AIR

A somewhat obscure acronym standing for “Always In Record,” meaning the tape (or hard drive) is rolling constantly during a session to document the musical odds and ends that occur between takes in the hope that one of the captured moments will serve as a creative spark for a new song or find a use somewhere else in the project. While AIR can be useful, it can also take up tons of hard drive space – especially at higher sample rates – or be rather expensive in the analog world, due to the cost of tape.