Meg Flavell Sound on! No recording studio? No worries! Plug your instrument into your iPhone and away you go! Sound on! Meg Flavell

1 Back when Steve Poltz started life in the The couldn’t actually play music industry, cassette tapes were the back sound though, and it wasn’t until weapon of choice, and if he wanted to 1877 when found a way to record music, studio time would need to record and playback sound by using two be booked and band members organised. needles on a tinfoil cylinders and thus, the Fast forward to 2018 and Poltz is still was born. The first song ever recording music, but now studio time is a recorded? Mary Had A Little Lamb. 2 maybe, not a necessity. As this troubadour Technology has advanced in leaps and trots across the globe, inspiration may strike bounds since 1877, and instead of needles at any time, whether in a suburban coffee and tinfoil cylinders, you can now record shop or miles up in a jumbo jet. Now, rather your next hit song in mere minutes from the 3 than wait to lay tracks in a recording studio, palm of your hand using an app such he just needs to pull his iPhone from his as GarageBand. back pocket and the studio is right there in 4 his hands. GarageBand started life on your desktop Mac before becoming available as an app The recording industry began it’s long on iPad and iPhones from 2011. and illustrious history back in 1857 when 5 Frenchman Leon Scott de Martinville GarageBand enables you to knock out invented a device that could record sound. impromptu jam sessions, all without 6 He patented this device on March 25, having to lug around expensive recording 1857 and called it the Phonautograph. The equipment. phonautograph worked by tracing sound No longer does a musician need to hire a How Edison’s phonograph worked: waves as deviations in a line traced on producer to record and mix their tracks, paper or glass that had been blackened by Sound goes in (1), making a diaphragm vibrate and push a now it’s as simple as plugging your needle (2) back and forth, cutting a groove into foil wrapped smoke (EMI Archive Trust, 2016). instrument into your iPhone and off you go! around cylinder (3) that is going around whilst a second needle (4) presses into the groove, bouncing up and down in the pattern. Another diaphragm and horn (5) amplifies the sounds, turning them back into sounds you can hear (6).

1 A method put to good use by Steve Poltz and his guitar track using GarageBand on when he’s on the road. He can record song his iPhone. (Genius, 2017) lyrics into Voice Memos when inspiration This track would go on to be nominated strikes or lay down the guitar track for his for a Grammy award. A track that was next song in GarageBand. “GarageBand is demoed on an iPhone whilst Lacy was so easy to use! Sometimes, it helps me try still in high school. different time signatures, and things I never would have thought of.” A method also used Even now that he has access to all the best to great effect by teenage music prodigy equipment and studios, Lacy still prefers his . guitar connected to GarageBand on his iPhone 6. Grammy Award nominated, teenage music producer Lacy has been using his In a time when most people prefer to smartphone as a personal studio since stream their music rather than purchase he first received an iPod Touch as a a it physically on CD, the future of this Christmas gift after coveting the MacBook recording method looks bright. Pro used by creatives. Now the next Steve Lacy could be sitting By 2015, Lacy joined the band The Internet at home in his bedroom, strumming a few for their album Ego Death. It was from here chords on his guitar whilst laying down that he began collaborating with Kendrick a drum track and some vocals and he’s Lamar. Lacy and Anna Wise were in the recorded his very first song. Something studio recording Lamar’s track PRIDE when that garage bands in the 80s could only the studio equipment malfunctioned. Lacy dream about! told Wise “Let me make a lick on my laptop, bounce it to my phone, and we’ll play this acoustic”. Lacy then recorded her vocals

References: Arndt, H. K., & Ewe, C. (2017). Analysis of Product Lifecycle Data to Determine the History of Recorded Music. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.emiarchivetrust.org/about/ Bonnington, C. (2011 November 1). Garageband for iPhone: First Hands-On Impressions. history-of-recording/. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/2011/11/garageband-iphone-hands-on/. The History of Recorded Music. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.timetoast.com/ Fu, E. (2017 December 28). Steve Lacy explains how he produces Grammy-nominated timelines/51727. songs on his iPhone. Retrieved from https://genius.com/a/steve-lacy-explains-how-he- Pierce, D. (2017 April 14). The hot new hip-hop producer who does everything on his iPhone. produces-grammy-nominated-songs-on-his-iphone. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/2017/04/steve-lacy-iphone-producer/. 2 History of sound recording 1878 1900 1902 1925 1963 2004 Thomas Edison perfects the Valdemar Poulsen Mass production Microphones used by all Philips develop the compact audio GarageBand announced at the Macworld phonograph. Expanding on records the voice of recorded major record labels in studio cassette. The first to combine Conference & Expo. Featuring digital audio the principles of Scott de of Emperor Franz music begins sessions after success convenience of a tape recording that recording and virtual instruments,GarageBand Martinville, Edison can now Josef of Austria at when processes of electrical recordings. didn’t require manual threading. offered a taste of professional music software in a record and playback sound. the World Fair for successful Acoustic recordings could friendly style for beginners. His first recording? in Paris. This is mouldings of not compare to the clear Mary Had A Little Lamb. widely believed cylinder recordings tones of electrical recording. 1964 2005 to be the oldest are developed. GarageBand introduces multi-track recording. 1928 1948 • Vinyl records become the worldwide 1877 surviving magnetic industry standard. audio recording. Fritz Pfleumer All the 2006 Thomas Edison invents 1904 • First portable cassette player develops major labels GarageBand introduces mid-track first machine that could made available to the public in the introduce tempo changes. becomes the first US, made by the Norelco Company. record and playback sound, in Germany for vinyl superstar of the the Phonograph. sound recording. records. recording industry. 2007 The magnetic 1965 iPhone is released and GarageBand introduces 1857 1898 tapes would James Russell begins development 24 bit recording and multiple takes on one track. Édouard-Léon Scott de Valdemar become widely 1917 of the . Sony and Martinville invents the Poulsen develops used over the First Philips get credit for this in 1981 when 2015 Phonautograph in Paris. a magnetic next decade. recordings Philips started manufacture of discs for Steve Lacy records and produces an recorder that can Almost all studios are made. commercial use. entire track for release on his iPhone 6. record on steel adopt this new wire, tape or discs. technology. 1857 1925 1945 1975 2050 1886 1920 2002 and First electrical recordings Apple purchase Emagic, Gerhard Lengeling improve the made by scientists at the Bell 1940 becomes senior director of software phonograph cylinder under the Laboratories. The first recording Multi track recording developed. Les Paul, engineering (music applications) at Apple. guidance of Alexander Graham made public was of the funeral guitarist, composer and technician experiments Bell at his Volta Labaratory. service for the Unknown with multi track recording, leading to the 2001 They develop wax cylinders and Soldier at Westminster Abbey. development of 4 and 8 track recording. By First Apple iPod was released. create a new form of recording The microphones that were the 1960s all the major studios had adopted this sound, the . used were like those used in technique. The Beatles and Rolling Stones were 1999 contemporary telephones. the first to have 4 track records. Walt Disney’s First portable MP3 players appear Fantasia was the first commercial appearance in the market. 1887 1888 of a four track record on film, producing sound Emile Berliner invents the is borne that we now know as surround sound. Gramophone. Using discs imprinted out of Volta Labaratory and the 1989 with grooves on the flat side of a disc, recording industry begins! 1934 MP3 created. Fraunhofer receives a German 2050 rather than the outside of a cylinder as it 1931 Lacquer coated discs are introduced, making patent for the creation of MP3s. What is had been done previously. Alan Blumlein develops recording audio possible for broadcasting and home the future binaural sound (what we use. These discs would be used well into the 70s when 1988 of sound know as stereo sound) at EMI. it would be replaced by magnetic tape recording. Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) was made. recording?

Acoustic Era Electrical Era Magnetic Era Digital Era 1877 to 1925 1925 to 1945 1945 to 1975 1975 to present day

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