The History of Audio Recording

The beginning of recording devices dates back to the late 1800s and since has evolved as new inventions and technologies continue to emerge. We have these inventors to thank for making it a possibility to record sound. Without it, we wouldn't be able to listen to music from around the world, watch movies or TV shows (unless it was made to be silent), or make personal notes or reminders with audio recorders. Life as we know it would simply be... mute. Can you imagine not being able to carry around your favorite tunes on your mp3 player? 

In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the Phonograph. The Phonograph could play sound and record it, but had to be hand cranked. By turning the crank and yelling into the funnel, the sound vibrated the diaphragm, which made the stylus press sound waves onto the tinfoil. To playback the sound, the stylus was passed over the indents on the tinfoil. However, you could only save about a minute or two of sound. And the tinfoil recordings could only be played a few times, otherwise the recording would become damaged and unusable.

In 1886, Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester Bell, and Charles Tainter invent the Graphophone. The Graphophone was built with slight improvements upon the Phonograph. Instead of using tinfoil, the device used wax cylinders. This made it easier to use and the playback became much clearer.

A few years later, in 1888, Emile Berliner demonstrated his recording device, the Gramophone. The main difference that the Gramophone had, was that it recorded sound on to a flat disc. These discs, also known as records or vinyl records, were first made of glass. The most unique feature of the Gramophone was that it was the first device that allowed for mass production of records.

Throughout the majority of the 1900s, records are continually improved and became the industry standard. Enhancements included changing the record material from glass to zinc and from zinc to plastic, long playing records, different size records, and a superior method of cutting grooves into records. The improvements and ability to mass produce recordings made it possible for the public to own records and play them on their own personal record players. By 1936, over half the records sold were used for use in Juke Boxes. It wasn't until the late 1900s until compact discs out sold records.

Although magnetic tape was introduced in 1937, it didn't become as popular as records. Magnetic tape was invented by Fritz Pfleumer. The major disadvantage to tape is that it wasn't as clear as records. However, some of the advantages were that it was much more portable than records, it offered the first stereo sound within homes, tape decks were installed in cars and it could contain longer recordings.

In the early 1980s, the Compact Disc was introduced. Since its launch, it has transformed into a variety of different formats. Some of these formats include CD-DA, SACD, CD-ROM, CD+ and many more. Just like cassette tapes, disc players were placed in cars. In the 1990s, it became the industry standard and replaced both vinyl records and cassette tapes. This occurred primarily because the quality was better than cassette, it was more portable than records, it could be re-used without quality loss and it had the ability to hold more than an hours worth of content.

Right behind the compact disc was digital audio. Digital audio quickly began to replace compact discs since MP3 players were introduced in the early 2000s. Some of the most popular devices include the iPod (my mp3 player of choice), SanDisk Sansa, Samsung Galaxy Player, and mobile phones. In order to record digital audio, the sound is passed through an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and pulse-code modulation is used to encode it as a digital signal. In order to play back the digital recording, a digital-to-analog converter performs the reverse process, and converts the digital signal back into an audible sound. Some of the major benefits of digital audio is that it can be manipulated easily, it's very portable, better for mass production and easy for distribution. 

However, there are inconsistencies in the quality of the audio file formats in such recordings. There are variety of different formats that include MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC, WAV, AIFF, and many more. With a variety of formats means that the quality and file sizes will change. When the quality is higher then the size will be larger and when the quality is lower then the size will be smaller. Despite the differences, the dominant format currently is MP3.

The growth and expansion of audio recording has come a long way since it began in the late 1800s. And it will obviously continue to evolve as time goes on. But the real question now is... what's next? Clearly other technologies, such as microphones, monitors, processors, computers and wireless technologies,  will affect the industry. 

What do you think will be next?

Sources:

http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/audio.history.timeline.html

http://amale16.weebly.com/index.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/19537/Timeline.html

http://www.recording-history.org/HTML/musictech2.php