Studio Slang

The formal Glossary at the back of this book covers technical terms. This one covers the words you will actually hear in the room. Learn both vocabularies.

Ax — A guitar.

Bedroom producer — Anyone making professional records from a home setup. A slur in 1995, a badge by 2025.

Bleed — Sound from one instrument leaking into a mic that wasn't meant for it. Sometimes a problem, sometimes the secret weapon.

Brick — A master squashed so flat by limiting that nothing breathes. Avoid.

Cans — Headphones.

Capture — The act of recording itself. “Did you capture that?”

Cheat — A hidden fix the audience will never notice. The good kind of cheating.

Click — The metronome.

Comp — A composite take built from the best moments of multiple passes. Also short for “compressor”—context decides.

Crispy — Bright, top-end forward. Sometimes a compliment, sometimes not.

Cue — The headphone mix the performer hears while tracking.

Dialed in — The sound is right. Hit record.

DI'd — Recorded direct from the instrument, no amp, no mic.

Dirty — Distorted on purpose.

Dry — No reverb, no effects. Just the source.

Fat — Thick low-mid weight, in a good way.

Feel — The human pocket of a performance. Either it has it or it doesn't.

Floor — The constant background noise of a recording. “What's the floor on that mic?”

Honky — A middle-frequency hump that makes something sound nasal. A sin.

Hot — Signal too loud. “Vocal's hot, pull it back.”

Keepers — Takes worth saving.

Lo-fi — Intentionally rough, degraded, or vintage-textured.

Money take — The one that ends up on the record.

Muddy — Low-mid buildup that obscures clarity. The opposite of fat.

Phasey — Hollow, partially canceled, like the sound is fighting itself.

Pillowy — Soft, woolen, lacking top end.

Pocket — The rhythmic spot where everything locks.

Print — To record or commit something to a final file. “Print the mix.”

Pumping — Audible compression gain reduction. A feature or a bug, depending.

Punch in — Drop into record mid-take to fix one part without redoing the whole pass.

Rolling — “We're recording right now. Be quiet.”

Rough — An early, unfinished mix.

Scratch — A temporary take meant to be replaced. Scratch vocal, scratch guitar.

Send it — Commit. Go.

Sit — How well an element fits its place in the mix. “The vocal sits well.”

Slammed — Heavily compressed.

Smiley face — An EQ curve with boosted lows and highs and scooped mids. The shape of a happy face. Usually a tell that someone is overcorrecting.

Stems — Grouped submixes (drums stem, vocals stem, guitars stem) used for mastering, post, or remix.

Tape it — To record. “Let's tape that one.” Holdover from the era when you actually rolled tape—not to be confused with tape echo or tape saturation.

Top — The high end of the mix.

Trash it — Delete the take. No mercy.

Wet — Heavy on effect, the opposite of dry.