Technology of Music
Audio / Video Group
Shawn Federline
Ingrid Morales
Luis Perez
Timeline of Music Technology
1877. Thomas Edison invented the phonograph.
1888. Emile Berliner invented the flat disc record.
In 1895, Italy. Guglielmo Marconi and his brother Alfonso
first radio transmission.
1897 First Radio Station.
1906 First radio audio Broadcast.
1935, Germany. Begun invents a new technology called
"magnetic tape recording."
1948, US. Peter Goldmark invents “Long Plays”.
1960’s FM Radio booms.
Timeline of Music Technology
(continue)
1983 Introduction of CD’s.
1987, Germany. MP3 technologies created by the
Fraunhofer Institute.
1993 Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding ( ATRAC)
invented by Sony engineers. ATRAC compresses compact disc audio
to approximately 1/5 of the original data rate with virtually no loss in sound
quality.
1995 Internet Radio is possible.
1998. The first digital audio player on the American
market: Eiger Labs F10.(32 Meg, $180.00 v.s Mini iPod 4 Gb $199.00)
In the late 1990s, MP3 made it feasible to transfer quality
audio via the Web in a reasonable amount of time over an
analog modem.
Timeline of Music Technology
(continue)
2001 Satellite Radio.
2001 Apple introduces iPod for Mac.
2002 Apple introduces iPod for Windows.
Technology of Music
Distribution Mediums
Phonograph - Marked to the public in the late 1870’
FM Broadcasts – First commercial US broadcast 1941
Vinyl Records – Late 1940’s LP records and 45’s are
introduced.
8 tracks - Appeared in the late 1960’s
Cassette tapes - Introduced not long after 8 tracks
CD’s - Introduced in the early 1980’s
MP3’s - Appeared in the early 1990’s
World-Wide Web (WWW) developed in 1991
Phonograph
Recorded sound waves onto tinfoil and later wax
cylinders
Recording time 2 minutes per wax cylinder.
Recording and playback was achieved through pure
mechanical transference of sound waves.
Mass production of phonograph recordings was not
efficient. Each recording had to be made with the
musician.
Sound quality deteriorated with use.
Vinyl Records
Recorded sound waves onto flat, circular vinyl discs.
Recording time ranged from 3 to 30 minutes per side.
Recording and playback was achieved through
mechanical means, however electronic circuits such as
amplifiers and piezo-electric styluses allowed for higher
sound quality and an increase in volume control.
Mass production of records was achieved through record
presses.
Sound quality deteriorated with use.
Record players were not easily portable.
FM RADIO
Sound waves are encoded into a FM (Frequency
Modulation) carrier signal which is broadcast to
receivers tuned to that frequency .
FM receivers are smaller and more portable than record
players.
Radio receivers are less sensitive to vibration than
record players .
One radio station can broadcast songs to many people
at the same time.
8 Tracks
Recorded sound waves electronically by creating a
magnetic field on a thin magnetic tape.
Allowed recording of 4 songs, that were quickly accessible.
Playback and recording was now processed through electronic
circuits and the use of magnetic fields.
Mass production of 8 tracks was much more efficient. Dubs
could be made electronically from 1 master tape to many 8 track
cassettes.
8 track players were installed in cars and allowed people to take
their music with them.
Cassette tapes
Recorded sound waves electronically by creating a
magnetic field on a thin magnetic tape.
Allowed recording of more songs than 8 tracks.
Playback and recording was processed through
electronic circuits and the use of magnetic fields.
Mass production of cassette tapes like that of 8 tracks
was also more efficient. Dubs could be made
electronically from 1 master tape to many cassettes
tapes.
Cassette tapes were much smaller than 8 tracks and
allowed for more compact players that could be carried
with you.
CD’s (Compact Disk)
Digitally recorded sounds are written and read as
“wave” files by a laser off of a thin layer of aluminum
inside a small plastic disc.
Allows recording of 80 minutes of uncompressed music.
Playback and recording is processed through digital
circuits and the use of laser optic devices.
CD Mass production produces exact copies of the
original master.
CD’s are durable, portable, and do not loose sound
quality over time.
Sound quality is far superior to that of vinyl records and
tape cassettes.
MP3’s (MPEG Audio layer-3)
Digitally recorded sounds are compressed to a smaller
file size known as MP3.
MP3 files are stored on computer hard drives,
memory cards, or CDs.
MP3 files do not deteriorate from time or usage.
Playback and recording is processed through digital
devices, such as computers and portable MP3
players.
Because the files are a compressed version of the
original wave file the sound quality is technically not
as good as a wave file but the average person cannot
tell the difference.
World-Wide Web
Began as a networking project at a research center
called CERN
Computers networked together all around the world.
Provides immediate access to information, games, and
multimedia.
Allows sharing of information from one computer to
another through downloading and uploading of files.
The advent of Napster and other file sharing programs
forced the Music Industry to take notice.
There are now numerous sites where music can be legally
downloaded. This allows for instant music purchases.
Music Technology for the
Musician
(1960’s)
For musicians recording was a very expensive process.
In the 1960’ they had analog equipment that would record in
tape.
John Avison conducting
the CBC Vancouver
Orchestra in the tracking
room in Aragon Studios in
the 1960’s.
Music Technology for the
Musician
(1970’s)
In the 1970’s most of the musicians recording were Rock Bands,
using 16-track Audio consoles.
Music Technology for the
Musician
(1980’s)
Then in the 1980’s bigger consoles with 24-32 tracks of audio
were built.
We can see how better equipment started to develop.
Music Technology for the
Musician
(Now)
In the 1990’s many different kinds equipment were build and
refined: compressor, limiters, gates, etc.
Now days, most consoles on professional studio are digital
consoles.
Music Recording for the Home
Studio
Now a days, Personal computers have become more powerful,
more affordable, and easier to use.
It is now possible to perform the entire music production process
inside a computer system.
You can now purchase a ready-to-use audio computer system,
purpose-built and expertly configured and tested for music and
audio production.
The computer can record and replay your audio data; then it can let
you manipulate and polish the sound.
Music Recording for the Home
Studio
(continue)
Performing the entire recording and composition process in the
computer is highly efficient and it maximizes productivity.
It also makes it quite easy to preserve excellent sound quality
throughout the process. You can easily burn a CD, on your
computer, directly from your computer composition — keeping
the pristine sound quality.
There are many Audio Editing Software that are affordable to the
everyday musician. These have powerful sets of audio
processes, tools, and effects for manipulating of audio data.
These features will allow you to view, edit, record, modify,
encode, and master nearly any form of digital audio.
Music Recording for the Home
Studio
(continue)
Examples of such audio computer application software are
Digidesign Pro Tools, Sony Acid, Cakewalk Sonar.
In my case I own Pro Tools.
Conclusion
The Music Technology has developed in a way that helps the
person that listens to music and the one that makes music.
And we believe that it will keep on advancing parallel to how
technology is advancing.
Questions?