What is "ducking"

Ducking \Duck"ing\, n. & a., from Duck, v. t. & i.

Ducking stool, a stool or chair in which common scolds were formerly tied, and plunged into water, as a punishment. See Cucking stool. The practice of ducking began in the latter part of the 15th century, and prevailed until the early part of the 18th, and occasionally as late as the 19th century.
--Blackstone. Chambers.

Duck \Duck\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ducked; p. pr. & vb. n. Ducking.] [OE. duken, douken, to dive; akin to D. duiken, OHG. t?hhan, MHG. tucken, t["u]cken, t?chen, G. tuchen. Cf. 5th Duck.]

1. To thrust or plunge under water or other liquid and suddenly withdraw.

   Adams, after ducking the squire twice or thrice, leaped out of the tub.
   --Fielding.

2. To plunge the head of under water, immediately withdrawing it; as, duck the boy.

3. To bow; to bob down; to move quickly with a downward motion. `` Will duck his head aside.''
   --Swift.

n. 1 (context uncountable English) The action of the verb '''to duck'''. 2 (context countable English) An instance of ducking (a person in water, etc). vb. (present participle of duck English)

1. n. hunting ducks [syn: duck hunting]

2. the act of wetting something by submerging it [syn: submersion, immersion, dousing]

Ducking is an audio effect commonly used in radio and pop music, especially dance music. In ducking, the level of one audio signal is reduced by the presence of another signal. In radio this can typically be achieved by lowering (ducking) the volume of a secondary audio track when the primary track starts, and lifting the volume again when the primary track is finished. A typical use of this effect in a daily radio production routine is for creating a voice-over: a foreign language original sound is dubbed (and ducked) by a professional speaker reading the translation. Ducking becomes active as soon as the translation starts.

In music, the ducking effect is applied in more sophisticated ways where a signal's volume is delicately lowered by another signal's presence. Ducking here works through the use of a " side chain" gate. In other words, one track is made quieter (the ducked track) whenever another (the ducking track) gets louder. This may be done with a gate with its ducking function engaged or by a dedicated ducker.

A typical application is to achieve an impression similar to the " pumping" effect. The difference between ducking and side-chain pumping is that in ducking the attenuation is by a specific range while side-chain compression creates variable attenuation. Ducking may be used in place of mirrored equalization to combat masking, for example with the bass guitar ducked under the kick drum, resembling subtle side-chain pumping. A ducking system may be created where one track ducks another, which ducks another, and so on. Examples include Portishead's " Biscuit".

Used most often to turn down the music when the DJ speaks, ducking may be used to combat the muffling and distancing effect of reverb and delay. The ducker is inserted into the reverb and delay line and keyed to a dry track to duck its own reverb and delay so that when the dry track exceeds the ducker's threshold by reaching a certain amplitude the reverb and delay are attenuated. Clear examples include Céline Dion's " The Power Of Love" where the reverb and delay become audible when Dion pauses and Adele's " Cold Shoulder".

"Ducking" is a prison slang term for a technique through which prisoners modify the behavior of correctional officers and other prison staff members using manipulation and coercion. The prison slang term for a prison staff member that has been manipulated is a "duck".

Ducking occurs when a prisoner becomes friendly with a prison staff member and then persuades the employee to break prison rules and laws. The prisoner then provokes the staff member (or members) into breaking an increasing number of prison guidelines until the staff member can be effectively blackmailed by the prisoner. At such point, the "duck" in prison parlance is said to be "downed". Ducking is perceived to be a threat to hierarchal stability in prisons. For this reason, volunteers at San Quentin State Prison are given an anonymously authored eight page pamphlet describing ducking techniques entitled "Downing a Duck (An Inmate's Version)" during training in addition to the standard volunteer handbook.

It is thought that Joyce Mitchell and Gene Palmer, employees of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York were perhaps ducked by Richard Matt and David Sweat in the 2015 Clinton Correctional Facility escape. The concept of ducking is also discussed in the 2015 film, Heartlock.