Signal or amplifier overload, a form of distortion.

A component within an electronic keyboard that sweeps back and forth in a particular waveform shape at a very slow rate of speed. A LFO is used to create continuous (periodic) change to the volume, pitch, or timbre of a sound.

Musical Instrument Digital Interface, an industry-standard interface used on electronic musical keyboards and PCs for computer control of musical instruments and devices.

RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication”. It’s an XML format that’s used for sharing headlines and other content. You need a third party application to view RSS news feeds, like NetNewsWire (Mac OSX) or Vox Lite (Win XP).  There are also convenient web-based systems like Bloglines and Feedster which track and store all of your information on a centralized website.

The Songwriter101 RSS newsfeed can be obtained by copying/pasting this address into a newsfeed application:

http://songwriter101.com/rss/sw101.xml

Also called a digital sampler, this is a type of synthesizer with actual recorded sounds that are stored in computer memory.

Universal Serial Bus. A standard bus type for all kinds of devices, including mice, scanners, digital cameras, printers, and others. Commonly used in low-cost audio interfaces, supplanting the need for both power and midi cables on many controllers.  Protocol supports 12 Mbps transfer rate. Hot swappable - devices can be connected and disconnected while computer is on.

Velocity is how MIDI represents how hard a note is pressed on a controller.