The Science of Sound Recording

CHAPTER EIGHT

Analog Recorders

Contents

Magnetism

The Physics of Magnetic Recording

The Interaction of Head and Tape

Sources of Noise

Noise Reduction Systems

Tape Recorders

Recorder Alignment

Suggested Reading

Sound recording has taken many forms as technological developments have created new and improved ways of storing information. The first sound recording used smoked paper and a stylus to record sound, but no way of playing back the sound existed until recently. The earliest practical attempts to capture and reproduce sound used mechanical methods, such as Edison’s machines, which connected a large horn to a tiny stylus that traced grooves in a rotating cylinder. Optical systems have long been used for film sound, but analog optical systems ...