression format used for moving and still images. It is the format used for the visual elements on DVD disks.
MP3. (MPEG layer 3) An audio compression technology developed in Germany that compresses CD-quality sound by a factor of 12, while providing almost the same fidelity. MP3 has made it feasible to download quality audio from the Web very quickly and to load a great deal of sound information on a normal-sized compact disk.
MP4: (MPEG layer 4), A more recent audio compression format that is similar to mp3 in use, except that it is often used for more than two channels of audio. It is the format used for Dolby [q.v.] Digital surround sound on DVD disks.
MORPHEME. n. In grammar, the smallest unit of meaning; any word or part of a word that conveys meaning and cannot be further divided into smaller meaningful elements.
MS PATTERN. A stereophonic recording technique which uses two microphones. Unlike x-y [q.v.], the microphones are not identical and they must be physically as close to each other as possible.
MUTLIMEDIA. See OPTISONIC.
MULTITRACK. A method of mixing audio programs using three or more discrete channels of sound that are mixed down to one or two.
MUSIC, BACKGROUND. Music that the characters supposedly do not hear and that the audience pretends not to hear, that seems to arise from ethereal musicians, and that reinforces the mood or atmosphere of a scene.
MUSIC, SOURCE. As distinguished from background music, music that supposedly originates in the environment of a scene and that the characters hear, as the band in a night club.
MUSIC, STOCK. Generic prerecorded music.
MUSIC, TITLE. The theme music or leitmotif for a program or series. MAIN TITLE: The theme music that opens a program, hence, the entire program opening; the billboard. CLOSING or END TITLE: The theme music that closes the program, hence, the entire program closing, outro.
MUTE. v.t. To turn off one or more tracks while recording, mixing or listening.
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NAB. The National Association of Broadcasters. An important professional trade organization, primarily serving commercial broadcasting industry.
NAME. A star; a well-known or prestigious performer, director, or producer whose participation will lend prestige, credibility, legitimacy, or audience appeal to a production.
NARRATE. To describe or tell at length, in drama especially of off-stage action.
NARRATION. Descriptive speeches, especially of off-stage action; any speech of a Chorus or narrator.
NARRATIVE. A story, tale.
NARRATIVE HOOK. A plot device or any other stratagem that grabs the audience's attention at the beginning of a dramatic program.
NATURALISM. A style of writing and performance in which the situations are presented with convincing but selective verisimilitude.
NEEDLE DROP. A fee paid to the copyright owner or publisher every time a stock effect or piece of music is used in an audio production.
NETWORK. A regional or national organization offering subscribing stations and O and Os programs and other services.
NOISE. Unwanted sound, hash. Tracks are said to be noisy, not when they're loud, but when hash is intrusive.
NOISE GATE. See gate, noise.
NOISE, PINK. A defined spectrum of noise which, when its frequncy contents are divided into musical octaves, contains equal energy in each octave. It is used to align electronic and acoustic playback devices. It sounds like a somewhat muffled white noise.
NOISE, WHITE. defined spectrum of noise which contains equal energy at each and every individual frequency. It is often called hiss.
NPR. National Public Radio, the radio equivalent of PBS, with which it is often confused by civilians.
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O AND O or O & O. A station owned and operated by a national network.
OBJECTIVE. n. The (often covert) aim of a character in a scene, the theory being that every character in every scene has some sort of objective that performers must recognize to make the scene work dramatically.
OFF MIKE. Away from the microphone, the audio equivalent of up stage. (See BACK)
ON MIKE. "Down stage" or at the ideal microphone position.
OBLIGATORY SCENE. See SCENE, OBLIGATORY.
ONOMATOPOEIA. A word or expression that sounds like the thing it describes, such as slush, pow, sizzle, thud.
OPTISONIC. adj. Pertaining to remote dramatic forms combining light and sound, such as film, video tape, optical disk and other technologies; multimedia. (my coinage).
ORGANIC. adj. 1) In playwrighting, arising intrinsically, as from the natural consequences of the characters, their situations and interactions, as opposed to a contrivance such as a deus ex machina [q.v.]; 2) in acting, employing one's own emotional equipment appropriately and spontaneously in performance, as opposed to "indication" [q.v.].
OUT or SOUND OUT. A script indication for an abrupt drop to zero volume.
OUTBOARD. adj. In electronics, external; as a device that can be wired to a tape recorder or console that enhances its performance.
OUTTAKE. A bad take or one not destined for use.
OVERDUB. 1) v. In multitracking [q.v.], to record sounds, music or voices on empty tracks of an already recorded tape in preparation for mixing; 2) n. the stage of the production process in which this is done.
OVER-MODULATION. Sound distortion and/or signal break-up in a recording, playback or broadcast resulting from two much gain.
OVER-PRODUCE. v. to including too many sound elements to a mix [q.v.], thereby muddying focus and confusing the listener.
OXYMORON. An expression combining contradictions, as "thunderous silence" or "honest politician."
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PA or PRODUCTION ASSISTANT. The producer's and/or director's assistant in the studio; the radio equivalent to the stage manager.
PACIFICA. A small but influential public radio network and program syndicator, generally considered far less politically neutral than PRI or NPR.
PACKAGE. 1) v. To add the wrap-arounds, credits, break announcements and previews to a final mix so that the program is ready to air; 2) n. a bundle of programs, or a bundle of services accompanying a program, offered to stations by a distributor, or to the distributor by a producer.
PACKAGING. The wrap-arounds, credits, break announcements, and previews that make a program ready to air and help make an audience receptive to the program.
PAGEANT. An elaborate celebratory or "occasional" (i.e., celebrating or marking a special event) kind of loosely constructed theatrical work, often essentially dramatic, emphasizing sentiment and spectacle, built around a central theme of great significance to the community at large.
PAGEANTRY. Spectacular display, magnificent theatricality.
PANDER TO AN AUDIENCE. To subvert artistic integrity by creating or altering a literary work or performance opportunistically, thus lessening its artistic merit, to gain the approbation of an audience.
PAN. v.t, To move sound in stereo artificially.
PAN POT. See POT, PAN.
PAPER THE HOUSE. To stack an audience of a live performance with friends, family, supporters, and others to make the house appear full or to ensure a warm audience reaction, or both.
PARADOX. A statement or situation that seems, but need not be, self-contradictory.
PARODY. 1) n. a literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect or ridicule; a travesty; 2) v.t. To make a parody of.
PASS. n, One continuous pass of the recording tape over the record head of the tape recorder, during a session; a take.
PATCH. 1) v. To connect one piece of electronic equipment to another by some temporary device, so that they interact; 2) n. a connection so made.
PATCH BAY. A bank of receptors, usually on the console and resembling an old fashioned telephone switchboard, for patching.
PATCH, PHONE. A hook-up between a telephone line and a recording or broadcasting device so that sound information may be captured or broadcast directly from the line.
PATHOS. That which evokes sympathy, sorrow, or pity.
PERIPHRASIS. The substitution of a descriptive phrase for the name of something, either because it expresses more than the name alone, or because expressive precision is for some reason impossible; as "wet roads" for sea, "tawny majesty" for lion, or "whatshisname, that writer with the beard who blew his brains out" for Hemingway.
PERSONIFICATION. The giving of human attributes to non-human things, as in expressions like "cruel sea," "howling gale," "blushing rose," "rosy-fingered dawn," etc.
PHASE. The synchronicity between two sound signals or electrical currents, especially the channels of a stereo mix, which, when exactly in sync, are said to be IN PHASE, and when not, OUT OF PHASE. When many mikes are hot and out of phase, or when equipment is miswired, stereo mixes could suffer from PHASE CANCELLATION, in which one or more tracks disappear.
PHASER or PHASE SHIFTER. A device for adjusting the phase of a sound in stereo to produce a desired effect.
PHASE SHIFT. The fraction of a complete cycle elapsed as measured from a specified reference point and expressed as an angle; out of phase; in an un-synchronized or un-correlated way.
PHASE CANCELLATION. The loss of sound frequencies caused when two identical signals, as a sound in stereo center recorded on two stereo channels are out of phase.
PHONATION. n. The production of sound by means of vocal cord vibration.
PHONEME. n. An individual sound unit of a spoken language, whose combination with other phonemes, in a particular order, produces morphemes [q.v.].
PHYSICALITY. In audio drama, an element of palpable reality, such as touching, movement, gesture, etc. used by talent as a performance aid; the physical relationship with other characters, gesture, environment and movement that the talent can convey vocally, though standing still at the mike.
PICK UP. 1) n. a wild line or intercut; 2) v. a line or sequence of lines recorded wild; 3) n. directorial note given to actors between takes, run-throughs or performances.
PICK IT UP. A direction ordering talent to quicken the pace of delivery [q.v.].
PICK UP (or TIGHTEN) ONE'S CUES. to leave less pause between the beginning of one's line and the end of the previous line.
PIN. v.i. Said of the signal [q.v.], to be so load as to drive the needle of the V.U. [q.v.] meter all the way to the left; to be so loud as to cause distortion.
PINK NOISE. See NOISE, PINK.
PITCH. The pitch of a voice corresponds perceptually to the number of times per second the vocal folds come together during phonation [q.v.]. For example, a pitch corresponding to 250 Hz (near middle C on the piano) means that the vocal folds vibrate away from and then back toward each other 250 times per second (250 cycles per second).
PLAYER, SUPPORTING. An actor playing a secondary of tertiary role in a production.
PLOSIVE. n. A vocalization produced by the total stoppage and sudden release of breath, such as the initial sounds in the words Pet, kite and tar. Such sounds tend to "pop" [q.v.] the mike .
PLOT. 1) n. As opposed to story, the events of a fictional work arranged in order of presentation; 2) v. to arrange a story into a plot.
PLOT POINT. A bit of information that must register with the audience before it can understand why the dramatic action is moving in certain directions.
POETIC JUSTICE. The doctrine that fictional characters should receive their just deserts in a fitting way, that by the end of the work, evil should be punished and virtue rewarded.
POINT OF ATTACK. The point in a story at which the playwright begins the action. The point of attack does not necessarily coincide with the beginning of the story. Easy changes of scene permit a playwright to present most of the story directly; in Macbeth, for example, the point of attack is near the beginning of the story, but in such modern plays, such as Ibsen's Ghosts, ... the point of attack (is) almost immediately before the catastrophe and (tells) most of his story through exposition.
POP. 1) v. To make a popping sound by pronouncing a plosive or fricative too directly into a microphone; 2) n. a sound so made.
POP FILTER/WIND SCREEN. A device fitting over the microphone to reduce unwanted sounds from pops, exhalations, and the flow of air in a recording environment.
PORTMANTEAU WORD. A word derived from fragments of other words to express a combined meaning; for instance, "grumble," to complain under one's breath, combines "gripe" and "mumble."
P.O.V. Point of view, the desired illusion of physical audience orientation towards a scene or scene fragment, as when all sounds are heard from a specific character's POV.
POST-PRODUCTION or POST. All studio work done on a program after the taping of voices or music: editing, overdubbing, mixing.
POT. n. A fader [q.v.], usually used to denote old-style rotary fader.
POT, PAN. n. A rotary device on a mixing console for adjusting stereo, which can by rotated to "pan" a sound right and left.
PRINCIPAL. n. One of the lead actors or roles in a dramatic production.
PRE-MIX. 1) v. To mix part of the sounds of a scene or production before mixing all of them or before the voice session; 2) n. a partial sound mix.
PREPARATION. n. Information that has to be planted in advance of an action in order to make it believable. Also called PRIMING or THE SET-UP.
PRESENCE. n. 1) Stage or mike presence, the quality in a performer of looking or sounding as if he or she belongs on a stage, or sounds as if he or she belongs in front of a mike ; presence comes from confidence, technique and indefinable intuitive factors; (studio) overtones on sounds, 2) the audible flow of air and ambient noise picked up by a mike or mics and peculiar to the sonic environment; also called ROOM TONE.
PRIME. To prepare an audience for an action or an effect, by planting information or employing other preparatory stylistic elements in advance of the action or effect.
PRINT-THROUGH. An unwanted echo of sound recorded on a reel of analogue tape, caused by saturated layers printing through to adjacent layers wound above and below it.
PROBLEM PLAY. n. A play written to examine a moral, societal, or political problem.
PRODUCER. n. A job title with many definitions, from a kind of glorified flunky to the big boss or creative agent employed on a program or production. In theater outside the United States, the producer is what we call the director. In audio drama, the executive who oversees all production activity and personnel, and who has the creative and managerial responsibility for the final production.
PRODUCER, EXECUTIVE. n. The executive who supervises the producer and who has all administrative and fiscal (sometimes also marketing, promotion and distribution) responsibility for a production.
PRODUCTION, APHONIC. n. Aphonic vocal production means that there is no phonation (no vibration of the vocal folds), as in voiceless whisper or severe laryngitis that prevents vocal fold vibration.
PROMO. n. A spot announcement advertising the program.
PROP. n. any noise maker (excluding body parts and shoes) during Foley [q.v.] recording.
PROPERTY. n. 1) A script, or literary work used as the basis for a script, considered as a production commodity; 2) in theater, any object picked up and handled by actors on stage during a performance, often abbreviated to "prop."
PROPERTY, INTELLECTUAL n. A product of imagination — such as a novel, play, recording, painting, invention — capable of some sort of physical embodiment.
PROTAGONIST. The main character of a play; the hero.
PROXIMITY EFFECT. The "warming" or mellowing of a sound from enhancement of low frequencies, produced when the source moves close to the microphone.
PSA. Public service announcement; a commercial for a non-profit organization or a charitable cause.
PUBLIC DOMAIN. A concept in copyright law concerning the expiration of copyright and other intellectual property protections (e.g. patents, trade marks). A work is protected only for a limited time, after which it "falls into the public domain," or becomes the common property of the human race.
PUMPING. An undesirable distortion of sound caused by too much compression [q.v.].
PUNCH. 1) v. To make an edit or to overdub a sound by turning on the record button as the moving tape passes the record head (also punch in); 2) n. an edit so made; in theater: 3) v. to emphasize a word, line or sound; 4) n. emphasis of a word, line or sound.
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QUAD. Short for quadraphonic; four-channel stereo requiring two front and two back speakers.
QUAD, MATRIXED. Three-channel stereo, required when broadcasting quad under certain conditions, using two front channels and one rear channel matrixed to give a quadraphonic effect.
QUALITY or VOICE QUALITY. The quality of the sounds we hear is determined by the sound made at the larynx, the filtering of the sound by the vocal tract (the airway above the larynx), and the reception and processing of the sound by the ear and brain. Breathy voice quality suggests that a relatively large amount of air is used during phonation [q.v.]. Some of the air is not modulated by the vibrating vocal folds, but comes through the glottis as turbulent flow converted to noise. Usually when there is breathy phonation, the glottis does not fully close during vocal fold vibration.
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RADIO, COMMERCIAL. The system of stations financed primarily by the sale of advertising time.
RADIO, COMMUNITY. The system of non-commercial broadcasters, many of them public radio stations, emphasizing volunteer, inclusive, community participation in station operations.
RADIO, PUBLIC. The system of non-commercial stations operating nominally in the community interest, under qualifications set by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
RADIO, SATELLITE. See SATELLITE RADIO.
RADIO, UNIVERSITY. The system of non-commercial stations, usually not CPB qualified, operated at low power by universities primarily to serve the university community and to train or provide recreation for student volunteers. Many American colleges have their own 50-watt stations.
READ-THROUGH [n.] READ THROUGH [v.] 1) n. a run-through in which the cast reads a play aloud without movement or interruption from the director; table work; 2) v. to hold or participate in a read-through.
REALISM. A type of political expressionism [q.v.] originating in Germany after World War I; the theatrical and literary equivalent to the editorial cartoon.
RECAP. 1) n. (recapitulation) a summary of the action that has transpired thus far in the dramatic work, as at the beginning of serial episodes or as appears when necessary to reinforce plot points; 2) v. to make such a summary, to recapitulate.
RECORDIST. The recording engineer; the engineer operating the console during mastering.
REGISTER. Perceptually distinct region of vocal quality as pitch or loudness is changed; speaking registers are commonly differentiated as (from low to high) pulse, modal and falsetto.
REMOTE. n. a television or radio session held "in the field," that is, outside of the studio; a production or part of a production so made; adj. pertaining to field production;
REPERTOIRE. See repertory.
REPERTORY. n. the works represented in a season of performance, REPERTOIRE; the technique or bag of tricks, considered critically, at the command of a performer, ensemble or artist: technique; a method of presenting a season of performance in which an ensemble of performers is engaged to appear in works alternating throughout the performance year.
REPERTORY COMPANY or REPERTORY ENSEMBLE. A theater troupe consisting of actors engaged for the season, presenting works in repertory; used somewhat improperly, a theater troupe presenting regular seasons of works, whether sequentially or alternating, whether with an ensemble engaged for the season or performers engaged per production.
REPRESENTATIONALISM. Playwrighting and theatrical presentation in which action is presented on a bare or austere stage and in which much of the action and locale are suggested by the lines are said to be "representational." Examples include Greek tragedy and Elizabethan plays.
RESONANCE. n. 1) the intensification and enrichment of voiced sounds by supplementary vibration of the resonating chambers of the throat, mouth and nasal cavities that intensifies and enriches the tone; hence, 2) the emotional or intellectual intensification and enrichment of a sound, sight or writing that excites thoughts of other significant sounds, sights or writings.
REVERB. Reverberation; a sonic overtone purposely introduced to give the impression of some kind of live indoor environment, as a cave, auditorium, hallway, etc. See also ECHO.
REVERSAL. (also puerility) See TURNING POINT.
RF. Radio frequencies; the often unwanted reception of broadcast signals on recording or playback equipment.
RHETORIC. 1) The art or study of using language effectively and persuasively; a treatise or book discussing this art; 2) Skill in using language effectively and persuasively; 3) a style of speaking or writing, especially the language of a particular subject; 4) Language that is elaborate, pretentious, insincere, or intellectually vacuous.
RIDE GAIN. To manually control the volume during recording or mixing.
RING OUT. See decay.
ROLE, SUPPORTING. A secondary character in a dramatic work.
ROMANCE: A literary work or play appealing to a sense of adventure, often episodic and melodramatic, taking place on a vast terrain and emphasizing thrilling incidents and romantic love; a literary work or play, about the love lives of appealing principal characters, and celebrating the importance of romantic love.
ROOM TONE. See PRESENCE.
RUN-THROUGH [n.] or RUN THROUGH [v.]. 1) n. the uninterrupted rehearsal of an extended portion of a script or the entire script; 2) v. to rehearse an extended portion of or the entire script without interruption.
RUN-THROUGH, FINAL: n. In audio drama, the last rehearsal, especially or a work to be recorded or broadcast before a studio audience, held as if it were an actual performance; the radio equivalent of a dress rehearsal.
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SAFETY COPY or SAFETY. A good quality copy of the final mix or packaged program kept in case something happens to the master.
SAMPLER. A digital gizmo for digitizing, archiving, adjusting and playing sound files.
SAMPLING FREQUENCY or SAMPLING RATE. The rate at which an analog signal is sampled or converted into digital data.
SATELLITE RADIO. The audio equivalent of satellite television; at the beginning of the 21ast century, only two satellite licensees are developing technology and programming.
SATIRE. A type of comedy, low or high, that ridicules aspects of human behavior, the purpose of which is to arouse contempt for the object.
SATURATE. To raise the sound levels during recording above the highest point that the recording medium can tolerate, incurring resultant distortion and possibly print-through [q.v.].
SATURATION. Distortion of sound on a recording medium due to high sonic volume.
SCALE. n. Minimum payment for work tolerated by a union per the applicable union-management agreement.
SCENARIO. A narrative outline of a plot; see also treatment, bible.
SCENE. A dramatic unit in which all action is continuous and ensues in one location; by extension, continuous action within a scene in the first sense, unified by mood, participating characters or spine, etc. useful as rehearsal units; the locale or setting of a unit of action.
SCENE-À-FAIRE. See SCENE, OBLIGATORY.
SCENE, FRENCH. A unit of continuous dramatic action delimited by the entrance or exit of one or more characters; for logistical reasons, the director sometimes divides a play into French scenes for rehearsal or taping purposes.
SCENE, OBLIGATORY. The climactic scene in a well-made play in which all the threads of the plot are unsnarled; a scene necessitated by audience expectations, balance, completeness, poetic justice, etc. though not essential to the plot, as when the fate of a character the audience has taken an interest in is shown after the character has stopped playing an important role in the action.
SCHMALTZ. n. (Yiddish: "chicken fat") Lugubrious and insincere sentimentality; `laying it on thick.'
SCRUB. v. In conventional audio editing, the tape is sometimes rocked back and forth over the playback head to find the exact editing point; scrubbing is the digital equivalent.
SHTICK. Excessive, hammy, stereotyped mannerism, or an actor's overused bag of tricks, especially when used for low humor or to pander to an audience; not always a pejorative term.
SECOND. n. An apprentice or assistant engineer in a commercial sound studio; often merely a gofer.
SEGUE. 1) n. A smooth or gradual transition from one sound to another or one scene to another without pause; 2) v. to make such a transition.
SEMANTICS. The relationship between words or symbols and their intended meanings. Semantic rules apply to spoken and written languages as well as programming languages.
SEQUENCE. n. As opposed to a scene, a montage consisting of narration, snatches of dialogue, sound bytes, etc. that summarizes events or presents them in quick succession.
SERIAL. A regularly scheduled continuing series that presents a story over many programs in a series, or installments in a periodical.
SERIES. A regularly scheduled program, the episodes of which share a unifying element, such as continuing characters, theme, format, setting, continuing plot line, etc.
SESSION. A continuous period of work on one project in a sound studio.
SFX or FX. Sound effects.
SHEET, CALL. A rehearsal schedule.
SHEET, CONTACT. A list of key personnel with their contact information, distributed to the cast and crew at the beginning of production work.
SHEET, CUE. A fact sheet or tape box label showing the cues in and out, the duration, playback speed, and other essential playback information.
SHEET, TRACK. A list in order of the takes on a recording, also showing the tracks of multi-track tape that sounds have been recorded to, often with other notes useful in post-production.
SHOCK MOUNT. 1) n. A device fitted between a mike and its stand to prevent unwanted sound produced by vibrations from the studio floor; 2) v. to rig a microphone in such a way.
SHOTGUN MICROPHONE. See MICROPHONE, SHOTGUN.
SIDES. (always plural) A special script containing only one character's lines with cues in and out; hence, any script fragment prepared for use by talent during auditions or production.
SIGHT LINES. Theater parlance for the lines of unobstructed view between the audience and the objects or persons on stage. Even audio drama must pay attention to good sight lines when being performed before a studio audience.
SIGNAL. The sound source; wanted sound, as in the expression "signal to noise ratio," the ratio between wanted and unwanted noise being tracked.
SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO. see SIGNAL.
SIGNATURE. A musical theme used to identify a series or production entity.
SIMILE. See metaphor.
SITCOM. A type of broadcast comedy series employing farcical situations and recurring lead characters in self-contained episodes.
SITUATION COMEDY. See Comedy, Situation.
SLAP. Sound reverberating from the walls, floor, and ceiling of a studio.
SLAPSTICK. A stick used on stage to inflict harmless blows that make loud noise, hence a type of broad comedy relying upon exaggerated physical assault for its humor.
SLATE. v. To record an announcement of the take information, such as the take number, in front of the take as a kind of audio label; n. the audio label so recorded.
SLATE TONE. See tone, slate.
SLOW-WIND v.t. To wind or spool analog tape at playback speed for storage to prevent print-through, stretching and other damage. Slow-winding is a very even unstressful wind, which places a thin air cushion between layers of wound tape. The most common and practical method is simply to store tape tails out after play, without rewinding it.
SMPTE [Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers] CODE. An electronic code that can be laid on digital or analog tape for the purpose of synchronizing two sound recordings, or more commonly, synchronizing audio to video.
SNEAK. To fade a sound up or down so slowly that its appearance or disappearance is barely noticeable.
SOAP or SOAP OPERA. A broadcast serial, presenting by and large domestic situations in melodramatic terms, so called because at one time such programs were sponsored by soap companies; any dramatic work resembling a soap opera in tone.
SOLILOQUY. A speech, usually extended, representing the inner thoughts of a character, spoken while the character is alone or believes him/herself to be alone in the scene.
SOLO. v. to turn off all but one track while recording or playing back a multi-track sound production.
SOUNDSCAPE. The environment for dramatic action created on the audio stage by descriptive dialogue and sonic effects; the audio equivalent to effects produced in the theater by sets, props and lighting; (audio art) a work for listening that manipulates and orders sound to create a mood or conjure the impression of an environment; the audio equivalent of landscape painting.
SOURCE MUSIC. See music, source.
SPEC. n. (industry slang) speculation. To work "on spec" is to perform a job on the promise that it may provide a financial reward if certain conditions are met, but that the reward is by no means certain. A "spec script" is one that the writer composes without pay on the hope that someone will buy it.
SPINE. n. In drama, the essential unifying element or conjoined elements of a character, a scene or an entire play.
SPIKE. 1) v. to fix a position on stage or before the mike exactly by marking the floor with tape, chalk, etc.; 2) (electronics) n. an unwanted sudden surge of power through the circuitry of electronic equipment that can sometimes cause technical aberrations and system crashes.
SPINE. An underlying motivational or structural unity of a scene, play, or character. See THROUGH-LINE.
SPLICE 1) v. To edit tape by physically cutting and joining; 2) n. the juncture of two pieces of tape edited together.
SPOT. 1) v. To locate and mark the most desirable position for performing, so as to be in the optimal view of the camera or range of the microphone; 2) n. short for spot announcement.
SPOT ANNOUNCEMENT. A broadcast advertising or public service message between 10 to 120 seconds long; a commercial.
SPOT CHECK. A check of the exposed recording tape for flaws made by playing only brief passages at various points on the tape.
SQUAWK or SQUAWK BOX. See TALKBACK.
STAGE. 1) n. Literally or figuratively, the "place" of theatrical action; in a playhouse the stage is a physical space in an auditorium in view of the audience, shared by the sets, props, and actors; in radio it is the space between the speakers in the audience's listening environment; 2) v.t. to turn a literary property into a performance piece; 3) to produce and/or direct something; to mount a theatrical production.
STAGE MANAGER. (theater) The person in charge of all matters on or back stage in a theater or auditorium. Though usually employed by the producer rather than the performance facility, he is co-equal to and liaises with the house manager (q.v.). The stage manager supervises lighting crew, sound crew, custodians and stage hands, often cuing them and the actors during performances. He or she may even conduct refresher rehearsals between performances.
STAGE WAIT. n. (drama) A pause intended to heighten suspense.
STAGE WHISPER. n. A method by which an actor gives the impression of whispering while speaking loudly enough to be heard throughout the house [q.v.]; a whisper that the whisper wishes to be overheard.
STAGE, GIVE. v. In acting, to yield the spotlight, to help focus the audience's attention away from oneself to another actor, as by pointing one's body toward the actor, facing away from the audience or moving out of the light, etc.
STAGE, TAKE. v. In acting, to command the spotlight, to draw the audience's attention to oneself, as by standing at the most prominent stage position, by raising one's voice, by moving when other performers are still, etc.
STAGE WAIT. n. A brief pause in action or dialogue in a play introduced to build suspense.
STATION BREAK. A pause in a syndicated or network broadcast program that allows local stations to identify themselves and deliver promotional and other messages.
STEP ON A LINE or LAUGH. In acting, to begin a line too quickly, so as to spoil the previous line.
STEREO or STEREOPHONIC SOUND. In audio, the impression or illusion of lateral position (as opposed to depth) of a signal or signals by balancing two audio tracks and channeling them through two sets of speakers positioned to the left and right of the listener or through stereo earphones.
STING. n. A short, sharp musical chord or chord series used for dramatic punctuation.
STOCK MUSIC. See MUSIC, STOCK.
STORY. As opposed to plot, the chronological sequence of events in a literary work.
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS. See INTERIOR MONOLOGUE.
STRUCTURE, COMIC. A plot structure in which everything tends to go badly for the protagonist until the climax, after which his or her fortunes improve.
STRUCTURE, TRAGIC. A plot structure in which everything goes well for the protagonist until the climax, after which everything goes badly.
STUDIO. The place where programs are recorded or performed for broadcast; more specifically the room in a production facility containing the talent, musicians and/or Foley operators, as opposed to the booth or control room.
STUDIO MANAGER. (BBC usage) the chief engineer on a session who coordinates the efforts of the GRAMS and foley operators, and who operates the console; the recordist [q.v.].
STYLE. The sum of elements — diction, vocal and physical gesture, tempo, ornamentation, etc. — appropriate for the writing, performance or production of a performance work; the characteristic techniques, themes and artistry of a particular author, performer, director or producer of an artistic work; panache, flair, the pleasing and distinctive affect of personality, charm, and audacity.
SUBPLOT. A subsidiary plot woven into the fabric of, subsidiary to, and often amplifying the main plot.
SUBTEXT. The covert, implicit or psychological meaning of an utterance, which may be more than, or the opposite of, the overt or apparent meaning.
SUPPORT. n. a supporting player [q.v.].
SURREALISM. A style of writing and performance depicting unconscious and subjective realities.
SURROUND SOUND. n. the technical system for recording and reproducing stereophonic sound with more than two speakers. The stereo effect is more reliable than that of conventional two channel. For home entertainment systems, the most popular form of surround sound is called 5.1. It uses three front speakers, two behind, and a bass speaker (sub-woofer).
SUSPENSE. Uncertainty coupled with anxiety; apprehension causing a tense expectancy in the audience.
SWEETEN. v. to add sound elements for listening enhancement/story clarification.
SWEET SPOT. n. the listening space between two speakers where the stereo can best be distinguished — the audio equivalent to the theatrical "Duke's chair," the most advantageous seat in the playhouse to view and hear the action on stage.
SYMBOL. Something employed to stand for something else, often a simple or mundane object representing a complex idea, psychological or emotional state, or taboo.
SYNDICATOR. An independent distributor of broadcast programs.
SYNDICATION. A method of delivering programs through a syndicator, or independent distributor.
SYNECDOCHE. In discourse, the substitution of a part of something for the whole and vice versa; as when "stage" is used to mean "theater."
SYSTEMS CUE. See cue, systems.
SYNTAX. In the study of grammar, the structural or grammatical rules that define how symbols in a language are to be combined to form words, phrases, expressions, and other allowable constructs.
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TABLE WORK. n. Rehearsals in which the play is read without movement, often with the actors sitting around a table, in which the focus is on characterization and interpretation; hence in radio, rehearsals held away from the mics or outside the studio, for the same purpose.
TAFT-HARTLEY. (labor law) As used in talent-producer relations, The Taft-Hartley or Labor-Management Relations act of 1947, as amended in 1951, contract provisions allowed or mandated by The Taft-Hartley Act regarding non-union talent working under AFTRA auspices. Non-union talent may be hired on a union job provided the talent agrees to join AFTRA within 30 days of the job. Talent that becomes subject to this provision is said to be TAFT-HARTLEYED, that is, to be forbidden to work in a union shop after the 30-day period unless s/he has joined AFTRA.
TAKE. 1) n. One of possibly several versions recorded of the same fragment of a work, from which the most satisfactory will be chosen for the final program; 2) v. to record a take; 3) n. a physical or vocal reaction usually broad and registering surprise, as in the phrase "to do a take."
TALENT. In audio drama and voice-over work, an actor of actors. Always singular.
TALKBACK. n. Also called "squawk" or squawkbox," the device in a sound studio that enables the control room to communicate with recording area.
TAIL OUT or TAILS OUT. adv. [Said of exposed analogue recording tape] Spooled or wound on a core or reel so that the beginning of the program is closest to the core or reel. See slow wind.
TAPE HEAD. See head.
TAPE HISS. A kind of unwanted noise heard to a greater or lesser degree on all magnetic analog recording tape.
TEASER. An element at the beginning of a program enticing the listener to stay tuned, usually a preview or excerpt; a narrative hook.
TENSION. The basic element of most music, literature, and drama in the Western World; the introduction, intensification, suspension, and relief of which provides structure and is often essential to keep a work of any length interesting and meaningful.
TEST TONES. See, tones, test.
THEATER. As opposed to drama, broadly speaking, the field of performance art concerned with acting out a story through dance, mime, speech, oral narrative, song, or a mixture of these things, coupled with special effects, costume, scenery, lighting, etc.; and thus encompassing the genres of drama, ballet, opera, pantomime, masque, performance art, story telling, etc.; (also THEATRICALITY) the non-literary aspects of performance, especially those contributing to sensation and spectacle; a building dedicated to performance, or figuratively in audio drama, the mind of the listener; a company or ensemble specializing in theatrical performance, as the Dance Theater of Harlem, Molière's Comedie française, or Welles' Mercury Theater of the Air.
THEATER OF THE ABSURD. A misnomer (appropriately enough, perpetrated by Martin Esslin, former head of BBC radio drama) for various forms of symbolic, emblematic, expressionistic drama usually on existential themes that had a vogue after World War II, typified by the early works of Edward Albee, Samuel Becket, and Eugene Ionesco.
THEORY, DRAMATIC. A field of study that describes the elements of drama and includes the development and application of methods for analyzing and creating dramatic works, and the interrelationship between playwrighting and performance practice.
THROUGH-LINE. The unifying element — thematic, motivational, or otherwise — of a scene, sequence, act or entire play; often used synonymously with spine.
TIGHTEN CUES. To reduce the gap between the end of one sound, musical passage, or line and the beginning of a following sound, musical passage, or line.
TIMBRE [pronounced TAHM-bur] or TONE. n. The attributes of a sound that distinguishes it from other sounds of the same pitch and volume. The distinctive tone of a musical instrument or a voice.
TITLE or TITLE MUSIC. See music, title.
TONE. 1) The playwright's attitude, as the audience infers it, in his work; 2) timbre [q.v.].
TONE, ROOM. See PRESENCE.
TONE, SLATE. A low pitched tone recorded as a bed under the slate, which, when the tape is fast wound over the playback head, is heard as a beep; used to facilitate the editing of analogue tape.
TONES, CALIBRATION. White
