Audio Timeline By: Cade Thompson

1877 Thomas Edison's phonograph was invented in 1877.

1878 The first music is put on record: cornetist Jules Levy plays "Yankee Doodle.

1888   In 1888, Emile Berliner filed and patented a talking machine which also recorded and played back sound. (The gramophone)

1898 Valdemar Poulsen patents his "Telegraphone," recording magnetically on steel wire.

1901 The Victor Talking Machine Company is founded by Emile Berliner and Eldridge Johnson.

1906 Lee DeForest invents the triode vacuum tube, the first electronic signal amplifier.

1912 Major Edwin F. Armstrong is issued a patent for a regenerative circuit, making radio reception practical.

1913 The first "talking movie" is demonstrated by Edison using his Kinetophone process, a cylinder player mechanically synchronized to a film projector.

1929 The "Blattnerphone" is developed for use as a magnetic recorder using steel tape.

1930 Before the development of oxide based magnetic tape, the stainless steel piano wire recorder was the dominant audio recording format of choice.

1932 The first cardioid ribbon microphone is patented by Dr. Harry F. Olson of RCA, using a field coil instead of a permanent magnet..

1936 The Tefifon used an endless  vinyl belt housed in a cassette that recorded the tracks.

1940 Walt Disney's "Fantasia" is released, with eight-track stereophonic sound.

1945 The Audograph used technology, in that the modulated grooves were embossed onto soft vinyl.

1945 The soundscriber used flexible vinyl records were "cut" using a stylus cutting head and playback  was made on a dedicated player.

1947 Dictabelts are flexible belts of vinyl  .005" thick by 3 1/2 inches wide with a circumference of 12 inches, which allowed up to approximately 15 minutes of recording time per belt. This machine works just like the soundscriber.

1957 The Sonaband Walkie RecordAll used the same technology as that of the Dictabelt. It embossed the audio information onto a soft vinyl belt with a stylus, instead of cutting grooves into harder materials.

1957 The portable dictet dictation recorder by the Dictaphone Corporation, was the very first dictation machine to use magnetic tape cassettes. (dictaphone dictet)

1958 In 1958 RCA developed an audio cartridge system known simply as the sound tape cartridge.

1959 Introduced in 1959 by Collins Radio, the cart tape format was designed for use by radio broadcasters to play commercials,  bumpers, and announcements. 

1960 In 1960, the magnabelt was invented. It was another type of dictation machine.

1962 Ironically, the compact cassette is still in wide use today and was never intended for such wide use.

1964 The Sanyo Pack 35 was an early format portable dictation player/recorder for busy executives in the 1960’s.

1977 The Elcaset format was introduced by Sony in 1977.  Though marketed as a consumer format, it was intended as a platform to offer open reel to reel quality with the convenience of a compact cassette.

1978 The Sony PCM-F10, though not the first digital stereo recorder, was the first to make it truly affordable.

1981 Sony released the second generation called the PCM-F1 which reduced the processor size substantially.

1982 The audio CD in the form we know it today, was released in the UK in September, 1982.

1987 Introduced in 1987 for the professional studio market, digital audio tapes quickly claimed the high ground in professional recording industry circles.

1991 Released in 1991, the first ADAT machine took the recording industry by storm.

1989 The mp3 player was invented.

2000 The versacorder was invented in 2000 and was used for talk shows.

2001 The advanced audio coding is a newer codec algorithm made in 2001.

2001 The first ipod was released on November 10, 2001.

Cites http://videointerchange.com/audio_history\ http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/audio.history.timeline.html