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The First Electronic Sound Recording
The earliest example of electrical recording was the work of Lionel Guest and Horace O. Merriman in Britain. This was the first electrical recording issued to the public was for the funeral services of an Unknown Soldier in Westminster Abbey, London. Guest and Merriman placed 4 carbon microphones inside Westminster Abbey 15, with their recording apparatus outside. -
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The Innovation of Electronic Sound Recording
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The Adoption of Electrical Recording by Record Labels
The clear tone compared to acoustic recordings meant that acoustic recordings could no longer compete with their electrically recorded counterparts, so all the major labels started implementing the use of electrical microphones, electronic signal amplifiers and electromechanical recorders. -
The Jazz Singer
On October 6, 1927, the Jazz Singer was the first feature-length motion picture to incorporate synchronized sound premiered in New York City. A result of electronic innovation in sound, the overwhelming success signalled the end of the silent film era. -
The Theremin
The first electronic instrument. Invented by a young Russian physicist named Lev Sergeyevich Termen (known in the West as Léon Theremin) after the outbreak of the Russian Civil War. After a lengthy tour of Europe, during which time he demonstrated his invention to packed houses, Theremin found his way to the United States, where he patented his invention in 1928 -
The Tape Recorder
The use of magnetic tape for sound recording originated around 1930. Magnetizable tape revolutionized both the radio broadcast and music recording industries. It gave artists and producers the power to record and re-record audio with minimal loss in quality as well as edit and rearrange recordings with ease. The alternative recording technologies of the era, transcription discs and wire recorders, could not provide anywhere near this level of quality and functionality -
The Vocoder
Invented in 1938 by Homer Dudley at Bell Labs as a means of synthesizing human speech, it also became utilised as a tool for musicians -
The First Vinyl LP
Created by Columbia Records, this vinyl record had a capacity of around 21 minutes per side and was 12 inches wide, playing at a speed of 33 1/3 RPM. This changed the face of the music industry to the album-centric format we all still abide by today. -
The Columbia Princeton Electronic Music Center Opened
The first center for electronic and computer music research in the United States. Originally intended for experiments in musical composition using new reel-to-reel tape technology, the studio quickly branched out into all areas of electronic music research.
The centre was the inventors and proprietors of the first electronic, programmable synthesizer - the RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer. -
The Compact Cassette
Introduced by Philips in August 1963 at the Berlin Radio Show, it was not until the late 70s' that cassettes became the main way to listen to music. Following Dolby noise reduction technology being released in 1968 - cassette sales overtook eight-track sales by the mid-1970s and later outsold vinyl album sales in the 80s. -
The Moog Modular Synthesiser
In 1964 Robert Moog created one of the first modular voltage-controlled music synthesisers. Moog employed his theremin company to manufacture and market his synthesizers which featured a piano-style keyboard as a significant portion of the user interface. -
The Fairlight CMI
The Fairlight CMI (short for Computer Musical Instrument) is one of the earliest music workstations with embedded digital sampling synthesizers. It was one of the first iterations of what we would call today a DAW (digital audio workstation) -
The Walkman
The walkman was the first portable music player and was created because Sony co-founder Masaru Ibuka wanted to be able to listen to music on long flights. Over 385 million of them were sold and laid the groundwork for all future electronics that allowed you to listen to music on the go. -
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The Arrival of the Musically Capable Computer
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The Compact Disc
In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. The CD is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. -
MIDI
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a protocol, digital interface and connectors and allows a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers and other related devices to connect and communicate with one another. MIDI can specify notation, pitch and velocity, control signals for parameters such as volume, vibrato, audio panning, cues, and clock signals that set and synchronize tempo between multiple devices. -
Cubase
Cubase is a music software product developed by German musical software and equipment company Steinberg for music recording, arranging and editing as part of a digital audio workstation. It was one of the first of its kind and was popular due to its nature of being a widely accessible standalone, downloadable DAW. -
.WAV Files
Wav files provided one the first ways to store music files in an uncompressed, lossless, high-quality digital format. -
MP3 Files
A now common audio format for consumer audio streaming or storage, as well as a de facto standard of digital audio compression for the transfer and playback of music on most digital audio players and computing devices. MP3s takes advantage of a perceptual limitation of human hearing called auditory masking. -
The World Wide Web is made Available to the Public
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Napster
Napster was the first music streaming service. It was originally launched as a pioneering peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing software service with an emphasis on the distribution of MP3 files. Napster paved the way for the popular streaming services we use today.
