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sound recording
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advertisement for the Edison phonograph
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Portable compact disc players, introduced by Sony Corporation in 1991, pack the disc drive and pickup assemblies, along with control circuitry, digital-to-analog convertor, and display, into a case that can be held in the hand and connected to earphones or even loudspeakers. The extraordinarily high fidelity characteristic of all compact disc recordings is made possible by the laser scanning method, shown in the movie at lower left. Illustration of the 1877 Edison phonograph showing a tinfoil-covered cylinder mounted on a base, with labeled parts including a hand crank, recording needle, recording and reproducer sound boxes, and diaphragms for sound vibration. The 1901 Monarch model Gramophone (right), sold by the Victor Talking Machine Company, played music recorded on a shellac disc. The spring motor was wound by a hand crank and, when released by the brake lever, rotated a turntable at 78 revolutions per minute (upper left). The needle traced a lateral groove molded into the surface of the disc (as shown in the movie, lower left), reproducing the music through the sound box, tone arm, and sound horn. For a view of an internal sound horn, click on the Orthophonic box. The stereophonic high-fidelity record player was the high point in electromechanical sound reproduction. As shown at right and upper left, it employed a vinyl long-playing disc rotated at 3313 revolutions per minute on a turntable by a belt connected to an electric motor. The pickup cartridge contained a diamond-tipped stylus and a magnetic or piezoelectric system for converting the stylus's motions into electric impulses. The electric signal was processed in a separate amplifier module (not shown) and split between two loudspeakers, which reproduced with great realism the spatial arrangement of the original sound source. The unique stereophonic groove traced by the stylus is shown in the movie, lower left.
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advertisement for the Edison phonograph
advertisement for the Edison phonograph A McClure's magazine advertisement called the Edison phonograph “the art of entertainment expressed in tangible form,” 1907.

sound recording

Also known as: recording, sound recording and production, sound system(Show More)
Written by
Richard E. Berg
Supervisor, Teaching Support Services; Director, Lecture-Demonstration Facility, Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park. Coauthor of The Physics of Sound.
Richard E. Berg
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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History

sound recording, transcription of vibrations in air that are perceptible as sound onto a storage medium, such as a phonograph disc. In sound reproduction the process is reversed so that the variations stored on the medium are converted back into sound waves. The three principal media that have been developed for sound recording and reproduction are the mechanical (phonographic disc), magnetic (audiotape), and optical (digital compact disc) systems. Such recordings are a popular form of...

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