Music Technology

             The advent of electrical technology has revolutionized rock and roll. Rock and roll was able to make its leap to the popular music of our country only through the innovations of new recording and midi technology. The slow evolution from wax cylinder recording to the elaborate studios of the day increased the capture of feeling and emotion with each step. Many look at rock and roll to be a transportation of feeling. The music is just a way of telling a story full of emotion. Soon recording an album had become more than just a group of songs but the album itself was a work of art. Before long technology had improved enough that it could assist in removing part of the physical requirements needed to play an instrument. One could hit a key on a keyboard and the note of the tympani would sound like thunder. A person did not have to be an expert on every instrument to be able to play sounds of those instruments. Not only did this aid in the ability to retrieve the sound the musician wanted but it also gave the musician a myriad of sounds they could never before create. Synthesizers and midi technology is now an integral part of all rock and roll that began in the middle of the seventies and continuing to present day. .
             The first instrument ever created that was capable of recording sound was a phonograph by Thomas A. Edison. Using a cylinder and strips of tin foil, the precursor of household aluminum foil, it was able to record sound by embedding the tin foil with grooves. It was had hand turned crank that rotated about 60 revolutions per minute. The major problem with this machine though was its playback rate. After a few times the sound impressions wore off or the foil itself would tear (Sage). This problem was remedied by the invention of a wax cylinder of standard size. It was a brittle brownish wax that could hold a groove for a longer time period than the strips of tin. These were the only way of hearing a recorded piece of music until 1909 when the familiar shape of phonograph disc became the preferred way of musical playback.