Audio Timeline

Audio Timeline By: Odin Contreras 1878The first music song is put on record: cornetist Jules Levy plays "Yankee Doodle.

1888Thomas Edison introduces an electric motor-driven phonograph.

1898Valdemar Poulsen patents his "Telegraphone," recording magnetically on steel wire.

1906Lee DeForest makes the triode vacuum tube, the very first electronic signal amplifier.

1918William Gaisber recorded the sounds of World War. From the front lines he captured the sounds of artillery and exploding gas bombs bringing to light a new way of preserving history.

1923Henry Stroller and Harry Pfannenstiehl worked on synchronizing recorded sound with movie playback. This system used two electric motors one for the record player and one for the film projector. The sound was recorded onto 16 inch discs called platers.

1926

DON JUAN was the first sound-on-disc movie released by the Vitaphone corporation. The Vitaphone corporation had been formed by the Warner Bros. and Western Electric companies. Synchronizing the sound and film still proved difficult.

1932A much improved method of cutting the grooves into records was invented by Bell Labs.

1941Recording of sound was used to break secret codes, record telephone messages from spies, and record intercepted enemy communications during World War II. Wire recorders were used because they were much more durable. This increased interest to improve wire recorders. 1953Prerecorded stereo magnetic tapes were now available. Stereo tape recordings were the first stereo sound used in the home.

1964The first tape cassette player available in the U.S. was a portable model made by the Norelco Company, the Carry Corder.

1971The new Ray Dolby system now greatly reduced unwanted background sound on the cassette tape

1977Record companies now offered their prerecorded music on both cassette tape and disc.

1979Philips was working on a digital audio disc playback system, DAD. Working with Philips, Sony developed an improved method of encoding digital sound. The PCM chip was also used. Their combined work led to the creation of the CD. 1982The commercial sale of the new standard CD was introduced. 1983Fiber-optic cable is used for long-distance digital audio transmission, linking New York and Washington, D.C. 1984Dolby introduces the "SR" Spectral Recording system. 1990ISDN telephone links are offered for high-end studio use. 1991Ampex introduces 499 mastering tape.1992The Philips DCC and Sony's MiniDisc, using digital audio data-reduction, are offered to consumers as record/play hardware and software. 1993In the first extensive use of "distance recording" via ISDN, producer Phil Ramone records the "Duets" album with Frank Sinatra. 1994Yamaha unveils the ProMix 01, the first "affordable" digital multitrack console1995The first "solid-state" audio recorder, the Nagra ARES-C, is introduced. It is a battery-operated field unit recording on PCMCIA cards using MPEG-2 audio compression.1996Record labels begin to add multimedia files to new releases, calling them "enhanced CDs." Creditshttp://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/audio.history.timeline.html

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