Glossary
A-Z
- AAC
Advanced Audio Coding. A standard compressed audio format developed by MPEG. AAC is the format used for downloadable music sold by Apple’s iTunes Music Store.
- AARC
Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies. An industry association for record labels and artists. The AARC was a plaintiff, along with the RIAA, in the 1998 lawsuit to prevent Diamond Multimedia from selling its Rio portable MP3 player.
- A/D converter (ADC)
Analog-to-digital converter. Samples the voltage of an analog signal to convert it into a digital signal. A key component of all sound cards and digital recoding devices.
- ADPCM
Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation. A type of digital audio compression that takes up less space than the Pulse Code Modulation technique used with music CDs.
- AIFF
Audio Interchange File Format. A common uncompressed audio format for the Macintosh.
- analog audio
Audio represented by a signal that continuously varies and stored on analog media such as records and tapes.
- ASCAP
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. A performing rights organization that provides blanket licensing on behalf of music copyright holders.
- ATAPI
A protocol used to communicate with non–hard drive IDE devices, such as CD-ROM drives.
- ATRAC3
A lossy audio format developed by Sony, used on MiniDiscs and for downloads from Sony’s online music store.
- AU
An audio format used on Sun and NeXT computers.
- bandwidth
The transmission capacity of a network or other communications medium.
- bit
A binary digit (either ...
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