FUTURE OF RECORDING

OLIVER MASCAROTTE – OMAZ

RICHARD HADESTY

ERIC STENMAN

ANDY HONG – The guy who recorded Karate!!!

Presentation

I emailed Andy, and he very very kindly forwarded me a text copy of his powerpoint presentation 'Looking at the past and predicting (requesting) the future of recording', which I was too slow to take everything down.  I really dug his idea of looking into the past at dudes who were thinking up of the mechanisms of computers, long before the technology existed to actually create a computer. 

In these days where, arguably, technology has passed us out, or at least we can't keep up, a similar genius plant deserves watering, i.e. that of, 'This technology can take me to all these places, I've no excuses any more.  Let's fucking go there!' 

Bla bla.  Anyway, here's Andy's great great presentation (which looked better on the big screen).

Looking at the Past and
Predicting (Requesting) the Future

 Andy Hong

Kimchee Records

Overview

               History

•    Computing

•    Recording Technology

               The Obvious Prediction

               Requests

Charles Babbage kicked ass early on

1822         Develops machine to solve polynomial equations

1823         Presents paper describing Difference Engine

•    In subsequent years builds working models

•    First digital calculator (Other devices worked by measurement, the DE worked by counting)

1833         Hypothesizes Analytical Engine

•    Universal calculating machine w/ configurable internal mechanisms that could be "programmed" to perform different calculations

•    Central unit called a Mill that had a 50-digit accumulator

•    Punch-card input system copied from French weaving machines

•    Years later, Babbage's son builds a working model

Pals o’ Charles from the 19th Century

               Lady Lovelace

•    Not to be confused with Linda Lovelace

•    Maiden name = Ada Byron, daughter of Lord Byron

•    Theorizes subroutines, procedures, code libraries, and loops (structures that make up modern programming languages)

               George Boole

•    Invents binary (boolean) algebra

•    Demonstrates that simple equations can be described as true or false

Early 20th Century

1906         Thaddeus Cahill's Telharmonium

•    1897 patent for an "electrically based sound generation system"

•    60 ft long, 200 tons

1924         Theremin

•    Played continuous range of pitches by changing frequency of electronic oscillators

1925      First electrically recorded discs

•    Instead of acoustically

1928         George Neumann starts his company

•    First mic = CMV3 Neumann Bottle

1928         Magnetic tape patent awarded to Dr. Fritz Pfleumer

1931      First magnetic tape recorders

Early 20th Century

1936      Alan Turing’s paper:
"The Turing machine: On Computable Numbers"

•    Standardized instruction set to describe any particular algorithm mechanically

•    Symbols representing instructions instead of symbols representing numbers

1937      Alec H. Reeves invents Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)

1939      John V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry build ABC (Atanasoff-Berry-Computer)

•    The first electronic computer with a drum storage device (capacitors)

•    Binary

•    Two drums, each storing 30 50-bit numbers

WWII

1945         ENIAC -
Electronic Numerical Integrator
and Calculator

•    Designed to calculate ballistic tragectories

•    The first problem run on the machine in Dec 1945 was a calculation for the hydrogen bomb

•    100 feet long, 10 feet high, 3 feet deep, 30 tons, 17,000 tubes, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, and 6,000 hand-set switches

•    The lights of nearby Philadelphia dimmed when it was turned on

Post War

1945      First computer bug discovered

•    Moth stuck in relays of the Harvard Mark II computer

1947         Germanium transistor first demonstrated privately at Bell Labs

1948         IBM's Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator on display to public

•    25 ft x 40 ft, 20,000 relays, 12,500 vacuum tubes

•    50 multiplications per sec

•    In the early 1950's, SSEC produced moon-trajectory tables used for 1969 Apollo

Post War

1948         Pierre Schaeffer of French National Radio

•    Began producing and performing with taped natural sounds that he manipulated

•    Tape reversal, splicing, overdubbing

1948         Herbert Eimert and Werner Mayer-Epper of the West German Radio Corporation

•    Used discrete oscillators, noise generators, ring modulators, and filters to create all-electronic music

1950’s

1951         UNIVAC is the first computer to feature
a magnetic tape storage system

•    UNIVAC 1 delivered to the US Census Bureau

•    46 eventually sold

•    Size: 943 cubic ft

•    Speed: 1905 operations/sec

•    Memory: 1000 12-digit words stored in delay lines

•    Cost: $750,000 plus $185,000 for printer

1950’s

1952         Raytheon starts mass-producing
the transistor

•    First commercial product w/ transistors = the hearing aid

1955      Bell Labs TRADIC

•    First fully transistorized computer

•    3 cubic ft

1956      IBM ships 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control)

•    First hard disk

•    Capacity of 5 MB across 50 24'' platters

1950’s

1957      Max Mathews develops MUSIC at Bell Labs

•    First software program to generate and manipulate sound

1958         Advent of stereo LP’s

1959      RCA Mark I and Mark II

•    Analog synthesizers developed at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center with US Govt funding

1960’s

1962      MIT's Lincoln Labs develops LINC

•    First real-time data laboratory processing computer

•    Capable of sampling data and processing it while the experiment progressed

•    First real-time sampler

1962      First use of PCM in telephone transmission

•    8 kHz sampling rate

1962         SpaceWar! developed by MIT students

•    First interactive video game

•    DEC PDP-1 with joysticks, vector graphics (on a scope)

1962      First digital audio tape recordings made by Tom Stockham at MIT

•    TX-0 computer

1960’s

1963         Compact Cassette tape introduced by Philips

1963         Mellotron introduced

•    Tape-loop sample playback

1960’s

1964      IBM SABRE flight reservation system for AA

•    First networked, online transaction system

•    Linked 2000 terminals in 65 cities

•    Pair of IBM 7090 computers

1964         Cray's CDC 6600

•    Fastest computer to date

•    3 million operations/sec

1968         Switched on Bach by Wendy Carlos

•    Performed on a modified Moog.

1969         American Data Sciences develops audio digital delay

•    100 ms of delay

•    In 1971 changes name to Lexicon

1970’s

1970         Arpanet connects UCSB, UCLA, SRI, Univ of Utah

1971         Kenbak-1 = first personal computer

•    Switches for input, lights for output

•    256 Byte memory

•    $750

1971      Intel 4004 = first microprocessor

•    4-bit processor w/ 2,250 transistors

•    60,000 operations/sec

1971      IBM invents 8-in floppy

•    Easily transfer data between computers

1971         MiniMoog = first compact monosynth

1970’s

1972         Steve Wozniak builds the "blue box" for hacking telephones

1972         Pong and Atari are born

1973         Micral = first microprocessor-based personal computer (Intel 8008)

1974         Xerox Alto = first computer with a mouse and windows/menu/icon interface

1975         Synclavier introduced

1970’s

1976         Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs
build the Apple I computer in a garage

1976      Cray I supercomputer

•    166 MFLOPS running at 83 MHz

•    5,300 lbs

1976         IRCAM opens under the direction of Pierre Boulez, funded by the French government.

1976      First 16-bit digital recording made in the US

•    Using handmade Soundstream recorder developed by Thomas Stockham

1970’s

1977         Commodore PET

1977         Apple II

1977         Radio Shack Tandy TRS-80

•    $599.95

•    4KB of RAM

•    Monochrome display - all uppercase characters

•    Z80 microprocessor

1970’s

1978      Sony introduces the PCM-1

•    First consumer digital recorder

•    14-bit resolution

•    BetaMax tape

1979         Fairlight CMI

•    New era of sampling

•    Pen-based waveform editing tool

1979         Synclavier gets sampling capability along with FM synthesis

1980’s

1980         Seagate introduces first microcomputer
hard drive

•    5 MB

1981      IBM PC

•    4.77 MHz Intel 8088

•    MS-DOS

1981         Osborne I = first portable computer

•    64KB RAM

•    Two 5 1/4'' floppy drives

•    5’’ screen

•    24 lbs

•    $1795

1981      Sony ships first 3 1/2'' floppy drive

1980’s

1982      Sony CDP-101 = first commercially available CD player

1980’s

1982         Commodore 64

•    Becomes the best selling computer to date (22,000,000 units thru 1983)

•    8-bit processor

•    64K RAM

•    SID (Sound Interface Device MOS6581) was the first audio chip made for a home computer

•    4-voice synthesizer on board

1980’s

1983         Apple Lisa

•    1 MB RAM

•    Dual 5 1/4'' floppy drives

•    12 inch screen

•    $10,000

•    Optional 5 MB HD

•    Copped Xerox

1983         Compaq = first PC clone

1980’s

1983         Introduction of MIDI at NAMM

1983         Yamaha DX-7

•    First standalone digital synthesizer

•    Introduced FM synthesis to the masses

1984         Macintosh

•    128 MB RAM

•    $2,500

•    WYSIWYG

1984      Sony D-5 = first portable CD player

1984         Synclavier gets multitrack recording capability

•    $20,000.

1980’s

1985         Yamaha REV7 stereo digital reverb

•    30 presets, 60 user programs, MIDI, 12 kHz reverb bandwidth, 3-band parametric EQ.

1985      HHB CLUE

•    System for editing digital audio recorded with Sony PCM-F1 and PCM-701

1985         Peter Gotcher and Evan Brooks start Digidesign

•    First product = 8-bit custom-burned ROM’s for Simmons drum pads

1985      CD-ROM standard from Sony and Philips.

1980’s

1986         Yamaha SPX-90 multi-effects processor

1986      Akai S900 12-bit rackmount sampler

1986         Ensoniq Mirage = first affordable keyboard sampler

1986      Sony and Philips give us the DAT

1980’s

1988      CD sales surpass LP sales

1988         Yamaha DMP7 = first affordable digital mixer

•    not sure on date (this is the first year I saw it)

1989         Digidesign Sound Accelerator (Sound Tools)

•    Sound Designer II

•    Sample editing tool becomes world’s first hard disk recorder on a personal computer

1989      Korg M1

•    King of workstations

•    Leads to demise of Yamaha's synthesizer division

1990’s

1990         Windows 3.0 introduced multitasking to MS-DOS

1990      Tim Berners-Lee develops HTML, URL, HTTP

1991         Alesis ADAT

•    Soon afterwards, Fletcher finds new calling as sculptor

1990’s

1995         Yamaha ProMix 01

1996         Yamaha 02R

1996         Roland VS880

1996      DVD in Japan (1997 US)

1997         MP3.com

1998      Pro Tools and Cubase go 24 bit

1998      IBM announces first 25 GB HD

1998         DVD-Audio Format 1.0 specification

1999         SACD

Y2K

2001         SidStation built around MOS6581 SID chip from Commodore 64

2002         Zoom PS-02 Palm Top Recording Studio

Cost of Magnetic Disk Storage

Cost of Semiconductor RAM

Multitrack Format

                        Year         Format

                        1963         Cassette 2-track

                        1983          Cassette 4-track

                        1993         Cassette 8-track

                        2003         Cassette 16-track

No Brainer Prediction

               Processor speed, amount of memory, storage capacity, and network bandwidth will increase faster than the needs dictated by our current recording methods.

No Brainer Prediction

               Processor speed, amount of memory, storage capacity, and network bandwidth will increase faster than the needs dictated by our current recording methods.

               Therefore, we have the opportunity to develop new ways of recording music.

Requests

READL - Record Everything All Day Long

•    Always in record mode

•    Hitting the “record button” marks in/out points for edit

Collaborative Editing

•    Multiple “terminals” into a single session

•    E.g. main engineer or producer does rough comps while tape op tweaks the crossfades and cleans up noise… even while artist is being recorded

RICHARD HARDESTY

“Andy, you’re killing me!”

(to be completed).