Dan Sweed

Development of music recording technology from analogue tape to

digital recording
Magnetic tape was invented for sound recording in 1928 by Fritz Pfleumer based
on an invention by Oberlin Smith in 1888. Pfleumers invention used a long strip
of paper with a ferric oxide powder coating. In April 1948, a magnetic tape
recorder was used to record the Bing Crosby Show for a radio broadcast. This
was one of the earliest uses of the modern magnetic tape recorder. In the early
1950s Ampex began manufacturing 1 and 2 track machines using inch tape,
which were later expanded to 3 and 4 track recorders with inch tape. In the
mid-1950s the 8 track tape machine was developed, followed by the 16 track
recorder built by Ampex in 1966. Later, in 1979, Ampex introduced the ATR-124,
which was one of the most advanced 24 track recorders available at the time.
In the late 80s, many reel to reel tape recorders were replaced by digital audio
tape (DAT) recorders. In 1991 Alesis announced the ADAT, which is a magnetic
tape format which allows for up to 16 analogue or digital tracks to be recorded
simultaneously. Furthermore, up to 16 ADAT machines could be synchronized
together, which would allow a total of 128 tracks to be recorded. However, these
machines have now been largely replaced by the digital audio workstation
(DAW). The first DAWs were developed in the 1970s, but were ineffective at the
time due to the low processing power of computers. In 1992 the first windows
based DAWs were created, but they used dedicated hardware for sound
processing. In 1993, Cubase was released, which featured built in effects, and in
1996 Cubase VST revolutionised the DAW as it used a tape like interface for
recording and editing.

Explain how vinyl records and cassette tapes are used to store and play
back music. Describe the problems the consumer would encounter with
them and identify the benefits of audio CDs
Vinyl records are polyvinyl chloride discs (originally shellac) with a spiral groove
inscribed into it. A needle is used to pick up vibrations from the grooves, which is
converted to an electrical signal and sent to an amplifier and to the speakers.
However, there is a problem with surface noise when playing records, and
skipping is a fairly common problem. Vinyl records are easily damaged, and do
not produce sound that is as high quality as CDs or digital music formats.
The cassette tape contains two spools of magnetically (ferric oxide) coated
plastic film. An electromagnet applies a magnetic flux to the ferric oxide coating,
and the coating remembers the flux, which can be played back. There are two
stereo pairs of tracks. One pair is played when the tape is moving in one
direction, and the other is played when the tape moves in the other direction.
One flaw with the cassette tape is that the tape speed can vary between devices,
creating problems with pitch. The slow tape speed also causes hiss and
background noise. There was also a common mechanical problem with tape
players, where the supply spool would rotate faster than the take-up spool and
the tape would unravel, often leaving it unplayable.

Dan Sweed
The benefits of audio CDs are that they have better sound quality than records
and cassettes (44.1 kHz sample rate and 16-bit coding). They are also more
compact than vinyl records and unlike cassettes, there is no tape to unravel.