Terminology

I have previously written about the differences between sound and audio and sound/light vs audio/video. In this short blog post, I problematize the concept “audiovisual”. Dictionary definitions The term “audiovisual” is ubiquitous. Unfortunately, for those of us working both on technology and psychology, it causes a lot of confusion. For example, consider the definition by Wikipedia: Audiovisual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions. ...

Meeting some new bachelor’s students today, I had to explain that “music technology” is not a thing, it is a scientific discipline. Although many people think of a synthesizer as “a” music technology, I am trying to explain that it is based on music technology. Here, I briefly support this claim. Defining “technology” The word “technology” originates from the Greek techne (art, craft, skill) and logia (study). The term thus refers to tools, techniques, and systems humans create to solve problems or enhance capabilities. Technological development has been a cornerstone of human development since the beginning. This has been driven by the continuous development of knowledge in addition to the “things”. The invention of the wheel—to use a classic innovation example—wasn’t bound by the specific, physical wheel. The revolutionary aspect was figuring out how that physical, round object would enable faster transport. ...

I often see that people confuse the two terms “length” and “duration”. In most cases, it doesn’t matter, but there are subtle differences one should be aware of. Here is a quick reference: length = a count (number of items, characters, samples, notes) duration = a time span (how long something lasts) In music research, the difference matters! For example, if you ask about the “length of a piece of music”, it could refer to the number of notes in the score (e.g., 189 notes). The duration, however, would be the playback time (e.g., 3 minutes 20 seconds). Obviously, the playback time is related to the tempo, the same length of notes at different tempos yields different durations. ...

I often come across texts that confuse the concepts of notes and tones. Thus this little blog post that I can refer people when explaining the difference. While the terms “note” and “tone” may be used interchangeably in casual conversation, they have distinct meanings from a music theoretical perspective: Note: A note refers to a symbol in musical notation that tells the musician which pitch to play and for how long. Notes are represented by symbols like whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, etc., and they can also indicate dynamics (loudness), articulation, and other musical qualities. ...

For my year-long StillStanding project I am generating videograms for all the scenes. Since there is not much motion in these 10-minute recordings, they typically look like stripes. Looking at today’s recording of an unspectacular hotel room in Kongsberg, I noticed how different the horizontal and vertical videogram look: It is fascinating how two averages of the same video recording can be so different. The explanation is simple; they are based on averaging in two different dimensions (horizontal and vertical). Still, it is a good reminder that taking an average of anything gives only one perspective.

People often refer to “sound and video” as a concept pair. That is confusing because, in my thinking, “sound” and “video” refer to very different things. In this post, I will explain the difference. Sound and Audio In a previous blog post, I have written about the difference between sound and audio. The short story is that “sound” refers to the physical phenomenon of vibrating molecules, such as sound waves moving through air. “Audio” describes technologies that can capture and reproduce such vibrations. So a sound recording is stored as an audio file. Audio technologies include microphones, recording devices (both analog and digital), and speakers that can produce sound. ...

What is the difference between sound and audio? I often hear people confuse the terms. Here are a couple of ways of thinking about the difference. A good summary can be found in this blog post: Sound is vibrations through materials Audio is the technology to hear sounds coming from natural or human-made sources Another good definition is that audio is electrical energy (active or potential) that represents sound. From this, a sound recording is stored as an audio file. It is important to note that we are not only talking about digital audio files. Audio can also be stored on an analog medium, such as an LP or cassette, from which it can be used to play back sound. ...

One of the conclusions in my book Sound Actions is that the future of music technologies lie in musicking technologies. The term “music technology” is typically used to describe tools, instruments, and systems used to create, produce, record, and distribute music. This includes everything from microphones, digital audio workstations (DAWs), and synthesizers to streaming services and analysis tools. I think of “musicking technology” as a wider term than music technology. It builds on Christopher Small’s concept of “musicking” as the act of taking part in music-making of any kind. It also focuses on music as an active process, not a thing. ...

I have been discussing definitions of the terms motion/movement, action and gesture several times before on this blog (for example here and here). Here is a summary of my current take on these three concepts: Motion: displacement of an object in space over time. This object could be a hand, a foot, a mobile phone, a rod, whatever. Motion is an objective entity, and can be recorded with a motion capture system. A motion capture system could be anything from a simple slider (1-dimensional), to a mouse (2-dimensional), to a camera-based tracking system ((3-dimensional) or an inertial system (6-dimensional: 3D position and 3D orientation). I have previously also discussed the difference between motion and movement. Since motion is a continuous phenomenon, it does not make sense to talk about it in plural form: “motions”. Then it makes more sense to talk about one or more motion sequences, but most probably it makes even more sense to talk about individual actions. ...

Terminology is always challenging. I have previously written about definitions of actions and gesture several times (e.g. here, here, and here) and chapter 2 in the book Musical gestures: sound, movement, and meaning (Routledge, 2010). Movement and motion There are, however, two words/terms that I still find very challenging to define properly and to differentiate: movement and motion. In Norwegian, we only have one word (bevegelse) for describing movement/motion, which makes everything much simpler. But when writing in English, which word should be used? And what is the difference? ...