Live audio terms

Stage box

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The stage box is the input/output panel where stage lines land, whether the head of an analog snake or a networked digital I/O rack holding the preamps. Inputs on the list exist physically here.

Split (mic split)

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A split duplicates every stage input to multiple consoles: FOH, monitors, broadcast, recording. Transformer-isolated splits prevent the consoles from loading or humming each other; digital systems split in the stage rack.

Talkback

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Talkback is the engineer’s microphone path for speaking to specific destinations: console to stage wedges, FOH to monitor world, producer to performer ears. The shout mic is its stage-side sibling.

Shout system

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The shout is the always-on talkback loop between audio positions (FOH, monitors, systems, RF) on large shows, so engineers converse without radios. "On shout" means the intercom channel audio runs on.

IEM (in-ear monitors)

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IEMs replace wedges with earpieces fed by wireless packs: consistent mixes at safer levels with a quieter stage. The cost is isolation, RF coordination, and total dependence on the monitor engineer.

Sidefill

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Sidefills are monitor speakers at the stage edges pointing across the stage, filling the whole performance area with the mix. Common where performers roam and on stages transitioning between wedge and ear cultures.

Drum fill

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The drum fill is the drummer’s monitor rig, typically a wedge plus a subwoofer, because drummers ask their monitors to compete with an acoustic kit at source distance.

Ring out

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To ring out a system is to push gain until feedback starts, notch the ringing frequency, and repeat, buying stable gain before feedback for wedges and vocal mics. Done during check, quietly regretted when skipped.

Unity gain

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Unity gain is a stage that neither amplifies nor attenuates: output equals input, the 0 mark on a fader. Gain structure aims to do the real work at the preamp and pass unity through the middle.

Pad

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A pad is a fixed attenuator (commonly 10 to 20 dB) that knocks a hot signal down before it clips an input, built into DIs, mics, and preamps. Loud sources plus no pad equals distortion nobody can fix later.

High-pass filter (HPF)

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A high-pass filter removes content below a set frequency. Engaged on nearly every input that is not bass or kick, it strips stage rumble, plosives, and mud the channel never needed.

Comb filtering

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Comb filtering is the frequency-response ripple created when a signal combines with a delayed copy of itself: two mics on one source, a speaker plus its reflection. The cure is time alignment, spacing discipline, or one fewer open mic.

PFL / AFL (solo)

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PFL (pre-fade listen) and AFL (after-fade listen) let an engineer audition a channel in headphones without affecting the house mix, before or after the fader respectively. The solo bus is the console’s stethoscope.

Pink noise

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Pink noise is a test signal with equal energy per octave, the standard stimulus for tuning and measuring sound systems. Its even, waterfall-like sound is the soundtrack of system tech mornings.

Virtual soundcheck

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A virtual soundcheck plays multitrack recordings of the band back through the console as if the inputs were live, letting engineers mix and tune without musicians present. Standard practice on digital consoles with recording rigs.

Dante

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Dante is a widely adopted audio-over-IP networking technology carrying hundreds of channels over standard ethernet. On shows it moves audio between stage racks, consoles, and processors on one network fabric.

Part of the eventools.io Show Dictionary, a free glossary of live event production terminology.