History and modern development of sound recording. Abstract: History of mechanical sound recording: The evolution of audio technology

About the history of sound recording

Today, the main sound recording methods include:
- mechanical
- magnetic
- optical and magneto-optical sound recording
- recording to solid-state semiconductor flash memory

Attempts to create devices that could reproduce sounds were made back in Ancient Greece. In the IV-II centuries BC. e. there were theaters of self-moving figures - androids. The movements of some of them were accompanied by mechanically produced sounds that formed melodies.

During the Renaissance, a number of different mechanical musical instruments were created that reproduced this or that melody at the right moment: barrel organs, music boxes, boxes, snuff boxes.

The musical organ works as follows. Sounds are created using thin steel plates of varying lengths and thicknesses placed in an acoustic box. To extract sound, a special drum with protruding pins is used, the location of which on the surface of the drum corresponds to the intended melody. When the drum rotates evenly, the pins touch the plates in a given sequence. By moving the pins to other places in advance, you can change the melodies. The organ grinder himself operates the organ grinder by rotating the handle.

Music boxes use a metal disc with a deep spiral groove to pre-record the melody. In certain places of the groove, pinpoint depressions are made - pits, the location of which corresponds to the melody. When the disk rotates, driven by a clock spring mechanism, a special metal needle slides along the groove and “reads” the sequence of dots. The needle is attached to a membrane, which produces a sound each time the needle enters a groove.

In the Middle Ages, chimes were created - tower or large room clocks with a musical mechanism that chime in a certain melodic sequence of tones or perform small musical pieces. Such are the Kremlin chimes and Big Ben in London.

Mechanical musical instruments are just automata that reproduce artificially created sounds. The problem of preserving the sounds of living life for a long time was solved much later.

Many centuries before the invention of mechanical sound recording, musical notation appeared - a graphic way of depicting musical works on paper (Fig. 1). In ancient times, melodies were written in letters, and modern musical notation (with the designation of pitches, durations of tones, tonality and musical lines) began to develop in the 12th century. At the end of the 15th century, music printing was invented, when notes began to be printed from type, like books.

Rice. 1. Musical writing

It was possible to record and then play back recorded sounds only in the second half of the 19th century after the invention of mechanical sound recording.

Mechanical sound recording

In 1877, the American scientist Thomas Alva Edison invented a sound recording device - the phonograph, which for the first time made it possible to record the sound of the human voice. For mechanical recording and playback of sound, Edison used rollers covered with tin foil (Fig. 2). Such foils were hollow cylinders with a diameter of about 5 cm and a length of 12 cm.

Edison Thomas Alva (1847-1931), American inventor and entrepreneur.

Author of more than 1000 inventions in the field of electrical engineering and communications. He invented the world's first sound recording device - the phonograph, improved the incandescent lamp, telegraph and telephone, built the world's first public power station in 1882, and in 1883 discovered the phenomenon of thermionic emission, which subsequently led to the creation of electronic or radio tubes.

In the first phonograph, a metal roller was rotated using a crank, moving axially with each revolution due to the screw threads on the drive shaft. Tin foil (staniol) was placed on the roller. A steel needle connected to a membrane of parchment touched it. A metal cone horn was attached to the membrane. When recording and playing back sound, the roller had to be rotated manually at a speed of 1 revolution per minute. When the roller rotated in the absence of sound, the needle extruded a spiral groove (or groove) of constant depth into the foil. When the membrane vibrated, the needle was pressed into the tin in accordance with the perceived sound, creating a groove of variable depth. This is how the “deep recording” method was invented.

During the first test of his apparatus, Edison pulled the foil tightly onto the cylinder, brought the needle to the surface of the cylinder, carefully began to rotate the handle and sang the first stanza of the children's song "Mary Had a Little Lamb" into a megaphone. Then he retracted the needle, returned the cylinder to its original position with the handle, inserted the needle into the drawn groove and began to rotate the cylinder again. And from the megaphone a children's song sounded quietly but clearly.

In 1885, American inventor Charles Tainter (1854-1940) developed the graphophone - a foot-operated phonograph (like a foot-operated sewing machine) - and replaced the tin sheets of the rollers with a wax paste. Edison bought Tainter's patent, and removable wax rollers began to be used for recording instead of foil rollers. The pitch of the sound groove was about 3 mm, so the recording time per roller was very short.

To record and reproduce sound, Edison used the same device - the phonograph.

Rice. 2. Edison's phonograph

Rice. 3. T.A. Edison with his phonograph

The main disadvantages of wax rollers are their fragility and the impossibility of mass replication. Each entry existed in only one copy.

The phonograph existed in almost unchanged form for several decades. It ceased production as a device for recording musical works at the end of the first decade of the 20th century, but was used as a voice recorder for almost 15 years. Rollers for it were produced until 1929.

Ten years later, in 1887, the inventor of the gramophone, E. Berliner, replaced the rollers with disks, from which copies can be made - metal matrices. With their help, the familiar gramophone records were pressed (Fig. 4 a.). One matrix made it possible to print an entire edition - at least 500 records. This was the main advantage of Berliner's records compared to Edison's wax rollers, which could not be replicated. Unlike Edison's phonograph, Berliner developed one device for recording sound - a recorder, and another for reproducing sound - a gramophone.

Instead of deep recording, transverse recording was used, i.e. the needle left a sinuous trail of constant depth. Subsequently, the membrane was replaced by highly sensitive microphones that convert sound vibrations into electrical vibrations, and electronic amplifiers.

Rice. 4(a). Gramophone and record

Rice. 4(b). American inventor Emil Berliner

Berliner Emil (1851-1929) - American inventor of German origin. Immigrated to the USA in 1870. In 1877, after Alexander Bell invented the telephone, he made several inventions in the field of telephony, and then turned his attention to the problems of sound recording. He replaced the wax roller used by Edison with a flat disk - the gramophone record - and developed the technology for its mass production. Edison responded to Berliner’s invention as follows: “This machine has no future,” and until the end of his life he remained an implacable opponent of the disk sound carrier.

Berliner first demonstrated a prototype of the gramophone record matrix at the Franklin Institute. It was a zinc circle with an engraved soundtrack. The inventor coated a zinc disk with wax paste, recorded sound on it in the form of sound grooves, and then etched it with acid. The result was a metal copy of the recording. Later, a layer of copper was built up on the wax-coated disk using electroplating. This copper "mold" keeps the sound grooves convex. Copies are made from this galvanic disk - positive and negative. Negative copies are matrices from which up to 600 gramophone records can be printed. The record obtained in this way had greater volume and better quality. Berliner demonstrated such records in 1888, and this year can be considered the beginning of the era of recordings.

Five years later, a method of galvanic replication from the positive of a zinc disk was developed, as well as a technology for pressing gramophone records using a steel printing matrix. Initially, Berliner made records from celluloid, rubber, and ebonite. Soon, ebonite was replaced by a composite mass based on shellac, a wax-like substance produced by tropical insects. The records became better and cheaper, but their main drawback was their low mechanical strength. Shellac records were produced until the middle of the 20th century, in recent years - in parallel with long-playing ones.

Until 1896, the disc had to be rotated manually, and this was the main obstacle to the widespread use of gramophones. Emil Berliner announced a competition for a spring motor - inexpensive, technologically advanced, reliable and powerful. And such an engine was designed by mechanic Eldridge Johnson, who came to Berliner’s company. From 1896 to 1900 About 25,000 of these engines were produced. Only then did Berliner's gramophone become widespread.

The first records were single-sided. In 1903, a 12-inch disc with recording on two sides was first released. It could be “played” in a gramophone using a mechanical pickup - a needle and a membrane. Sound amplification was achieved using a bulky bell. Later, a portable gramophone was developed: a gramophone with a bell hidden in the body (Fig. 5).

Rice. 5. Gramophone

The gramophone (from the name of the French company "Pathe") had the shape of a portable suitcase. The main disadvantages of gramophone records were their fragility, poor sound quality and short playing time - only 3-5 minutes (at a speed of 78 rpm). In the pre-war years, stores even accepted “broken” records for recycling. The gramophone needles had to be changed frequently. The plate rotated using a spring motor, which had to be “started” with a special handle. However, due to its modest size and weight, simplicity of design and independence from the electrical network, the gramophone has become very widespread among lovers of classical, pop and dance music. Until the middle of our century, it was an indispensable accessory for home parties and country trips. The records were produced in three standard sizes: minion, grand and giant.

The gramophone was replaced by an electrophone, better known as a record player (Fig. 7). Instead of a spring motor, it uses an electric motor to rotate the record, and instead of a mechanical pickup, first a piezoelectric one was used, and later a better one - a magnetic one.

Rice. 6. Gramophone with electromagnetic adapter

Rice. 7. Player

These pickups convert the vibrations of a stylus running along the sound track of a record into an electrical signal, which, after amplification in an electronic amplifier, is sent to a loudspeaker. And in 1948-1952, fragile gramophone records were replaced by so-called “long play” records - more durable, practically unbreakable, and most importantly, providing much longer playing time. This was achieved by narrowing and bringing the sound tracks closer together, as well as by reducing the number of revolutions from 78 to 45, and more often to 33 1/3 revolutions per minute. The quality of sound reproduction during playback of such records has improved significantly. In addition, since 1958, stereophonic records began to be produced, creating a surround sound effect. The turntable's needles are also significantly more durable. They began to be made from solid materials, and they completely replaced the short-lived gramophone needles. The recording of gramophone records was carried out only in special recording studios. In the 1940-1950s in Moscow on Gorky Street there was a studio where for a small fee you could record a small record with a diameter of 15 centimeters - a sound “hello” to your family or friends. In those same years, clandestine recordings of records of jazz music and thieves' songs, which were persecuted in those years, were carried out using homemade recording devices. The material for them was spent X-ray film. These plates were called “on the ribs” because bones were visible on them when held up to light. The sound quality on them was terrible, but in the absence of other sources they were extremely popular, especially among young people.

Magnetic sound recording

In 1898, Danish engineer Woldemar Paulsen (1869-1942) invented an apparatus for magnetically recording sound on steel wire. He called it "telegraph". However, the disadvantage of using wire as a carrier was the problem of connecting individual pieces of it. It was impossible to tie them with a knot, since it did not go through the magnetic head. In addition, steel wire gets tangled easily, and thin steel tape cuts your hands. In general, it was not suitable for use.

Subsequently, Paulsen invented a method of magnetic recording on a rotating steel disk, where information was recorded in a spiral by a moving magnetic head. Here it is, the prototype of the floppy disk and hard drive (hard drive), which are so widely used in modern computers! In addition, Paulsen proposed and even implemented the first answering machine using his telegraph.

Rice. 8. Waldemar Paulsen

In 1927, F. Pfleimer developed a technology for producing magnetic tape on a non-magnetic basis. Based on this development, in 1935 the German electrical engineering company AEG and the chemical company IG Farbenindustri demonstrated at the German Radio Exhibition a magnetic tape on a plastic base coated with iron powder. Mastered in industrial production, it cost 5 times less than steel, was much lighter, and most importantly, made it possible to connect the pieces by simple gluing. To use the new magnetic tape, a new sound recording device was developed, which received the brand name "Magnetofon". It became the general name for such devices.

In 1941, German engineers Braunmuell and Weber created a ring magnetic head in combination with ultrasonic bias to record sound. This made it possible to significantly reduce noise and obtain recordings of significantly higher quality than mechanical and optical (developed by that time for sound films).

Magnetic tape is suitable for repeated sound recording. The number of such records is practically unlimited. It is determined only by the mechanical strength of the new information carrier - magnetic tape.

Thus, the owner of a tape recorder, in comparison with a gramophone, not only got the opportunity to reproduce sound recorded once and for all on a gramophone record, but could now record sound himself on magnetic tape, not in a recording studio, but at home or in a concert. hall It was this remarkable property of magnetic sound recording that ensured the widespread dissemination of songs by Bulat Okudzhava, Vladimir Vysotsky and Alexander Galich during the years of the communist dictatorship. It was enough for one amateur to record these songs at their concerts in some club, and this recording spread with lightning speed among many thousands of fans. After all, with the help of two tape recorders you can copy a recording from one magnetic tape to another.

Vladimir Vysotsky recalled that when he first arrived in Togliatti and walked along its streets, he heard his hoarse voice from the windows of many houses.

The first tape recorders were reel-to-reel tape recorders - in them the magnetic film was wound on reels (Fig. 9). During recording and playback, the film was rewound from a full reel to an empty one. Before starting recording or playback, it was necessary to “load” the tape, i.e. Pull the free end of the film past the magnetic heads and secure it onto the empty reel.

Rice. 9. Reel-to-reel tape recorder with magnetic tape on reels

After the end of World War II, beginning in 1945, magnetic recording became widespread throughout the world. On American radio, magnetic recording was first used in 1947 to broadcast a concert by the popular singer Bing Crosby. In this case, parts of a captured German device were used, which was brought to the USA by an enterprising American soldier demobilized from occupied Germany. Bing Crosby then invested in the production of tape recorders. In 1950, 25 models of tape recorders were already sold in the United States.

The first two-track tape recorder was released by the German company AEG in 1957, and in 1959 this company released the first four-track tape recorder.

At first, tape recorders were tube-based, and only in 1956 the Japanese company Sony created the first all-transistor tape recorder.

Later, reel-to-reel tape recorders were replaced by cassette tape recorders. The first such device was developed by Philips in 1961-1963. In it, both miniature reels - with magnetic film and empty - are placed in a special compact cassette and the end of the film is pre-fixed to the empty reel (Fig. 10). Thus, the process of charging the tape recorder with film is significantly simplified. The first compact cassettes were released by Philips in 1963. And even later, two-cassette tape recorders appeared, in which the process of dubbing from one cassette to another was simplified as much as possible. Recording on compact cassettes is two-sided. They are released for recording times of 60, 90 and 120 minutes (on both sides).

Rice. 10. Cassette tape recorder and compact cassette

Based on a standard compact cassette, Sony developed a portable player the size of a postcard (Fig. 11). You can put it in your pocket or attach it to your belt and listen to it while walking or on the subway. It was called Walkman, i.e. “a walking man”, relatively cheap, was in great demand on the market and for some time was the favorite “toy” of young people.

Rice. 11. Cassette player

The compact cassette took root not only on the street, but also in cars for which the car radio was produced. It is a combination of a radio and a cassette recorder.

In addition to the compact cassette, a microcassette (Fig. 12) the size of a matchbox was created for portable voice recorders and telephones with answering machines.

A dictaphone (from the Latin dicto - I say, I dictate) is a type of tape recorder for recording speech for the purpose, for example, of subsequent printing of its text.

Rice. 12. Microcassette

All mechanical cassette voice recorders contain more than 100 parts, some of which are movable. The recording head and electrical contacts wear out over several years. The hinged lid also breaks easily. Cassette recorders use an electric motor to pull magnetic tape past recording heads.

Digital voice recorders differ from mechanical voice recorders in the complete absence of moving parts. They use solid-state flash memory as a storage medium instead of magnetic film.

Digital voice recorders convert an audio signal (for example, voice) into a digital code and record it into a memory chip. The operation of such a voice recorder is controlled by a microprocessor. The absence of a tape mechanism, recording and erasing heads greatly simplifies the design of digital voice recorders and makes it more reliable. For ease of use, they are equipped with a liquid crystal display. The main advantages of digital voice recorders are the almost instantaneous search for the desired recording and the ability to transfer the recording to a personal computer, in which you can not only store these recordings, but also edit them, re-record them without the help of a second voice recorder, etc.

Optical discs (optical recording)

In 1979, Philips and Sony created a completely new storage medium that replaced the gramophone record - an optical disc (Compact Disk - CD) for recording and playing back sound. In 1982, mass production of CDs began at a plant in Germany. Microsoft and Apple Computer made significant contributions to the popularization of the CD.

Compared to mechanical sound recording, it has a number of advantages - a very high recording density and the complete absence of mechanical contact between the medium and the reading device during recording and playback. Using a laser beam, the signals are digitally recorded on a rotating optical disk.

As a result of recording, a spiral track is formed on the disk, consisting of depressions and smooth areas. In playback mode, a laser beam focused on a track moves across the surface of a rotating optical disk and reads the recorded information. In this case, depressions are read as zeros, and areas that evenly reflect light are read as ones. The digital recording method ensures almost complete absence of interference and high sound quality. High recording density is achieved due to the ability to focus the laser beam into a spot smaller than 1 micron. This provides long recording and playback times.

Rice. 13. Optical CD

At the end of 1999, Sony announced the creation of a new media, Super Audio CD (SACD). In this case, the technology of the so-called “direct digital stream” DSD (Direct Stream Digital) is used. The 0 to 100 kHz frequency response and 2.8224 MHz sampling rate provide a significant improvement in sound quality compared to conventional CDs. Thanks to the much higher sampling rate, filters are unnecessary during recording and playback, since the human ear perceives this step signal as a “smooth” analogue signal. At the same time, compatibility with the existing CD format is ensured. New single-layer HD discs, dual-layer HD discs, and hybrid dual-layer HD discs and CDs are being released.

Storing audio recordings in digital form on optical discs is much better than storing audio recordings in analog form on gramophone records or cassette tapes. First of all, the durability of recordings increases disproportionately. After all, optical discs are practically eternal - they are not afraid of small scratches, and a laser beam does not damage them when playing recordings. Thus, Sony provides a 50-year warranty on data storage on disks. In addition, CDs are not affected by the interference typical of mechanical and magnetic recording, so the sound quality of digital optical discs is incomparably better. In addition, with digital recording, there is the possibility of computer sound processing, which allows, for example, to restore the original sound of old mono recordings, remove noise and distortion from them, and even turn them into stereo.

To play CDs, you can use players (the so-called CD players), stereos, and even laptop computers equipped with a special drive (the so-called CD-ROM drive) and sound speakers. To date, there are more than 600 million CD players and more than 10 billion CDs in the hands of users around the world! Portable portable CD players, like magnetic compact cassette players, are equipped with headphones (Fig. 14).

Rice. 14. CD player

Rice. 15. Radio with CD player and digital tuner

Rice. 16. Music center

Music CDs are recorded at the factory. Like gramophone records, they can only be listened to. However, in recent years, optical CDs have been developed for single (so-called CD-R) and multiple (so-called CD-RW) recording on a personal computer equipped with a special disk drive. This makes it possible to make recordings on them in amateur conditions. You can record on CD-R discs only once, but on CD-RW - many times: like on a tape recorder, you can erase the previous recording and make a new one in its place.

The digital recording method made it possible to combine text and graphics with sound and moving images on the personal computer. This technology is called "multimedia".

Optical CD-ROMs (Compact Disk Read Only Memory - i.e. read-only memory on a CD) are used as storage media in such multimedia computers. Outwardly, they do not differ from audio CDs used in players and music centers. The information in them is also recorded in digital form.

The existing CDs are being replaced by a new media standard - DVD (Digital Versatil Disc or general purpose digital disk). They look no different from CDs. Their geometric dimensions are the same. The main difference between a DVD disc is its much higher recording density. It holds 7-26 times more information. This is achieved thanks to a shorter laser wavelength and a smaller spot size of the focused beam, which made it possible to halve the distance between tracks. Additionally, DVDs may have one or two layers of information. These can be accessed by adjusting the position of the laser head. On a DVD, each layer of information is twice as thin as on a CD. Therefore, it is possible to connect two disks with a thickness of 0.6 mm into one with a standard thickness of 1.2 mm. In this case, the capacity doubles. In total, the DVD standard provides 4 modifications: single-sided, single-layer 4.7 GB (133 minutes), single-sided, double-layer 8.8 GB (241 minutes), double-sided, single-layer 9.4 GB (266 minutes) and double-sided, dual-layer 17 GB (482 minutes). The minutes shown in parentheses are the playing time of high quality digital video programs with digital multilingual surround sound. The new DVD standard is defined in such a way that future reader models will be designed to be able to play all previous generations of CDs, i.e. in compliance with the principle of "backwards compatibility". The DVD standard allows for significantly longer playback times and improved quality of video movies compared to existing CD-ROMs and LD Video CDs.

The DVD-ROM and DVD-Video formats appeared in 1996, and later the DVD-audio format was developed to record high-quality audio.

DVD drives are slightly improved versions of CD-ROM drives.

CD and DVD optical discs became the first digital media and storage devices for recording and reproducing sound and images

History of Flash Memory

The history of flash memory cards is connected with the history of mobile digital devices that can be carried with you in a bag, in the breast pocket of a jacket or shirt, or even as a keychain around your neck.

These are miniature MP3 players, digital voice recorders, photo and video cameras, smartphones and pocket personal computers - PDAs, modern cell phone models. Small in size, these devices needed to expand the built-in memory capacity to write and read information.

Such memory should be universal and used to record any type of information in digital form: sound, text, images - drawings, photographs, video information.

The first company to manufacture flash memory and put it on the market was Intel. In 1988, 256 kbit flash memory was demonstrated that was the size of a shoebox. It was built according to the logical scheme NOR (in Russian transcription - NOT-OR).

NOR flash memory has relatively slow write and erase speeds, and the number of write cycles is relatively low (about 100,000). Such flash memory can be used when almost permanent storage of data with very infrequent overwriting is required, for example, to store the operating system of digital cameras and mobile phones.

Intel NOR Flash Memory

The second type of flash memory was invented in 1989 by Toshiba. It is built according to the NAND logic circuit (in Russian transcription Ne-I). The new memory was supposed to be a less expensive and faster alternative to NOR flash. Compared to NOR, NAND technology provided ten times more write cycles, as well as higher speeds for both writing and erasing data. And NAND memory cells are half the size of NOR memory, which leads to the fact that more memory cells can be placed on a certain chip area.

The name "flash" was introduced by Toshiba, since it is possible to instantly erase the contents of memory (English: "in a flash"). Unlike magnetic, optical and magneto-optical memory, it does not require the use of disk drives using complex precision mechanics and does not contain any moving parts at all. This is its main advantage over all other information carriers and therefore the future lies with it. But the most important advantage of such memory, of course, is storing data without supplying energy, i.e. energy independence.

Flash memory is a chip on a silicon chip. It is built on the principle of maintaining an electrical charge in the memory cells of a transistor for a long time using the so-called “floating gate” in the absence of electrical power. Its full name is Flash Erase EEPROM (Electronically Erasable Programmable ROM). Its elementary cell, in which one bit of information is stored, is not an electrical capacitor, but a field-effect transistor with a specially electrically isolated region - a “floating gate”. An electrical charge placed in this area can be maintained for an indefinitely long time. When one bit of information is written, the unit cell is charged by placing an electrical charge on the floating gate. When erased, this charge is removed from the gate and the cell discharges. Flash memory is non-volatile memory that allows you to save information in the absence of electrical power. It does not consume energy when storing information.

The four most well-known flash memory formats are CompactFlash, MultiMediaCard (MMC), SecureDigital and Memory Stick.

CompactFlash appeared in 1994. It was released by SanDisk. Its dimensions were 43x36x3.3 mm, and the capacity was 16 MB of flash memory. In 2006, the release of 16 GB CompactFlash cards was announced.

MultiMediaCard appeared in 1997. It was developed by Siemens AG and Transcend. Compared to CompactFlash, MMC cards had smaller dimensions - 24x32x1.5 mm. They were used in mobile phones (especially in models with a built-in MP3 player). In 2004, the RS-MMC standard (i.e. “Reduced size MMC”) appeared. RS-MMC cards had a size of 24x18x1.5 mm and could be used with an adapter where old MMC cards had previously been used. .

There are MMCmicro card standards (dimensions only 12x14x1.1 mm) and MMC+, characterized by increased information transfer speed. Currently, MMC cards with a capacity of 2 GB have been released.

Matsushita Electric Co, SanDick Co and Toshiba Co have developed SD - Secure Digital Memory Cards. The association with these companies includes such giants as Intel and IBM. This SD memory is produced by Panasonic, part of the Matsushita concern.

Like the two standards described above, SecureDigital (SD) is open. It was created based on the MultiMediaCard standard, adopting the electrical and mechanical components from the MMC. There is a difference in the number of contacts: MultiMediaCard had 7, and SecureDigital now has 9. However, the similarity of the two standards allows you to use MMC cards instead of SD (but not vice versa, since SD cards have a different thickness - 32x24x2.1 mm).

Along with the SD standard, miniSD and microSD appeared. Cards of this format can be installed both in the miniSD standard slot and in the SD standard slot, however, using a special adapter that allows you to use the mini-card in the same way as a regular SD card. The dimensions of the miniSD card are 20x21.5x1.4 mm.

miniSD cards

microSD cards are currently one of the smallest flash cards - their dimensions are 11x15x1 mm. The main areas of application of these cards are multimedia mobile phones and communicators. Through an adapter, microSD cards can be used in devices with slots for miniSD and SecureDigital flash media.

microSD card

The capacity of SD flash cards has increased to 8 GB or more.

Memory Stick is a typical example of a closed standard developed by Sony in 1998. The developer of a closed standard takes care of promoting it and ensuring compatibility with portable devices. This means a significant narrowing of the distribution of the standard and its further development, since Memory Stick slots (that is, places for installation) are only available in products under the Sony and Sony Ericsson brands.

In addition to Memory Stick cards, the family includes Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo, Memory Stick PRO-HG and Memory Stick Micro (M2).

The dimensions of the Memory Stick are 50x21.5x2.8 mm, weight - 4 grams, and the memory capacity - technologically could not exceed 128 MB. The appearance of Memory Stick PRO in 2003 was dictated by Sony's desire to give users more memory (the theoretical maximum for cards of this type is 32 GB).

Memory Stick Duo cards are distinguished by their reduced size (20x31x1.6 mm) and weight (2 grams); They are focused on the PDA and mobile phone market. The version with increased capacity is called Memory Stick PRO Duo - a card with a capacity of 8 GB was announced in January 2007.

Memory Stick Micro (size - 15x12.5x1.2 mm) are designed for modern models of mobile phones. The memory size can reach (theoretically) 32 GB, and the maximum data transfer speed is 16 MB/s. M2 cards can be connected to devices that support Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo and SecureDigital using a special adapter. There are already models with 2 GB of memory.

xD-Picture Card is another representative of a closed standard. Introduced in 2002. Actively supported and promoted by Fuji and Olympus, whose digital cameras use the xD-Picture Card. xD stands for extreme digital. The capacity of cards of this standard has already reached 2 GB. xD-Picture Cards do not have a built-in controller, unlike most other standards. This has a positive effect on the size (20 x 25 x 1.78 mm), but gives a low data transfer speed. In the future, it is planned to increase the capacity of this media to 8 GB. Such a significant increase in the capacity of a miniature media became possible thanks to the use of multilayer technology.

In today's highly competitive market for removable flash memory cards, it is necessary to ensure that new media are compatible with existing equipment that supports other flash memory formats. Therefore, simultaneously with flash memory cards, the release of adapters and external reading devices, so-called card readers, connected to the USB input of a personal computer. Individual cards are produced (for a specific type of flash memory card, as well as universal card readers for 3, 4, 5 and even 8 different types of flash memory cards). They are a USB drive - a miniature box that has slots for one or several types of cards at once, and a connector for connecting to the USB input of a personal computer.

Universal card reader for reading several types of flash cards

Sony has released a USB drive with a built-in fingerprint scanner to protect against unauthorized access.

Along with flash cards, flash drives, so-called “flash drives,” are also produced. They are equipped with a standard USB connector and can be directly connected to the USB input of a computer or laptop.

Flash drive with USB-2 connector

Their capacity reaches 1, 2, 4, 8, 10 or more gigabytes, and the price has recently dropped sharply. They have almost completely replaced standard floppy disks, which require a drive with rotating parts and have a capacity of only 1.44 MB.

Digital photo frames, which are digital photo albums, are created on the basis of flash cards. They are equipped with a liquid crystal display and allow you to view digital photographs, for example, in slide movie mode, in which photographs replace each other at certain intervals, as well as enlarge photographs and examine their individual details. They are equipped with remote controls and speakers that allow you to listen to music and voice explanations of photos. With a memory capacity of 64 MB, they can store 500 photos.

History of MP3 players

The impetus for the emergence of MP3 players was the development of an audio compression format in the mid-80s at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany. In 1989, Fraunhofer received a patent for the MP3 compression format in Germany and a few years later it was introduced by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) is the name of an ISO expert group that works to create standards for encoding and compressing video and audio data. Standards prepared by the committee are given the same name. MP3 received the official name MPEG-1 Layer3. This format made it possible to store audio information compressed tens of times, without noticeable loss of playback quality.

The second most important impetus for the advent of MP3 players was the development of portable flash memory. The Fraunhofer Institute also developed the first MP3 player in the early 90s. Then a player from Eiger Labs MPMan F10 and a player Rio PMP300 from Diamond Multimedia appeared. All early players used built-in flash memory (32 or 64 MB) and were connected via a parallel port rather than USB.

MP3 became the first widely accepted audio storage format after CD-Audio. MP3 players were also developed based on hard drives, including the miniature IBM MicroDrive hard drive. One of the pioneers in the use of hard drives (HDD) was Apple. In 2001, it released the first MP3 player, the iPod, with a 5 GB hard drive that could store about 1,000 songs.

It provided 12 hours of battery life thanks to its lithium polymer battery. The dimensions of the first iPod were 100x62x18 mm, weight was 184 grams. The first iPod was only available to Macintosh users. the next version of the iPod, which appeared six months after the release of the first, already included two options - iPod for Windows and iPod for Mac OS. The new iPods received a touch-sensitive scroll wheel instead of a mechanical one and became available in 5GB, 10GB and a little later 20GB versions.

Several generations of iPods have changed, in each of them the characteristics gradually improved, for example, the screen became color, but the hard drive was still used.

Later, flash memory began to be used for MP3 players. They have become smaller, more reliable, durable and cheaper, and have taken the form of miniature keychains that can be worn around the neck, in the breast pocket of a shirt, or in a handbag. Many models of cell phones, smartphones, and PDAs began to perform the function of an MP3 player.

Apple has introduced a new MP3 player, the iPod Nano. It replaces the hard drive with flash memory.

It allowed:

Make the player much more compact - flash memory is smaller in size than a hard drive;
- Reduce the risk of failures and breakdowns by completely eliminating moving parts in the player mechanism;
- Save on battery life, because flash memory consumes significantly less electricity than a hard drive;
- Increase the speed of information transfer.

The player has become much lighter (42 grams instead of 102) and more compact (8.89 x 4.06 x 0.69 versus 9.1 x 5.1 x 1.3 cm), a color display has appeared that allows you to view photos and show an image of the album during playback. Memory capacity is 2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB.

At the end of 2007, Apple introduced a new line of iPod players:

iPod nano, iPod classic, iPod touch.
- iPod nano with flash memory can now play video on a 2-inch display with a resolution of 320x204 mm.
- iPod classic with a hard drive has a memory capacity of 80 or 160 GB, allowing you to listen to music for 40 hours and show movies for 7 hours.
- iPod touch with a 3.5-inch widescreen touch screen allows you to control the player with finger movements (English touch) and watch movies and TV shows. With this player you can go online and download music and videos. For this purpose, it has a built-in Wi-Fi module.

Permanent address of the article: About the history of sound recording. History of recording

One hundred and forty years ago, on February 19, 1878, Thomas Edison received a patent for the phonograph - the first device for recording and reproducing sound. He created a real sensation in his time and has preserved for us the music and voices of famous people of the late 19th century. We decided to remember how the phonograph was designed, and also demonstrate how the voices of famous artists sounded when recorded with its help.

Thomas Edison with his invention

Mathew Brady, 1878

Unlike modern devices more familiar to us, the phonograph recorded sound mechanically and did not require electricity. To do this, the phonograph has a tapered horn with a membrane at the end to which a stylus is attached. The needle is placed over a cylinder wrapped in metal foil, which was replaced after a few years by a wax coating.

The principle of operation of a phonograph is quite simple. During recording, the cylinder rotates in a spiral and constantly moves slightly to the side. Sound entering the horn causes the membrane and stylus to vibrate. Because of this, the needle presses a groove in the foil - the more intense the sound, the deeper the groove. Reproduction works in the same way, only in the opposite direction - the cylinder rotates, and the deflection of the needle as it passes along the grooves causes the membrane to vibrate and thereby create sound coming out of the horn.

A phonograph needle records sound vibrations onto metal foil

UnterbergerMedien/YouTube

It is worth noting that a device quite similar in function and design was invented by the French scientist Charles Cros just a few months before Edison and independently of him. It had several design differences from Edison's phonograph, but the main thing is that the French inventor only described such a device, but did not create its prototype.

Of course, like any new invention, Edison's phonograph had many disadvantages. The recording quality of the first devices was low, and the recording foil was only enough for a few plays. Additionally, since the recording and playback processes were essentially the same, loud sounds during playback could ruin the grooves on the foil.

By the way, the phonograph was not the first device for recording sound. The very first device was called a phonautograph and was somewhat reminiscent of a phonograph. It also featured a tapered horn with a membrane and a needle at the end located close to the rotating cylinder. But this needle did not press the grooves into depth, but deviated horizontally and scratched lines on the paper that had only visual value - they did not know how to turn such recordings back into sound. But now they are considered the first examples of the recorded human voice.

Phonautographic recording made in 1865

Smithsonian Institution Libraries

In 2008, researchers digitized the oldest surviving recording. It was made in 1860 and shows the inventor of the phonautograph, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, singing the French song "Au clair de la lune":

However, the phonograph was the first device that could reproduce previously recorded sound, and it influenced both people who were surprised by this possibility and future devices for reproducing sound. For example, it was on the basis of the phonograph that the gramophone was created, the main difference of which was that its developers decided to record sound not on a cylinder with foil or wax, but on flat disks - gramophone records.

The historical value of the phonograph also lies in the fact that it made it possible to preserve a large number of recordings of voices and music from the late 19th century. It is known that during the first recording of his voice on a phonograph, Thomas Edison sang the children's folk song "Mary Had a Little Lamb", but it has not survived. The oldest phonograph recording known to date was made by Edison to demonstrate his invention at a St. Louis museum in 1878:

The earliest surviving recording of Edison's own voice was made ten years later, in October 1888. It was no longer made on metal foil, but on a paraffin cylinder. From it you can evaluate how much the recording quality improved during the first years after the invention of the device:

There was supposed to be a recording here, but something went wrong.

Records of some Russian artists of the late 19th century have also been preserved. In 1997, the only recording of the voice of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky known to date was found. It was made in 1890 by Julius Blok, who was the first to bring a phonograph to Russia. In addition to Tchaikovsky, on the recording you can hear the voices of opera singer Elizaveta Lavrovskaya, pianist Alexandra Gubert, conductor and pianist Vasily Safonov, as well as pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. Those gathered wanted to persuade him to play the piano, but in the end only one of his lines was heard on the recording:

Despite the fact that phonographs are no longer in serious use, their design is simple enough to assemble a working device using improvised tools, which is what some enthusiasts are doing today:

Before the advent of portable audio, digital playback and music as we know it today, sound recording It's been a long and exciting history of development. Today we will talk about how, in just over 100 years, man has revolutionized the understanding of sound recording: from bulky archaic phonographs to modern ultra-compact players.

Mechanical recording of a melody

Human nature is such that he simply cannot imagine life without sounds, harmony and musical instruments. For several thousand years, musicians have honed their skills in playing the lyre, harp, lute or cistern. But in order to please the ears of high-ranking gentlemen, the presence of a troupe of musicians was always required. Thus, the need arose to record music with the possibility of its further playback without human intervention.

9th century is rightfully considered the century of discovery mechanical recording era. IN 875 brothers Banu Musa reveal their new invention to the world - "water organ". Its operating principle was extremely simple: a uniformly rotating mechanical roller with skillfully placed protrusions struck vessels with different amounts of water (which affects the pitch) and thus made the filled tubes sound. A few years later, the brothers presented the first automatic flute, whose work was also based on the principle of a “water organ”.

Until the 19th century, it was the inventions of the Banu Musa brothers that remained the only available method of programmable sound recording. Shown in XIII century mechanical carillon, using the same principle as the Banu Musa organ, but with bells installed, was very soon forgotten.

Starting from the 15th century, the Renaissance era was covered by the fashion for mechanical musical instruments. Opens the parade of musical instruments with the operating principle of the Musa brothers barrel organ. IN 1598 appear first musical clock, in the middle 16th century – caskets. The first half of the 19th century continues the trend of development of mechanical musical instruments: boxes, snuff boxes– all these devices had a very limited set of melodies and could reproduce a previously “saved” motif by the master. Until 1857, no one was able to record the human voice or the sound of an acoustic instrument with the possibility of further reproduction.

Mechanical recording era

While the metallic sounds of music boxes, boxes and snuff boxes continued to be heard from the windows and houses of French residents, Edward Leon Scott de Martinville continued work on the first sound recording device. March 25, 1857 The French government registers a patent called "phonautograph".

Principle of operation phonautograph consisted of recording a sound wave by capturing vibrations through a special acoustic horn, at the end of which a needle was located. Under the influence of sound, the needle began to vibrate, drawing an intermittent wave on a rotating glass roller, the surface of which was covered with either paper or soot. Alas, Edward Scott's invention was unable to reproduce the recorded fragment. Seven years ago, a 10-second fragment of a recording of a folk song was found in a Paris archive. "Moonlight", performed by the inventor himself April 9, 1860.

After 17 years, in 1877"father of the incandescent lamp" Thomas Edison is finishing work on a completely new sound recording device - phonograph, which a year later he patented in the relevant US department. The principle of operation of the phonograph was reminiscent of Scott's phonautograph: a wax-coated roller acted as a sound carrier, the recording of which was carried out using a needle connected to a membrane - the progenitor of the microphone. Catching sound through a special horn, the membrane activated a needle, which left indentations on the wax roller.

For the first time, recorded sound could be played back using the same device on which the recording itself was made. Alas, the mechanical energy was not enough to achieve the nominal volume level.

Edison's phonograph managed to turn the then world upside down: hundreds of inventors began experimenting with the use of various materials to cover the carrier cylinder, and 1906 The first public audition concert took place. Edison's phonograph was applauded by a packed hall. IN 1912 the world saw disc phonograph, in which a disk was used instead of the usual wax roller, which significantly simplified the design.

The appearance of the disk phonograph, although it was of public interest, from the point of view of the evolution of sound recording, never found practical application. WITH 1888 Emil Berliner began to actively develop his own vision of sound recording using his own device - gramophone.

As an alternative to the wax drum, Berliner preferred a more durable celluloid. In 1887, records were made from spar, soot and shellac. The recording principle remained the same: horn, sound, needle vibrations and uniform rotation of the disc-record.

Experiments with the rotation speeds of the recorded disc made it possible to increase the recording time of one side of the record up to 2-2.5 minutes at a rotation speed of 78 revolutions in a minute. The recorded disk-plates were placed in cardboard covers (less often leather), which is why they later received the name albums– outwardly they were very reminiscent of photo albums with city sights, sold everywhere in Europe.

The bulky gramophone was replaced by an improved and modified in 1907 Guillon Kemmler device - gramophone.

The small horn built into the body and the ability to place the entire device in one compact suitcase led to the rapid popularization of the gramophone. In the 40s, a compact version of the device was released - mini gramophone, which gained particular popularity among soldiers.

Era of electromechanical recording

Scientific and technological progress did not stand still, and with the advent of electricity, the evolution of sound recording began its rapid development. IN 1925 The era of sound recording begins using microphone, an electric motor (instead of a spring mechanism) for rotating the plate and, first piezoelectric, and then more advanced magnetic pickup.

The arsenal of devices that allow both sound recording and its further playback is replenished with a modified version of the gramophone - electrophone. The advent of an amplifier makes it possible to take sound recording to a new level: electroacoustic systems receive loudspeakers, and the need to force sound through a horn becomes a thing of the past. All human physical efforts are now performed by electrical energy.

The issue of sound recording duration was first solved by a Soviet inventor Alexander Shorin, which in 1930 proposed to use film film as an operational recording, passing through an electrical recording unit at a constant speed. The device was named shorinophone, but the recording quality remained suitable only for further voice reproduction. But on a 20-meter film it was now possible to place 1 hour recording.

The last echo of electromechanical recording was the so-called "talking paper", proposed in 1931 Soviet engineer Skvortsov. Sound vibrations were recorded on plain paper using a pen drawing with black ink. Such paper could be easily copied and transferred.

To play back what was recorded, a powerful lamp and photocell were used. Alas, it took 13 years before the production version of the device capable of reproducing “talking paper” was released. At this time, the 40s of the last century were already conquered by a new method of sound recording - magnetic.

The era of magnetic recording

History of development magnetic sound recording Almost all the time it went parallel to mechanical recording methods, but remained in the shadows until 1932. Back at the end of the 19th century, an American engineer inspired by Edison's invention Oberlin Smith began studying the issue of sound recording. IN 1888 An article is published devoted to the use of the phenomenon of magnetism in sound recording. Danish engineer Waldemar Poulsen, after ten years of experimentation in 1898 receives a patent for use steel wire as a sound carrier.

This is how the first sound recording device appeared, which was based on the principle of magnetism - telegraph. IN 1924 inventor Kurt Stille improves Poulsen's brainchild and creates first voice recorder based magnetic tape.

1928, German engineer Fritz Pfleimer receives a patent for the use of magnetic powder for sputtering on paper and further use for magnetic recording. Alas, after 8 years, the German National Court recognizes Pfleimer’s patent as plagiarism on the principles of sound recording set out back in 1898 by Waldemar Poulsen. The company is intervening in the further evolution of magnetic recording AEG, which released mid 1932 device Magnetophone-K1.

Using as iron oxide film coating, company BASF is revolutionizing the world of recording. Using AC bias, engineers experience a completely new sound quality: reduced up to 60 dB signal-to-noise ratio and overcoming the upper audio frequency limit at 10 kHz.

From 1930 until 1970, the world market was represented by reel-to-reel tape recorders in a variety of form factors and with a variety of capabilities. Magnetic tape opens creative doors to thousands of producers, engineers and composers who have the opportunity to experiment with sound recording not on an industrial scale, but right in their own apartment.

Such experiments were further facilitated by the emergence in the mid-1950s multi-track tape recorders. It became possible to record several sound sources on one magnetic tape at once. Published in 1963 16-track tape recorder, in ’74 – 24-track, and 8 years later Sony offers an improved scheme for digital recording of the DASH format on a 24-track tape recorder.

The appearance of something familiar and familiar from childhood cassette associated with registered in 1952 the corresponding patent, and already in 1963 company Philips represents the first compact cassette, which in just a few years will become the main mass format for audio reproduction.

Within a year, mass production of compact cassettes was launched in Hannover. In 1965, Philips initiated music cassette production, and in September 1966, the first echoes of the company’s two-year industrial experiments went on sale in the United States. The unreliability of the design and the difficulties that arose with recording music forced manufacturers to further search for a reference storage medium. And the search ended successfully for the company Advent Corporation, who presented in 1971 cassette based magnetic tape, in the production of which chromium oxide was used.

The era of laser-optical sound recording

The ideas of sound recording, laid down at the end of the 19th century by Thomas Edison, in the second half of the 20th century led to the use laser beam. Optical sound recording is based on the principle of forming spiral tracks on a compact disc, consisting of smooth areas and pits. The laser era made it possible to represent a sound wave into a complex combination of zeros (smooth areas) and ones (pits).

IN March 1979 company Philips demonstrates the first CD prototype, and a week later the Dutch concern enters into an agreement with a Japanese company Sony, approving the new standard audio CDs. IN 1982 Philips presents first CD player, which surpassed all previously presented media in terms of playback quality.

First album, recorded on a new digital medium, has become legendary "The Visitors" groups ABBA. IN 1984 year company Sony issues first portable CD player – Sony Discman D-50 at a price of $350 .

CDs will reach the USSR only 7 years after the adoption of the format. In 1989, it will appear on the shelves of Soviet stores “Stichera for the Millennium of the Baptism of Rus'” by Rodion Shchedrin, and from under the floor one could get the band’s disc Roxette, released in just 180 copies.

Further development of the optical compact disc era will lead to the emergence of a standard in 1998 DVD-Audio, entering the audio market with a different number of audio channels (from mono to five-channel). Since '98, Philips and Sony have been promoting an alternative CD format - Super Audio CD. The dual-channel disk allows you to store up to 74 minutes sound in both stereo and multichannel formats. The 74-minute capacity was determined by the opera singer, conductor and composer Noria Oga, who at that time also held the position of vice president of the corporation Sony. Noria Oga stated that one CD should fit 9 Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven. No sooner said than done.

In parallel with the development of CDs, handicraft production—copying media—has also steadily developed. For the first time, record companies thought about the need for digital data protection using encryption and watermarks.

Era of magneto-optical recording

Despite the versatility and ease of use of CDs, this medium has an impressive list of disadvantages. One of the main ones is their extreme fragility and the need for careful handling. The recording time of CD media is also significantly limited and the industry has begun to look for an alternative option.

Appearance on the market magneto-optical minidisc remained unnoticed by ordinary music fans. MiniDisk, developed by the company Sony also in 1992, remained the property of sound producers, performers and people directly connected with the scene.

When recording a minidisc, a magneto-optical head and a laser beam are used, which cuts through areas with a magneto-optical layer at high temperature. At the same time, with the help of an electromagnetic pulse, the magnetization of the layer changes with the appearance of the same pits (holes) as when recording a CD. The main advantage of a minidisc over a traditional CD is its improved security and longer service life.

In 1992, Sony introduced the first player for minidisk media format. The player model (as well as the format itself) gained particular popularity in Japan, but outside the country, as the first-born - the player Sony MZ1, and its improved descendants, were not accepted.

One way or another, combining sports and listening to a CD or minidisc is more suitable exclusively for more stationary use. Even with a portable CD player, it is not possible to imagine active sports in nature. And engineers began to solve this problem in the early 90s of the last century.

The era of digital recording

IN 1995 A revolutionary audio compression format was developed at the Fraunhofer Institute - MPEG 1 Audio Layer 3, which received the shortened name mp3. The main problem of the early 90s in the field of digital media remained the inaccessibility of sufficient disk space to accommodate a digital composition. The average size of the hard drive of the most sophisticated personal computer at that time hardly exceeded several tens of megabytes.

In ten years the situation has changed dramatically. IN 1999 18 year old Sean Fanning creates a network Napster, which shocks the entire era of show business. It was possible to exchange music, recordings and other digital content directly through the network.

Two years later, the service was closed for copyright infringement by the music industry, but the mechanism was launched and the era of digital music continued to develop uncontrollably: hundreds of peer-to-peer networks, regulating the work of which became a real headache for the government.

IN 1997 The first software player enters the market Winamp, which the company was developing Nullsoft.

The emergence of the mp3 codec and its further support from CD player manufacturers leads to a gradual decline in CD sales. Choosing between sound quality (which only a small percentage of consumers actually experienced) and the maximum possible number of songs that can be recorded on one CD disc (on average, the difference is about 6-7 times), the listener chose the latter.

The first mp3 player was a miniature one MPMan, released by a South Korean company SaeHan in March 1998. MPMan was presented in two versions: with 32 and 64 megabytes of internal memory, the price tag for the model started at $400.

IN 2003 a company breaks into the market Apple, which offered to distribute legal digital copies of songs through the iTunes Store. The total database of songs in the online store at the time of presentation was over 200,000 tracks. Today this figure has crossed the 20 million mark, having signed agreements with such leaders of the recording industry as: BMG, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner, Universal and EMI, Apple broke new ground in the history of recording that we continue to create today.

Thanks to Bowers & Wilkins for their help in preparing the material.

Contest

Answers send to labeled "History of Sound Recording".
Deadline: March 29 inclusive.
Delivery: all around Russia.
Winner: who will be the first to give a comprehensive answer to the following question:

The progenitor of this device, like the invention we are talking about, went through the entire evolution of sound recording and was repeatedly banned by management structures. He is mentioned in the diaries of the namesake of the main character of the film "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels", whom the butler was looking for. The advent of this device is also associated with the country, which today is perceived as a guarantor of accuracy and the key to successful investments. Give the exact name of the device and write a few words about its development.

The history of sound recording from the beginning to the present day

From cylinder to plate

It is curious that the first devices for recording and reproducing sound were similar to the mechanisms of music boxes. Both used a roller (cylinder), and then a disk, which, when rotating, made sound reproduction possible.

However, it all started not even with music boxes, but with... European bell chimes. Here, namely in the Flemish city of Melechen, they learned to cast chromatically tuned bells from the 14th century. When assembled together, they were connected via a wire transmission to an organ-like keyboard, and this musical structure was called a carillon. By the way, in French Melechen sounds like Malin - that’s where the expression “raspberry ringing” comes from.

Human thought did not stand still, and very soon carillons began to be equipped with the already mentioned cylinders, on the surface of which pins were located in a certain order. These pins hooked either the hammers that struck the bells, or the tongues of the bells. At the end of the 18th century, the ridged roller began to be used in more miniature devices - music boxes, where chromatically tuned combs with metal plates began to be used instead of bells. In the 19th century, Switzerland became the center for the production of music boxes with clockwork. And in 1870, one German inventor decided to use a disk instead of a roller, marking the beginning of the widespread popularity of boxes with interchangeable disks.

Music box with replaceable disc.

However, a variety of mechanical musical mechanisms (boxes, snuff boxes, watches, orchestras, etc.) were not able to give humanity the main thing - to make it possible to reproduce the human voice. The best minds of the Old and New Worlds took on this task in the second half of the 19th century, and the American Thomas Alva Edison won this absentee race.

However, here we cannot help but recall the Frenchman Charles Cros, who was also a talented and multi-talented person. He studied (and not without success) literature, the automatic telegraph, the problems of color photography and even “possible connections with the planets.” On April 30, 1877, Cro submitted to the French Academy of Sciences a description of an apparatus for recording and reproducing speech - the “palephone”. The Frenchman suggested using not only a “roller”, but also a “spiral recording disc”. But Cro didn’t find any sponsors for his invention.

Events on the other side of the ocean developed completely differently. Edison himself described the moment when a truly brilliant thought came to him: “Once, when I was still working on improving the telephone, I somehow sang over the diaphragm of the telephone, to which a steel needle was soldered. Thanks to the vibration of the plate, the needle pricked my finger, and "It got me thinking. If you could record these vibrations of the needle, and then move the needle again over such a recording, why wouldn't the record speak?"

As usual, Edison did not hesitate, but began to create a hitherto unprecedented device. In the same year, 1877, when Charles Cros described his “palephone,” Edison gave his mechanic John Crusie a drawing of a fairly simple device, the assembly of which he estimated at $18. However, the assembled apparatus became the world's first "talking machine" - Edison loudly sang the popular English children's song into a horn: "Marie had a little lamb", and the device reproduced what he "heard", although with great interference .

Phonograph.

The principle of operation of the phonograph, as Edison dubbed his brainchild, was based on the transmission of sound vibrations of the voice to the surface of a rotating cylinder covered with tin foil. The vibrations were caused by the tip of a steel needle, one end of which was connected to a steel membrane that captured sounds. The cylinder had to be rotated manually at a frequency of one revolution per second.

Work with the phonograph began on July 18, 1877, as recorded in Edison's laboratory notebook. On December 24, a patent application was filed, and on February 19, 1878, Edison received patent number 200521.

To say that the phonograph created an international sensation is to say nothing. However, the design of the phonograph did not allow for high-quality reproduction, although Edison himself made improvements to the device for many years after the creation of the first phonograph. Perhaps Edison should have focused on creating (or modernizing) other sound recording devices, because the phonograph (like the graphophone developed by Bell and Taynter) was a dead-end branch in the development of the sound recording/reproduction industry. However, Edison loved his phonograph too much for its uniqueness, therefore, we owe the presence of more convenient audio media in our lives to the American inventor of German origin - Emile Berliner, who immensely expanded the horizons of sound recording. Of course, Berliner did not invent modern CDs, but it was he who received a patent for the invention of the gramophone in 1887 , in which records were used as an audio medium.

Gramophone.

Berliner moved to the United States in 1870, where, among other things, he got a job at Alexander Bell's telephone company and patented a carbon microphone. Well familiar with the structure of both the phonograph and the graphophone, he nevertheless turns to the idea of using a disk, which, as we already know, was “successfully” buried by the French Academy of Sciences. In an apparatus called a gramophone, Berliner used a glass disk coated with soot, onto which transverse recording was made. On September 26, 1887, Berliner received a patent for the gramophone, and on May 16 of the following year he demonstrated the device at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.

Very soon, Berliner abandoned the soot disk and resorted to the acid etching method. The disk was now made of zinc, covered with a thin layer of wax. The recording was scratched with an iridium tip, after which the disc was etched in 25% chromic acid. In less than half an hour, grooves with a depth of about 0.1 mm appeared, then the disk was washed off the acid and used for its intended purpose.

Berliner's merit also lay in the fact that he realized the need to copy a recording from the original (matrix). The ability to replicate audio recordings is the cornerstone of the entire modern recording industry. Berliner worked very hard in this direction. First, in 1888, he created the first copy of Hiat's celluloid record, which is now in the National Library of Washington. But celluloid discs were poorly stored and wore out quickly, so Berliner tried other materials, in particular glass, bakelite and ebonite. In 1896, Berliner used a mixture of shellac, spar and soot in the record. The shellac mass and the process of pressing gramophone records for Berliner were developed by Louis Rosenthal from Frankfurt. This time the quality satisfied the inventor, and a similar shellac mass was used to create gramophone records until 1946.

Surprisingly, shellac was a hardened resin of organic origin, in the formation of which insects of the lac bug family take part. But even the shellac mass was far from perfect: gramophone records from it turned out to be heavy, fragile and thick.

At the same time, Berliner worked hard to improve gramophones, realizing that it was necessary to increase the number of record lovers and, thereby, the sales market. In 1897, Berliner and Eldridge Johnson opened the world's first record and gramophone factory, the Victor Talking Machine Co., in the United States. Then, in Great Britain, Berliner created the company "E. Berliner's Gramophone Co." By the beginning of 1902, the company of the enterprising inventor had sold over four million gramophone records!

Gramophone.

Progress did not bypass Russia either - in 1902, the first eight recordings of the legendary Russian singer Fyodor Chaliapin were made using equipment from the Berliner company.

However, the gramophone did not escape radical modernization - in 1907, an employee of the French company Pathé, Guillon Kemmler, decided to place a bulky horn inside the gramophone. The new devices began to be called “gramophones” (after the name of the manufacturer) and made them noticeably easier to carry. Subsequently (starting from the 50s of the twentieth century), gramophones were supplanted by more advanced electric players, which played lightweight and practical vinyl discs.

Vinyl records were made from the polymer material vinylite (in the USSR - from polyvinyl chloride). The playing speed decreased from 78 to 33 1/3 rpm, and the playing duration decreased to half an hour for one side. This standard became the most popular, although records of other formats were widely used, in particular, with a rotation speed of 45 rpm (the so-called forty-fives).

Magnetic recording as an alternative
The possibility of converting acoustic vibrations into electromagnetic ones was proven by Oberlin Smith, who outlined the principle of magnetic recording on steel wire in 1888. Thomas Edison was also involved here, for Smith’s experiments with magnetic recording were inspired by a visit to Edison’s famous laboratory.

But it was not until 1896 that the Danish engineer Valdemar Poulsen managed to create a workable device called the telegraph. The carrier was steel wire. The telegraph patent was issued to Poulsen in 1898.

Telegraph.

The fundamental principle of analogue sound recording by magnetizing the medium has remained unchanged since then. A signal from the amplifier is supplied to the recording head, along which the media passes at a constant speed (later it became a more convenient tape), and as a result the media is magnetized in accordance with the sound signal. During playback, the media passes along the playback head, inducing a weak electrical signal in it, which, amplified, enters the speaker.

Magnetic film was patented in Germany by Fritz Pfleumer in the mid-1920s. At first, the tape was made on a paper basis, and later on a polymer one. In the mid-30s of the twentieth century, the German company BASF launched serial production of magnetic tape made from carbonyl iron powder or magnetite on a diacetate basis.

Around the same time, AEG launched a studio magnetic recording apparatus for radio broadcasting. The device was called "magnetofon", in Russian it was transformed into "tape recorder".

The principle of “high-frequency bias” (when a high-frequency component is added to the recorded signal) was proposed in 1940 by German engineers Braunmull and Weber - this gave a significant improvement in sound quality.

Reel-to-reel tape recorders began to be used in the 1930s. In the late 50s, cartridges appeared, but compact and convenient cassette recorders gained the most popularity. The first cassette player was created by the Dutch company Philips in 1961. The peak of tape recorder development should be considered the appearance of Sony Walkman players in 1979. These small devices without recording capabilities created a sensation, because now you could listen to your favorite music on the go, while playing sports, etc. In addition, the person with the player did not disturb those around him, because he listened to audio recordings on headphones. Later, players with recording capabilities appeared.

Digital Invasion
The rapid development of computer technology in the late 70s of the twentieth century led to the emergence of the possibility of storing and reading any information in digital form from appropriate media. And here the development of digital audio recording has taken two paths. First, the compact disc appeared and became widespread. Later, with the advent of capacious hard drives, player programs that played compressed audio recordings became popular. As a result, the development of flash technologies at the beginning of the 21st century led to the fact that compact discs (meaning the Audio-CD format) were in danger of oblivion, as happened with records and cassettes.

Rapidly becoming obsolete Audio-CD.

However, let's go back to 1979, when Philips and Sony companies “figured out” the production of laser discs between them. Sony, by the way, introduced its own signal encoding method - PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) which was used in digital tape recorders. The latter were designated by the abbreviation DAT (Digital Audio Tape) and were used for professional studio recording. Mass production of CDs started in 1982 in Germany.

Gradually, optical discs are no longer exclusively carriers of audio recordings. CD-ROMs appeared, and then CD-R and CD-RW, where it was already possible to store any digital information. On CD-R it could be written once, and on CD-RW it could be written and rewritten many times using appropriate drives.

Information on a CD is recorded in the form of a spiral track of “pits” (recesses) extruded onto a polycarbonate substrate. Reading/writing of data is carried out using a laser beam.

Information compression algorithms have helped to significantly reduce the size of digital audio files without much loss to human auditory perception. The MP3 format has become the most widespread, and now all compact digital music players are called MP3 players, although they, of course, support other formats, in particular, the also quite popular WMA and OGG.

The MP3 format (short for MPEG-1/2/2.5 Layer 3) is also supported by any modern models of stereo systems and DVD players. It uses a compression algorithm with losses, which are insignificant for perception by the human ear. An MP3 file with an average bitrate of 128 kbps is approximately 1/10 the size of the original Audio-CD file.

The MP3 format was developed by a working group at the Fraunhofer Institute led by Karlheinz Brandenburg in collaboration with AT&T Bell Labs and Thomson.

MP3 is based on the experimental codec ASPEC (Adaptive Spectral Perceptual Entropy Coding). L3Enc was the first MP3 encoder (released in the summer of 1994), and the first software MP3 player was Winplay3 (1995).

And yet they spin...

MP3 player... one of many.
The ability to download a very large number of digital tracks to a computer or player, their quick sorting, deletion and re-recording have made compressed digital music a mass phenomenon that even the giants of the audio industry, who have been suffering losses from falling demand for Audio-CD for many years, cannot combat. . And yet, despite the fact that reels and cassettes have already become a thing of the past, the future of optical discs as media looks extremely promising. Yes, technology has changed radically, but discs today, like more than a hundred years ago, are spinning in order to please people with the next musical creation. The principle of spiral recording still works well today.