Recording Audio

A Little History:


Recording techniques, ie the skills, techniques and associated recording technologies have been evolving since Edison first patented his 'sound recording & reproducing phonograph' in 1878.

Edison first developed recording using tin foil which quickly evolved to the use of wax cylinders which could be commercially exploited.

The development of recording techniques and the recording studio as we know it today really started at the end of the 2nd World War when magnetic tape, which had been invented and developed secretly by the Germans from 1928, first made it's appearance in America in 1947 courtesy of Jack Mullin.

Jack Mullin was an American soldier assigned to the the army signal corps, who by chance was given a couple of German made AEG suitcase tape recorders together with 50 reels of Farben tape on his way home to America. He instantly saw the potential of the recording medium as it offered high quality recordings which could be edited easily and used repeatedly, with little loss of quality. 


At a demonstration in Hollywood in 1947, Bing Crosby's technical director also saw the potential and brought Jack Mullin and his machines to the attention of Bing Crosby who for some time had been unhappy with the pressures of live radio. Such a system would give Bing the artistic and personal freedom to pre-record his shows, setting new standards in the broadcast medium.

He invested $50,000 in a fledgling company called Ampex who further developed the Jack Mullin customised AEG machines and released the Model 200 tape deck which went on to revolutionise recorded sound in the radio and record industries.


Les Paul, a popular musician of the time and early recording enthusiast was given one of the early Model 200 production models by Bing and he went on to develop multitrack recording.


When the Beatles came to record their recording studio masterpiece, Seargent Pepper in 1967 the studio, Abbey Road had just 4 separate tracks to record onto. They and George Martin achieved the multi layered techniques that have since become standard in the recording industry by 'bouncing' tracks. Multiple tracks would be recorded, pre-mixed and bounced to a new single track, thus freeing up the tracks already recorded.


Ampex first developed an 8 track recorder as early as 1957 but it was only in the latter part of the 60's with the experimentation of the Beatles and Beach Boys using multi track techniques that the recording industry embraced the need to use this technology and 16 track machines started to appear in major American studios from 1968 onwards.