Disk Jockey (DJ)
A Disk Jockey, or DJ, is a live music player, who continuously mixes music, doing it live. Being a DJ requires a fast thinking, calm headed person who knows how to handle situations as well as a MIDI controller (mixing table).A DJ is a great example of Live Producing.
Live Shows
A live show, either electronic or acoustic, can be either a performance with guitars and a singer or a producer (and DJ) with a MIDI controller and a lot of sampling buttons. Many people have taken this form of Live Producing, even making songs in a studio this way. A good example would be M4SONIC.
MIDI Controller
A MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) Controller is an electronic device that allows you to remotely control a program on a computer. These allow you to much more efficiently control these interfaces.
Mixing Table
A mixing table (either MIDI or records) is used by DJs to control the flow of the music and supply an interface to help with live mixing. A MIDI Mixing Table comes with two “Scratchers”, normally between 3-8 samplers (sometimes more) and multiple effects and volume controls.
MIDI Samplers
MIDI samplers (like the Ableton Launchpad, Trigger Finger, Maschine, etc) are MIDI controllers with one function, control a specific sound on each button. These come in handy for the live shows of electronic producers as they allow you to control an entire song with one button, and can add samples to it live. These are also used for Studio production.
DAW
DAW, or Digital Audio Workspace, is a piece of software that allows for audio construction or manipulation. FL Studio, Ableton Live, and Reason 6 being the most popular. Although only Ableton Live maintains heavy support for live production (look at the name), it can be accomplished with the others, albeit harder.
DJ Software
There is a hoard of DJ software out there, and most of it isn’t free. But it’s used to easily control whole songs and keep an organized feeling. DAWs are not recommended for this, as they maintain to many capabilities.
Rave
A Rave is a party where a DJ maintains continuous music and drugs are high. Normally “hardcore” drugs are not present, but Weed is on a common basis. This is so apparent that a rave DJ or other raver who goes against these drugs heavily reject the culture of raves.
EDM
EDM, or Electronic Dance Music, is the majority of dance music, some even saying all dance music is EDM. EDM maintains a large area of genres, including: Dubstep, Drumstep, Chillstep, House, Deep House, Dutch House, Electro House, Electronic House, Glitch Hop, Glitch, and MANY more.
Tweeter Box
A tweeter box is a speaker designed to play sounds around 2,000 to 20,000 Hz. These are to ensure good equalization of the music and help maintain the higher frequencies.
Subwoofer
A subwoofer is a speaker that is designed to produce sound in the extreme low range. Even producing Infrasound (<20Hz). These are used to maintain high bass.
Hz (Hertz)
A Hertz is a frequency of sound, and our hearing can here from 20Hz – 20,000 Hz approximately. Below 20Hz, although we do not hear it, can cause hallucinations as it may shake your eyeballs, and may give you the impression of a “ghost” or spirit. While the opposite, Ultrasound, is greater than 20,000Hz. Although no effects directly for us, dogs have capability to hear it. Hence dog whistles.
Synthesizer
A synthesizer, whether Analog, FX, Additive, Subtractive, or other, is a digital or physical interface (normally in the form of a keyboard) that is used for the construction of synthetic instruments. There are many of these programs and hardware, including: Massive, FM8, Trancedrive, Zebra2, Zebralette, Sylenth1, and many more.
Booking Agency
A booking agency is a company that specializing in organizing and planning shows for artists, and are commonly used by artists.
Recording Device
A Recording Device is a piece of hardware that records audio, from a Mic to MIDI input.
Key Signature
The “Key” a song is in, gives for different layout of notes and as a result, a different feeling.
Time Signature
A time signature is the written form to tell how much time is in one measure. The default time signature for most music is 4/4, or 4 beats and a quarter note gets the beat.
Measure
A measure is a time specified by a given number of beats in a time signature.
Clefs (Treble, Alto, Tenor, and Bass)
Clefs determine how musical notes are placed on the staff (the 5 lines in written music). These allow for different layouts that make it easier to read for some instruments.
Contemporary Music
Contemporary music is music that breaks the forms of music in the time it was released, and as a result contemporary music is a temporary “genre”. Mauler in his time was contemporary, now he is Romantic. And so forth.