Specifications
Glossary 615
Glossary
9-pin (Sony 9-pin; DB-9) Industry standard for se-
rial machine control of professional video and
audio transports, made by Sony and other man-
ufacturers. Refers to the DB-9-style physical ex-
ternal control connector found on 9-pin-com-
patible devices.
Absolute Grid mode An editing mode that con-
strains movement and alignment of regions to
precise increments on a user-defined grid. See
also Relative Grid mode.
A/D (analog-to-digital) Analog-to-digital con-
verters operate at various bit-rate resolutions
and sampling rates, converting analog audio sig-
nals to digital audio signals.
ADAT lightpipe Standard industry term for opti-
cal connection of digital audio. Created by Ale-
sis, the lightpipe can simultaneously stream
eight channels of digital audio.
address (time code address) Specific
SMPTE/EBU time code reference or reading, in
hours:minutes:seconds:frames.
AES/EBU (Audio Engineering Society/European
Broadcasters’ Union) Industry professional stan-
dard for transferring digital audio between pro-
fessional-quality audio devices. Most AES/EBU
connections utilize an XLR-style 3-pin connec-
tor to carry two channels of digital audio.
AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) An Apple
Computer audio file format.
AMS (Audio MIDI Setup) Apple Computer’s au-
dio and MIDI operating system, which is part of
Mac OS X. For Macintosh users, AMS replaces
Opcode Systems’ OMS (Open Music System).
ATR (Audio Tape Recorder) A tape recorder of
any format, including a Digital Audio Tape
(DAT) deck.
audio interface Among most Pro Tools systems,
the audio interface is a separate box that is at-
tached with a special cable to the audio card, or
to a USB or FireWire port. An audio interface
typically has analog and digital audio inputs
and outputs, and may be equipped with level
meters, level controls, and other features.
audio region A region of an audio file that is de-
fined nondestructively with pointers. See also
region.
Audiomedia III Digidesign’s entry-level PCI card
for Pro Tools, includes S/PDIF and stereo analog
inputs and outputs.
AudioSuite plug-in Digidesign’s proprietary file-
based, non-real-time plug-in format. AudioSuite
processing creates a new audio file with the ef-
fect permanently applied.
audition Listening to, or “monitoring,” one or
more tracks or audio files. In Pro Tools, you can
audition files before you load them into the pro-
gram. There are also various ways to audition
takes from the Audio Regions List, the Takes List
pop-up menu, and from DigiBase browsers.