Audio Recording

Thomas Edison was responsible for the first audio recording back in 1877, using a phonograph to record the impressions into a tin-wrapped cylinder. He promptly applied for a patent, and was granted one the next February. This first model held the field for a few years, until 1881, when Charles Tainter in Volta Labs developed the first lateral-cut records (similar to the vinyl records we’re familiar with). Unfortunately, he had not developed a method of playback, just recording. This held until 1885, when Tainter cooperated with Chichester Bell to create vertically-cut cylinders coated in wax as the medium for the new recording practice. These had the unfortunate downside of being exceedingly fragile. Finally, in 1887 Emile Berliner developed another gramophone using a lateral-cut medium. This method had the added bonus of being easily duplicated through electroplating.

These three models competed in the market until later that year, when Edison developed a battery-powered version of his gramophone. That same year, Berliner developed his means of mass-production, copying onto hard rubber. All gramophones at this point had a capacity of a few minutes per disc. In 1889, the Columbia Phonograph Company was organized (grandpappy to the modern Columbia Music), who was also the first publisher of a music catalog. The next year saw the fielding of the first jukebox, which pulled in over $1000 (in 1890!) in its first six months. 1893 saw the boom of Berliner’s model, to which ends he incorporated the Berliner Gramophone Co. A few years later he discovered a new shellac that proved a better medium than rubber. Around the same time, 1894 to be exact, the world saw Marconi’s first radio, which he promptly took to America and...

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...han PCM tend to be susceptible to data loss because they reference the previous measurement and merely indicate the change between them. This is typically solved by enclosing multiple copies of the data in a single file. Although it defies common sense, it is actually more efficient to record a particular sound byte in ADPCM and enclose, say, four copies, than it is to encode a single PCM copy.

Sources:

Digital Recording Techniques – http://www.digital-recordings.com/publ/pubrec.html

Giancoli, Physics Principles with Applications, 5-E Chapter 12 -- Applications – http://cwx.prenhall.com/giancoli/chapter12/essay2/deluxe-content.html

HyperPhysics Concepts - http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/soucon.html

Recording Technology History - http://history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/notes.html

Sound - http://www.smgaels.org/physics/sound_1.htm