reverb

A Jamaican practice of remixing a record by stripping it to drums and bass and treating the rest with echo, reverb and drop-outs. Dub's studio techniques shaped techno, house and electronic music at large.

Music recorded with modest means, often at home, that keeps the marks of its making: room noise, simple equipment, imperfect takes. Lo-fi can be a necessity or a deliberate aesthetic, and many listeners hear it as more intimate than polished studio sound.

The stage of making a record where all the recorded parts are balanced into one finished stereo track: their levels, placement, tone and effects. Mixing comes after recording and before mastering, and is often done by a specialist rather than by the producer.

Layers of sustained, slowly changing sound that create atmosphere rather than melody or beat. Many electronic tracks open and close with them.

An effect that repeats a sound after a set time, often several times and fading. Echoes timed to the tempo add rhythm; dub turned delay into an instrument of its own.

A trembling effect made by rapidly repeating a note or by making its volume pulse up and down. On electric guitar it usually comes from an amplifier or pedal circuit, giving a shimmering, wavering sound associated with surf music, spaghetti-western soundtracks and 1960s pop.