Tape enabled the radio industry for the first time to pre-record many sections of program content such as advertising, which formerly had to be presented live, and it also enabled the creation and duplication of complex, high-fidelity(SONY VAIO VGN-FZ11m Battery), long-duration recordings of entire programs. It also, for the first time, allowed broadcasters, regulators and other interested parties to undertake comprehensive logging of radio broadcasts(SONY VAIO VGN-FZ11z Battery). Innovations like multitracking and tape echo enabled radio programs and advertisements to be pre-produced to a level of complexity and sophistication that was previously unattainable and tape also led to significant changes to the pacing of program content, thanks to the introduction of the endless-loop broadcast cartridge(SONY VAIO VGN-FZ11l Battery).
Stereo and hi-fi
See also: Stereophonic sound and High fidelity
In 1881, it was noted during experiments in transmitting sound from the Paris Opera that it was possible to follow the movement of singers on the stage if earpieces connected to different microphones were held to the two ears. However, this observation was not followed up or investigated further at the time(SONY VAIO VGN-FZ140E Battery).
In 1931 Alan Blumlein, a British electronics engineer working for EMI, designed a way to make the sound of an actor in a film follow their movement across the screen. In December 1931 he submitted a patent including the idea(SONY VAIO VGN-FZ260E Battery), and in 1933 this became UK patent number 394,325. Over the next two years, Blumlein developed stereo microphones and a stereo disc-cutting head, and recorded a number of short films with stereo soundtracks(SONY VAIO VGN-FZ150E Battery).
Magnetic tape enabled the development of the first practical commercial sound systems that could record and reproduce high-fidelity stereophonic sound. The experiments with stereo during the 1930s and 1940s were hampered by problems with synchronization(SONY VAIO VGN-FZ190 Battery). A major breakthrough in practical stereo sound was made by Bell Laboratories, who in 1937 demonstrated a practical system of two-channel stereo, using dual optical sound tracks on film. Major movie studios quickly developed three-track and four-track sound systems(SONY VAIO VGN-FZ460E Battery), and the first stereo sound recording for a commercial film was made by Judy Garland for the MGM movie Listen, Darling in 1938.
The first movie commercially released with a stereo soundtrack was Walt Disney's Fantasia, released in 1940(SONY VAIO VGN-FZ280E Battery). The original 1941 release of this production used the "Fantasound" sound system. This system employed a separate film for the sound, which ran in synchronism with the film carrying the picture. On this sound film were four double-width optical soundtracks, three of which carried left(SONY VAIO VGN-FZ440N Battery), center and right audio whilst the fourth was a "control" track on which were recorded three tones which controlled the playback volume of the three audio channels. Because of the complex equipment required to present it, it was shown as a roadshow, but only in the United States(SONY VAIO VGN-FZ32 Battery). Regular releases of the film were on standard mono optical 35 mm stock until 1956 when the film was released with a stereo soundtrack using the "Cinemascope" four-track magnetic sound system(sony vgp-bpl9 battery).
German audio engineers working on magnetic tape are reported to have developed stereo recording by 1943, but it was not until the introduction of the first commercial two-track tape recorders by Ampex in the late 1940s that stereo tape recording became commercially feasible(SONY vgp-bps9 battery). However, despite the availability of multitrack tape, stereo did not become the standard system for commercial music recording for some years and it remained a specialist market during the 1950s(SONY VAIO VGN-FZ11S Battery). This changed after the late 1957 introduction of the "Westrex stereo phonograph disc", which used the groove format developed earlier by Blumlein. Decca Records in England came out with FFRR (Full Frequency Range Recording) in the 1940s which became internationally accepted and a worldwide standard for higher quality recordings on vinyl records(SONY VAIO VGN-FZ Battery). The Ernest Ansermet recording of Igor Stravinsky's Petrushka was key in the development of full frequency range records and alerting the listening public to high fidelity in 1946(SONY VGP-BPS8 battery).
Most pop singles were mixed into monophonic sound until the mid 1960s, and it was common for major pop releases to be issued in both mono and stereo until the early 1970s(Sony VAIO PCG-5K1L battery). Many Sixties pop albums now available only in stereo were originally intended to be released only in mono, and the so-called "stereo" version of these albums were created by simply separating the two tracks of the master tape. In the mid Sixties, as stereo became more popular(Sony VAIO PCG-6W2L battery), many mono recordings (such as The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds) were remastered using the so-called "fake stereo" method, which spread the sound across the stereo field by directing higher-frequency sound into one channel and lower-frequency sounds into the other(Sony VAIO PCG-7112L battery).
1950s and beyond
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Magnetic tape transformed the recording industry, and by the late-1950s the vast majority of commercial recordings were being mastered on tape. The electronics revolution that followed the invention of the transistor brought other radical changes(Sony VAIO PCG-8Z2L battery), the most important of which was the introduction of the world's first "personal music device", the miniaturized transistor radio, which became a major consumer luxury item in the 1960s(Sony VAIO PCG-8Y2L battery), transforming radio broadcasting from a static group experience into a mobile, personal listening activity. An early multitrack recording made using magnetic tape was "How High the Moon" by Les Paul, on which Paul played eight overdubbed guitar tracks(Sony VAIO PCG-8Y1L battery). In the 1960s Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, Frank Zappa and The Beatles (with producer George Martin) were among the first popular artists to explore the possibilities of multitrack techniques and effects on their landmark albums Pet Sounds, Freak Out! and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band(Sony VAIO PCG-7Z2L battery).
The next important innovation was small cartridge based tape systems of which the compact cassette, introduced by the Philips electronics company in 1964 is the best known. It eventually entirely replaced the competing formats(Sony VAIO PCG-7Z1L battery), the larger 8-track tape (used primarily in cars) and the fairly similar 'Deutsche Cassette' developed by the German company Grundig. This latter system was not particularly common in Europe and practically unheard of in America. The compact cassette became a major consumer audio format and advances in microelectronics eventually allowed the development of the Sony Walkman, introduced in the 1970s(Sony VAIO PCG-7133L battery), which was the first personal music player and gave a major boost to the mass distribution of music recordings. Cassettes became the first successful consumer recording/re-recording medium. The gramophone record was a pre-recorded playback only medium, and reel-to-reel tape was too difficult for most consumers and far less portable(Sony VAIO PCG-7113L battery).
A key advance in audio fidelity came with the Dolby A noise reduction system, invented by Ray Dolby and introduced in 1966. A competing system dbx, invented by David Blackmer, found most success in professional audio(Sony VAIO PCG-6W3L battery). A simpler variant of Dolby's noise reduction system, known as Dolby B greatly improved the sound of cassette tape recordings by reducing the practical effect of the recorded hiss inherent in the narrow tape used(Sony VAIO PCG-7111L battery). It, and variants, also eventually found wide application in the recording and film industries. Dolby B was crucial to the popularisation and commercial success of the compact cassette as a domestic recording and playback medium(Sony VAIO PCG-6W1L battery), and became a part of the booming "hi-fi" market of the 1970s and beyond. The compact cassette also benefited enormously from developments in the tape material itself as materials with wider frequency responses and lower inherent noise were developed, often based on cobalt and/or chrome oxides as the magnetic material instead of the more usual iron oxide(Sony VAIO PCG-6V1L battery).
The multitrack audio cartridge had been in wide use in the radio industry, from the late 1950s to the 1980s, but in the 1960s the pre-recorded 8-track cartridge was launched as a consumer audio format by Bill Lear of the Lear Jet aircraft company (and although its correct name was the 'Lear Jet Cartridge'(Sony VAIO PCG-6S3L battery), it was seldom referred to as such). Aimed particularly at the automotive market, they were the first practical, affordable car hi-fi systems, and could produce superior sound quality to the compact cassette(Sony VAIO PCG-6S2L battery). However the smaller size and greater durability — augmented by the ability to create home-recorded music "compilations" since 8-track recorders were rare — saw the cassette become the dominant consumer format for portable audio devices in the 1970s and 1980s(Sony VAIO PCG-5L1L battery).
There had been experiments with multi-channel sound for many years — usually for special musical or cultural events — but the first commercial application of the concept came in the early 1970s with the introduction of Quadraphonic sound(Sony VAIO PCG-5K2L battery). This spin-off development from multitrack recording used four tracks (instead of the two used in stereo) and four speakers to create a 360-degree audio field around the listener. Following the release of the first consumer 4-channel hi-fi systems, a number of popular albums were released in one of the competing four-channel formats(Sony VAIO PCG-5J2L battery); among the best known are Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. Quadraphonic sound was not a commercial success, partly because of competing and somewhat incompatible four-channel sound systems (e.g., CBS, JVC, Dynaco and others all had systems) (Sony VAIO PCG-5J1L battery) and generally poor quality, even when played as intended on the correct equipment, of the released music. It eventually faded out in the late 1970s, although this early venture paved the way for the eventual introduction of domestic Surround Sound systems in home theatre use(Sony VAIO PCG-5G3L battery), which have gained enormous popularity since the introduction of the DVD. This widespread adoption has occurred despite the confusion introduced by the multitude of available surround sound standards(Sony VAIO PCG-5G2L battery).
The replacement of the thermionic valve (vacuum tube) by the smaller, cooler and less power-hungry transistor also accelerated the sale of consumer high-fidelity "hi-fi" sound systems from the 1960s onward. In the 1950s most record players were monophonic and had relatively low sound quality(Sony VGP-BPS21A/B battery); few consumers could afford high-quality stereophonic sound systems. In the 1960s, American manufacturers introduced a new generation of "modular" hi-fi components — separate turntables, pre-amplifiers, amplifiers, both combined as integrated amplifiers, tape recorders, and other ancillary equipment (like the graphic equaliser) (Sony VGP-BPS21/S battery), which could be connected together to create a complete home sound system. These developments were rapidly taken up by Japanese electronics companies, which soon flooded the world market with relatively cheap, high-quality components. By the 1980s, corporations like Sony had become world leaders in the music recording and playback industry(Sony VGP-BPS21B battery).
Digital recording
Main article: Digital recording
See also: Pulse code modulation, Digital audio, Hard disk recorder, and Digital audio workstation(Sony VGP-BPS21 battery)
Graphical representation of a sound wave in analog (red) and 4-bit digital (black).
The invention of digital sound recording and later the compact disc in 1982 brought significant improvements in the durability of consumer recordings(Sony VGN-FW31J battery). 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(Sony VGP-BPS13A/S battery). However, the introduction of digital systems was initially fiercely resisted by the record industry which feared wholesale piracy on a medium which was able to produce perfect copies of original released recordings. However, the industry had to bow to the inevitable(Sony VGP-BPS13B/S battery), but not without using various protection system (principally Serial Copy Management System, or SCMS).
A digital sound recorder from Sony
The most recent and revolutionary developments have been in digital recording(Sony VGP-BPS13S battery), with the development of various uncompressed and compressed digital audio file formats, processors capable and fast enough to convert the digital data to sound in real time, and inexpensive mass storage(Sony VGP-BPS13/B battery). This generated a new type of portable digital audio player. The minidisc player, using ATRAC compression on small, cheap, re-writeable discs was introduced in the 1990s but became obsolescent as solid-state non-volatile flash memory dropped in price(Sony VGP-BPS13/S battery). As technologies which increase the amount of data that can be stored on a single medium, such as Super Audio CD, DVD-A, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD become available, longer programs of higher quality fit onto a single disc(Sony VGP-BPS13A/B battery). Sound files are readily downloaded from the Internet and other sources, and copied onto computers and digital audio players. Digital audio technology is used in all areas of audio, from casual use of music files of moderate quality to the most demanding professional applications(Sony VGP-BPS13B/B battery). New applications such as internet radio and podcasting have appeared.
Technological developments in recording and editing have transformed the record, movie and television industries in recent decades. Audio editing became practicable with the invention of magnetic tape recording(Sony VGN-FZ11E battery), but digital audio and cheap mass storage allows computers to edit audio files quickly, easily, and cheaply. Today, the process of making a recording is separated into tracking(Sony VGN-FZ440N battery), mixing and mastering. Multitrack recording makes it possible to capture signals from several microphones, or from different 'takes' to tape or disc, with maximized headroom and quality(Sony Vaio VGN-FZ21J battery), allowing previously unavailable flexibility in the mixing and mastering stages for editing, level balancing, compressing and limiting, adding effects such as reverberation, equalisation, flanging, and much more(Sony Vaio VGN-FZ31J battery ).
Digital recording and processing software
There are many different digital audio recording and processing programs running under several computer operating systems for all purposes, from professional through serious amateur to casual user(Sony Vaio VGN-FZ31B battery).
A comprehensive list of digital recording applications is available on the digital audio workstation page(Sony VGN-FZ18L battery).
Digital dictation software for recording and transcribing speech has different requirements; intelligibility and flexible playback facilities are priorities, while a wide frequency range and high audio quality are not(Sony VGN-FW11M battery).
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