A stream bed is the channel bottom of a stream, river or creek; the physical confine of the normal water flow. The lateral confines or channel margins, during all but flood stage, are known as the stream banks or river banks. In fact, a flood occurs when a stream overflows its banks and flows onto its flood plain. As a general rule, the bed is that part of the channel, just at the "normal" water line and the banks are that part above the water line. However, because water flow varies, this differentiation is subject to local interpretation. Usually, the bed is kept clear of terrestrial vegetation, whereas the banks are subjected to water flow only during unusual or perhaps infrequent high water stages and therefore, might support vegetation some or much of the time.

The descriptive terms "right bank" and "left bank" are relative to an observer looking downstream, in which the right bank is to the observer's right, and vice versa. A famous example of this is the naming of the two sides of the river Seine in Paris.

Dave McCracken is a British songwriter and music producer under the Roc Nation management. He is well known for his production on Ian Brown from The Stone Roses solo albums, Golden Greats, Music of the Spheres and Solarized. He has also produced Vantage Point by dEUS, The Rifles' second album and programmed and played keyboards on Playing the Angel by Depeche Mode.