The Art of Sound Recording

Sound recording has become a staple in everyday society. It is easy to overlook the complexity and advancement in this technology when it is so readily available to us. However, when you look at the details of sound recording, it actually encompasses a rich history starting in the nineteenth and a strong modern concentration on computer technologies.

The History

Sound recording was first developed in 1857 by a man named Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. He essentially created a model of the inside of the human ear with a stylus that traced the audio frequency variations in air pressure onto a piece of paper covered in soot. This was only to be a visual representation of sound but it wasn’t long until Thomas Edison perfected the phonograph which etched grooves (different depths in the grooves for different frequencies) into a cylinder and was able playback the sound. This evolved into the gramophone, patented by Emile Berliner in 1887. His device used the vinyl record we are accustomed to seeing instead of a cylinder and instead of recording various depths, it etched into the disc horizontally, along the width of a disc. Electronic recording came around in 1925. This technique allowed the use of microphones and over-dubbing (recording a track on a disc, playing back that track so the performer can play with it and recording that on a second disc). This is when official studio recording was born. Then came magnetic recording. This process uses a magnetic material (such as the tape part of a cassette). Electric signals are sent from the sound and the signals magnify the tape in certain ways so as to emulate the sound made. This technology is what was used for cassette tapes.

Jumping ahead, digital recording first planted its roots in 1979. This type of recording used a technique called pulse-code modulation (PCM). In PCM , the amplitude of the analog signal is taken regularly at equal intervals, and each sample is rounded to the nearest value within a range of digital steps. This is where the CD, and eventually the mp3, come into play. This technique allows digitalization of music and when the mp3 technology was developed in the late 1990’s, it took over the audio recording scene.

The Process

When understanding digital sound, it is important to first understand what is being recorded. Below is the analog representation of someone saying “hello”. It represents the position of the microphone’s diaphragm (altered by the changes in pressure due to the produced sound) along the y-axis, as it progresses through time, x- axis.

The ultimate goal of digital recording is to create a record with high fidelity, similarity between the original and duplicate sound, and perfect reproduction, meaning the recording sounds the same every time it is played. To do this, the wave is converted into numbers, much like a high level programming code is converted to machine language. When playback is required, the numbers are converted back into the analog representation, amplified, and sent through the speakers to produce the sound. As long as the numbers don’t become corrupted, the sound will always remain the same, thus producing the most efficient and effective way of recording.

 

For more information:

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/analog-digital.htm

http://ohda.matrix.msu.edu/2012/06/digital-audio-recording/

http://cool.conservation-us.org/byorg/abbey/an/an23/an23-2/an23-202.html

Disney World’s Newest Wish Granting Technology: MyMagic+

A recent trip to Orlando’s Walt Disney World has seriously sparked my techie interest. This is due to the new MyMagic+ technology, th1.1 BILLION dollar project that Disney world has been working on over the past five years. This project uses a MyMagic wristband as a universal medium for your entire Disney experience. The wristband acts as a park ticket, a hotel key, a FastPass, an optional credit card, and a collector of personal information.

These wrist bands use RFID (radio frequency identification) technology, the same technology used for the Florida SunPass system. The RFID tag is a technology that is replacing the tedious UPC codes that are used for scanning your products at the grocery store. These RFID tags are essentially intelligent barcodes that can communicate with an electronic reader that then gets transferred to a network. (more info here)

In terms of Disney’s usage of this, you simply put your wristband up to the reader, scan your finger print, and POOF! In true Disney magic fashion, you are quickly admitted into the park. In addition to this convenient entrance technique, you can also book your FastPasses (basically a “jump to the front of the line” pass) in advance and plan your trip accordingly. This helps visitors avoid the “where do I go next” hassle of a theme park that is dictated by which ride has the longest line and ultimately provides for a more enjoyable experience.

Most advanced about this new Disney method is the new information gathering that the wrist bands provide. The wristbands also contain Bluetooth technology. This technology interacts with certain hot-spot areas of the park. If an area is reading that too many people (each read by wearing a wristband) are in one area of the park, popular costume characters will move to a less concentrated area, thus dispersing the large crowds into more equal sections. Additionally, there is an option to add personal information to the wristband for a Disney park worker to scan. So not only can your put your credit card onto the band and not have to worry about carrying around a wallet or purse, you now have the option of your daughter’s favorite Disney princess to come up to her, greet her by name, and wish her a happy birthday; this all plays in to the “magical” experience of Disney.

There is some skepticism of the potential hacking of the system. The fact that valuable information such as credit cards can be stored on the band, creates the fear of hackers scanning your band with a smart phone and stealing the information. Disney has addressed this with the added precaution of requiring a pin for any transaction over $50, however, a bit more reassurance in terms of security would be greatly appreciated and has so far not been announced. The MyMagic+ project is currently in a beta testing stage and being offered to annual pass holders and resort stayers. It is being very well received by the public and seems to be the newest way to attend a theme park. As this technology becomes more common it will most likely become more present in everyday life.

Read More:

http://www.technobuffalo.com/videos/disney-mymagic-wristbands-first-look-d23-expo/

Well, writing…

“Well, writing novels is incredibly simple: an author sits down…and writes.

Granted, most writers I know are a bit strange.

Some, downright weird.

But then again, you’d have to be.

To spend hundreds and hundreds of hours sitting in front of a computer screen staring at lines of information is pretty tedious. More like a computer programmer. And no matter how cool the Matrix made looking at code seem, computer programmers are even weirder than authors.”
– Christopher Hopper