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Phonautograph
The first device that could record actual sounds as they passed through the air (but could not play them
back) -
the microphone
Between the invention of the phonograph and the advent of digital media, the most important event
in the history of sound recording was the introduction of the microphone, used to convert the sound into an
electrical signal that was later amplified to be heard. -
Other recording formats
1920s, early motion picture sound systems employed optical recording technology, in which the
audio signal was graphically recorded on photographic film. (imagesound film history 2"). Optical sound
became the standard motion picture audio system throughout the world and remains so for theatrical release
prints despite attempts in the 1950s to substitute magnetic soundtracks. -
Magnetic tape
The process of
recording on magnetic tape involves the conversion of sound signals , into electrical impulses, which are
recorded analogically as variations of magnetic flux along the tape. The original solid steel ribbon was replaced by a much more practical coated paper tape.Most commercial recordings were
mastered on tape instead of recorded directly to disc. Due to the fact that tapes were recordable, music was
widely copied: it was the first burst of Piracy. -
Digital recording
brought significant improvements
in the durability of consumer recordings. The CD initiated another massive wave of change in the consumer
music industry, with vinyl records effectively relegated to a small niche market by the mid-1990s. However,
the record industry fiercely resisted the introduction of digital systems, fearing massive piracy on a medium
able to produce perfect copies of original released recordings. -
C-D Compact Disc
Is a digital optical disc data storage format. The format was originally developed
to store and play only sound recordings
Recording wasn’t allowed initially, but the newest format were capable of recording music.
The quality of compact disc is higher than vinyl or cassette tape, and it doesn’t lose fidelity in time.
However, some people still prefer analog than digital audio -
MP3
is an audio coding
format for digital audio which uses a form of lossy data compression.Depending on the level of compression, the quality and size of the file change: the higher the
compression, the lower the quality and the size. Was created to occupy less space and improve the transfer speed in the Internet.
Lately, it has been the most popular way to reproduce audio and the start of a big burst of legal
