Recording and Voice Processing, Volume 1

1Recording History

Before approaching the voice and all the tools that will capture, process, modify, mix and even embellish it, before putting it on a medium that everyone will be able to listen to, I think it is necessary that you discover the eventful history of sound recording from its beginnings until today.

1.1. In the beginning was the phonautograph

In 1857, the Frenchman Edouard Léon Scott de Martinville¹, a typographer, invented the “phonautograph”, a device that records the voice. His machine consists of a membrane with a stylus, placed at the end of an acoustic horn. The stylus records the vibrations received by the membrane on a cylinder coated with black smoke.

Sound was recorded but the question of how to read the recordings still remained; half of the work was thus carried out. E. de Martinville nevertheless filed a patent for this invention on March 25, 1857. He improved his invention the following year by associating with the manufacturer Rudolf Koenig.

The phonautograph received the support of many scientists, but unfortunately not of the financiers with whose money he could have used to market his device. Ruined by his research, which he continued, he died in 1879 forgotten by all.

Figure 1.1. The phonautograph. For a color version of this figure, see www.iste.co.uk/reveillac/recording.zip

1.2. When it really started

On April 18, 1877, the Frenchman Charles ...