178-417: Digital music technology encompasses the use of digital instruments to produce, perform or record music . These instruments vary, including computers , electronic effects units , software , and digital audio equipment. Digital music technology is used in performance , playback, recording, composition , mixing , analysis and editing of music, by professions in all parts of the music industry . In
356-398: A Stroh violin which uses a conical horn connected to a diaphragm that in turn is connected to the violin bridge. The horn was no longer needed once electrical recording was developed. The long-playing 33 1 ⁄ 3 rpm microgroove LP record , was developed at Columbia Records and introduced in 1948. The short-playing but convenient 7-inch (18 cm) 45 rpm microgroove vinyl single
534-512: A microphone was used to convert the sound into an electrical signal that was amplified and used to actuate the recording stylus. This innovation eliminated the "horn sound" resonances characteristic of the acoustical process, produced clearer and more full-bodied recordings by greatly extending the useful range of audio frequencies, and allowed previously unrecordable distant and feeble sounds to be captured. During this time, several radio-related developments in electronics converged to revolutionize
712-452: A piano or flute being played), and replay it when a key or pad on a controller device (e.g., an electronic keyboard , electronic drum pad, etc.) is pressed or triggered. Samplers can alter the sound using various audio effects and audio processing. Sampling has its roots in France with the sound experiments carried out by musique concrète practitioners. In the 1980s, when the technology
890-678: A sound track . The projector used a steady light and a photodetector to convert these variations back into an electrical signal, which was amplified and sent to loudspeakers behind the screen. Optical sound became the standard motion picture audio system throughout the world and remains so for theatrical release prints despite attempts in the 1950s to substitute magnetic soundtracks. Currently, all release prints on 35 mm movie film include an analog optical soundtrack, usually stereo with Dolby SR noise reduction. In addition, an optically recorded digital soundtrack in Dolby Digital or Sony SDDS form
1068-469: A Brahms Serenade, and the last movement of Bruckner's 8th Symphony with Von Karajan. Other early German stereophonic tapes are believed to have been destroyed in bombings. Not until Ampex introduced the first commercial two-track tape recorders in the late 1940s did stereo tape recording become commercially feasible. Despite the availability of multitrack tape, stereo did not become the standard system for commercial music recording for some years, and remained
1246-504: A MIDI sequencer. Reduced prices in personal computers caused the masses to turn away from the more expensive workstations . Advancements in technology have increased the speed of hardware processing and the capacity of memory units. Powerful programs for sequencing, recording, notating, and mastering music. At the NAMM Show of 1983 in Los Angeles, MIDI was released. A demonstration at
1424-407: A coating of soot as the paper was passed under it. An 1860 phonautogram of " Au Clair de la Lune ", a French folk song, was played back as sound for the first time in 2008 by scanning it and using software to convert the undulating line, which graphically encoded the sound, into a corresponding digital audio file. Thomas Edison's work on two other innovations, the telegraph and the telephone, led to
1602-485: A condenser type developed there in 1916 and greatly improved in 1922, and the best amplifiers and test equipment. They had already patented an electromechanical recorder in 1918, and in the early 1920s, they decided to intensively apply their hardware and expertise to developing two state-of-the-art systems for electronically recording and reproducing sound: one that employed conventional discs and another that recorded optically on motion picture film. Their engineers pioneered
1780-402: A few crude telephone-based recording devices with no means of amplification, such as the telegraphone , it remained so until the 1920s. Between the invention of the phonograph in 1877 and the first commercial digital recordings in the early 1970s, arguably the most important milestone in the history of sound recording was the introduction of what was then called electrical recording , in which
1958-416: A form of additive synthesis via subharmonics (used by Mixtur-Trautonium ), and granular synthesis , sample-based synthesis based on grains of sound, generally resulting in soundscapes or clouds . In the 2010s, synthesizers are used in many genres of pop , rock and dance music . Contemporary classical music composers from the 20th and 21st century write compositions for synthesizer. A drum machine
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#17328515749402136-501: A given meter. Syncopated rhythms contradict those conventions by accenting unexpected parts of the beat. Playing simultaneous rhythms in more than one time signature is called polyrhythm . In recent years, rhythm and meter have become an important area of research among music scholars. The most highly cited of these recent scholars are Maury Yeston , Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff , Jonathan Kramer , and Justin London. A melody
2314-572: A great deal of money when they first appeared. They ranged from $ 25,000 to $ 200,000. The two most popular were the Fairlight , and the Synclavier . It was not until the advent of MIDI that general-purpose computers started to play a role in music production. Following the widespread adoption of MIDI, computer-based MIDI editors and sequencers were developed. MIDI-to- CV/Gate converters were then used to enable analogue synthesizers to be controlled by
2492-646: A greater or lesser degree. Context and many other aspects can affect apparent dissonance and consonance. For example, in a Debussy prelude, a major second may sound stable and consonant, while the same interval may sound dissonant in a Bach fugue. In the Common practice era , the perfect fourth is considered dissonant when not supported by a lower third or fifth. Since the early 20th century, Arnold Schoenberg 's concept of "emancipated" dissonance, in which traditionally dissonant intervals can be treated as "higher," more remote consonances, has become more widely accepted. Rhythm
2670-503: A high level of complexity and sophistication. The combined impact with innovations such as the endless loop broadcast cartridge led to significant changes in the pacing and production style of radio program content and advertising. In 1881, it was noted during experiments in transmitting sound from the Paris Opera that it was possible to follow the movement of singers on the stage if earpieces connected to different microphones were held to
2848-717: A live performance. Modern sound libraries allow musicians to have the ability to use the sounds of almost any instrument in their productions. Early samplers include the 12-bit Toshiba LMD-649 [ ja ] in 1981. The first affordable sampler in Japan was the Ensoniq Mirage in 1984. Also the AKAI S612 became available in 1985, retailed for US$ 895. Other companies soon released affordable samplers, including Oberheim DPX-1 in 1987, and more by Korg , Casio , Yamaha , and Roland . Some important hardware samplers in Japan include
3026-575: A major consumer audio format and advances in electronic and mechanical miniaturization led to the development of the Sony Walkman , a pocket-sized cassette player introduced in 1979. The Walkman was the first personal music player and it gave a major boost to sales of prerecorded cassettes. A key advance in audio fidelity came with the Dolby A noise reduction system, invented by Ray Dolby and introduced into professional recording studios in 1966. It suppressed
3204-743: A master roll which had been created on a special piano, which punched holes in the master as a live performer played the song. Thus, the roll represented a recording of the actual performance of an individual, not just the more common method of punching the master roll through transcription of the sheet music. This technology to record a live performance onto a piano roll was not developed until 1904. Piano rolls were in continuous mass production from 1896 to 2008. A 1908 U.S. Supreme Court copyright case noted that, in 1902 alone, there were between 70,000 and 75,000 player pianos manufactured, and between 1,000,000 and 1,500,000 piano rolls produced. The first device that could record actual sounds as they passed through
3382-442: A method in which sound was synthesized via computer on the distant end rather than transmitted. Matthews was an amateur violinist, and during a conversation with his superior, John Pierce at Bell Labs, Pierce posed the idea of synthesizing music through a computer. Since Matthews had already synthesized speech, he agreed and wrote a series of programs known as MUSIC. MUSIC consisted of two files: an orchestra file containing data telling
3560-554: A much larger proportion of people to hear famous orchestras, operas, singers and bands, because even if a person could not afford to hear the live concert, they may be able to hear the recording. The availability of sound recording thus helped to spread musical styles to new regions, countries and continents. The cultural influence went in a number of directions. Sound recordings enabled Western music lovers to hear actual recordings of Asian, Middle Eastern and African groups and performers, increasing awareness of non-Western musical styles. At
3738-718: A particular composition. During the Baroque period, emotional associations with specific keys, known as the doctrine of the affections , were an important topic in music theory, but the unique tonal colorings of keys that gave rise to that doctrine were largely erased with the adoption of equal temperament. However, many musicians continue to feel that certain keys are more appropriate to certain emotions than others. Indian classical music theory continues to strongly associate keys with emotional states, times of day, and other extra-musical concepts and notably, does not employ equal temperament. Consonance and dissonance are subjective qualities of
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#17328515749403916-488: A pipe, he found its sound agreeable and named it huangzhong , the "Yellow Bell." He then heard phoenixes singing. The male and female phoenix each sang six tones. Ling Lun cut his bamboo pipes to match the pitches of the phoenixes, producing twelve pitch pipes in two sets: six from the male phoenix and six from the female: these were called the lülü or later the shierlü . Apart from technical and structural aspects, ancient Chinese music theory also discusses topics such as
4094-688: A rapid expansion of the sales and production of electronic instruments and music software. In 1985, several of the top keyboard manufacturers created the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) . This newly founded association standardized the MIDI protocol by generating and disseminating all the documents about it. With the development of the MIDI File Format Specification by Opcode , every music software company's MIDI sequencer software could read and write each other's files. Since
4272-402: A result, each performance of a song or piece would be slightly different. With the development of analog sound recording, though, a performance could be permanently fixed, in all of its elements: pitch, rhythm, timbre, ornaments and expression. This meant that many more elements of a performance would be captured and disseminated to other listeners. The development of sound recording also enabled
4450-512: A revival of vinyl in the music industry, as well as analog electronics, and analog type plug-ins for recording and mixing software. Music theory Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music . The Oxford Companion to Music describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the " rudiments ", that are needed to understand music notation ( key signatures , time signatures , and rhythmic notation );
4628-512: A science of sounds". One must deduce that music theory exists in all musical cultures of the world. Music theory is often concerned with abstract musical aspects such as tuning and tonal systems, scales , consonance and dissonance , and rhythmic relationships. There is also a body of theory concerning practical aspects, such as the creation or the performance of music, orchestration , ornamentation , improvisation, and electronic sound production. A person who researches or teaches music theory
4806-501: A specialist market during the 1950s. EMI (UK) was the first company to release commercial stereophonic tapes. They issued their first Stereosonic tape in 1954. Others quickly followed, under the His Master's Voice (HMV) and Columbia labels. 161 Stereosonic tapes were released, mostly classical music or lyric recordings. RCA imported these tapes into the USA. Although some HMV tapes released in
4984-458: A stereo soundtrack was Walt Disney's Fantasia , released in 1940. The 1941 release of Fantasia used the Fantasound sound system. This system used a separate film for the sound, synchronized with the film carrying the picture. The sound film had four double-width optical soundtracks, three for left, center, and right audio—and a fourth as a "control" track with three recorded tones that controlled
5162-522: A student's core requirements for a music degree. Mobile and desktop applications are available to aid the study of music theory and ear training . Some digital pianos provide interactive lessons and games using the built-in features of the instrument to teach music fundamentals. Classic analog synthesizers include the Moog Minimoog , ARP Odyssey , Yamaha CS-80 , Korg MS-20 , Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 , Roland TB-303 , Roland Alpha Juno . One of
5340-779: A surging or "pushed" attack, or fortepiano ( fp ) for a loud attack with a sudden decrease to a soft level. The full span of these markings usually range from a nearly inaudible pianissississimo ( pppp ) to a loud-as-possible fortissississimo ( ffff ). Greater extremes of pppppp and fffff and nuances such as p+ or più piano are sometimes found. Other systems of indicating volume are also used in both notation and analysis: dB (decibels), numerical scales, colored or different sized notes, words in languages other than Italian, and symbols such as those for progressively increasing volume ( crescendo ) or decreasing volume ( diminuendo or decrescendo ), often called " hairpins " when indicated with diverging or converging lines as shown in
5518-405: A synthesizer. Meanwhile, at Bell Laboratories, Max Matthews worked with researchers Kelly and Lochbaum to develop a model of the vocal tract to study how its prosperities contributed to speech generation. Using the model of the vocal tract, Matthews used linear predictive coding (LPC) —a method in which a computer estimates the formants and spectral content of each word based on information about
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5696-463: A theoretical nature, mainly lists of intervals and tunings . The scholar Sam Mirelman reports that the earliest of these texts dates from before 1500 BCE, a millennium earlier than surviving evidence from any other culture of comparable musical thought. Further, "All the Mesopotamian texts [about music] are united by the use of a terminology for music that, according to the approximate dating of
5874-552: A timeline and edited on a flat-panel display of a computer . Recorded segments can be copied and duplicated ad infinitum, without any loss of fidelity or added noise (a major contrast from analog recording , in which every copy leads to a loss of fidelity and added noise). Digital music can be edited and processed using a multitude of audio effects. Contemporary classical music sometimes uses computer-generated sounds—either pre-recorded or generated and manipulated live—in conjunction or juxtaposed on classical acoustic instruments like
6052-457: A tone comprises. Timbre is principally determined by two things: (1) the relative balance of overtones produced by a given instrument due its construction (e.g. shape, material), and (2) the envelope of the sound (including changes in the overtone structure over time). Timbre varies widely between different instruments, voices, and to lesser degree, between instruments of the same type due to variations in their construction, and significantly,
6230-678: A tradition of other treatises, which are cited regularly just as scholarly writing cites earlier research. In modern academia, music theory is a subfield of musicology , the wider study of musical cultures and history. Guido Adler , however, in one of the texts that founded musicology in the late 19th century, wrote that "the science of music originated at the same time as the art of sounds". , where "the science of music" ( Musikwissenschaft ) obviously meant "music theory". Adler added that music only could exist when one began measuring pitches and comparing them to each other. He concluded that "all people for which one can speak of an art of sounds also have
6408-469: A variety of materials including mild steel, thorn, and even sapphire. Discs had a distinctly limited playing life that varied depending on how they were manufactured. Earlier, purely acoustic methods of recording had limited sensitivity and frequency range. Mid-frequency range notes could be recorded, but very low and very high frequencies could not. Instruments such as the violin were difficult to transfer to disc. One technique to deal with this involved using
6586-669: A variety of other input devices, including music sequencers , instrument controllers , fingerboards , guitar synthesizers , wind controllers , and electronic drums . Synthesizers without built-in controllers are often called sound modules , and are controlled using a controller device. Synthesizers use various methods to generate a signal. Among the most popular waveform synthesis techniques are subtractive synthesis , additive synthesis , wavetable synthesis , frequency modulation synthesis , phase distortion synthesis , physical modeling synthesis and sample-based synthesis . Other less common synthesis types include subharmonic synthesis ,
6764-429: A variety of techniques from remixing to pseudostereo . Magnetic tape transformed the recording industry. By the early 1950s, most commercial recordings were mastered on tape instead of recorded directly to disc. Tape facilitated a degree of manipulation in the recording process that was impractical with mixes and multiple generations of directly recorded discs. An early example is Les Paul 's 1951 recording of How High
6942-471: A wide frequency range and high audio quality are not. The development of analog sound recording in the nineteenth century and its widespread use throughout the twentieth century had a huge impact on the development of music. Before analog sound recording was invented, most music was as a live performance. Throughout the medieval , Renaissance , Baroque , Classical , and through much of the Romantic music era ,
7120-550: A worldwide standard for higher-quality recording on vinyl records. The Ernest Ansermet recording of Igor Stravinsky 's Petrushka was key in the development of full frequency range records and alerting the listening public to high fidelity in 1946. Until the mid-1960s, record companies mixed and released most popular music in monophonic sound. From mid-1960s until the early 1970s, major recordings were commonly released in both mono and stereo. Recordings originally released only in mono have been rerendered and released in stereo using
7298-474: Is amplified and connected to a loudspeaker to produce sound. Long before sound was first recorded, music was recorded—first by written music notation , then also by mechanical devices (e.g., wind-up music boxes , in which a mechanism turns a spindle, which plucks metal tines, thus reproducing a melody ). Automatic music reproduction traces back as far as the 9th century, when the Banū Mūsā brothers invented
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7476-399: Is a balance between "tense" and "relaxed" moments. Timbre, sometimes called "color", or "tone color," is the principal phenomenon that allows us to distinguish one instrument from another when both play at the same pitch and volume, a quality of a voice or instrument often described in terms like bright, dull, shrill, etc. It is of considerable interest in music theory, especially because it
7654-410: Is a group of musical sounds in agreeable succession or arrangement. Because melody is such a prominent aspect in so much music, its construction and other qualities are a primary interest of music theory. The basic elements of melody are pitch, duration, rhythm, and tempo. The tones of a melody are usually drawn from pitch systems such as scales or modes . Melody may consist, to increasing degree, of
7832-789: Is a music theorist. University study, typically to the MA or PhD level, is required to teach as a tenure-track music theorist in a US or Canadian university. Methods of analysis include mathematics, graphic analysis, and especially analysis enabled by western music notation. Comparative, descriptive, statistical, and other methods are also used. Music theory textbooks , especially in the United States of America, often include elements of musical acoustics , considerations of musical notation , and techniques of tonal composition ( harmony and counterpoint ), among other topics. Several surviving Sumerian and Akkadian clay tablets include musical information of
8010-411: Is achieved by a microphone diaphragm that senses changes in atmospheric pressure caused by acoustic sound waves and records them as a mechanical representation of the sound waves on a medium such as a phonograph record (in which a stylus cuts grooves on a record). In magnetic tape recording, the sound waves vibrate the microphone diaphragm and are converted into a varying electric current , which
8188-535: Is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums , cymbals , other percussion instruments , and often basslines . Drum machines either play back prerecorded samples of drums and cymbals or synthesized re-creations of drum/cymbal sounds in a rhythm and tempo that is programmed by a musician. Drum machines are most commonly associated with electronic dance music genres such as house music , but are also used in many other genres. They are also used when session drummers are not available or if
8366-425: Is an electronic musical instrument that generates electric signals that are converted to sound through instrument amplifiers and loudspeakers or headphones . Synthesizers may either imitate existing sounds (instruments, vocal, natural sounds, etc.), or generate new electronic timbres or sounds that did not exist before. They are often played with an electronic musical keyboard , but they can be controlled via
8544-453: Is an additional chord member that creates a relatively dissonant interval in relation to the bass. It is part of a chord, but is not one of the chord tones (1 3 5 7). Typically, in the classical common practice period a dissonant chord (chord with tension) "resolves" to a consonant chord. Harmonization usually sounds pleasant to the ear when there is a balance between the consonant and dissonant sounds. In simple words, that occurs when there
8722-402: Is called an interval . The most basic interval is the unison , which is simply two notes of the same pitch. The octave interval is two pitches that are either double or half the frequency of one another. The unique characteristics of octaves gave rise to the concept of pitch class : pitches of the same letter name that occur in different octaves may be grouped into a single "class" by ignoring
8900-464: Is common in folk music and blues . Non-Western cultures often use scales that do not correspond with an equally divided twelve-tone division of the octave. For example, classical Ottoman , Persian , Indian and Arabic musical systems often make use of multiples of quarter tones (half the size of a semitone, as the name indicates), for instance in 'neutral' seconds (three quarter tones) or 'neutral' thirds (seven quarter tones)—they do not normally use
9078-587: Is derived from the Greek music scale, and that Arabic music is connected to certain features of Arabic culture, such as astrology. Music is composed of aural phenomena; "music theory" considers how those phenomena apply in music. Music theory considers melody, rhythm, counterpoint, harmony, form, tonal systems, scales, tuning, intervals, consonance, dissonance, durational proportions, the acoustics of pitch systems, composition, performance, orchestration, ornamentation, improvisation, electronic sound production, etc. Pitch
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#17328515749409256-399: Is frequently concerned with describing how musicians and composers make music, including tuning systems and composition methods among other topics. Because of the ever-expanding conception of what constitutes music , a more inclusive definition could be the consideration of any sonic phenomena, including silence. This is not an absolute guideline, however; for example, the study of "music" in
9434-461: Is heard. Other examples of generative music technology include the use of sensors connected to computer and artificial intelligence to generate music based on captured data, such as environmental factors, the movements of dancers, or physical inputs from a digital device such as a mouse or game controller. Software applications offering capabilities for generative and interactive music include SuperCollider, MaxMSP/Jitter, and Processing. Interactive music
9612-417: Is likely to be present. An optically recorded timecode is also commonly included to synchronize CDROMs that contain a DTS soundtrack. This period also saw several other historic developments including the introduction of the first practical magnetic sound recording system, the magnetic wire recorder , which was based on the work of Danish inventor Valdemar Poulsen . Magnetic wire recorders were effective, but
9790-501: Is made possible through physical computing, where the data from the physical world affects a computer's output and vice versa. Sound recording Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical , mechanical , electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music , or sound effects . The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording . Acoustic analog recording
9968-419: Is often referred to as "separated" or "detached" rather than having a defined or numbered amount by which to reduce the notated duration. Violin players use a variety of techniques to perform different qualities of staccato. The manner in which a performer decides to execute a given articulation is usually based on the context of the piece or phrase, but many articulation symbols and verbal instructions depend on
10146-427: Is one component of music that has as yet, no standardized nomenclature. It has been called "... the psychoacoustician's multidimensional waste-basket category for everything that cannot be labeled pitch or loudness," but can be accurately described and analyzed by Fourier analysis and other methods because it results from the combination of all sound frequencies , attack and release envelopes, and other qualities that
10324-521: Is produced by the sequential arrangement of sounds and silences in time. Meter measures music in regular pulse groupings, called measures or bars . The time signature or meter signature specifies how many beats are in a measure, and which value of written note is counted or felt as a single beat. Through increased stress, or variations in duration or articulation, particular tones may be accented. There are conventions in most musical traditions for regular and hierarchical accentuation of beats to reinforce
10502-421: Is responsible for some of the first digital music technology in the 1950s. Mathews also pioneered a cornerstone of music technology; analog-to-digital conversion . At Bell Laboratories, Matthews conducted research to improve the telecommunications quality for long-distance phone calls. Owing to long-distance and low-bandwidth, audio quality over phone calls across the United States was poor. Thus, Matthews devised
10680-449: Is the history of vocal synthesis. Prior to Max Matthews synthesizing speech with a computer, analog devices were used to recreate speech. In the 1930s, an engineer named Holmer Dudley invented the VODER (Voice Operated Demonstrator), an electro-mechanical device which generated a sawtooth wave and white-noise. Various parts of the frequency spectrum of the waveforms could be filtered to generate
10858-554: Is the lowness or highness of a tone , for example the difference between middle C and a higher C. The frequency of the sound waves producing a pitch can be measured precisely, but the perception of pitch is more complex because single notes from natural sources are usually a complex mix of many frequencies. Accordingly, theorists often describe pitch as a subjective sensation rather than an objective measurement of sound. Specific frequencies are often assigned letter names. Today most orchestras assign concert A (the A above middle C on
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#173285157494011036-422: Is then converted to a varying magnetic field by an electromagnet , which makes a representation of the sound as magnetized areas on a plastic tape with a magnetic coating on it. Analog sound reproduction is the reverse process, with a larger loudspeaker diaphragm causing changes to atmospheric pressure to form acoustic sound waves. Digital recording and reproduction converts the analog sound signal picked up by
11214-473: The Quadrivium liberal arts university curriculum, that was common in medieval Europe , was an abstract system of proportions that was carefully studied at a distance from actual musical practice. But this medieval discipline became the basis for tuning systems in later centuries and is generally included in modern scholarship on the history of music theory. Music theory as a practical discipline encompasses
11392-557: The Akai Z4/Z8 , Roland V-Synth, Casio FZ-1 . MIDI has been the musical instrument industry standard interface since the 1980s through to the present day. It dates back to June 1981, when Roland Corporation founder Ikutaro Kakehashi proposed the concept of standardization between different manufacturers' instruments as well as computers, to Oberheim Electronics founder Tom Oberheim and Sequential Circuits president Dave Smith . In October 1981, Kakehashi, Oberheim and Smith discussed
11570-558: The Chladni patterns produced by sound in stone representations, although this theory has not been conclusively proved. In the 14th century, a mechanical bell-ringer controlled by a rotating cylinder was introduced in Flanders . Similar designs appeared in barrel organs (15th century), musical clocks (1598), barrel pianos (1805), and music boxes ( c. 1800 ). A music box is an automatic musical instrument that produces sounds by
11748-570: The Emulator II (released in 1984), listed for $ 8,000. Samplers were released during this period with high price tags, such as the K2000 and K2500 . Some important hardware samplers include the Kurzweil K250 , Akai MPC60 , Ensoniq Mirage , Ensoniq ASR-10 , Akai S1000 , E-mu Emulator , and Fairlight CMI . One of the biggest uses of sampling technology was by hip-hop music DJs and performers in
11926-536: The compact disc (CD) in 1982 brought significant improvements in the quality and durability of recordings. The CD initiated another massive wave of change in the consumer music industry, with vinyl records effectively relegated to a small niche market by the mid-1990s. The record industry fiercely resisted the introduction of digital systems, fearing wholesale piracy on a medium able to produce perfect copies of original released recordings. The most recent and revolutionary developments have been in digital recording, with
12104-452: The graphic equalizer , which could be connected together to create a complete home sound system. These developments were rapidly taken up by major Japanese electronics companies, which soon flooded the world market with relatively affordable, high-quality transistorized audio components. By the 1980s, corporations like Sony had become world leaders in the music recording and playback industry. The advent of digital sound recording and later
12282-572: The "horizontal" aspect. Counterpoint , which refers to the interweaving of melodic lines, and polyphony , which refers to the relationship of separate independent voices, is thus sometimes distinguished from harmony. In popular and jazz harmony , chords are named by their root plus various terms and characters indicating their qualities. For example, a lead sheet may indicate chords such as C major, D minor, and G dominant seventh. In many types of music, notably Baroque, Romantic, modern, and jazz, chords are often augmented with "tensions". A tension
12460-406: The 1920s, Phonofilm and other early motion picture sound systems employed optical recording technology, in which the audio signal was graphically recorded on photographic film. The amplitude variations comprising the signal were used to modulate a light source which was imaged onto the moving film through a narrow slit, allowing the signal to be photographed as variations in the density or width of
12638-459: The 1970s. In the 2000s, most professional recording studios use digital technologies. In recent years, many samplers have only included digital technology. This new generation of digital samplers are capable of reproducing and manipulating sounds. Digital sampling plays an integral part in some genres of music, such as hip-hop and trap. Advanced sample libraries have made complete performances of orchestral compositions possible that sound similar to
12816-427: The 1980s, personal computers developed and became the ideal system for utilizing the vast potential of MIDI . This has created a large consumer market for software such as MIDI-equipped electronic keyboards , MIDI sequencers and digital audio workstations . With universal MIDI protocols, electronic keyboards, sequencers, and drum machines can all be connected together. Coinciding with the history of computer music
12994-544: The 1980s, but in the 1960s the pre-recorded 8-track tape was launched as a consumer audio format by the Lear Jet aircraft company. Aimed particularly at the automotive market, they were the first practical, affordable car hi-fi systems, and could produce sound quality superior to that of the compact cassette. The smaller size and greater durability – augmented by the ability to create home-recorded music mixtapes since 8-track recorders were rare – saw
13172-406: The 1980s. Before affordable sampling technology was readily available, DJs would use a technique pioneered by Grandmaster Flash to manually repeat certain parts in a song by juggling between two separate turntables. This can be considered as an early precursor of sampling. In turn, this turntablism technique originates from Jamaican dub music in the 1960s and was introduced to American hip hop in
13350-610: The MUSIC now exists in the form of Csound . Later Max Matthews worked as an advisor to IRCAM (Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique; English: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) in the late 1980s. There, he taught Miller Puckette, a researcher. Puckette developed a program in which music could be programmed graphically. The program could transmit and receive MIDI messages to generate interactive music in real-time. Inspired by Matthews, Puckette named
13528-479: The Moon , on which Paul played eight overdubbed guitar tracks. In the 1960s Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys , Frank Zappa , and The Beatles (with producer George Martin ) were among the first popular artists to explore the possibilities of multitrack recording techniques and effects on their landmark albums Pet Sounds , Freak Out! , and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band . The next important innovation
13706-638: The Roland TR-8 and Korg Volca Beats. These instruments continue to influence contemporary music production and remain integral to the electronic music landscape worldwide. Sly and the Family Stone 's 1971 album There's a Riot Goin' On helped to popularize the sound of early drum machines, along with Timmy Thomas ' 1972 R&B hit " Why Can't We Live Together " and George McCrae 's 1974 disco hit " Rock Your Baby " which used early Roland rhythm machines. Early drum machines sounded drastically different than
13884-582: The USA cost up to $ 15, two-track stereophonic tapes were more successful in America during the second half of the 1950s. The history of stereo recording changed after the late 1957 introduction of the Westrex stereo phonograph disc , which used the groove format developed earlier by Blumlein. Decca Records in England came out with FFRR (Full Frequency Range Recording) in the 1940s, which became internationally accepted as
14062-651: The Western tradition. During the thirteenth century, a new rhythm system called mensural notation grew out of an earlier, more limited method of notating rhythms in terms of fixed repetitive patterns, the so-called rhythmic modes, which were developed in France around 1200. An early form of mensural notation was first described and codified in the treatise Ars cantus mensurabilis ("The art of measured chant") by Franco of Cologne (c. 1280). Mensural notation used different note shapes to specify different durations, allowing scribes to capture rhythms which varied instead of repeating
14240-941: The accessibility of digital music production tools and the rise of computer-based software synthesizers. Courses in music technology are offered at many different universities as part of degree programs focusing on performance, composition, music research at the undergraduate and graduate level. The study of music technology is usually concerned with the creative use of technology for creating new sounds, performing, recording , programming sequencers or other music-related electronic devices, and manipulating, mixing and reproducing music. Music technology programs train students for careers in "...sound engineering, computer music, audio-visual production and post-production, mastering, scoring for film and multimedia, audio for games , software development, and multimedia production." Those wishing to develop new music technologies often train to become an audio engineer working in research and development . Due to
14418-492: The additional benefit of being marginally louder than cylinders. Sales of the gramophone record overtook the cylinder ca. 1910, and by the end of World War I the disc had become the dominant commercial recording format. Edison, who was the main producer of cylinders, created the Edison Disc Record in an attempt to regain his market. The double-sided (nominally 78 rpm) shellac disc was the standard consumer music format from
14596-407: The air (but could not play them back—the purpose was only visual study) was the phonautograph , patented in 1857 by Parisian inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville . The earliest known recordings of the human voice are phonautograph recordings, called phonautograms , made in 1857. They consist of sheets of paper with sound-wave-modulated white lines created by a vibrating stylus that cut through
14774-489: The amount of data that can be stored on a single medium, such as Super Audio CD , DVD-A , Blu-ray Disc , and HD DVD became available, longer programs of higher quality fit onto a single disc. Sound files are readily downloaded from the Internet and other sources, and copied onto computers and digital audio players. Digital audio technology is now used in all areas of audio, from casual use of music files of moderate quality to
14952-417: The background of hiss, which was the only easily audible downside of mastering on tape instead of recording directly to disc. A competing system, dbx , invented by David Blackmer, also found success in professional audio. A simpler variant of Dolby's noise reduction system, known as Dolby B, greatly improved the sound of cassette tape recordings by reducing the especially high level of hiss that resulted from
15130-492: The basis of all electronic sound systems until the commercial introduction of the first transistor -based audio devices in the mid-1950s. During World War I, engineers in the United States and Great Britain worked on ways to record and reproduce, among other things, the sound of a German U-boat for training purposes. Acoustical recording methods of the time could not reproduce the sounds accurately. The earliest results were not promising. The first electrical recording issued to
15308-465: The capacity of memory units. Software developers write new, more powerful programs for sequencing, recording, notating, and mastering music. Digital audio workstation software, such as Pro Tools , Logic , and many others, have gained popularity among the vast array of contemporary music technology in recent years. Such programs allow the user to record acoustic sounds with a microphone or software instrument, which may then be layered and organized along
15486-454: The cassette become the dominant consumer format for portable audio devices in the 1970s and 1980s. There had been experiments with multi-channel sound for many years – usually for special musical or cultural events – but the first commercial application of the concept came in the early 1970s with the introduction of Quadraphonic sound. This spin-off development from multitrack recording used four tracks (instead of
15664-407: The cassette's miniaturized tape format. The compact cassette format also benefited from improvements to the tape itself as coatings with wider frequency responses and lower inherent noise were developed, often based on cobalt and chrome oxides as the magnetic material instead of the more usual iron oxide. The multitrack audio cartridge had been in wide use in the radio industry, from the late 1950s to
15842-516: The cello or violin. Music is scored with commercially available notation software. In addition to the digital audio workstations and music notation software, which facilitate the creation of fixed media (material that does not change each time it is performed), software facilitating interactive or generative music continues to emerge. Composition based on conditions or rules (algorithmic composition) has given rise to software which can automatically generate music based on input conditions or rules. Thus,
16020-470: The chord C major may be described as a triad of major quality built on the note C . Chords may also be classified by inversion , the order in which the notes are stacked. A series of chords is called a chord progression . Although any chord may in principle be followed by any other chord, certain patterns of chords have been accepted as establishing key in common-practice harmony . To describe this, chords are numbered, using Roman numerals (upward from
16198-447: The commercial recording, distribution, and sale of sound recordings became a growing new international industry, with the most popular titles selling millions of units by the early 1900s. A process for mass-producing duplicate wax cylinders by molding instead of engraving them was put into effect in 1901. The development of mass-production techniques enabled cylinder recordings to become a major new consumer item in industrial countries and
16376-484: The computer how to synthesize sound, and a score file instructing the program what notes to play using the instruments defined in the orchestra file. Matthews wrote five iterations of MUSIC, calling them MUSIC I-V respectively. Subsequently, as the program was adapted and expanded to run on various platforms, its name changed to reflect its new changes. This series of programs became known as the MUSIC-N paradigm. The concept of
16554-549: The concept with representatives from Yamaha , Korg and Kawai . In 1983, the MIDI standard was unveiled by Kakehashi and Smith. Some universally accepted varieties of MIDI software applications include music instruction software, MIDI sequencing software, music notation software, hard disk recording/editing software, patch editor/sound library software, computer-assisted composition software, and virtual instruments . Current developments in computer hardware and specialized software continue to expand MIDI applications. Following
16732-505: The controversy came to focus on concern for the perception of moving image and sound. There are individual and cultural preferences for either method. While approaches and opinions vary, some emphasize sound as paramount, others focus on technology preferences as the deciding factor. Analog fans might embrace limitations as strengths of the medium inherent in the compositional, editing, mixing, and listening phases. Digital advocates boast flexibility in similar processes. This debate fosters
16910-561: The convention showed two previously incompatible analog synthesizers , the Prophet 600 and Roland Jupiter-6 , communicating with each other, enabling a player to play one keyboard while getting the output from both of them. This was a massive breakthrough in the 1980s, as it allowed synths to be accurately layered in live shows and studio recordings. MIDI enables different electronic instruments and electronic music devices to communicate with each other and with computers. The advent of MIDI spurred
17088-453: The correct equipment, of the released music. It eventually faded out in the late 1970s, although this early venture paved the way for the eventual introduction of domestic surround sound systems in home theatre use, which gained popularity following the introduction of the DVD. The replacement of the relatively fragile vacuum tube by the smaller, rugged and efficient transistor also accelerated
17266-538: The cumbersome disc-to-disc editing procedures previously in some limited use, together with tape's consistently high audio quality finally convinced radio networks to routinely prerecord their entertainment programming, most of which had formerly been broadcast live. Also, for the first time, broadcasters, regulators and other interested parties were able to undertake comprehensive audio logging of each day's radio broadcasts. Innovations like multitracking and tape echo allowed radio programs and advertisements to be produced to
17444-407: The cylinder was the main consumer format from the late 1880s until around 1910. The next major technical development was the invention of the gramophone record , generally credited to Emile Berliner and patented in 1887, though others had demonstrated similar disk apparatus earlier, most notably Alexander Graham Bell in 1881. Discs were easier to manufacture, transport and store, and they had
17622-563: The development of the phonograph. Edison was working on a machine in 1877 that would transcribe telegraphic signals onto paper tape, which could then be transferred over the telegraph again and again. The phonograph was both in a cylinder and a disc form. On April 30, 1877, French poet, humorous writer and inventor Charles Cros submitted a sealed envelope containing a letter to the Academy of Sciences in Paris fully explaining his proposed method, called
17800-490: The development of various uncompressed and compressed digital audio file formats , processors capable and fast enough to convert the digital data to sound in real time , and inexpensive mass storage . This generated new types of portable digital audio players . The minidisc player, using ATRAC compression on small, re-writeable discs was introduced in the 1990s, but became obsolescent as solid-state non-volatile flash memory dropped in price. As technologies that increase
17978-402: The difference in octave. For example, a high C and a low C are members of the same pitch class—the class that contains all C's. Musical tuning systems, or temperaments, determine the precise size of intervals. Tuning systems vary widely within and between world cultures. In Western culture , there have long been several competing tuning systems, all with different qualities. Internationally,
18156-465: The drum machines that gained their peak popularity in the 1980s and defined an entire decade of pop music. The most iconic drum machine was the Roland TR-808 , widely used in hip hop and dance music . Digital sampling technology, introduced in the 1970s, has become a staple of music production in the 2000s. Devices that use sampling , record a sound digitally (often a musical instrument, such as
18334-500: The earliest known mechanical musical instrument, in this case, a hydropowered (water-powered) organ that played interchangeable cylinders. According to Charles B. Fowler, this "... cylinder with raised pins on the surface remained the basic device to produce and reproduce music mechanically until the second half of the nineteenth century." Carvings in the Rosslyn Chapel from the 1560s may represent an early attempt to record
18512-444: The early 1910s to the late 1950s. In various permutations, the audio disc format became the primary medium for consumer sound recordings until the end of the 20th century. Although there was no universally accepted speed, and various companies offered discs that played at several different speeds, the major recording companies eventually settled on a de facto industry standard of nominally 78 revolutions per minute. The specified speed
18690-657: The figure, motive, semi-phrase, antecedent and consequent phrase, and period or sentence. The period may be considered the complete melody, however some examples combine two periods, or use other combinations of constituents to create larger form melodies. A chord, in music, is any harmonic set of three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously . These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may, for many practical and theoretical purposes, constitute chords. Chords and sequences of chords are frequently used in modern Western, West African, and Oceanian music, whereas they are absent from
18868-514: The first type (technical manuals) include More philosophical treatises of the second type include The pipa instrument carried with it a theory of musical modes that subsequently led to the Sui and Tang theory of 84 musical modes. Medieval Arabic music theorists include: The Latin treatise De institutione musica by the Roman philosopher Boethius (written c. 500, translated as Fundamentals of Music )
19046-615: The forefront of electronic sound design. The 1980s saw a major shift towards digital technology with the development of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface ( MIDI ) standard. This allowed electronic instruments to communicate with computers and each other, transforming music production. Digital synthesizers, such as the Yamaha DX7 , became widely popular. The 1990s and 2000s witnessed the explosive growth of electronic dance music and its various subgenres, driven by
19224-547: The foundation for future electronic music production techniques. In the 1960s, the Moog synthesizer , invented by Robert Moog , popularized analog synthesis . Musician Wendy Carlos demonstrated Robert's invention with the album Switched-On Bach , which consisted of works composed by Johann Sebastian Bach interpreted with the Moog synthesizer . Meanwhile, tape-based studios, like the BBC Radiophonic Workshop , were at
19402-406: The graphic above. Articulation is the way the performer sounds notes. For example, staccato is the shortening of duration compared to the written note value, legato performs the notes in a smoothly joined sequence with no separation. Articulation is often described rather than quantified, therefore there is room to interpret how to execute precisely each articulation. For example, staccato
19580-1002: The greatest music had no sounds. [...] Even the music of the qin zither , a genre closely affiliated with Confucian scholar-officials, includes many works with Daoist references, such as Tianfeng huanpei ("Heavenly Breeze and Sounds of Jade Pendants"). The Samaveda and Yajurveda (c. 1200 – 1000 BCE) are among the earliest testimonies of Indian music, but properly speaking, they contain no theory. The Natya Shastra , written between 200 BCE to 200 CE, discusses intervals ( Śrutis ), scales ( Grāmas ), consonances and dissonances, classes of melodic structure ( Mūrchanās , modes?), melodic types ( Jātis ), instruments, etc. Early preserved Greek writings on music theory include two types of works: Several names of theorists are known before these works, including Pythagoras ( c. 570 ~ c. 495 BCE ), Philolaus ( c. 470 ~ ( c. 385 BCE ), Archytas (428–347 BCE ), and others. Works of
19758-402: The high recording speeds required, they used enormous reels about one meter in diameter, and the thin tape frequently broke, sending jagged lengths of razor steel flying around the studio. Magnetic tape recording uses an amplified electrical audio signal to generate analogous variations of the magnetic field produced by a tape head , which impresses corresponding variations of magnetization on
19936-701: The increasing role of interdisciplinary work in music technology, individuals developing new music technologies may also have backgrounds or training in electrical engineering , computer programming , computer hardware design, acoustics , record producing or other fields. Digital music technologies are widely used to assist in music education for training students in the home, elementary school, middle school, high school, college and university music programs. Electronic keyboard labs are used for cost-effective beginner group piano instruction in high schools, colleges, and universities. Courses in music notation software and basic manipulation of audio and MIDI can be part of
20114-426: The interval between adjacent tones is called a semitone , or half step. Selecting tones from this set of 12 and arranging them in patterns of semitones and whole tones creates other scales. The most commonly encountered scales are the seven-toned major , the harmonic minor , the melodic minor , and the natural minor . Other examples of scales are the octatonic scale and the pentatonic or five-tone scale, which
20292-594: The invention of the Chamberlin Rhythmate . Transistorized electronic drum machines Seeburg Select-A-Rhythm appeared in 1964. Classic drum machines include the Korg Mini Pops 120 , PAiA Programmable Drum Set, Roland CR-78 , LinnDrum , Roland TR-909 , Oberheim DMX , E-MU SP-12 , Alesis HR-16 , and Elektron SPS1 Machinedrum (in chronological order). In the late 1970s and 1980s, Japanese manufacturers, including Roland and Korg , assumed pivotal roles in
20470-476: The key-note), per their diatonic function . Common ways of notating or representing chords in western music other than conventional staff notation include Roman numerals , figured bass (much used in the Baroque era ), chord letters (sometimes used in modern musicology ), and various systems of chord charts typically found in the lead sheets used in popular music to lay out the sequence of chords so that
20648-618: The late 19th century, Thaddeus Cahill introduced the Telharmonium , which is commonly considered the first electromechanical musical instrument. In the early 20th century, Leon Theremin created the Theremin , an early electronic instrument played without physical contact, creating a new form of sound creation. In the mid-20th century, sampling emerged, with artists like Pierre Schaeffer and Karlheinz Stockhausen manipulating recorded sounds on tape to create entirely new compositions. This laid
20826-480: The main way that songs and instrumental pieces were recorded was through music notation . While notation indicates the pitches of the melody and their rhythm many aspects of the performance are undocumented. Indeed, in the Medieval era, Gregorian chant did not indicate the rhythm of the chant. In the Baroque era, instrumental pieces often lack a tempo indication and usually none of the ornaments were written down. As
21004-428: The methods and concepts that composers and other musicians use in creating and performing music. The development, preservation, and transmission of music theory in this sense may be found in oral and written music-making traditions, musical instruments , and other artifacts . For example, ancient instruments from prehistoric sites around the world reveal details about the music they produced and potentially something of
21182-475: The microphone to a digital form by the process of sampling . This lets the audio data be stored and transmitted by a wider variety of media. Digital recording stores audio as a series of binary numbers (zeros and ones) representing samples of the amplitude of the audio signal at equal time intervals, at a sample rate high enough to convey all sounds capable of being heard . A digital audio signal must be reconverted to analog form during playback before it
21360-438: The moral character of particular modes. Several centuries later, treatises began to appear which dealt with the actual composition of pieces of music in the plainchant tradition. At the end of the ninth century, Hucbald worked towards more precise pitch notation for the neumes used to record plainchant. Guido d'Arezzo wrote a letter to Michael of Pomposa in 1028, entitled Epistola de ignoto cantu , in which he introduced
21538-651: The most demanding professional applications. New applications such as internet radio and podcasting have appeared. Technological developments in recording, editing, and consuming have transformed the record , movie and television industries in recent decades. Audio editing became practicable with the invention of magnetic tape recording , but technologies like MIDI , sound synthesis and digital audio workstations allow greater control and efficiency for composers and artists. Digital audio techniques and mass storage have reduced recording costs such that high-quality recordings can be produced in small studios. Today,
21716-576: The most iconic synthesizers is the Roland TB-303 , was widely used in acid house music . Classic digital synthesizers include the Fairlight CMI , PPG Wave , Nord Modular and Korg M1 . Computer and synthesizer technology joining together changed the way music is made and is one of the fastest-changing aspects of music technology today. Max Mathews , an acoustic researcher at Bell Telephone Laboratories ' Acoustic and Behavioural Research Department,
21894-402: The moving tape. In playback mode, the signal path is reversed, the tape head acting as a miniature electric generator as the varyingly magnetized tape passes over it. The original solid steel ribbon was replaced by a much more practical coated paper tape, but acetate soon replaced paper as the standard tape base. Acetate has fairly low tensile strength and if very thin it will snap easily, so it
22072-572: The music of many other parts of the world. The most frequently encountered chords are triads , so called because they consist of three distinct notes: further notes may be added to give seventh chords , extended chords , or added tone chords . The most common chords are the major and minor triads and then the augmented and diminished triads . The descriptions major , minor , augmented , and diminished are sometimes referred to collectively as chordal quality . Chords are also commonly classed by their root note—so, for instance,
22250-447: The musical theory that might have been used by their makers. In ancient and living cultures around the world, the deep and long roots of music theory are visible in instruments, oral traditions, and current music-making. Many cultures have also considered music theory in more formal ways such as written treatises and music notation . Practical and scholarly traditions overlap, as many practical treatises about music place themselves within
22428-399: The musician may play accompaniment chords or improvise a solo. In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches ( tones , notes ), or chords . The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic line , or
22606-497: The nature and functions of music. The Yueji ("Record of music", c1st and 2nd centuries BCE), for example, manifests Confucian moral theories of understanding music in its social context. Studied and implemented by Confucian scholar-officials [...], these theories helped form a musical Confucianism that overshadowed but did not erase rival approaches. These include the assertion of Mozi (c. 468 – c. 376 BCE) that music wasted human and material resources, and Laozi 's claim that
22784-599: The next few years, the lesser record companies licensed or developed other electrical recording systems. By 1929 only the budget label Harmony was still issuing new recordings made by the old acoustical process. Comparison of some surviving Western Electric test recordings with early commercial releases indicates that the record companies artificially reduced the frequency range of recordings so they would not overwhelm non-electronic playback equipment, which reproduced very low frequencies as an unpleasant rattle and rapidly wore out discs with strongly recorded high frequencies. In
22962-488: The next two years, Blumlein developed stereo microphones and a stereo disc-cutting head, and recorded a number of short films with stereo soundtracks. In the 1930s, experiments with magnetic tape enabled the development of the first practical commercial sound systems that could record and reproduce high-fidelity stereophonic sound . The experiments with stereo during the 1930s and 1940s were hampered by problems with synchronization. A major breakthrough in practical stereo sound
23140-440: The nuances of the human voice. New high fidelity sample libraries combined with digital audio workstations facilitate editing in fine detail, such as shifting of formats, adjustment of vibrato, and adjustments to vowels and consonants. Sample libraries for various languages and various accents are available. With today's advancements in vocal synthesis, artists sometimes use sample libraries in lieu of backing singers. A synthesizer
23318-405: The only issued electrical recording. Several record companies and independent inventors, notably Orlando Marsh , experimented with equipment and techniques for electrical recording in the early 1920s. Marsh's electrically recorded Autograph Records were already being sold to the public in 1924, a year before the first such offerings from the major record companies, but their overall sound quality
23496-416: The paleophone. Though no trace of a working paleophone was ever found, Cros is remembered by some historians as an early inventor of a sound recording and reproduction machine. The first practical sound recording and reproduction device was the mechanical phonograph cylinder , invented by Thomas Edison in 1877 and patented in 1878. The invention soon spread across the globe and over the next two decades
23674-490: The peak frequencies of a sound are created and shaped using granular synthesis—as opposed to filtering frequencies to create speech. Through the 1980s and 1990s as MIDI devices became commercially available, speech was generated by mapping MIDI data to samples of the components of speech stored in sample libraries. In the 2010s, Singing synthesis technology has taken advantage of the recent advances in artificial intelligence—deep listening and machine learning to better represent
23852-444: The performance or perception of intensity, such as timbre, vibrato, and articulation. The conventional indications of dynamics are abbreviations for Italian words like forte ( f ) for loud and piano ( p ) for soft. These two basic notations are modified by indications including mezzo piano ( mp ) for moderately soft (literally "half soft") and mezzo forte ( mf ) for moderately loud, sforzando or sforzato ( sfz ) for
24030-598: The performer's technique. The timbre of most instruments can be changed by employing different techniques while playing. For example, the timbre of a trumpet changes when a mute is inserted into the bell, the player changes their embouchure, or volume. A voice can change its timbre by the way the performer manipulates their vocal apparatus, (e.g. the shape of the vocal cavity or mouth). Musical notation frequently specifies alteration in timbre by changes in sounding technique, volume, accent, and other means. These are indicated variously by symbolic and verbal instruction. For example,
24208-584: The piano) to the frequency of 440 Hz. This assignment is somewhat arbitrary; for example, in 1859 France, the same A was tuned to 435 Hz. Such differences can have a noticeable effect on the timbre of instruments and other phenomena. Thus, in historically informed performance of older music, tuning is often set to match the tuning used in the period when it was written. Additionally, many cultures do not attempt to standardize pitch, often considering that it should be allowed to vary depending on genre, style, mood, etc. The difference in pitch between two notes
24386-659: The playback volume of the three audio channels. Because of the complex equipment this system required, Disney exhibited the movie as a roadshow, and only in the United States. Regular releases of the movie used standard mono optical 35 mm stock until 1956, when Disney released the film with a stereo soundtrack that used the Cinemascope four-track magnetic sound system. German audio engineers working on magnetic tape developed stereo recording by 1941. Of 250 stereophonic recordings made during WW2, only three survive: Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto with Walter Gieseking and Arthur Rother,
24564-471: The practice of using syllables to describe notes and intervals. This was the source of the hexachordal solmization that was to be used until the end of the Middle Ages. Guido also wrote about emotional qualities of the modes, the phrase structure of plainchant, the temporal meaning of the neumes, etc.; his chapters on polyphony "come closer to describing and illustrating real music than any previous account" in
24742-808: The process of making a recording is separated into tracking, mixing and mastering . Multitrack recording makes it possible to capture signals from several microphones, or from different takes to tape, disc or mass storage allowing previously unavailable flexibility in the mixing and mastering stages. There are many different digital audio recording and processing programs running under several computer operating systems for all purposes, ranging from casual users and serious amateurs working on small projects to professional sound engineers who are recording albums, film scores and doing sound design for video games . Digital dictation software for recording and transcribing speech has different requirements; intelligibility and flexible playback facilities are priorities, while
24920-473: The production cannot afford the cost of a professional drummer. In the 2010s, most modern drum machines are sequencers with a sample playback ( rompler ) or synthesizer component that specializes in the reproduction of drum timbres . Though features vary from model to model, many modern drum machines can also produce unique sounds, and allow the user to compose unique drum beats and patterns. Electro-mechanical drum machines were first developed in 1949, with
25098-675: The program Max. Later, a researcher named David Zicarelli visited IRCAM, saw the capabilities of Max and felt it could be developed further. He took a copy of Max with him when he left and eventually added capabilities to process audio signals. Zicarelli named this new part of the program MSP after Miller Puckette. Zicarelli developed the commercial version of MaxMSP and sold it at his company, Cycling '74, beginning in 1997. The company has since been acquired by Ableton. The first generation of professional commercially available computer music instruments, or workstations as some companies later called them, were very sophisticated elaborate systems that cost
25276-541: The public, with little fanfare, was of November 11, 1920, funeral service for The Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey , London. The recording engineers used microphones of the type used in contemporary telephones. Four were discreetly set up in the abbey and wired to recording equipment in a vehicle outside. Although electronic amplification was used, the audio was weak and unclear, as only possible in those circumstances. For several years, this little-noted disc remained
25454-404: The quarter tone itself as a direct interval. In traditional Western notation, the scale used for a composition is usually indicated by a key signature at the beginning to designate the pitches that make up that scale. As the music progresses, the pitches used may change and introduce a different scale. Music can be transposed from one scale to another for various purposes, often to accommodate
25632-457: The range of a vocalist. Such transposition raises or lowers the overall pitch range, but preserves the intervallic relationships of the original scale. For example, transposition from the key of C major to D major raises all pitches of the scale of C major equally by a whole tone . Since the interval relationships remain unchanged, transposition may be unnoticed by a listener, however other qualities may change noticeably because transposition changes
25810-571: The recording industry. Tape made possible the first sound recordings totally created by electronic means, opening the way for the bold sonic experiments of the Musique Concrète school and avant-garde composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen , which in turn led to the innovative pop music recordings of artists such as the Beatles and the Beach Boys . The ease and accuracy of tape editing, as compared to
25988-536: The recording process. These included improved microphones and auxiliary devices such as electronic filters, all dependent on electronic amplification to be of practical use in recording. In 1906, Lee De Forest invented the Audion triode vacuum tube, an electronic valve that could amplify weak electrical signals. By 1915, it was in use in long-distance telephone circuits that made conversations between New York and San Francisco practical. Refined versions of this tube were
26166-408: The relationship of the overall pitch range compared to the range of the instruments or voices that perform the music. This often affects the music's overall sound, as well as having technical implications for the performers. The interrelationship of the keys most commonly used in Western tonal music is conveniently shown by the circle of fifths . Unique key signatures are also sometimes devised for
26344-435: The resulting music evolves each time conditions change. Examples of this technology include software designed for writing music for video games—where music evolves as a player advances through a level or when certain characters appear—or music generated from artificial intelligence trained to convert biometrics like EEG or ECG readings into music. Because this music is based on user interaction, it will be different each time it
26522-625: The rights to the Blattnerphone, and newly developed Marconi-Stille recorders were installed in the BBC's Maida Vale Studios in March 1935. The tape used in Blattnerphones and Marconi-Stille recorders was the same material used to make razor blades, and not surprisingly the fearsome Marconi-Stille recorders were considered so dangerous that technicians had to operate them from another room for safety. Because of
26700-466: The sale of consumer high-fidelity sound systems from the 1960s onward. In the 1950s, most record players were monophonic and had relatively low sound quality. Few consumers could afford high-quality stereophonic sound systems. In the 1960s, American manufacturers introduced a new generation of modular hi-fi components — separate turntables, pre-amplifiers, amplifiers, both combined as integrated amplifiers, tape recorders, and other ancillary equipment like
26878-556: The same fixed pattern; it is a proportional notation, in the sense that each note value is equal to two or three times the shorter value, or half or a third of the longer value. This same notation, transformed through various extensions and improvements during the Renaissance, forms the basis for rhythmic notation in European classical music today. D'Erlanger divulges that the Arabic music scale
27056-501: The same tape many times, sounds could be duplicated from tape to tape with only minor loss of quality, and recordings could now be very precisely edited by physically cutting the tape and rejoining it. Within a few years of the introduction of the first commercial tape recorder—the Ampex 200 model, launched in 1948—American musician-inventor Les Paul had invented the first multitrack tape recorder , ushering in another technical revolution in
27234-510: The same time, sound recordings enabled music lovers outside the West to hear the most famous North American and European groups and singers. As digital recording developed, so did a controversy commonly known as the analog versus digital controversy. Audio professionals, audiophiles, consumers, musicians alike contributed to the debate based on their interaction with the media and the preferences for analog or digital processes. Scholarly discourse on
27412-402: The second is learning scholars' views on music from antiquity to the present; the third is a sub-topic of musicology that "seeks to define processes and general principles in music". The musicological approach to theory differs from music analysis "in that it takes as its starting-point not the individual work or performance but the fundamental materials from which it is built." Music theory
27590-538: The sonority of intervals that vary widely in different cultures and over the ages. Consonance (or concord) is the quality of an interval or chord that seems stable and complete in itself. Dissonance (or discord) is the opposite in that it feels incomplete and "wants to" resolve to a consonant interval. Dissonant intervals seem to clash. Consonant intervals seem to sound comfortable together. Commonly, perfect fourths, fifths, and octaves and all major and minor thirds and sixths are considered consonant. All others are dissonant to
27768-560: The sound quality was poor, so between the wars, they were primarily used for voice recording and marketed as business dictating machines. In 1924, a German engineer, Kurt Stille, improved the Telegraphone with an electronic amplifier. The following year, Ludwig Blattner began work that eventually produced the Blattnerphone, which used steel tape instead of wire. The BBC started using Blattnerphones in 1930 to record radio programs. In 1933, radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi 's company purchased
27946-468: The sounds of speech. Pitch was modulated via a bar on a wrist strap worn by the operator. In the 1940s Dudley, invented the VOCODER (Voice Operated Coder). Rather than synthesizing speech from scratch, this machine operated by accepting incoming speech and breaking it into its spectral components. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, bands and solo artists began using the VOCODER to blend speech with notes played on
28124-474: The system and both made their earliest published electrical recordings in February 1925, but neither actually released them until several months later. To avoid making their existing catalogs instantly obsolete, the two long-time archrivals agreed privately not to publicize the new process until November 1925, by which time enough electrically recorded repertory would be available to meet the anticipated demand. During
28302-409: The system known as equal temperament is most commonly used today because it is considered the most satisfactory compromise that allows instruments of fixed tuning (e.g. the piano) to sound acceptably in tune in all keys. Notes can be arranged in a variety of scales and modes . Western music theory generally divides the octave into a series of twelve pitches, called a chromatic scale , within which
28480-545: The texts, was in use for over 1,000 years." Much of Chinese music history and theory remains unclear. Chinese theory starts from numbers, the main musical numbers being twelve, five and eight. Twelve refers to the number of pitches on which the scales can be constructed. The Lüshi chunqiu from about 238 BCE recalls the legend of Ling Lun . On order of the Yellow Emperor , Ling Lun collected twelve bamboo lengths with thick and even nodes. Blowing on one of these like
28658-443: The transformation of the musical landscape. Roland's TR-808 and TR-909 significantly changed the landscape of rhythm production. shaping genres like hip-hop and electronic dance music. Korg's KPR-77 and DDD-1 also made an impact. These drum machines were known for their distinctive sound and affordability. Over time, Japanese companies continued to innovate, producing increasingly sophisticated and user-friendly drum machines, such as
28836-489: The two ears. This discovery was commercialized in 1890 with the Théâtrophone system, which operated for over forty years until 1932. In 1931, Alan Blumlein , a British electronics engineer working for EMI , designed a way to make the sound of an actor in a film follow his movement across the screen. In December 1931, he submitted a patent application including the idea, and in 1933 this became UK patent number 394,325 . Over
29014-615: The two used in stereo) and four speakers to create a 360-degree audio field around the listener. Following the release of the first consumer 4-channel hi-fi systems, a number of popular albums were released in one of the competing four-channel formats; among the best known are Mike Oldfield 's Tubular Bells and Pink Floyd 's The Dark Side of the Moon . Quadraphonic sound was not a commercial success, partly because of competing and somewhat incompatible four-channel sound systems (e.g., CBS , JVC , Dynaco and others all had systems) and generally poor quality, even when played as intended on
29192-450: The use of a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder or disc so as to pluck the tuned teeth (or lamellae ) of a steel comb. The fairground organ , developed in 1892, used a system of accordion-folded punched cardboard books. The player piano , first demonstrated in 1876, used a punched paper scroll that could store a long piece of music. The most sophisticated of the piano rolls were "hand-played," meaning that they were duplicates from
29370-543: The use of mechanical analogs of electrical circuits and developed a superior "rubber line" recorder for cutting the groove into the wax master in the disc recording system. By 1924, such dramatic progress had been made that Western Electric arranged a demonstration for the two leading record companies, the Victor Talking Machine Company and the Columbia Phonograph Company . Both soon licensed
29548-403: The vocal model, including various applied filters representing the vocal tract—to make a computer (an IBM 704) sing for the first time in 1962. The computer performed a rendition of "Daisy Bell". At IRCAM in France, researchers developed software called CHANT (French for "sing"), the first version of which ran between 1979 and 1983. CHANT was based FOF ( Fomant ond Formatique ) synthesis, in which
29726-400: The widespread adoption of MIDI, computer-based MIDI editors and sequencers were developed. MIDI-to- CV/Gate converters were then used to enable analogue synthesizers to be controlled by a MIDI sequencer. Reduced prices in personal computers caused the masses to turn away from the more expensive workstations . Advancements in technology have increased the speed of hardware processing and
29904-745: The word dolce (sweetly) indicates a non-specific, but commonly understood soft and "sweet" timbre. Sul tasto instructs a string player to bow near or over the fingerboard to produce a less brilliant sound. Cuivre instructs a brass player to produce a forced and stridently brassy sound. Accent symbols like marcato (^) and dynamic indications ( pp ) can also indicate changes in timbre. In music, " dynamics " normally refers to variations of intensity or volume, as may be measured by physicists and audio engineers in decibels or phons . In music notation, however, dynamics are not treated as absolute values, but as relative ones. Because they are usually measured subjectively, there are factors besides amplitude that affect
30082-546: Was 78.26 rpm in America and 77.92 rpm throughout the rest of the world. The difference in speeds was due to the difference in the cycle frequencies of the AC electricity that powered the stroboscopes used to calibrate recording lathes and turntables. The nominal speed of the disc format gave rise to its common nickname, the "seventy-eight" (though not until other speeds had become available). Discs were made of shellac or similar brittle plastic-like materials, played with needles made from
30260-419: Was a touchstone for other writings on music in medieval Europe. Boethius represented Classical authority on music during the Middle Ages, as the Greek writings on which he based his work were not read or translated by later Europeans until the 15th century. This treatise carefully maintains distance from the actual practice of music, focusing mostly on the mathematical proportions involved in tuning systems and on
30438-414: Was acceptable. The compact 45 format required very little material. Vinyl offered improved performance, both in stamping and in playback. Vinyl records were, over-optimistically, advertised as "unbreakable". They were not, but they were much less fragile than shellac, which had itself once been touted as "unbreakable" compared to wax cylinders. Sound recording began as a purely mechanical process. Except for
30616-504: Was further improved just after World War II by American audio engineer John T. Mullin with backing from Bing Crosby Enterprises. Mullin's pioneering recorders were modifications of captured German recorders. In the late 1940s, the Ampex company produced the first tape recorders commercially available in the US. Magnetic tape brought about sweeping changes in both radio and the recording industry. Sound could be recorded, erased and re-recorded on
30794-525: Was in turn eventually superseded by polyester. This technology, the basis for almost all commercial recording from the 1950s to the 1980s, was developed in the 1930s by German audio engineers who also rediscovered the principle of AC biasing (first used in the 1920s for wire recorders ), which dramatically improved the frequency response of tape recordings. The K1 Magnetophon was the first practical tape recorder, developed by AEG in Germany in 1935. The technology
30972-411: Was introduced by RCA Victor in 1949. In the US and most developed countries, the two new vinyl formats completely replaced 78 rpm shellac discs by the end of the 1950s, but in some corners of the world, the 78 lingered on far into the 1960s. Vinyl was much more expensive than shellac, one of the several factors that made its use for 78 rpm records very unusual, but with a long-playing disc the added cost
31150-445: Was made by Bell Laboratories , who in 1937 demonstrated a practical system of two-channel stereo, using dual optical sound tracks on film. Major movie studios quickly developed three-track and four-track sound systems, and the first stereo sound recording for a commercial film was made by Judy Garland for the MGM movie Listen, Darling in 1938. The first commercially released movie with
31328-474: Was small cartridge-based tape systems, of which the compact cassette , commercialized by the Philips electronics company in 1964, is the best known. Initially a low-fidelity format for spoken-word voice recording and inadequate for music reproduction, after a series of improvements it entirely replaced the competing consumer tape formats: the larger 8-track tape (used primarily in cars). The compact cassette became
31506-494: Was still in its infancy, digital samplers cost tens of thousands of dollars and they were only used by the top recording studios and musicians. These were out of the price range of most musicians. Early samplers include the 8-bit Electronic Music Studios MUSYS-3 circa 1970, Computer Music Melodian in 1976, Fairlight CMI in 1979, Emulator I in 1981, Synclavier II Sample-to-Memory (STM) option circa 1980, Ensoniq Mirage in 1984, and Akai S612 in 1985. The latter's successor,
31684-410: Was too low to demonstrate any obvious advantage over traditional acoustical methods. Marsh's microphone technique was idiosyncratic and his work had little if any impact on the systems being developed by others. Telephone industry giant Western Electric had research laboratories with material and human resources that no record company or independent inventor could match. They had the best microphone,
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