Comments on: Illustrated Histories of Various Recording Technologies

Illustrated Histories of Various Recording Technologies

carter — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:25:29 -0800

Illustrated Histories of Various Recording Technologies

By: joseph_elmhurst

joseph_elmhurst — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:30:59 -0800

It's nice to see my boy Bing get some credit for his innovations.

By: Bathtub Bobsled

Bathtub Bobsled — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:45:19 -0800

Here's one they're missing

By: loquacious

loquacious — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:53:14 -0800

Oh yes I like this post. Just today I was reflecting on the awesomeness of recording technology over the years. I found a rare/homebrew tape in a pile of them next to a boombox. I got a hankering to rip it to mp3. I pulled out my little cheap but awesome flash based player, which has a line in and patch cable. Pop in the tape, stick the patch cable in the headphone jack, hit play and record, and 60 minutes later I have a decent digital recording of a mostly dead media. So awesome. It could be any number of things that I could record it on that way. I could archive a gramaphone or wax cylinder through the mic, or off any FM signal from the built in radio. The damn thing is nearly the size of a zippo, and weighs less. Heck, I think it might cost less than a fancy Zippo. It sure is smaller than a Compact Cassette tape, or a CD case. Oh, hell no I don't miss carrying around a portable cassette player and huge box of tapes.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:01:40 -0800

Bing Crosby - 1600 hit songs?

By: quin

quin — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:02:46 -0800

I love my MiniDisc player/ recorder. I never use it anymore, but man did I ever embrace the hell out of that technology. It fit perfectly between cassettes and MP3s for me; I didn't have a CD burner for years, and even after I did get one, my MiniDisc player was a fraction of the size of a portable CD player. It was awesome. I still have it, in fact, just in case I need to do some high(ish) end recording.

By: joseph_elmhurst

joseph_elmhurst — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:07:52 -0800

yhbc - 1600 recordings, not hits. 500 million units sold.

By: saulgoodman

saulgoodman — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:14:14 -0800

this post rocks. can't wait to explore in more depth. thanks!

By: saulgoodman

saulgoodman — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:26:05 -0800

actually, now that i've had a chance to peruse a little more, i'm noticing there's not a whole lot of detail about the rise of affordable home studio technology (like consumer grade cassette tape or reel-to-reel four-trackers and eight-trackers, like the antares eight-track machine popular with early indie bands like american analog set, etc.)--since a lot of the early development of indie rock was fueled by the easy availability of cheap analog multi-track recorders, it'd be nice to see a little more about the development of those technologies, unless it's there somewhere already and i just overlooked it. still, good stuff.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:59:06 -0800

An excellent compliment to this old chesnut , thanks carter.

By: peacay

peacay — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:24:19 -0800

Great post as always thanks carter. Tangentially, I was just looking through the Victor Animatograph collection.

By: IndigoJones

IndigoJones — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:16:29 -0800

No mention of the RCA videodisc (though it did say something about a cassette? Others will know more than I).

By: Wolof

Wolof — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:59:30 -0800

Faved.

By: owhydididoit

owhydididoit — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:07:48 -0800

Fascinating.