Anna Coletti
Adrienne Hollifield
AP English IV
15 October 2014
The Evolution of Audio Recordings From the crude beats of an ancient drum to the electronic sounds of a modern synthesizer, music has evolved over millennia. Since the invention of the audio recorder, people have been able to document the evolution of music so that history can actually be heard. Recording devices have developed from tinfoil and hand cranks to complex computer systems. When music was first being recorded, musicians played instruments as technicians recorded on a machine. Today’s music, however, is no longer being played and recorded; it is being programmed by machines and edited by engineers.
In 1877, Thomas Edison designed the phonograph, the first machine …show more content…
Rather than imprinting grooves on a cylinder, the gramophone used a flat disc much like a vinyl record to record sound. The convenience of the disc allowed for the gramophone to be reproduced more easily than the phonograph, though Edison continued to advance his invention, developing the motor-driven and the wax cylinder phonographs. A few years later Valdemar Poulsen presented his invention of the telegraphone at the Paris Exposition. The telegraphone recorded sound by magnetizing a steel wire at certain points corresponding to the intensities of the supplied audio signal. Wire recorders were developed commercial in the 1930s and were the leading recording device used until the invention of the tape recorder and the vinyl record (“An Audio …show more content…
The process in making and reproducing vinyl records is tedious, but LPs record sound produced is of a higher quality than the original tape recorders. To make a LP recording, engineers must first produce a master record, a disc with a polished aluminum disc core coated with a lacquer veneer. The master record is placed on the recording machine called a lathe. As musicians play live, a sapphire tipped cutter etches the sound into the surface of the disc. With the advancements in technology today, a digital recording of music can be transcribed by a machine onto the master record without the need of live music. The master disc is too delicate to replay audio recordings and is only used as a mold to create a silver and nickel “stamper” disc that stamps the sound grooves into vinyl records. Even in today’s digital age, some consumers listen to records, believing the sound played from a vinyl record is “warmer and has more depth than digital recordings” (“How It’s
Adrienne Hollifield
AP English IV
15 October 2014
The Evolution of Audio Recordings From the crude beats of an ancient drum to the electronic sounds of a modern synthesizer, music has evolved over millennia. Since the invention of the audio recorder, people have been able to document the evolution of music so that history can actually be heard. Recording devices have developed from tinfoil and hand cranks to complex computer systems. When music was first being recorded, musicians played instruments as technicians recorded on a machine. Today’s music, however, is no longer being played and recorded; it is being programmed by machines and edited by engineers.
In 1877, Thomas Edison designed the phonograph, the first machine …show more content…
Rather than imprinting grooves on a cylinder, the gramophone used a flat disc much like a vinyl record to record sound. The convenience of the disc allowed for the gramophone to be reproduced more easily than the phonograph, though Edison continued to advance his invention, developing the motor-driven and the wax cylinder phonographs. A few years later Valdemar Poulsen presented his invention of the telegraphone at the Paris Exposition. The telegraphone recorded sound by magnetizing a steel wire at certain points corresponding to the intensities of the supplied audio signal. Wire recorders were developed commercial in the 1930s and were the leading recording device used until the invention of the tape recorder and the vinyl record (“An Audio …show more content…
The process in making and reproducing vinyl records is tedious, but LPs record sound produced is of a higher quality than the original tape recorders. To make a LP recording, engineers must first produce a master record, a disc with a polished aluminum disc core coated with a lacquer veneer. The master record is placed on the recording machine called a lathe. As musicians play live, a sapphire tipped cutter etches the sound into the surface of the disc. With the advancements in technology today, a digital recording of music can be transcribed by a machine onto the master record without the need of live music. The master disc is too delicate to replay audio recordings and is only used as a mold to create a silver and nickel “stamper” disc that stamps the sound grooves into vinyl records. Even in today’s digital age, some consumers listen to records, believing the sound played from a vinyl record is “warmer and has more depth than digital recordings” (“How It’s