A few words worth knowing

Flute players and recording folks don’t always speak the same language. Here are the words you’ll run into, from both sides, in plain English.

The sound

Fundamental: The main pitch of a note, the one you name it by. Afflato’s Body control warms it, whatever note you play.
Harmonics: Fainter pitches above the fundamental, at two, three, four times its frequency, and so on. Their balance is why a flute sounds like a flute. The screen draws each as a line.
Tone: In Afflato, the note itself: the fundamental and its harmonics, apart from the breath.
Breath: The sound of air that comes with every flute note, between and around the harmonics. Some is part of the instrument’s beauty; too much can sound unfinished.
Pitch tracking: Working out which note is sounding, moment to moment. It’s how Afflato tells the tone from the breath.
Reverb: The sound of a room: the echoes and the fading tail after each note. Afflato calls it Space.
Drone: A sustained tone underneath the music, like a tanpura, shruti box or bagpipe drone. Afflato builds one from your own notes.
Mono and stereo: Mono is one channel, the same in both ears. Stereo is two, so a sound can feel wide. Width moves between the two.

Key: The home note a piece settles on, and the family of notes around it: D minor, G major. Soundcheck finds it from what you play.
Tonic, fifth, fourth, octave: The tonic is the home note. The fifth and the fourth are the notes that blend with it most easily; the octave is the same note higher. The drone plays the tonic with one of them.
A = 440 and A = 432: The pitch the note A is tuned to, in hertz. 440 is the usual standard. Many meditation and handmade flutes sit at 432, a little lower. Afflato finds where yours sits and tunes the drone to match.
Cents: A small step of pitch: a hundredth of a semitone. The tuner shows how many cents a note is sharp or flat.
Hertz (Hz): Vibrations a second. Low notes are low numbers: the A above middle C is 440 Hz.

Soundcheck: Before a show, you play a little so the sound engineer can set your levels and tone. In Afflato, you press Soundcheck and play a phrase; Afflato listens, then sets itself for your flute.
Plugin: An add-on that runs inside a music app and changes the sound passing through it, like a filter in a photo app.
DAW: A digital audio workstation: the music app where songs are recorded and mixed, such as Ableton Live, Logic Pro or Pro Tools.
AU, VST3, standalone: AU and VST3 are the two plugin formats music apps load. Standalone means Afflato also opens as its own app, with no music app needed.
Dry and wet: Dry is the sound untouched; wet is the sound through an effect. In our demos, Original is the dry sound.
EQ: Equalization: turning parts of the sound up or down by pitch, from low to high. Low Cut, Body and Air are EQ moves, made smarter by knowing the note.
Automation: Recording a control’s movements in your music app, so it changes by itself during the song. Every Afflato control can be automated.
dB and dBFS: Decibels measure level. dBFS counts down from the loudest a digital recording can go, 0 dBFS; past it, the sound clips and distorts. The meters turn red there.
LUFS: A measure of how loud something sounds to the ear over time. The demos are matched in LUFS so you compare the sound, not the volume.
Preset: A saved set of control positions you can recall in one click.

Concert flute: The metal orchestral flute, held sideways, with keys.
Bansuri: The bamboo flute of Indian classical music, held sideways, with open finger holes; often played over a drone.
Quena: The Andean notched flute, blown down its end: bright and breathy.
Native American–style flute: A wooden flute with a block that guides the breath, so it speaks easily; warm and voice-like. Double flutes have a second pipe that holds a drone.
Shakuhachi: The Japanese end-blown bamboo flute, known for its expressive breath.
Bass and pan flutes: The bass flute is a long, low member of the concert flute family; the pan flute is a row of pipes, one per note.