IT HASN'T ALWAYS BEEN SO EASY - Brief history of audio recorders part 1

Only the multi-track tape recorder enabled meaningful audio editing. Multi-track tape recorders were introduced into the world (courtesy of a company called Ampex in the 1950s). Editing could be done after the recording sessions (kind of copy and paste style with tape), which was very time-consuming work.

Digitalisation started in the 60s with small experiments. However, it was 1981 when CD was introduced to the world. Still digital audio was recorded on tapes (e.g. systems like DASH by Sony and TASCAM).

Still the recording and editing were done with tapes, now as digital signal on the tapes instead of analog signal. One can imagine what kind of 'logistical nightmares' some 70s progressive productions were...

Clear advantages of digital audio (in 80s) were:

• overall noise level was lower
• when adding several tracks all together -> noise level raised less
• quality of the sound remained same (independently of how many times sound was copied & edited)
• consisted sound without classic "wows & wobblings" with analog recordings, which were caused by fluctuations of the tape's speed.

To be continued. Stay tuned!