From Radio Waves to Electric Grooves: Electrical Sound Recording
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 ม.ค. 2016
- Once we figured out how to amplify a signal with a vacuum tube, the possibilities became endless for the world of sound recording. In this video, we explore how the invention of radio improved the phonograph record by introducing electric recording technology.
- วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
3:12
Paul Simon asking: “I hope everybody can hear us, I hope the sound is good” , live in Central Park 1981!
As always, great video
When I was young I used to like to make recordings with my cassette player and my headphones. One day I accidentally plugged the mic and the headphones in backwards and sure enough sound came out the microphone. And I realized I could used headphones as a microphone as well. It sure came in handy when I didnt have a mic around, but the quality wasnt as good. Thanks for the great series. Very clearly explained!
Mind = blown
Re: Speakers as mics; When I was a kid living in the basement, I had a set of speakers wired into the livingroom above. Made it easy to record a very important conversation... I had a Radio Shack mixer, they were plugged right into it.
@@phildavis1723 Laf! Makes it sound like you were extorting people living there XD
Strange, I tried it but that never worked.
it depends on how the mic/headphones are wired
It’s always so weird to come back to these really old videos. 4 years is a longer time than one would like to think. It’s pretty crazy
Nearly about to be 8 years in a couple months
Curious fact: in Brazil we still use the terms "Victrola" (without the C letter) and "Radiola" as a generic designation for a "Record Player", and thanks to your videos I understood why.
Thanks for sharing you knowledge!
Thanks to his channel I learned 'vitrola' comes from 'victrola', which comes from 'victor (company)'.
I thought it had something to do with glass (vidro) for the longest time :p
I’ve been binge watching this channel. Your stuff is great and you deserve a lot more subscribers.
Same
Same
I have run a soundboard for various groups and activities in my life - mostly because I am more "techy" than most people and I worked for my college radio station part-time for a few years - not because I am very skilled at sound mixing. Even now I often run the sound for the school here.
I was running the sound at a place I was not very familiar with one time a number of years ago, and someone (not me) had wired something incorrectly and the person on stage helping me with the soundcheck started freaking out and told me I had to get down there. "Leave the music on and come to the stage right now!"
The music was playing through the microphone. It wasn't loud, but it was clearly heard when you were standing near it. It kind of freaked us out for a minute until we sort of figured it out. Actually, someone there said, "Yeah, speakers and microphones are pretty much the same thing". I didn't believe them at first. I did some googling afterward and then I tried the "headphones as microphone" thing like you demonstrated here. It really blew my mind for a while.
3:39 I didn't realize headphones could be used that way! 😲
I didn't either! My mind is officially blown!
first time somebody told me that, I called bullshit
then they showed me and I was flabbergasted.
The obvious followup question is then... can you play music on a microphone?
EDIT: Looking at other comments... Yes. Yes you can!
@@abdulmasaiev9024 I don't see why not but in general microphones don't have big enough diaphragms or electromagnets to project a lot of sound, but then again neither do headphones or earbuds.
I think it's not recommended because they're designed for different currents, so using speakers as a mic gives poor quality, and the other way around can damage the mic. But it does work!
The 'talk through headphones' demonstration always blew my students away. 😁
YOUR SHIRT IS AWESOME. They Might Be Giants rule; I am sure you know about "I Can Hear You," recorded on a wax cylinder at the Edison Museum.
Step away from the car, this car is protected by Viper...
Ohhh jeezz this video was uploaded 6 years ago and im here watching. Well i think im a fan. Love your videos m8
A very important caveat for the microphone/speaker-interchangeability is that this applies ONLY to dynamic microphones. Electrostatic microphones use no coil, but instead use the diaphragm as part of a capacitor. The vibrations induce a displacement current either "in" or "out" of the capacitor. This is your condenser, electret and capacitive MEMS microphones, all of which are pretty common.
In fact, they're so common that every PC, smartphone or tablet microphone jack has a +3V DC bias on the mic line to "power" an electret mic!
I remember my grandparents had a big piece of wooden furniture that had a ~20" B&W TV, a record player, and an AM/FM radio. The record player would play 33 1/3, 45, and 78 rpm records. They had the bigger records of big bands from the 1940s. If you opened the back of the piece of furniture, it was loaded with vacuum tubes.
I'm really impressed by your super clear explanations!
Oh man, you just blew my mind with this, had to pause the video and try recording through my headphones just to see for myself, thank you for this easy breakdown!!
Looking at your video now. You have definitely improved since then. With your presentations and levity. This was still enjoyable to watch. :)
What the heck?! The headphone as a microphone bit blew my mind. Wow
Not bad at all.
One thing for you to ponder is that with a RIBBON microphone, the aluminum foil ribbon serves as BOTH a diaphragm and as a "pickup coil"; since the ribbon in a ribbon microphone is extremely thin, it will respond to the softest sound.
Conversely, the development of electronic power amplifiers and moving coil speakers made it possible to build a speaker system as large as it needed to be to do the job; the acoustic recording process and an acoustic phonograph could not cope with the bass notes of a pipe organ; electrical recording and playback changed that almost overnight.
Good God this channel is outstanding.
I didn't notice this was made over a year ago but only has 450 views
its a very nice and informed video, shame you don't have more views :/
Hurileno so it got over three thousand views in two weeks and it's over a year old? Very possible, but ace you SURE you read that view counter correctly?
I like how you spelled out the number 3000 to make it seem much larger than it is.
It's entirely possible that it gained that much traction in that time, some videos get millions within hours to days.
its got 22000 now
awesomeferret Maybe he confused it with the like count?
@@nomadic_shadow 53000 now
Love the TMBG shirt Alec.
That a phonograph cartridge works like a microphone was proven to me on 7/4/79. I was copying an LP to a cassette (on a cheap "all in one stereo"). I started the cassette a few seconds before dropping the needle on the disk. My neighbors blowing off "M-80s" can be heard faintly in the background! (No Mics involved, BOOMS, however faint were picked up by the record players cartridge!).
Great lesson, but I was disappointed that you left out the term 'transducer', which is exactly what you described. Microphones, speakers, electric motors, generators, all examples of transducers.
I love seeing the evolution of the background as it evolves through the videos
I love the TMBG shirt.
You’re quite good at this. I’m a retired broadcaster. You’ve practiced a lot, I can tell. Did you train professionally?
No.
@E Van So is Mike Tyson. 😸
@E Van So is Mike Tyson. 😸
Great work. Not nearly enough views for such a well done, high quality video!
Thank you , I really enjoyed that talk your explanation was interesting , informative and articulate. It was a lot of fun .
The use of headphones as a Mic make me think of Stone Temple Pilot's Scott Weiland yelling into a guitars pickups for the opening section of "Dead and Bloated".
WOW! Of all the videos of yours I have watched as of now, I never realized you were sitting in front of a Chroma Key screen (blue or green screen). The glow around your hands and ears at times gave it away.
I'm so glad I found this channel.
I’m loving all of this guys videos!
In my view the change from acoustic to electrical recording made the biggest single improvement to the quality of reproduced sound of anything in the history of sound recording. The next biggest were the change from shellac to vinyl and the introduction of stereo. The other changes since, the use of tape and now digital, are more about convenience and flexibility rather than sound quality.
Thank you homie, you and your shirt has given me another song to listen to on repeat until i can't stand it anymore
I love your TMBG shirt in this episode !
Congratulations... i just noticed you have past the 250k subs during my binging today... Nice milestone!
clever how the greenscreen background changes to simulate multiple camera angles
I once read, popular singers in the early part of the last century learned to sing in a manner that worked best with the limitations of audio frequencies which could be recorded or transmitted, and that is, in part, why they had that characteristic, "old timey," sound. I always assumes it was the limits of the recording medium altogether, but the article I read said the artists had that similar nasally, over-exaggerated sound in person. True?
BuckeyeStorms
Those Technics weren't just limited to singers either. News reporters and Radio shows also applied.
@@MatthewCobalt hence the "Transatlantic Accent" which was essentially a mix between British and American dialects so that every syllable could be heard
I would love to see an in-depth explanation of amplifiers
One word to describe all three (microphone, cartridge, and speaker) would be transducer!
What made you choose to use a bluescreened background instead of the real thing? Better sound?
Actually i had the same thought when i saw that green halo.
Josh Derak came here to post the same q. Could see the fuzz around him and the lighting levels were inconsistent. Did Not detract from the content though which was A1 as usual
Love the TMBG shirt!
Excellent video!
I'm loving your haircut and the green screen! ;)
The electric tone arm and cartridge also allowed records to be played over the air on radio programs. Bringing about the advent of the "disk jockey".
Love your videos, keep it up!
Neat in deed ! You learn something new everyday ! Who knew you could use ur gaming headset as a mic !!??!
In the end of the 1930's came the first pickup, what is similar to the modern ones, what plays micro groove vinyl records. It has a sapphire stylus, less pressure, than the usual systems, was in production till the early 1950's, but was expensive and so much people bought the usual record grinders.
The first using of pickups to play records was in the radio stations, the technicians developed an early pickup and could so improve the record playback. Later they used records to repeat radio shows and this was called "from wax" because it was cut on a "wax" disc and this could be played one or two times.
I never knew about the headphone thing, that is so awesome. I had to try it myself and yeah, wow. lol
I did wonder, now I know. Good vid, thanks.
You make me feel dumb lol. I love your channel. It answers so many questions I have had. It's very informative and I love it. Keep it up
great content sir, keep it up please!
Nice TMBG shirt ;)
Since since a sound signal from a microphone can be amplified before recording, a microphone doesn't need to do as much work and so can be more responsive. Electrical playback also allows amplification upon playback which means that the cartridge doesn't have to do as much work and can be more responsive.
Re 4:56 Telephones originally had carbon microphones. With these microphones, the diaphragm would simply vary the voltage from an external source, these microphones therefore also being amplifiers. Yet these microphones couldn't respond to sound any better than acoustic reproducers and signals from them were also very noisy.
The microphones mentioned are dynamic. Although they make sound into electricity, they still respond to sound a lot better than carbon microphones.
Re 5:30 Electronic amplification also responds to sound signals better than carbon microphones respond to sound and add less noise to the signal.
Sound was also converted to varying width or intensity tracks on optical film and film projectors used light and photodiodes to reproduce the sound from these recorded patterns. You might want to cover this topic in the future.
Holy crap that's so cool about the headphones. Damn.
8:50 - And here is something you likely never knew about those phonograph cartridges: they were vastly overpriced. I worked at Circuit City from 1987 to the end of 1995, and employees could buy products at cost (but not CDs).
The most expensive phonograph cartridge we stocked was the Audio Technica 8008, at $109.97. Store cost? $10. No lie. The markup on audio equipment was insanely high, but nowhere was it higher than on those tiny little bits of plastic and metal.
Dafuq?
Your shirt has awesome They Might Be Giants lyrics on it.
Best subscription ever!
I think it's from a poem by Allen Ginsburg originally. I do love TMBG though!
Nice TMBG shirt
Amazing Ginsberg's Howl shirt.
It's actually "I Should Be Allowed To Think" by They Might Be Giants; the start of that song is, admittedly, lifted straight from Howl.
Didn't know that, that's cool man
These devices all use electrons hydraulically - use the electrons to communicate mechanical force across a distance. Adding a computer lets us modulate those electrons, adding and subtracting what we want, and thus Autotune.
@11:00 - Recollections from my youth - placing a speaker in series between the output of my shitty guitar to the input of the tape deck I was using as an amp - face down on a bit of plywood - so I could pound the bass drum "pedal" while playing Sabbath's "Iron Man". As it turned out music wasn't my thing.
you should do a video on the cardtalk, that thing blows my mind
you're the man
Someone explain to me how this video, of such exemplary quality, has only a few thousand views?
1.He doesn't wear a thong 2.He doesn't waste half the video talking about how his transsexual dad just don't understands him 3.No cat trying to steal the show 4.No pimple popping
Yes, it would certainly be more entertaining...Or did I miss the point?
I guess it is kind of a niche subject
Personally I've found the subject of old AV equipment weirdly addictive
While pretty interesting to watch, the guy is a bit of a novice and often gets information confused and sometimes uses terminology incorrectly. Needs a little more research. He's obviously smart but makes some assumptions based on too little knowledge or research. That said, his concepts are usually reasonably sound and presented in terms people might understand, so kudos on that. However, he goofed up enough in this video alone that I might only going to keep watching to see what else he gets wrong.
This would be better with a comparison. If possible the same song/sounds recorded and played back with the different setups.
Your chroma-key shadow is showing.. ;-)
LOL you must be the only person in existence that even realized he's sitting in front of a green screen
I just watched this video for the first time and I noticed it immediately. Granted, I am watching on a large TV. It would be far less noticable on a smaller screen.
@@singleproppilot I found it very noticeable even on a device with a 5.5 inch screen
I can tell on my phone. His outline is too sharp. He also never references anything behind him.
Yeah I didn't realize until this video he was in front of a green screen. Background was always done quite well in other ones!
You blew my fucking mind when you did head phone mic thing...
I remember discovering that by accident when I was a kid. I still remember recording stupid things on my old tape deck with a pair of earbuds as a quick and dirty microphone.
I discovered it too as a kid. I also remember the intercom in school used the single speaker in each class so the front office could talk to each classroom. These speakers and intercom system was also used for the announcements.
That was new for me too!
Jessie Crawford, theatre organist known as "Poet of the Organ", put money into a electric recording venture in 1920 when he was organist at the Chicago Theatre. Several sides were recorded and released but the signal was low, most likely due to the microphone being inadequate. It would be 1925 or 1926 before the pipe organ could be electrically recorded and some time after that before microphones improved to a state of high fidelity.
I've worked on computer disk drives that used a voice coil to position the heads.
All of these years. I didn't know you could turn headphones into a mic! Now if I need a mic. I'll just plug in Headphones XD May not be the best quality but hey blow people's minds.
I love the *Totally Real* background behind you.
like for the green screen
I just plugged my headphones into the mic port and got way to excited about it
sick tmbg shirt here too
Groovy
IT'S IMPORTANT
Alec is peak alpha male
Is anyone else disturbed by the asymmetrical speaker placement in the background? Messing with my OCD.
How did the speeds of records come about? Thank you
Gosh, I wish we were friends lol
I feel like I get smarter when I listen to these videos….🙂
Okay, turning your headphones into a hacked microphone was kind of cool!
Officially 5 years now
The headphones as mic "trick"... does it work with both headphones or just one channel? For some reason I recall using specifically the left ear-piece as the mic but I never bothered to try the other one, does it work?
It would only work with one. The other won't be connected. Notice the plugs on headphones have three sections while microphones only have two.
is that a They Might Be Giants t shirt? thats my favorite song by them....
were you always in front of a greenscreen?
oh man the greenscreen is not missed I'll let you know
How programming evolved
How long distance transducer works
Oh... that green screen. So distracting. Glad you gave it up later :-)
If the microphone is plugged into the headphone jack the microphone can become a loudspeaker.
I have an argument to settle, is it sap-phire or saffire?
I just realized he's in front of a green screen.
@Technology Connections have you done a video featuring your copy of the Harmonicat's Peg O' My Heart yet? If not, send me an email.
At 5:00 the green screen cutout is really obvious. Especially around the ears.
So what?
Point being?
Is anyone else bothered when you see magnetic media (the cassette) perched near a large magnet (i.e. the speaker)?
lohphat
We did it all the time back in the 80s.
Right, with proper shielding it wasn't an issue. The larger issue for me, in this greenscreen background, is the placement of the speakers relative to each other.
Cartridges. You've glossed over crystal and ceramic cartridges which, as you describe, do use a physical input and vibration to generate a signal. Magnetic cartridges only detect a change in magnetic field, and there is no physical transfer of signal from the stylus or cantilever to the cartridge coils. You're giving a lot of partial information here.
Oh. Ouch. The cartridge didn't make possible the recording of discs, just the reproduction. You're referring to the cutting head. This sort of stuff makes it into people's heads and unfortunately, it's not correct.
Greenscreen alert. Green outline around the face
Noticed that too. I was about to comment about it. :)
Green outline around the face? Protect the briefcase!
His inner Hulk is coming out.
He was away during this video, in his other videos this is not there
What was really weird and hardly understandable. The first electromagnetic recorder was invented already 1899 and sold as consumer machine Telegnamedraphone already 1903. The electronically amplified radio was developed into consumer tool in early 1920s. BUT the mainstream disc grammophone remained full acoustic and mechanic tool until late 1930s!!! And first mainstream consumer magnetophone appeared after the WWII!!! What happened in 1920s and 1930s? Why nobody got idea to attach record player with electronic amplifier?