Lecture Note
The History of Analog Audio
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University:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology -
Course:
21M.380 | Music and Technology (Contemporary History and Aesthetics) Academic year:
2020
-
Views:
382
Pages:
32
Author:
dedalcatechizes
Chapter 3. Meeting 3, Recording: The History of Analog Audio
3.1. Announcements
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Check course notes for reading and listening discussion leaders
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Quiz next Tuesday
3.2. A History of Analog Recorded Mediums
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From the helix, to the spiral, to the line
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A reduction in dimensionality
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A trend towards facilitating non-linearity
3.3. What is Analog
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Something that is analogous to something else
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A direct, continuous, sonic transduction
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The earliest methods of storing and transporting sound were all analog
3.4. Sending Messages: Telegraphy
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tele (far) + graph (write)
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Transmission of messages using optics, radio, or other mediums
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Electrical telegraph (telegraphs): foundation of modern communication systems
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1837: Samuel Morse (1791-1872) patents electrical telegraph Source: Wikimedia.
From Snodgrass, R. T., and V. F. Camp. Radio Receiving for Beginners.
New York, NY: MacMillan, 1922.
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1866: first trans-atlantic cable
1891 international telegraph lines, the Victorian internet (Standage 2007) Source: Wikipedia
3.5. Sending Sonic Messages: Bell
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Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922)
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Desire to transmit the sound of the human voice by telegraph
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Desire to reduce traffic on telegraph lines by accommodating multiple signals at different
frequencies (acoustic telegraphy)
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Initially called the device the harmonic telegraph: transmit sound through analog wave-forms in
electronic currents
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10 March 1876: through prototype told his assistant: “Mr. Watson, come here”
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1876: Bell files patent application for telephone: “the method of, and apparatus for, transmitting
vocal or other sounds telegraphically … by causing electrical undulations, similar in form to the
vibrations of the air accompanying the said vocal or other sound.”
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Early designs used “microphones” filled with fluid that responded to changes in air pressure and
created an analogous voltage
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1877: Bell Telephone Company was created
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1879: Began using an improved microphone 3.6. Sending Sonic Messages: Gray and Meucci
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Antonio Meucci (1909-1896)
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Created, tested, demonstrated, and filed for patents on telephone models prior to Bell’s work, as
early as 1857
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Had failed to file patent before Bell’s patent (filed a patent caveat in 1871)
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Elisha Gray: presents a similar telephone at Philadelphia Exhibition
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Files patent on the same day as Bell: 14 February 1876
3.7. Sound Analysis to Sound Recording: Phonoautograph
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Édouard-Léon Scott: Parisian typesetter and inventor
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1857: Leon Scott builds phonoautograph, tracing waveform on smoked paper Source: Roads, C. The Computer Music Tutorial. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996.
Courtesy of MIT Press. Used with permission.
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Did not conceive of recording sound for playback, but for study and analysis
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Possibly the earliest recordings from 1860 (Rosen 2008) Courtesy of FirstSounds.org. Source: Franz Josef Pisko, Die neuere Apparate der Akustik (Vienna, 1865).
Recording reconstructed from scanned imprint:
1860 phonautograms by douard-L on Scott de Martinville, restored by FirstSounds.org.
"Au Clair de la Lune."
Courtesy of FirstSounds.org. Source: Franz Josef Pisko, Die neuere Apparate der Akustik (Vienna, 1865).
3.8. Recording Sonic Messages: Vertical Cuts in Tin
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Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931)
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First prototype of the phonograph tested in 1877
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Hand crank to turn a cylinder covered in tin
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Hill and dale vertical cuts © Source unknown. All rights reserved.
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Produced a helical trace around the cylinder
Original 1877 Edison model
Source: U.S. National Park Service •
A refined production model
Source: U.S. Library of Congress •
Mechanical recording and mechanical playback
3.9. Tracks on Wax
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1888 first commercial phonographs in production
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Replaced tin with a wax coating
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Four inch cylinder could record between 3 and 4 minutes
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Hand cranks soon replaced with spring-wound mechanisms
3.10. The Voice of Edison
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Earliest known recording of Edison
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Recorded on an Edison yellow paraffin cylinder in 1888
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Audio: Thomas A. Edison: “Around the world on the phonograph,” 1888
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Extensive archive of early recordings by Edison:
http://www.nps.gov/edis/photosmultimedia/the-recording-archives.htm 3.11. Recorded Sound: A Commercial Endeavor
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Edison desired that the phonograph be used for business: “… I don't want the phonograph sold
for amusement purposes, it is not a toy. I want it sold for business purposes only” (Brady 1999, p.
22).
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Wanted to lease machines to businesses
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Marketed applications included creating audio albums of voices of the dead
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Advertisement from Harpers, 1898 Source: U.S. Library of Congress •
Eventually accepts home use, but still not for music
Source: U.S. Library of Congress 3.12. A Spiral not a Helix: The Innovation of the Disc
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1887: Emile Berliner (1851-1929) introduces the disc-based Gramophone
Source: U.S. Library of Congress
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1888: Emile Berliner publishes “Etching The Human Voice” Source: U.S. Library of Congress •
First discs were made of acid-etched zinc
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Later discs made of glass, plastics, other materials.
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Transduced waveform into lateral, rather than vertical, cuts
© source unknown. All rights reserved. © source unknown. All rights reserved.
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1895: Commercial pre-recorded discs were available for sale
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Still using mechanical recording and mechanical playback
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1901: Eldridge Johnson, along with Berliner, incorporate Victor Talking Machine Company,
merging Berliner’s Berliner Gramophone and Johnson’s Consolidated Talking Machine Company
3.13. The Cylinder and the Disc
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The cylinder permitted recording, at home or in the office
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The disc was cheap to reproduce, and was primarily for distribution of pre-recorded material
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Between 1890 and 1910 pre-recorded programs on discs out-sell recordable blank cylinders
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By 1913: Edison is the last manufacturer to stop selling cylinders
3.14. Recorded Sound: A Commercial Mascot
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Nipper: 1884-1895
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Painting by his owner, Mark Barraud, renamed “His Master’s Voice” •
Painting bought by The Gramophone Company (became EMI) in 1899, and replaced the
phonograph with a gramophone
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Used in advertising in 1900
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Berliner buys rights in 1902 for Victor Talking Machine Company (later RCA Victor)
3.15. The Age of the Disc
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1910s onward the disc is the medium of recorded sound
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Edison reluctantly creates and sells disc-based players
3.16. Analog Recording from 1890 to 1920s
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Social issues
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Edison Realism Test: a formalized, marketing procedure to encourage listeners to imagine
performance while listening
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Illustrated song machine and the projecting phonograph: attempts to restore visual element
with graphical mechanizations
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1903 Rosenfield Illustrated song machine © Source unknown. All rights reserved.
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Personification and anthropomorphism: Talking Machines
Technical issues
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Record entire ensemble with one horn, mechanically
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Some instruments and singers recorded better than others 3.17. Reading: Katz
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Katz, M. 2002. “Aesthetics out of Exigency: Violin Vibrato and the Phonograph.” In Music and
Technology in the Twentieth Century. H. Braun, ed. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
174-185.
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Vibrato [vibrato.pd] •
What stages of a change in vibrato performance does Katz document?
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What reasons, other than recording, does Katz state others have offered?
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What are the three reasons Katz sees the increase in vibrato as “a response to the exigencies of
sound recording”
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How else might recording be seen as a catalyst rather than a tool of preservation?
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The idiomatic of new mediums: “necessity ... may sometimes be the mother of aesthetics”
3.18. Electrification of Sound
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Phonographs and gramophones: mechanical recording, mechanical playback
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late 1920s: innovations in microphones led to electrical recording
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1930s: electrical playback and amplification 3.19. The Fidelity of Recorded Audio
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1890s to 1920s (1925)
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Narrow frequency response: best 200 and 2k Hertz
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Very low dynamic range
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Poor signal to noise ratio
1930s
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Frequency response from 100 to 4.5k
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Dynamic range of 30 dB
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Wagner: Ride of the Valkyries, from Die Valkyrie, 1921, American symphony Orchestra, Edison
Diamond Disc [samplePlayer.pd]
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Audio: local
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Wagner: Ride of the Valkyries, from Die Valkyrie, 1988, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra
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Audio: local
3.20. Disc Formats
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78 RPM discs
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1900 to 1925 discs recorded between 74 and 82 rpm
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78 rpm based on a 3600 rpm motor with 46:1 gear ratio: 78.26 rpm
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Covered in shellac: Asian beetle juice
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Available in 10 inch (3 minutes) and 12 inch (4-6 minutes) formats
33.333333 RPM discs
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Columbia Records (owned by CBS): June 1948 releases Long Playing Record
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Use of more-narrow grooves (microgroove)
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Use of vinyl offered better sound quality •
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12 inch diameter, 30 minutes or more per side
45 RPM discs
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RCA Victor introduces in 1949, 7 months after LP
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7 inch diameter, 4 minutes per side
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Designed to have uniform size, easy distribution, automatic changers (jukebox)
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Became known as “singles”: one tune per side
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The B or flip side offered a bonus track
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Extended Play (EP) 45s achieved 7 minutes per side
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Early model manufactured by RCA
© Smithsonian Institution. All rights reserved.
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RCA advertisement © Source unknown. All rights reserved. 3.21. The Expansion of the Music Business
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1927: 104 million discs sold
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From 1934 to 1939: 6,000 to 152,000 record players produced (Magoun 2002, p. 149)
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Marketed to middle class for consumer usage
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1930s: gramophones packaged with radios
3.22. Reading: Magoun
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Magoun, A. B. 2002. “The Origins of the 45-RPM Record at RCA Victor, 1939-1948.” In Music
and Technology in the Twentieth Century. H. Braun, ed. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University
Press. 148-157.
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What were some of the motivations for the 45-RPM disc?
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What audience, and what music, was associated witht the 45-RPM disc?
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Was fidelity and sound quality a driving force in product design? Is it today?
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What other entertainment was competing with record sales?
3.23. Stereo
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By recording two channels (sometimes called tracks), sound could be panned left and right
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Increase sense of space in recorded sound
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1958: first stereo records issues
3.24. Aural Transduction to Magnetic Flux
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Magnetic wire recording in 1898: Valdemar Poulsen
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Magnetic tape in 1928: Firtz Pfleumer (Germany)
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Wire was difficult to record, cut, and splice
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Cellulose acetate coated in iron oxide
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Permitted splicing with adhesive tape
How it works Head
Direct
io
tape tr n of
avel
+ + + + -
Tape
+
+
-
Figure by MIT OpenCourseWare. No current
Very weak current
Magnetic
coating
N
Weak current
S
N
S
Strong current
N
S
Base
Random alignment
Saturation
Magnetic domains in the tape oxide coating are represented as bar magnets.
Increased alignment of the magnets produces a stronger magnetic field,
which induces a stronger current.
Figure by MIT OpenCourseWare.
3.25. Early Magnetic Recording Devices
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1930s: Magnetophone (AEG, Germany)
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1940s: Commercially developed in the late 1940s by American Jack Mullin with Bing Crosby
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Reel to reel audio tape recording machines spread in 1950s with companies like Ampex © Source unknown. All rights reserved. © Source unknown. All rights reserved.
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Tape permitted multitrack recording
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Pioneered by Les Paul, developed as early as 1954
3.26. Analog Audio Multitracks: Les Paul
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1940s: Guitarist Les Paul (1915-) experiments with adding and bouncing tracks in direct to wax
disk recording
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1948: produced “Lover (When You're Near Me)” album with this technique, combining up to 8
guitars
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Modifies an Ampex Model 300 mono tape recorder to record multiple individual tracks © Source unknown. All rights reserved. •
By 1953 develops first 8 track recorder
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Employed recording at different speed to transpose guitar part on playback
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Les Paul and his wife Mary
3.27. Listening
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Les Paul, “Lover,” 1948
3.28. Music in Your Pocket: The Cassette
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1962: Philips releases compact cassette
© Source unknown. All rights reserved.
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45 minutes per side
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Initially had less quality than larger formats •
Improved frequency response from 30-18000 Hertz
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1963 to 1968: 9000 to 2.4 million players sold
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Affordable home recording
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Double cassette decks: easy copying
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Home Taping is Killing Music: 1980s anti-copyright infringement campaign by British
Phonographic Industry (similar to RIAA)
© British Phonographic Industry. All rights reserved.
3.29. Reading: Millard: Tape Recording and Music Making
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How did tape recording relate to the Edison cylinder?
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Who were the early adopters of tape recording devices, and what did they do with them?
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What new techniques were possible with tape recording?
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What musical genres were particularly influenced by the cassette, and why?
3.30. Reading: Collins
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Collins, N. 2009. Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking. 2nd ed. New York:
Routledge.
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Creative applications of tape heads and tape 3.31. Tape Cartridges and Stereo 8
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The 8-track cartridge
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1964 to 1982-1988
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An endless tape loop: one continuous piece of tape
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Self winding, and could not rewind
Source: Wikipedia © Wikipedia User: Isis. License CC BYSA.
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Four tracks: two pairs of stereo tracks side by side
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1965: Ford puts 8-tracks in cars
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Tape head alignment was a regular problem
The History of Analog Audio
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