passive With regard to a musical instrument, one that does not have any form of on-
board preamp, usually easily determined by it not having a battery inside.
pumping and When a compressor is set to extreme settings and noticeable shifts in volume
breathing are caused by transients as the compressor can’t keep up.
ratio Ratio between change in normal signal (in dB) and change in compressed
signal (in dB). 10:1 means for 10dB increase of the normal signal there will
be 1dB of increase in the compressed signal.
release The time it takes for a compressor to stop applying compression after a signal
has decayed to be less than the Threshold.
sensitivity With regard to the input of an amplier, the level of input signal required to
achieve maximum signal swing within the unit. High sensitivity means even
small signals will reach full swing, low sensitivity means larger signals are
accepted before clip.
series Either when the whole signal is routed though a device or part of a circuit, or
when speakers are connected + to -. Opposite of parallel.
soft-knee Compression that is applied gradually with an increasing ratio after exceeding
the threshold. Often smoother sounding.
thermionic valve A century old electronic device superseded by modern technology in nearly
every area of electronics, notably not audio, where many of us still love the
little glowy things. Usually contained within an air tight glass tube, hence also
called ‘vacuum tube’.
threshold The signal level above which compression is applied.
unity gain Gain of one, i.e. the signal is neither amplied nor attenuated and remains the
same level.
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