Callum Halls

18 February 2016

How has technology changed

musical production?
My chosen special subject is how technology has improved or worsened music
production throughout the past 100 years.
Throughout the 1900s, the use of phonographs were in full swing, having been
invented and manufactured just 13 years prior. A phonograph was a type of machine that
would use a stylus to trace grooves imprinted within at first, a sheet of metal, but as time
advanced the sheet of metal was turned into a disc, also known as a record. The
phonograph was the first piece of technology that was able to recreate music. When
recording music, the positioning of the musicians and their instruments in response to the
location of the phonograph was essential. Vocalists were normally placed in front of the
cone which captured the sound waves. This was to make sure that the vocals were not
drowned out by any of the other instruments. Instruments were then positioned as to their
loudness when played. From there, the sound waves produced by the instruments and vocals
were guided into the phonograph through a cone. From here, the sound waves were
processed onto a piece of foil using a stylus to engrave the metal and a hand crank to turn
the foil. This was the earliest form of sound recording. Through time, improvements were
made to this device which introduced the invention of the record. Also known as a LP, or
long play, a record was made out of polyvinyl chloride. It was the next version of the tin foil
recording.
Due to the invention of the phonograph and the vinyl disc, there was a lot more ability
to playback recorded sounds, which meant that orchestral pieces and bands could be
recorded and played in a listeners home, for example. This changed the technical aspects of
the musical industry significantly due to the fact that people were now able to listen to pieces
of music in their own spaces, rather than having to visit a local theatre to hear
performances.

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Through 1901 to 1906, changes were made to the formats of the vinyl records. More
obviously, their specifications were changed in order to perform to more rigorously and for
longer. This allowed musical pieces to be longer. The phonograph as they knew it was
discontinued and a smaller, more compacted version was created called the Victrola for
people to use more easily in homes. The victrola was very successful and became the
number one product in its category.
Further on to 1916, the first condenser microphone was invented. Although there had
been a previous version which was a carbon microphone, which consisted of an electric
signal passing through two thin plates of metal which were parted by fragments of carbon.
Although this was the first breakthrough in audio recording, the carbon microphone was
soon replaced by the condenser microphone. The vibrations from the sound waves traveling
through the air would hit one of two plates. One plate was fixed, and would not move at all.
The second plate would be the closer of the two to the input, whether this be singing or
instruments. This plate is the one that would move, and the movement of this would be
caused by the vibrations of the sound waves travelling through the air. As time has
advanced, the components required to create a condenser microphone have been made
smaller which means that microphone can be half the size they used to be. All microphones
produced an electrical signal which would be transmitted through wiring to a source,
whether this was a mixing desk or straight into a recording device.
The first synthesiser, or electrical musical instrument, was created in 1876 when an
engineer, called Elisha Gray noticed a sound was created by a repeating electrical magnetic
circuit. He then created a loudspeaker to amplify the noise, which made the first synthesiser.
In 1933, the first FM radio was created. FM radio, also known as Frequency
Modulated radio, was more advanced than AM ( Amplitude Modulated ) radio as it had less
static and didnt need as much power to transmit signals to receivers. The FM radio was
popular and much needed, especially during the second world war when radio was the main
resource for communication.
Vinyl discs started to become less popular when companies Philips and Sony came up
with an idea for a compact disc, more formally known as the common CD. This was the
first project in its nature to incorporate optical and laser technology within one product.
The first testing of this new design of playback was the recording of an orchestral piece.
The use of this new technology outweighed the use of a phonograph due to the new

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flexibility in movement, ease of use as well as space saving features. The new CD was more
compact, and was able to be stored in CD cases which were ten times smaller than a
phonograph and the wooden casing it came with. The earliest portable CD player was the
Sony D-5 Discman. It was a rectangular box that supported a 3.5mm headphone port. It
was battery operated, either 6 C batteries or you could purchase a rechargeable battery
pack, and offered an optional strap for you to holster the device over your shoulder.
Following that, in the year of 1990, both digital audio and the invention of the world
wide web in 1991 created what is now known as the MP3 file, which stands for the Moving
Picture Experts Group 1, Layer 3. It can also sometimes be described as MPEG-1 however
MP3 is usually just audio and MPEG-1 has visuals attached, which is why sometimes the
audio in an MPEG-1 file has less quality than that of a standard MP3 file. Even though the
MP3 file has a high compression, the audio quality still remains to a high level and is able to
be distinctly known to not lose quality when being transferred between two sources.
After the MP3 was invented, the internet became a huge hit with music producers
wanting to stream their music globally across continents and across oceans. It was seen as a
way for producers to be seen and then with the possibility of being signed for a record label.
This became known as online music streaming. The first type of online music streaming
offered low quality streaming however it was still an advance and progress in the medium to
offer world wide communication between artists and record labels. One downside about the
internet is that it has made it very hard for musicians and artists to make a fair amount of
money from the sales of music as the general public are ripping, as in illegally downloading
from sites such as YouTube, the music off of the internet without paying fee. As much as the
internet promotes musicians and helps them be discovered, it is also has a very costly and
degrading downside.Many musicians have taken to playing live to retrieve the money that
was lost. However, the ability for a user to download one song from an album on iTunes is
trying to curb that, and allows more money to go to the relevant companies.

2003 bought about Apples iTunes, a multi platform technology that allowed you to
purchase music online through an application to download on multiple devices. Through
the way that iDevices work, it meant that many people could enjoy the music without the
need for online piracy or illegal downloads. Before iTunes, the main way of downloading
music on to a device was to illegally retrieve it from websites. Steve Jobs, creator of iTunes,
signed deals with 5 record companies to allow all paying users to listen to the record labels

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music, produced by individual artists, which offered a legal, paying way for the public to
listen to music which in turn supported the artists and their labels.
5 years onwards and Spotify was launched. 2008 bought about online streaming, but to
a next level. Users were able to browse through millions of songs and albums of their choice,
with the ability to provide income for the record label and their respective artists by doing so.
Spotify pays out 70% to the record labels and keeps 30% to further improve their services.
Spotify further upped their game by introducing Spotify Premium, a feature that allowed
users to pay a set price per month to be able to use Spotify without cellular connection to the
internet, whether it was through WiFi or using data. The set amount of money per month
also removed advertisements which spotify uses to gain revenue to pay record labels. With 95
million users in July 2015, 20 million being paid premium members, the technology used in
Spotify and online streaming progressed beyond its expectancy. Spotify has attracted many
users to upload their own music, which, like iTunes has allowed musicians world wide to
collaborate and get signed by record labels.
Logic is a piece of software on the Macintosh computers that allows users to create
music using software instruments, real life instruments and audio tracks from recordings. It
was created in 2007 by Apple. It uses a whole range of loops, track effects and software
instruments, to allow the user to make their own music in the comfort of their own home on a
computer or laptop.
Software instruments on Logic allow the user to create music using instruments they do
not have to hand, for example, a musician may want to create an orchestral piece without the
instruments to use to record using a microphone. This allows more flexibility to create musical
pieces. Software instruments have been vastly improved and progressed with patches and
updates to the software, whereby more have been added and the prior instruments sound
more better.
The software instruments are the closest thing to sounding like a real instrument.
Updates to Logic come free but you are able to purchase plugins and pay for more
instrumental downloads to add on to the creativity you are able to have. The basic package
however contain enough to create a musical piece. The basic package comes with bass
instruments, pianos and keyboards, orchestral instruments, synthesisers as well as drum kits.

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Alongside this, you have audio files that allow you to adjust the audio files to sound as
instrumental as possible. For example, if you record a bass kick on a microphone, you are able
to adjust the audio file to have the equalisation and reverb to the appropriate sound levels, to
name a few.
With the introduction of MIDI, or Musical Instrument Digital Interface, being a way of
home musicians having the ability to record keys into music production softwares, such as
Logic Pro X or Fruitloops for Windows computers. MIDI is a way of transferring information
such as length of note, how hard you press the note down, the location of the note in the first
place and so forward. MIDI keyboards are cheaper than synthesisers and are able to be
connected to computers now using USB, where as before, musicians required a MIDI input
which would cost sometimes more money than the actual MIDI keyboard itself.
The invention of television and the media increased the ability for musicians to promote
world wide as well as expand their fan base. When a popular musician or band made a song,
they would usually create a musical video to go along with it, to serve for the music being
played on a box television. When televised music videos is said, the most common response is
MTV. MTV, also known before as Music TeleVision, which distributed music videos across
America. When live television was introduced, MTV updated their channels and technology
and allowed live streams of DJ's playing sets. The promotion that musicians gained from their
music being played on MTV was enough to set their career in motion. However, you had to
be very popular and very good at creating music to be featured on MTV, which was why it is
seen as a prestigious title to be aired.
Social Media has also been very well used by musicians to promote their music. Sites
like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are, to name a few, some of the best a musician can use
to share their music and connect with likeminded people, who share the same interests. It is
also a great place for fans, as the diversity and ability to connect with those who enjoy the
music being created. Many musicians will have at least one social network to connect with
other musicians as well as their fans, and as social media has grown through the usage of
internet, more people have joined the sites increasing the likelihood of an unsigned singer
being spotted by a producer or a record label or a band being able to collaborate with an
artist across oceans.

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Percentage of teens that

listen for two hours a day
on a phone / tablet

In my personal studies, I found out that 71% of teenagers aged

13-19 listen to music on a phone or tablet device on a daily basis,
being at least 2 hours per day. From this, I gathered more
information about how they listen to music, and 86% of
those surveyed said they use an application rather than
importing tracks from a CD. This goes to show about how
technology is advancing in our own generation so much so
that many children born today will not use CD's or vinyls
as they did a few decades ago and will rely heavily on the
internet being the means of purchasing, downloading and

listening to music, whilst phones and tablet

devices become more advanced in the way
they project sound.
Only 4 out of 10 people of the 30 teens
I surveyed knew what a vinyl record player
was when I showed them an image of it.
I asked some friends and family

Opinion on music in 10 years

members about how they believe the technology has changed from their time to now, and
how they believe the technology will have changed music in 10 years time. Many said that the
technology will improve the way we percieve music. It will just get more advanced, more
styles will be created. All things said however I do believe the music will all have the same
principles and basics to them as well as "Everything will just become more electronic, kinda
boring and kinda bland and lastly, I think there will be some people trying to do acoustic
things but mainly just electronic, which is a shame really, so it goes to show that teenagers do
care about the
In conclusion, technology has vastly improved musicians abilities to create music
throughout the past one hundred years, with new inventions to aid recording and the creation
of musical software that is used on computers. The spaces needed to be able to present music
to an audience do not have to be as huge as before, with full drum kits and orchestras being

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presented through software instrumentation. In my own opinion, I still believe that acoustic
versions of songs, where no synthesisers or electronic instruments are used, is still the best way
forward as nothing beats the old classics. Even though you have the flexibility of an electronic
instrument to adjust it to your specific genre or style of music, I think that acoustic vibes will
always be much more relaxing and stress relieving than that of a jumpy, hard bass coming
from an electronically created instrument using a MIDI input.

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