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From the Phonograph Cylinder to the Digital Audio Workstation
 "Behind the MP3" Vol. 1 | Issue 4
Approximately 1,200 years ago, the earliest known mechanical-musical instrument was invented: the organ. Its ability to play interchangeable cylinders automatically remains the most basic device to produce and reproduce music mechanically. Nowadays, in a world seemingly characterized by Jean Baudrillard’s simulacra (a copy with no original), digital recording has changed the way we produce, sell and listen to music.
To break it down, sound recording and reproduction is an electrical inscription and recreation of sound waves from a spoken voice or an instrument. Essentially, there are two main classes of sound recording technology: analog recording and digital recording.
The phonograph cylinder, invented by Thomas Edison in 1877, was the first sound recording and reproduction device to enable the mass production of popular music, such as “Auld Lang Syne” sung by Frank C. Stanley, which is known to North Americans as the new years song.
The next major technical development was the gramophone disc. Shellac discs were easier to manufacture, transport and store, and they had the additional benefit of being louder than cylinders. By the end of WWI, shellac discs became the dominant commercial recording format, and the double-sided 78 revolutions per minute (rpm) disc was the standard consumer music format until the late 1950s.
The 45rpm and the 12-inch long-playing (LP) vinyl record completely replaced the 78rpm shellac disc by the end of the 1950s because vinyl offered improved performance in playback.
Soon enough, the magnetic tape and the tape recorder revolutionized radio and the recording industry. Sound could be recorded, erased and re-recorded on the same tape many times, and the recordings could be precisely edited by physically cutting the tape and rejoining it. This paved the way for innovative pop music recordings from artists such as Frank Zappa, The Beatles and The Beach Boys.
In the 1980s, digital sound recording initiated another wave of change in the consumer music industry with the development of various uncompressed and compressed digital audio file formats, processors capable of converting data to sound in real time and inexpensive, mass storage.
Audio editing became practicable with the invention of magnetic tape recording, but digital audio and mass storage allows computers to edit audio files quickly, easily and cheaply. Furthermore, multitrack recording makes it possible to capture signals from several microphones.
Currently, the digital audio workstation (DAW) is the most effective system to record, edit and play back digital audio. A DAW’s key feature is the ability to freely manipulate recorded sounds with level balancing, compression, limiting and adding effects such as reverberation and equalization.
These recent technological developments in recording and editing have transformed the record, movie and television industries, and have changed the way we produce original art. Now, it’s just a matter of differentiating unique sounds from copies with no originals.
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