Originally developed to store and play only
sounds recordings but was later adapted for
data storage (CD-ROM) and other purposes
In 1982 Sony
and Phillips
launch the CD
player
In 1988 CD sales
exceed LP sales for
the first time
Standard CDs
can hold up to
80 minutes of
uncompressed
audio or about
700MiB of data
When it was first introduced
the CD had greater capacity
than a typical personal
computer hard drive.
Read by a laser
They are susceptible to
damage during handling and
environmental exposure
The digital data on a CD starts at the
disc centre and proceeds towards
the edge, allowing adaptation to
different size formats
Recordable
CDs are
usable at
home, widely
available and
able to record
audio at
higher speeds
than real-time
Red book (standards)
Used for media
in general
Evolved into DVD
(Digital Versatile
Disc) for storage
DAT
Digital Audio Tape or R-DAT
A signal recording and playback
medium developed by Sony in 1987
An analogue tape format,
which allowed musicians
to record digitally
Technology had first
been used in the 1960s
for recording video
Digital tape recorder
with rotating heads
Usually records at a rate of 44.1kHz
(the CD standard) and 48kHz.
Particularly
good for
mastering
Favoured in studios,
particularly for final
mixes in the 80-90s
although today it's
been superseded by
hard disc recording
ADAT utilised highly available VHS
tapes, which was a cost-effective
multi-track solution
Particles of ferric oxide coated on polyester
strips are arranged in a random pattern until
they receive a magnetic signal from the
recording head of a tape recorder.
If the signal is musical the particles
become organised into more
regular patterns that can be read
and played back as an analogue
copy of the original sound.
An erase head is situated
ahead of the
record/playback head to
facilitate further
recording if required or
remove unwanted
magnetic signals before
recording takes place
Record and playback heads used
to be separate, which created a
slight delay but once they became
united the possibility of monitoring
the original take and recording a
new one on another parallel track
led to multi-tracking.
New textures could be produced
The wider the tape,
the faster it ran,
the higher the quality of reproduction,
which offered less background
hiss, a better high frequency
response and fewer dropouts
(audible glitches created by flaws
in the magnetic tape).
Later chromium oxide
Commercial inch tape was
the widest available format
Minidisc
A compact
data storage
medium
Highly
portable
64mm
across
Used a rewritable
magneto-optical material
During recording a laser beam heated
the magnetic material, which changed
its characteristics. An electromagnet
could read these changes.
Comes in 2 varieties:
playback only and recordable
Introduced
by Sony in
late 1992
Skips ahead so it can read
the data earlier to prevent
the listener from hearing any
buffering delays
Offers less
physical storage
than a CD - around
177MB compared
to 650MB
Could still store 74 minutes
approx of digital music encoded
in a compressed format
Sony had to use ATRAC (their audio
compression format) so some
sound was lost like in MP3.
Digital
recording
RAM (Random
Access Memory)
An area in a computer's circuits
where info is held temporarily.
Data can be
accessed in any
order but is lost
when the system
is powered down
Replaced hardware multitrack recorders because of the non-destructive editing bonus
Portable digital recorders are gradually
being superseded by laptop computers
for location recordings of concerts
Encoding of analogue signals into binary language,
which computers and chip-based technology can
understand, has revolutionised the industry
Computing
capability and
memory has
become
increasingly
powerful with
silicon chips
that contain
hundreds
(1960s) and
then billions of
transistors
Software has developed. Digital
audio recording has moved from
specialised equipment to easily
installed software packages
Windows and Mac
computers are the market
leaders with software
dividing into scoring
packages (Sibelius, Finale) to
complete virtual studios
(Cubase, Logic, Reason)
Equipment for audio capture has
become cheaper and more capable
Due to increased computing
power of faster processors and
larger RAM, recordings of CD
quality and above can be carried
out on laptops instead of only in
professional studios
70s and 80s
Portable hard disc recorders emerged
Due to developments in
audio compression, digital
music transfers are normal
iPods and mobile phones
can reproduce music at
an acceptable quality
Clubs are increasingly catering for digital DJing formats