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Music Technology


It was through these horned Victrola record players that original recordings were made. During the turn of the century recording were done in room that contained a set up of about 10 or so Victrolas. The band would set up and play a song. All of the machines would record. Then the discs were replaced with blank ones and the process would be repeated. This slow procedure was the only way to mass record anything. Using this method one could "crank out" about ninety records and hour (Sage). .
             The next major break through was in 1925 when the microphone replaced the recording horn. "The energy of the sounds of the recording musicians were converted in the microphone to electric currents, which were amplified to drive the cutting stylus (Hoover pg. 81)". "A stylus tracing the wiggles exactly reproduces the motion of the diaphragm at the time the recording was made. Electricity is really incidental to the process, used as a convenient way to connect the microphone to the cutter and the pickup to the speaker (Elsea)". This made it possible for orchestras and musicians to record under more natural settings. They didn't have to direct their sound at the bell. The greatest advantage of the microphone was it allowed string instruments to be clearly heard. .
             The next huge improvement was tape recording. Analog tape itself is pretty simple in construction. It a long tape of plastic that is coated with iron oxide, a magnetic substance. The next piece of the tape is called a head. There are a number of heads used when recording with analog tape. There is a record head, an erase head, and a play head. "All three heads are essentially the same in construction: a C-shaped piece of metal with the very narrow gap of the "C" near the tape. A coil of wire around the metal can serve to either detect or produce magnetic fields at the gap. If a strong current is passed through the coil, a field is produced which creates a magnetic spot on the nearby tape.


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