The Basics of Audio Recording

Audio recording has been with us for more than a hundred years.
The phonograph was invented by Thomas Edison in 1877. It
recorded sound by producing grooves on a soft cylinder which
could be played back by running a needle through the grooves and
amplifying the sound.

The next major development in audio recording was magnetic
recording. Tape recorders were developed in Germany and have
been in common use from the early 1930s up until recently. They
are still being used, but are increasingly being supplanted by
digital recorders.

Magnetic tape recorders have been the essential tools in the
development of the recorded music industry. With the
introduction of multitrack tape recorders in the 1950s, came the
ability to produce new multilayered sounds. Audio recording
using four track tape recorders was the standard during the
1960s. When the first four tracks were completed, they were
“bounced down” to the first track of a second tape recorder.
This allowed the creation of complex musical arrangements.

All the major recording artists of the 1960s used four track
tape recorders for their recordings. The limitation to this
method of audio recording was the buildup of noise as the tracks
were bounced from one machine to another. This was overcome with
the introduction of wider magnetic tape that could record 24
tracks or more. This meant that each instrument could be
recorded on its own track without any appreciable buildup of
noise.

Digital audio recording was introduced in the 1990s and has now
become the norm. There are several formats for recording digital
audio including Digital Audio Tape (DAT) and hard disk
recording. Digital playback devices include MP3 players, CDs and
MiniDisks. Digital audio recording and playback offers a clean,
noise free and long lasting medium.

Despite the technological advances, some audio recording
techniques have remained basically the same since the 1920s.
Microphones are still used to capture the sound produced by
acoustic instruments and voices. Many instruments today,
however, are synthesized, and recorded directly onto the
recording medium without the use of microphones.

Computers can be used to automate some of the processes in audio
recording. Computers can emulate all the functions of a
recording console and can be programmed to fade in and out and
add effects like reverb. Computers open up new possibilities in
audio recording which for the most part are unutilized in
popular music.