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Delay: In audio production, a delay is an electronic device designed to store a signal for a specified period of time and then release it, thereby delaying the signal relative to other parts of an audio program. Delays are often used to create echo effects, where a particular signal may repeat several times, with each repeat being lower in level than the prior one. This application goes back many years to a time when delays were only able to be accomplished with tape recorders (see WFTD Tape Delay). Later, analog circuitry was developed that could store signals long enough to be useful as a delay. This often involved a complex process of dumping the signal from one circuit with a finite amount of storage into another, and so on. Some of these early designs were thus known as "bucket brigade" circuits because they pretty much worked like an old time fireman's bucket brigade where water would be passed in buckets from person to person in a long line between the source and the fire. The big downside of these units was that it cost a lot to build one with enough bucket brigades to amount to any length of time, and the sound quality sometimes degraded as the signal was passed along, which was exacerbated when regeneration was applied to achieve multiple repeats. Ultimately delays became most flexible and useful when digital technology became practical. In a digital delay the signal is simply stored in memory chips until it is needed. The longer a signal needs to be stored, and the higher the sample rate and bit depth, the more memory is required, so early digital delays tended to suffer from some of the same problems as their analog counterparts. It wasn't long, however, before digital delays could capture a nearly perfect recording of a signal and store it for minutes if necessary. Delay technology is at the core of most time based effects such as flangers, chorus units etc. They have also been widely used in broadcast applications over the years to provide a few seconds of delay to "live" broadcasts. These few seconds can be used by an attentive engineer to "bleep" out things like curse words, etc.

D'Appolito	D-Sub	Distribution Amplifier
D/A Converter (DAC)	Da Capo	DAE
Daisy Chain	Damp	Damper
Damping	Damping Factor	DARS
DASH	Dashboard	Digital Audio Tape
Data Bytes	Data Spanning	DAW
dB	DB-25	DB-9
dBFS	dBm	dBu (a.k.a. dBv (lower case v))
dBV (upper case V)	dbx	dbx Type 1
dbx Type 2	Direct Current (DC)	DC-coupled
DCA	DCF	DCO
DC Offset	DDL	DDR
DDS	De-Esser	Decay
Decay Time	Decca Tree	Decibel
Decimation	Decorrelation	Decoupling
Decrescendo	Default	Delamination
Delay	Delay Compensation	Delta Conversion On-Line UPS
Demagnetizer	Demodulation	Descant
Desktop	Destructive Editing	Destructive Recording
Detector	Detent	DFD
DI	Diads	Dialog
Diapason	Diaphragm	Diatonic Scales
Dielectric	Difference Tone	Differential
Diffraction	Diffusion/Diffuser	Digital
Digital Synthesizer	Digital Black	Digital Keyboards Synergy
Dilruba	Diminished Interval	Diminuendo
DIMM	DIN	Din Stereo
DIN Sync	Diode	Dipole
DIP Switch	Direct Box	Direct Connect
Direct Drive	Direct Field	Direct I/O
Direct Out	Direct Radiator	DirectSound
DirectX	Disc-At-Once	Disc Image
Discrete	Discrete	Discrete Surround
Dispersion	Dissolve	Dissonance
Distant-miking	Distortion	Dither
Divergence	Diversity Receiver	Divisi
DJ	Dynamically Linked Library	DLS
DLT	DMA	DME
Dobro	Dog ear	Dolby
Dolby A	Dolby B	Dolby C
Dolby Digital	Dolby E	Dolby HX Pro
Dolby Pro Logic	Dolby S	Dolby SR
Dolby Stereo	Dolby Surround	Dolby Virtual Speaker
Dominant	Dongle	Doppler
DOS	Dot Neck	Double Bar
Double Bussing	Double Conversion On-Line UPS	Double Fast
Double Neck	Double Precision	Double Stopping
Double System Sound	Double Tracking	Double Wide
Doubling	Dovetail	Downsample
Drag and Drop	Drain	Drawbar
Dreadnought	Drive	Driver
Driver	Drop Frame Time Code	Dropout
Drum n' Bass	Dry	DSD™ (Direct Stream Digital™)
Digi System Init	DSL	DSP
Digital Tape Recording System	DTS	DTV
Dual-Layer DVD	Dual Concentric	Dual Core Processor
DualDisc	Dub	Dubbing Session/Dubbing Stage
Dub Plate (Dubplate)	Ducker/Ducking	Duet
Dulciana	Dulcimer	Duophonic
Duple Meter	Duty Cycle	DV
DVD	DVD+R/RW	DVD-A
DVD-R	DVD-RAM	DVD-ROM
DVI	DXi	Dynamic Allocation
Dynamic Automation	Dynamic (Microphone)	Dynamic Range