Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is the
electrical or mechanical re-creation and/or amplification of
sound, often as
music. This involves the use of audio equipment such as
microphones, recording devices and
loudspeakers. From early beginnings with the invention of the
phonograph using purely mechanical techniques, the field has advanced with the invention of electrical recording, the mass production of the
78 record, the magnetic wire recorder followed by the
tape recorder, the
vinyl LP record.
Encyclopedia
Sound recording and reproduction is the
electrical or mechanical re-creation and/or amplification of
sound, often as
music. This involves the use of audio equipment such as
microphones, recording devices and
loudspeakers. From early beginnings with the invention of the
phonograph using purely mechanical techniques, the field has advanced with the invention of electrical recording, the mass production of the
78 record, the magnetic wire recorder followed by the
tape recorder, the
vinyl LP record. The invention of the
compact cassette in the
1960s, followed by
Sony's
Walkman, gave a major boost to the mass distribution of music recordings, and the invention of digital recording and the
compact disc in 1983 brought massive improvements in ruggedness and quality. The most recent developments have been in
digital audio players like the
Apple iPod. New technologies such as Super Audio CD and
DVD-A continue to set very hi-fi digital standards.
The field covers many areas, from Hi-Fi to Professional audio, Internet radio and
Podcasting.
Developments in recording and editing have transformed the record,
movie and
television industries in recent decades. Editing became practicable with the invention of
magnetic tape recording but computers and digital processing made it much easier, quicker and more powerful. We now divide the process of making a recording into tracking,
mixing and mastering.
Multitrack recording makes it possible to capture sound from several microphones, or from different 'takes' to tape or disc with maximum
headroom and quality, allowing maximum flexibility in the mixing and mastering stages for editing, level balancing,
compressing and limiting, and the addition of effects such as reverberation,
equalisation,
flanging and many more.
The first multitrack recording was "How High the Moon" by
Les Paul, on which Paul played eight guitar tracks. The
Beatles, under producer George Martin, were among the first to truly experiment with multitrack techniques and effects on the album
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
In the 1920s, the first
talkies came out, especially "The Jazz Singer" in 1927, and theatre orchestra musicians were being replaced with mechanical music which cost the loss of many jobs. The
American Federation of Musicians took out ads in newspapers, protesting the replacement of real musicians with mechanical playing devices, especially in theatres.
See also
Notes
