The History of Music Recording

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Believe it or not, it was only 130 years ago when the music recording industry got its start. In 1878 Thomas Edison invented a machine called the phonograph that could record sound. He had originally planned on using it to relay telegraph messages and for automated speech via the telephone. He had already invented a year and a half before.

Technically, Edison had figured out that the needle could prick a paper tape and record a message, which led to a stylus on a tinfoil cylinder which played back the short message he recorded -- "Mary had a little lamb." In reality, the phonograph machine was a tinfoil wrapped cylinder on which sound vibrations could be engraved and played back.

Many recordings were being produced by the 1900s by musicians worldwide. The recording industry became a really serious business by 1910 for anyone who had money. For the next 90 years, recording, editing and distribution of music was available only to folks who had money. The reason is that people could not afford expensive studios with recording equipment.

But by the late 1980s people began experimenting with digital audio processing, and sound vibrations were converted to binary words by computers,so by the 1990s greater bit depths became available. Audio could be better represented digitally, but it took computers with high processing power, and this was still expensive.

Nowadays, the personal computer has become accessible and less expensive, so memory and fast processing speeds that are needed for digital audio are available on almost every computer. Sound cards and audio interfaces have also become cheaper to use. There is software such as Digeaper Design, Garage Band, Reason, Logic Pro, Garage Band, and Audacity. Programs for digital audio recording are now available for free so almost anyone can play around with recording.

For many artists, Pro Tools software is the favorite go-to tool. More and more students who are interested in a career in the music recording industry already have experience with audio recording on their home computers.

What's more, students have started to realize that there are mentor courses where they can learn from pros in the business. Reasonably priced at around $7,450, students get a classroom that is a real recording studio in the town or city where they live. The courses actually train people for a job in the music recording industry; jobs like recording engineer, music producer or mixer. Mentor programs include hands-on lab drills in the actual local recording studio where training is conducted by a mentor.