PRC Records terms and definitions

Common terms used in our studio.

Clam: A mistake. Bad note, bad timing, whatever.

DI (Direct Inject): Feeding an instrument (usually a guitar, electric bass or keyboard) directly into the mixing board.

demo: a CD of a small number of songs used to obtain live gigs, a recording contract, or world-wide fame.
doubling a part: recording a second (or third) copy of a part (vocal or instrument) to "thicken" the sound.
Effects: Ways to change the sound. We have a lot of effects, including compression, chorus, flange, delay, reverb, and some strange ones.

Mastering: The art of taking all of the songs in an album or CD and preparing them for production. Includes ordering the songs, adjusting relative levels, equalizing and compressing the songs as a whole, and additional magic.
Mixdown: Combining the tracks into a stereo sound file, suitable for mastering and/or writing to a CD.
Mixing: see mixdown.
phonorecord: The term of art from the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 for any recording of a copyrighted musical work. This includes tape, vinyl records, CDs, DVDs, and other media not yet invented. Works registered as phonorecords are marked with the phonorecord symbol, (P), a P in a circle.
Punch-in: Re-recording a track to correct a clam.
Track: A single instrument or microphone recording.
Tracking: Recording the tracks of a song.