Sound recording and reproduction  

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-{{Template}}'''Sound recording and reproduction''' is the [[electrical]] or [[mechanics|mechanical]] inscription and re-creation of [[sound]] waves, usually used for the [[voice]] or for [[music]].+{| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5"
-==Magnetic tape==+| style="text-align: left;" |
-See also: [[magnetic tape sound recording]]+"I see the [[recording studio|studio]] must be like a living thing, a life itself. The [[machine]] must be live and intelligent. Then I put my mind into the machine and the machine perform reality. Invisible thought waves - you put them into the machine by sending them through the controls and the knobs or you jack it into the jack panel. The jack panel is the brain itself, so you got to patch up the brain and make the brain a living man, that the brain can take what you sending into it and live." --[[Lee Perry]], unidentified
 +<hr>
 +"...ever since [[Miles Davis]] and [[James Brown]] transferred their primary creative space from stage to [[Recording studio|studio]], the most succesful musical form in the popular arena has been the dance-groove : where cycles of rhythm, circling ever back to their beginnings, allow for small shifts and changes within the structure to bring with them remarkable shock-force." ([[Hopey Glass]] in [[The Wire]]).
 +|}{{Template}}
 +'''Sound recording and reproduction''' is the [[electrical]] or [[mechanics|mechanical]] inscription and [[playback]] of [[sound]] waves, usually used for the [[voice]] or for [[music]].
 +The first practical sound recording and reproduction device was the mechanical [[phonograph cylinder]], invented by [[Thomas Edison]] in [[1877]] and patented in [[1878]]. The invention soon spread across the globe and over the next two decades the commercial recording, distribution and sale of sound recordings became a growing new international industry, with the most popular titles selling millions of units by the early [[1900s]]. The development of [[mass production]] techniques enabled cylinder recordings to become a major new consumer item in industrial countries and the cylinder was the main consumer format from the late [[1880s]] until around [[1910]].
-The other major inventions of this period were [[magnetic tape]] and the [[tape recorder]] (Telegraphone). Paper-based tape was first used but was soon superseded by polyester and acetate backing due to dust drop and hiss. Acetate was more brittle than polyester and snapped easily. This technology, the basis for almost all commercial recording from the 1950s to the 1980s, was invented by German audio engineers in the 1930s, who also discovered the technique of [[AC Bias|AC biasing]], which dramatically improved the frequency response of tape recordings. Tape recording was perfected just after the war by American audio engineer [[John T. Mullin]] with the help of Crosby Enterprises ([[Bing Crosby]]), whose pioneering recorders were based on captured German recorders, and the [[Ampex]] company produced the first commercially available tape recorders in the late 1940s.+The next major technical development was the invention of the [[Berliner Gramophone|gramophone disc]], generally credited to [[Emile Berliner]] and commercially introduced in the United States in [[1889]]. Discs were easier to manufacture, transport and store, and they had the additional benefit of being louder (marginally) than cylinders, which by necessity, were single-sided. Sales of the [[Gramophone record]] overtook the cylinder ca. 1910, and by the end of [[World War I]] the disc had become the dominant commercial recording format. In various permutations, the audio disc format became the primary medium for consumer sound recordings until the end of the 20th century, and the double-sided 78 rpm shellac disc was the standard consumer music format from the early 1910s to the late 1950s.
-Magnetic tape brought about sweeping changes in both radio and the recording industry. Sound could be recorded, erased and re-recorded on the same tape many times, sounds could be duplicated from tape to tape with only minor loss of quality, and recordings could now be very precisely edited by physically cutting the tape and rejoining it.+Although there was no universally accepted speed, and various companies offered discs that played at several different speeds, the major recording companies eventually settled on a ''de facto'' industry standard of 78.26 revolutions per minute, which gave the disc format its common nickname, the "seventy-eight". Discs were made of shellac or similar brittle plastic like materials, played with metal needles, and had a distinctly limited playing life.
 +==See also==
 +*[[Audio mixing]]
 +*[[Magnetic tape sound recording]]
 +*[[Recording consciousness]]
 +*[[Recording studio]]
-Within a few years of the introduction of the first commercial tape recorder, the Ampex 200 model, launched in 1948, American musician-inventor [[Les Paul]] had invented the first [[multitrack tape recorder]], bringing about another technical revolution in the recording industry. Tape made possible the first sound recordings totally created by electronic means, opening the way for the bold sonic experiments of the [[Musique Concrète]] school and avant garde composers like [[Karlheinz Stockhausen]], which in turn led to the innovative [[pop music]] recordings of artists such as [[Frank Zappa]], [[The Beatles]] and [[The Beach Boys]]. 
- 
-Tape enabled the radio industry for the first time to pre-record many sections of program content such as advertising, which formerly had to be presented live, and it also enabled the creation and duplication of complex, high-fidelity, long-duration recordings of entire programs. It also, for the first time, allowed broadcasters, regulators and other interested parties to undertake comprehensive logging of radio broadcasts. Innovations like multitracking and [[tape echo]] enabled radio programs and advertisements to be pre-produced to a level of complexity and sophistication that was previously unattainable and tape also led to significant changes to the pacing of program content, thanks to the introduction of the endless-loop [[tape cartridge]]. 
- 
-The [[vinyl]] microgroove [[Gramophone record|record]] was introduced in the late 1940s, and the two main vinyl formats -- the [[7-inch single turning at 45 rpm]] and the 12-inch [[LP album|LP]] (long-playing) record turning at 33⅓ rpm -- had totally replaced the 78 rpm [[shellac]] disc by the end of the 1950s. Vinyl offered improved performance, both in stamping and in playback, and came to be generally played with polished diamond styli, and when played properly (precise tracking weight, etc.) offered longer life. Vinyl records were, over-optimistically, advertised as "unbreakable". They were not, but were much less brittle and breakable than shellac. Nearly all were tinted black, but some were colored, as red, swirled, translucent, etc. 
{{GFDL}} {{GFDL}}

Revision as of 19:21, 21 October 2018

"I see the studio must be like a living thing, a life itself. The machine must be live and intelligent. Then I put my mind into the machine and the machine perform reality. Invisible thought waves - you put them into the machine by sending them through the controls and the knobs or you jack it into the jack panel. The jack panel is the brain itself, so you got to patch up the brain and make the brain a living man, that the brain can take what you sending into it and live." --Lee Perry, unidentified


"...ever since Miles Davis and James Brown transferred their primary creative space from stage to studio, the most succesful musical form in the popular arena has been the dance-groove : where cycles of rhythm, circling ever back to their beginnings, allow for small shifts and changes within the structure to bring with them remarkable shock-force." (Hopey Glass in The Wire).

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Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical or mechanical inscription and playback of sound waves, usually used for the voice or for music. The first practical sound recording and reproduction device was the mechanical phonograph cylinder, invented by Thomas Edison in 1877 and patented in 1878. The invention soon spread across the globe and over the next two decades the commercial recording, distribution and sale of sound recordings became a growing new international industry, with the most popular titles selling millions of units by the early 1900s. The development of mass production techniques enabled cylinder recordings to become a major new consumer item in industrial countries and the cylinder was the main consumer format from the late 1880s until around 1910.

The next major technical development was the invention of the gramophone disc, generally credited to Emile Berliner and commercially introduced in the United States in 1889. Discs were easier to manufacture, transport and store, and they had the additional benefit of being louder (marginally) than cylinders, which by necessity, were single-sided. Sales of the Gramophone record overtook the cylinder ca. 1910, and by the end of World War I the disc had become the dominant commercial recording format. In various permutations, the audio disc format became the primary medium for consumer sound recordings until the end of the 20th century, and the double-sided 78 rpm shellac disc was the standard consumer music format from the early 1910s to the late 1950s.

Although there was no universally accepted speed, and various companies offered discs that played at several different speeds, the major recording companies eventually settled on a de facto industry standard of 78.26 revolutions per minute, which gave the disc format its common nickname, the "seventy-eight". Discs were made of shellac or similar brittle plastic like materials, played with metal needles, and had a distinctly limited playing life.

See also





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