Category Archives: making a recording

Inventor of Stereo Sound Alan Dower Blumlein to be Honoured with Posthumous Grammy®

Pioneering British Engineer and Inventor of Stereo, Alan Dower Blumlein to be Posthumously Honoured with the Recording Academy® Technical Grammy® Award The ground-breaking work of British engineer Alan Dower Blumlein, inventor of stereo sound recording, is to be posthumously honoured by The Recording Academy® with the Technical Grammy® award at a special ceremony to be heldContinue reading “Inventor of Stereo Sound Alan Dower Blumlein to be Honoured with Posthumous Grammy®”

50th Anniversary of the Moog Modular Synthesizer

October 12, 2014 marks the 50 Year anniversary of the unveiling of the Moog modular synthesizer at the Audio Engineering Society’s (AES) New York convention. On that day in 1964, Dr. Robert Moog introduced the world to a completely new type of instrument that would go on to change the course of music history andContinue reading “50th Anniversary of the Moog Modular Synthesizer”

Mystery Object # 3 Answer

Full points to Rob, Andy and Russell who deftly identified last weeks Mystery Object of the Week as an early Tin Foil Phonograph. Object: Modified Tin Foil Phonograph Maker Archibald H.Irvine, 1877 This is a rare hand-driven modified Edison tin foil phonograph on a heavy mahogany base with mahogany trunnions and speaker/reproducer mounts (one withContinue reading “Mystery Object # 3 Answer”

Century of Spinning Plastic Discs

By Wayne Shevlin Opening salvo of the 21st century: announcing the end of the copy economy – sunset on the century of spinning plastic discs. Viktor Vasnetsov – Grave-digger (1848 modified by WS) – Public Domain    The Byrds once advised aspiring rock n’ roll stars: “Sell your soul to the company, who are waiting thereContinue reading “Century of Spinning Plastic Discs”

A Whisper That Roars

By Wayne Shevlin I’d like to celebrate the microphone and the revolutionary impact it has had on music. As technology, the microphone is a marvel: converting into electricity the invisible, minute air pressure waves – what we in our mind’s ear perceive as sound – so that the very essence of sound can be capturedContinue reading “A Whisper That Roars”

Daphne Oram’s 1960’s Optical Synthesizer Oramics Machine – Electronic Music Pioneer

In the early ’60s, pioneering British composer Daphne Oram set out to create a synthesizer unlike any other, she called it the Oramics machine Commissioned by The Science Museum, London. Directed, Produced, Filmed and Edited by Nick Street and Jen Fearnley. Science Museum Oramics to Electronica: Revealing Histories of Electronic Music  Until Saturday 01 DecemberContinue reading “Daphne Oram’s 1960’s Optical Synthesizer Oramics Machine – Electronic Music Pioneer”

The New Sound Of Music 1979

The New Sound of Music is a fascinating BBC historical documentary from the year 1979. It charts the development of recorded music from the first barrel organs, pianolas, the phonograph, the magnetic tape recorder and onto the concepts of musique concrete and electronic music development with voltage-controlled oscillators making up the analogue synthesizers of theContinue reading “The New Sound Of Music 1979”

The oldest-known EMI recording desk

By Brain Kehew This mixer is the oldest-known EMI recording desk in existence. It was a bespoke design made for Abbey Road studios (then called the EMI Recording Studios Ltd.) When the studio complex was young, there was very little commercially-made studio equipment; so studios built their own. This desk is an early example ofContinue reading “The oldest-known EMI recording desk”