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Evolution of Early Sound Recording

In 1857, the phonautograph was invented, providing the first device to record sound onto paper, though it could not playback recordings. In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, capable of both recording and playing back sound on tinfoil cylinders. At the start of the 20th century, Emile Berliner patented the gramophone which recorded onto disc records, sparking a rivalry with Edison's cylinders. Improvements to recording technology led to higher quality recordings and more widespread popularity of disc records over cylinders. The development of microphones in the late 19th century further improved audio quality and enabled modern recording techniques.

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Julian Callan
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107 views2 pages

Evolution of Early Sound Recording

In 1857, the phonautograph was invented, providing the first device to record sound onto paper, though it could not playback recordings. In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, capable of both recording and playing back sound on tinfoil cylinders. At the start of the 20th century, Emile Berliner patented the gramophone which recorded onto disc records, sparking a rivalry with Edison's cylinders. Improvements to recording technology led to higher quality recordings and more widespread popularity of disc records over cylinders. The development of microphones in the late 19th century further improved audio quality and enabled modern recording techniques.

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Julian Callan
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Early Recorded Sound-Julian Callan

In 1857, douard-Lon Scott de Martinville invented the phonautograph


and it was the first device able to record sound. It sounded like this:
SOUND 1
Pretty impressive. The phonautograph recorded onto a roll of paper but
wasnt actually able to play back the sound it recorded, it was more of an
attempt to capture and view the waveforms of the sound.
In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the first device capable of both
recording and playing back sound and recorded Mary Had a Little Lamb
onto a sheet of tinfoil wrapped around a cylinder. SOUND 2
The tinfoil wasnt really a practical method of recording though as it was
too fragile. Edison then developed wax cylinders which could be used to
store music or any other sounds. Each cylinder could only play about 2
minutes of music. SOUND 3
At the start of the 20th Century, Emile Berliner filed his patent for the
gramophone, a device that would record onto and play back gramophone
records. The early discs could only play a few minutes but as technology
improved, the discs could hold more and more music.
This led to a huge rivalry between Edisons cylinders and Berliners
records, not completely different to the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD format war a few
years ago.
As Berliners records grew in popularity, Edison tried to recover his
foothold of the industry by releasing cylinders with much better sound
quality. These were much more expensive and only popular amongst the
audiophiles of the era.
Edison tried his hand at the record game, producing his Diamond Disc but
these things were huge and expensive and ultimately failed.

In the early days of recording, sound was recorded acoustically onto cylinders or
discs. What this means is that basically the musicians stood around a big horn
and tried to make as much noise as possible. The noise was transmitted down
the horn and onto a needle that would vibrate and etch the sound onto a cylinder
or disc.
This was pretty impractical for many reasons:

All the musicians had to play at the same time. There was no room for
mistakes so if anything went wrong, the song had to be started from
scratch.
There was only a very basic form of mixing involved. Usually the loudest
instrument was placed furthest from the horn. Sound quality was often
very poor.
There was virtually no way to overdub anything onto the music and the
performance was basically live.

All this changed with the event of the microphone.


Again, Berliner and Edison had their rivaling versions of the device, both
patented around the same time, literally within four months of each other.
Whoever came up with the idea first is irrelevant. What cannot be stressed
enough is how important both these mens contributions where to the early
world of sound recording.
Once the microphone had been established, musicians were able to record
electronically, allowing for much greater audio quality to the recording. At the
time, recordings were still being made directly onto the disc but the microphone
paved the way for virtually every sound recording technique we have today.

BOOKS RESEARCHED
Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music- Greg Milner
Master Handbook of Acoustics- F. Alton Everest
Modern Recording Techniques, Sixth Edition - David Miles Huber,Robert E.
Runstein

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