Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical Electricity is a general term that encompasses a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning and static electricity, but in addition, less familiar concepts, such as the electromagnetic field and electromagnetic induction or mechanical Mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the behavior of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effects of the bodies on their environment. The discipline has its roots in several ancient civilizations (see History of classical mechanics and Timeline of classical mechanics). During the early modern inscription and re-creation of sound Sound is a travelling wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations waves, such as spoken voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary sound source. Generally speaking, the mechanism for generating the human voice can be subdivided into three, singing, instrumental music An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or any other sort of vocal music; all of the music is produced by musical instruments. This term is used when referring to popular music rather than to other musical genres such as European classical music. In commercial music, instrumental tracks are sometimes renditions of a, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording Analog recording (Greek, ana is "according to" and logos "relationship") is a technique used to store signals of audio or video information for later playback and digital recording In digital recording, the analog signal of video or sound is converted into a stream of discrete numbers, representing the changes in chroma and luminance values or air pressure (audio) through time, thus making an abstract template for the original sound or moving image. Acoustic analog recording is achieved by a small microphone A microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1876, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, tape recorders, karaoke systems, hearing aids, motion picture production, live and diaphragm that can detect changes in atmospheric pressure (acoustic Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics technology may be called an acoustical or audio engineer sound waves) and record them as a graphic representation of the sound waves on a medium such as a phonograph The phonograph, record player, or gramophone was the most common device for playing sound recordings from the late 1870s through the 1980s (in which a stylus senses grooves on a record). In magnetic tape Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic recording, made of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic. Most audio, video and computer data storage is this type. It was developed in Germany, based on magnetic wire recording. Devices that record and play back audio and video using magnetic tape are tape recorders and video tape recording, the sound waves vibrate the microphone diaphragm and are converted into a varying electric current Electric current means, depending on the context, a flow of electric charge or the rate of flow of electric charge (a quantity). This flowing electric charge is typically carried by moving electrons, in a conductor such as wire; in an electrolyte, it is instead carried by ions, and, in a plasma, by both, which is then converted to a varying magnetic field Magnetic fields surround magnetic materials and electric currents and are detected by the force they exert on other magnetic materials and moving electric charges. The magnetic field at any given point is specified by both a direction and a magnitude ; as such it is a vector field by an electromagnet An electromagnet is a type of magnet whose magnetic field is produced by the flow of electric current. The magnetic field disappears when the current ceases, which makes a representation of the sound as magnetized areas on a plastic tape with a magnetic coating on it. Analog sound reproduction is the reverse process, with a bigger loudspeaker A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical signal into sound. The speaker moves in accordance with the variations of an electrical signal and causes sound waves to propagate through a medium such as air or water diaphragm causing changes to atmospheric pressure to form acoustic sound waves. Electronically generated sound waves may also be recorded directly from devices such as an electric guitar pickup A pickup device acts as a transducer that captures mechanical vibrations, usually from suitably-equipped stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, electric bass guitar or electric violin, and converts them to an electrical signal which can then be amplified, recorded and broadcast or a synthesizer A synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that uses filters and tone generators to create waveforms which are then processed to generate sound. Synthesizers can closely reproduce the sound of some instruments, but many keyboard players use them for their characteristic sound, without the use of acoustics in the recording process other than the need for musicians to hear how well they are playing during recording sessions The term studio recording means any recording made in a studio, as opposed to a live recording, which is usually made in a concert venue or a theatre, with an audience attending the performance.

Digital recording and reproduction converts the analog sound signal picked up by the microphone to a digital form by a process of digitization Digitizing or digitization is the representation of an object, image, sound, document or a signal by a discrete set of its points or samples. The result is called digital representation or, more specifically, a digital image, for the object, and digital form, for the signal. Strictly speaking, digitizing means simply capturing an analog signal in, allowing it to be stored and transmitted Data transmission, digital transmission or digital communications is the physical transfer of data over a point-to-point or point-to-multipoint transmission medium. Examples of such media are copper wires, optical fibres, wireless communication media, and storage media. The data is often represented as an electro-magnetic signal, such as an by a wider variety of media. Digital recording stores audio as a series of binary The binary numeral system, or base-2 number system, represents numeric values using two symbols, 0 and 1. More specifically, the usual base-2 system is a positional notation with a radix of 2. Owing to its straightforward implementation in digital electronic circuitry using logic gates, the binary system is used internally by all modern computers numbers representing samples of the amplitude Amplitude is the magnitude of change in the oscillating variable with each oscillation within an oscillating system. For example, sound waves in air are oscillations in atmospheric pressure and their amplitudes are proportional to the change in pressure during one oscillation. If a variable undergoes regular oscillations, and a graph of the system of the audio signal An audio signal is a representation of sound waves in a different form. Typically this is an electrical voltage, but these signals can be expressed through alternative mediums such as magnetic particles, when recorded onto analogue tape; or as RF waves, when broadcast through radio; or even as pulses of light, when transmitting through fiber optic at equal time intervals, at a sample rate The sampling rate, sample rate, or sampling frequency defines the number of samples per second taken from a continuous signal to make a discrete signal. For time-domain signals, the unit for sampling rate is 1/s. The inverse of the sampling frequency is the sampling period or sampling interval, which is the time between samples so fast that the human ear perceives the result as continuous sound. Digital recordings are considered higher quality than analog recordings not necessarily because they have higher fidelity High fidelity—or hi-fi—reproduction is a term used by home stereo listeners and home audio enthusiasts to refer to high-quality reproduction of sound or images, to distinguish it from the poorer quality sound produced by inexpensive audio equipment. Ideally, high-fidelity equipment has minimal amounts of noise and distortion and an accurate (wider frequency response Frequency response is the measure of any system's output spectrum in response to an input signal. In the audible range it is usually referred to in connection with electronic amplifiers, microphones and loudspeakers. Radio spectrum frequency response can refer to measurements of coaxial cables, category cables, video switchers and wireless or dynamic range Dynamic range is the ratio between the smallest and largest possible values of a changeable quantity, such as in sound and light. It is measured as a ratio, or as a base-10 or base-2 (doublings, bits or stops) logarithmic value), but because the digital format can prevent much loss of quality found in analog recording due to noise and electromagnetic interference Electromagnetic interference is a disturbance that affects an electrical circuit due to either electromagnetic conduction or electromagnetic radiation emitted from an external source. The disturbance may interrupt, obstruct, or otherwise degrade or limit the effective performance of the circuit. The source may be any object, artificial or natural, in playback, and mechanical deterioration or damage to the storage medium A data storage device is a device for recording information (data). Recording can be done using virtually any form of energy, spanning from manual muscle power in handwriting, to acoustic vibrations in phonographic recording, to electromagnetic energy modulating magnetic tape and optical discs. A digital audio Digital audio uses pulse-code modulation and digital signals for sound reproduction. This includes analog-to-digital conversion , digital-to-analog conversion (DAC), storage, and transmission. In effect, the system commonly referred to as digital is in fact a discrete-time, discrete-level analog of a previous electrical analog. While modern signal must be reconverted to analog form during playback before it is applied to a loudspeaker or earphones.

History

Origins

The automatic reproduction of music can be traced back as far as the 9th century, when the Banū Mūsā The Banu Musa were the sons of Mūsā ibn Shākir, who had been a highwayman and later an astrologer to the Caliph al-Ma'mūn. At his death, he left his young sons in the custody of the Caliph, who entrusted them to Ishaq bin Ibrahim al-Mus'abi, a former governor of Baghdad. The education of the three brothers was carried out by Yahya bin Abu brothers invented "the earliest known mechanical musical instrument A musical box is a 19th century automatic musical instrument that produces sounds by the use of a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc so as to pluck the tuned teeth of a steel comb. They were developed from musical snuff boxes of the 18th century and called carillons à musique. Some of the more complex boxes also have a tiny drum", in this case a hydropowered Hydropower, hydraulic power or water power is power that is derived from the force or energy of moving water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes organ The organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition , dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with the invention of the hydraulis. By around the eighth which played interchangeable cylinders automatically. According to Charles B. Fowler, this "cylinder with raised pins on the surface remained the basic device to produce and reproduce music mechanically until the second half of the nineteenth century."^[1] The Banu Musa also invented an automatic An automaton is a self-operating machine. The word is sometimes used to describe a robot, more specifically an autonomous robot. An alternative spelling, now obsolete, is automation flute The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening. According to the instrument classification of Hornbostel-Sachs, flutes are categorized as Edge-blown aerophones player which appears to have been the first programmable machine A program is list of instructions written in a programming language that is used to control the behavior of a machine, often a computer.^[2]

In the 14th century, Flanders Flanders (Dutch: Vlaanderen , French: Flandre) is the (political) community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. Over the course of history, the geographical territory that was called "Flanders" has varied introduced a mechanical bell-ringer controlled by a rotating cylinder. Similar designs appeared in barrel organs A barrel organ is a mechanical musical instrument consisting of bellows and one or more ranks of pipes housed in a case, usually of wood, and often highly decorated. The basic principle is the same as a traditional pipe organ, but rather than being played by an organist, the barrel organ is activated either by a person turning a crank, or by (15th century), musical clocks (1598), barrel pianos A barrel piano is a forerunner of the modern player piano. Unlike the pneumatic player piano, a barrel piano is usually powered by turning a hand crank, though coin operated models powered by clockwork were used to provide music in establishments such as pubs and cafés. Barrel pianos were popular with street musicians, who sought novel (1805), and musical boxes A musical box is a 19th century automatic musical instrument that produces sounds by the use of a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc so as to pluck the tuned teeth of a steel comb. They were developed from musical snuff boxes of the 18th century and called carillons à musique. Some of the more complex boxes also have a tiny drum (1815). All of these machines could play stored music, but they could not play arbitrary sounds, could not record a live performance, and were limited by the physical size of the medium. The first device that could record sound mechanically (but could not play it back) was the phonautograph The phonautograph is the earliest known device for directly transcribing sound. Invented by Frenchman Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, it was patented on March 25, 1857. It could transcribe sound to a visible medium, but had no means to play back the sound after it was recorded. The transcriptions, called phonautograms and phonoautograms, were, developed in 1857 by Parisian inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. The earliest known recordings of the human voice were phonautograms The phonautograph is the earliest known device for directly transcribing sound. Invented by Frenchman Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, it was patented on March 25, 1857. It could transcribe sound to a visible medium, but had no means to play back the sound after it was recorded. The transcriptions, called phonautograms and phonoautograms, were also made in 1857. These earliest known recordings include a dramatic reading in French of Shakespeare's Othello and music played on a guitar and trumpet. The recordings consist of groups of wavy lines scratched by a stylus onto fragile paper that was blackened by the soot from an oil lamp ^[3]. One of his phonautograms The phonautograph is the earliest known device for directly transcribing sound. Invented by Frenchman Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, it was patented on March 25, 1857. It could transcribe sound to a visible medium, but had no means to play back the sound after it was recorded. The transcriptions, called phonautograms and phonoautograms, were of Au Clair de la Lune "Au Clair de la Lune" is a French folk song of the eighteenth century. The author is unknown. Its simple melody is commonly taught to beginner students of various instruments, as it provides an easy way for students to become comfortable with how notes are played on their instrument, a French folk song, was digitally converted to sound in 2008.^[3]. While this is an interesting playback that sounds like a girl singing, the creator of this recording, Patrick Feaster of Indiana University in Bloomington, reports that phonautograms The phonautograph is the earliest known device for directly transcribing sound. Invented by Frenchman Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, it was patented on March 25, 1857. It could transcribe sound to a visible medium, but had no means to play back the sound after it was recorded. The transcriptions, called phonautograms and phonoautograms, were his team had previously transcribed, using a laser as a virtual stylus, had been played back at twice the actual speed. What sounded like a girl singing the French folksong was actually Léon Scott singing, Feaster concluded in May, 2009. Since the above recording was recovered, the same team have since recovered a recording of a 435-Hz tuning fork (at that time the French standard concert pitch for A' — now 440 Hz). The tuning fork is barely audible.

The player piano A player piano is a self-playing piano, containing a pneumatic or electro-mechanical mechanism that operates the piano action via pre-programmed music perforated paper, or in rare instances, metallic rolls. The rise of the player piano grew with the rise of the mass-produced piano for the home in the late 19th and early 20th century (see Harvey, first demonstrated in 1876, used a punched paper scroll that could store an arbitrarily long piece of music. This piano roll moved over a device known as the 'tracker bar', which first had 58 holes, was expanded to 65 and then was upgraded to 88 holes (generally, one for each piano key). When a perforation passed over the hole, the note sounded. Piano rolls were the first stored music medium that could be mass-produced, although the hardware to play them was much too expensive for personal use. Technology to record a live performance onto a piano roll was not developed until 1904. Piano rolls have been in continuous mass production since around 1898.^{[citation needed]} A 1908 U.S. Supreme Court copyright case noted that, in 1902 alone, there were between 70,000 and 75,000 player pianos manufactured, and between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 piano rolls produced.^[4] The use of piano rolls began to decline in the 1920s although one type is still being made today. The fairground organ, developed in 1892, used a similar system of accordion-folded punched cardboard books.

Phonograph

Phonograph cylinder

The first practical sound recording and reproduction device was the mechanical phonograph cylinder, invented by Thomas Edison in 1877 and patented in 1878.^[5] The invention soon spread across the globe and over the next two decades the commercial recording, distribution and sale of sound recordings became a growing new international industry, with the most popular titles selling millions of units by the early 1900s. The development of mass-production techniques enabled cylinder recordings to become a major new consumer item in industrial countries and the cylinder was the main consumer format from the late 1880s until around 1910.

Disc phonograph

The next major technical development was the invention of the gramophone disc, generally credited to Emile Berliner and commercially introduced in the United States in 1889. Discs were easier to manufacture, transport and store, and they had the additional benefit of being louder (marginally) than cylinders, which by necessity, were single-sided. Sales of the Gramophone record overtook the cylinder ca. 1910, and by the end of World War I the disc had become the dominant commercial recording format. Edison, who was the main producer of cylinders, created the Edison Disc Record in an attempt to regain his market. In various permutations, the audio disc format became the primary medium for consumer sound recordings until the end of the 20th century, and the double-sided 78 rpm shellac disc was the standard consumer music format from the early 1910s to the late 1950s.

Although there was no universally accepted speed, and various companies offered discs that played at several different speeds, the major recording companies eventually settled on a de facto industry standard of nominally 78 revolutions per minute, though the actual speed differed between America and the rest of the world. The specified speed was 78.26 rpm in America and 77.92 rpm throughout the rest of the world, the difference in speeds a result of the difference in cycle frequencies of the AC power driving the synchronous motor) and available gearing ratios.^[6] The nominal speed of the disc format gave rise to its common nickname, the "seventy-eight" (though not until other speeds had become available). Discs were made of shellac or similar brittle plastic-like materials, played with needles made from a variety of materials including mild steel, thorn and even sapphire. Discs had a distinctly limited playing life which was heavily dependent on how they were reproduced.

The earlier, purely acoustic methods of recording had limited sensitivity and frequency range. Mid-frequency range notes could be recorded but very low and very high frequencies could not. Instruments such as the violin transferred poorly to disc; however this was partially solved by retrofitting a conical horn to the sound box of the violin. The horn was no longer required once electrical recording was developed.

The Vinyl microgroove was invented by a Hungarian engineer Peter Carl Goldmark. The vinyl microgroove record was introduced in the late 1940s, and the two main vinyl formats — the 7-inch single turning at 45 rpm and the 12-inch LP (long-playing) record turning at 33 1/3 rpm — had totally replaced the 78 rpm shellac (sometimes vinyl) disc by the end of the 1950s. Vinyl offered improved performance, both in stamping and in playback, and came to be generally played with polished diamond styli, and when played properly (precise tracking weight, etc.) offered longer life. Vinyl records were, over-optimistically, advertised as "unbreakable". They were not, but were much less brittle and breakable than shellac. Nearly all were tinted black, but some were colored, as red, swirled, translucent, etc.

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