A Brief History of Recording Sound

In 1955, I was recorded playing a piano piece and received a yellow disk that could only be played a few times. I was impressed. Later in life I created my own recording studio.

A great recording on recording!

I miss browsing through LPs in the record store. The album cover art was all part of the experience.

We often think of inventions as being this great leap, like Edison developing the phonograph, or the Wright Bros. developing an aircraft, but in truth invention happens bit by bit, as the "inventor" capitalizes on previous advancements made by others. Another great episode by THG.

These old recording methods still have their mark on the radio industry. We still call commercials carts, music is still tracks, longer time programs are still called tapes, and we are called Disc Jockeys. The industry standard in radio is WAV files because while MP3 is great for use in home it loses too much quality due to compression for commercial uses.

Somehow the inventiveness to record sound on grooves on a cylinder 140 years ago impresses me more than any modern day technology.

When the wax cylinders were mentioned, it reminded me of the story of Bronisław Piłsudski, the older brother of much more famous Józef Piłsudski, arguably a founding father of modern Poland. Bronisław was exiled by tsarist authorities to the far eastern island of Sakhalin (also claimed at the time by Japan as Karafuto and devided in half after the Russo-Japanese War). There, he devoted himself to ethnographic studies of the cultures of local peoples, especially the Ainu (who also inhabitated the Kuril Islands and Hokkaido), including making wax recordings of their language and songs, some of which survived to modern times. He also had children with an Ainu woman, and their descendants still live in Japan. The life of Bronisław Piłsudski would be a great topic for an episode.

I grew up with record players, and yet, to this day, I am fascinated by the sound that comes from a needle riding in a groove.

This history is very helpful. My father was a professional musician / bandleader. Born in 1912 he never really understood that recording would aid, not negate , his ability to reach audiences. Now I understand Dad. Thanks

One interesting side story was before ww2 when records became affordable, the main way to play “premade music” was through player pianos and barrel organs and other automated devices.

Amazing to think of the evolution of recorded sound. I still have my collection of 45, 33⅓ lps, 8-tracks, cassettes... I even have a couple of mini disks!

I'm happy to say I have an Edison cylinder from 1904 that I found in a local antique store. On my last visit I saw they still had several others. I can't play it of course, but its a cool thing to have.

Other things changed as media changed. Remember getting a new album, vinyl of course, and getting all your friends over to sit around and listen to it? Maybe smoke a joint, or drink a few beers? Now you just download it and there it is. Took about 85% of the fun out of listening to tunes.

Good morning from Connecticut! Our oldest town, Windsor, has a museum dedicated to Antique Radio and other things like early TV, military walk-in-talkies, and early record players and anything else producing sound or pictures. I am trying to donate a 1969 Magnavox “Colonial” am/fm turntable furniture stereo in mint condition as we speak. Plus an early 70s vinyl record cleaner that when you drop the record in, it spins automatically to clean. The museum is wonderful!

The written word is up there with fire as one of the most important developments in human history. I think recording sound and in turn recording speech connects more with the freedom of a person. If "freedom of speech" is taken away from you. You are no longer free.

What a fascinating dive into a largely ignored subject that I have personally used since before the 8-track tape, Hi-Fi, and color TV. Thank you! (Side note: Quadrophonic! 😊) Let's see... playback devices I have, and have used over the decades: My dads Victrola crank style flat (heavy) disk record player, a 1950's West German reel to reel table-top portable tape player/recorder, an early 1960's battery powered transistor reel to reel recorder from when I was a kid, an under-dash car add-on 8-track player, an in-dash car AM/FM/8-track player (teen), portable cassette & CD walkmen players, stereo & quad record players, mp3 solid state & hard drive portable players, and now... a cell phone & BT speakers/headphones. But, magnetic wire and wax cylinders.... nope. A bit before my time.

A lot of people forget about how easily the vinyl got scratched. What we did in the 70s and the 80s were to buy the vinyl record and then make a cassette copy and just play the copy while the vinyl set safely on the shelf to be used the next time you need a copy. 👍🏻

Thank you Lance and Team THG! What fond memories this episode brought back. The broken wind up Edison Amberola(tm) cylinder phonograph I disassembled, cleaned and rebuilt in early 1960's, the cassette tapes that kept me connected to family and friends while serving in Vietnam, to the thrill of my first iPod. Well done, as always.

As one of the lunatics who owns a + $500 phonograph cartridge, I'd like to thank you for the overall accuracy and clarity of this condensed description of my insane hobby.

With some sense of irony I'm watching this episode of THG on a modern TV and listening to it through modern speakers but above the cabinet that holds these is a very old and still functional Victrola that has a bell-shaped horn that spreads like a gigantic tulip to full width of 25".