History of Sound Recording - Acoustical Recording

Acoustical Recording

The earliest methods of recording arbitrary sounds involved the live recording of the performance directly to the recording medium. This was an entirely mechanical process, often called "acoustical recording". The sound of the performers was captured by a diaphragm with the cutting needle connected to it. The needle made the groove in the recording medium. To make this process as efficient as possible the diaphragm was located at the apex of a cone and the performers would crowd around the other end. If a performer was too loud then they would need to move back from the mouth of the cone to avoid drowning out the other performers. In some early jazz recordings a block of wood was used in place of the bass drum.