The History Of Audio… By. Eric Nard

How some audio was used… The earliest methods of recording arbitrary sounds involved the live recording of the performance directly to the recording medium. This was an entirely mechanical process, often called "acoustical recording". The sound of the performers was captured by a diaphragm with the cutting needle connected to it. The needle made the groove in the recording medium. To make this process as efficient as possible the diaphragm was located at the apex of a cone and the performers would crowd around the other end. If a performer was too loud then they would need to move back from the mouth of the cone to avoid drowning out the other performers. In some early jazz recordings a block of wood was used in place of the base drum.

Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville And His Invention… In 1857, Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville invented the phonautograph, the first device that could record sound waves as they passed through the air. It was intended only for visual study of the recording and could not play back the sound. The recording medium was a sheet of soot-coated paper wrapped around a rotating cylinder carried on a threaded rod. A stylus, attached to a diaphragm through a series of levers, traced a line through the soot, creating a graphic record of the motions of the diaphragm as it was minutely propelled back and forth by the audio- frequency variations in air pressure.

Charles Cros… In the spring of 1877 another inventor, Charles Cros, suggested that the process could be reversed by using photoengraving to convert the traced line into a groove that would guide the stylus, causing the original stylus vibrations to be recreated, passed on to the linked diaphragm, and sent back into the air as sound. An invention from America soon eclipsed this idea, and it was not until 1887 that another inventor, Emile Berliner, actually photoengraved a phonautograph recording into metal and played it back.

First Audio Recording In America… An audio recording made in 1878 on a sheet of Tinfoil and played on a phonograph invented by Thomas Edison has been unveiled. Scott Pelly reports it is believed to be the first audio recording made in America

CD Audio Facts Superior sound quality without skips, hiss or other defects Fast random access to any track on the disc Long-life; compact discs virtualy last forever Compact size: only 12cm in diameter so they take up little storage space The superior quality of CDs and their compact size is made possible by the use of digital technology.

Audio Timeline… 1870s Phonograph cylinder Analog; "hill-and- dale" grooves, vertical stylus 1895 Gramophone record Analog; lateral grooves, horizontal stylus ca rpm or 78s disc first produced around 1898; popular from s; by 1910 actual speed ranged from about 78 to 80 rpm; size was 10 or 12 inches

Audio Timeline… 1948 Vinyl record Analog; lateral grooves, horizontal stylus also known as LP or long-playing records 1957 Stereophonic vinyl record Analog; lateral/vertical stylus each channel encoded 45 degrees to vertical Audio cassette Analog; 1/8 in. tape width; 1 7/8 ips popular in the US through the 1990s track tape Analog; 1/4 in. tape width; 3 3/4 ips in an endless loop cartridge 1969 Microcassette Analog 1970 Dolby noise reduction introduced (cassettes) 2

Audio Timeline… 1992 WAVEform (WAV) Dolby digital surround cinema sound 1993 Dolby theatre system (DTS) Sony dynamic digital sound (SDDS) 1995 MP3

Edison Work… The road that leads us from Edison's tin-foil cylinder to today's audio DVD is a fascinating avenue crammed with remarkable people, inventions and innovations. Our past accomplishments contribute to what we are today, and signpost the future as a never- ending quest to push the envelope of what is possible in audio.

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

Marconi… 1895 Marconi successfully experiments with his wireless telegraphy system in Italy, leading to the first transatlantic signals from Poldhu, Cornwall, UK to St. John's, Newfoundland in 1901.

Benjamin b. bauer… Benjamin B. Bauer of Shure Bros. engineers a single microphone element to produce a cardioid pickup pattern, called the Unidyne, Model 55. This later becomes the basis for the well known SM57 and SM58 microphones. Under the direction of Dr. Harry Olson, Leslie J. Anderson designs the 44B ribbon bidirectional microphone and the 77B ribbon unidirectional for RCA. RCA develops the first column loudspeaker array.

(Ase) is formed… 1948 The Audio Engineering Society (AES) is formed in New York City. The microgroove 33-1/3 rpm long-play vinyl record (LP) is introduced by Columbia Records. Scotch types 111 and 112 acetate-base tapes are introduced. Magnecord introduces its PT-6, the first tape recorder in portable cases.

Recent… 2008 SlotMusic Digital. Usually at 320kbit/s MP3 on microSD or microSDHC Blu-spec CD Digital. PCM

Audio format… An audio format is a medium for storing sound and music. The term is applied to both the physical recording media and the recording formats of the audio content – in computer science it is often limited to the audio file format, but its wider use usually refers to the physical method used to store the data. Music is recorded and distributed using a variety of audio formats, some of which store additional information.

Vinyl record… 1957 Stereophonic Vinyl Record Analog, with preemphasis and other equalization techniques. Combination lateral/vertical stylus motion with each channel encoded 45 degrees to the vertical.

2000’s… 2000 Digital. Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) 2001 Digital. Advanced audio coding (AAC) 2002 Digital. Ogg Vorbis 2003 DualDisc Digital. Multiple formats encoded onto the same disc.

2004 Digital. Apple Lossless (ALE or ALAC) 2005 HD DVD Digital. Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio Digital. OggPCM 2006 Blu-ray Disc Digital. Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio

1877 Phonograph cylinder Mechanical analog; "hill-and-dale" grooves, vertical stylus motion 1883 Music roll Mechanical digital (automated musical instruments) 1895 Gramophone record Mechanical analog; lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion

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