Terms used in the following discussions may be unfamiliar. Some of the more important ones are defined below. Amplitude The height of a waveform, which corresponds to the amount of voltage or current in the electronic circuit. Amplitude modulation A means of producing special audio effects by using one channel to alter the amplitude of another. Channel One "unit" of the audio device. Cycle One repetition of a waveform. Frequency The number of times per second a cycle repeats. Frequency modulation A means of producing special audio effects by using one channel to affect the period of the waveform produced by another channel. Period The time elapsed between the output of successive sound samples, in units of system clock ticks. Precedence Priority of the user of a sound channel. Sample Unit of audio data, one of the fixed-interval points on the waveform. Waveform Graph that shows a model of how the amplitude of a sound varies over time-usually over one cycle.