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Analog recording
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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since May 2006. |
Analog (or analogue) recording is a technique used to store audio or video signals for later playback. The first successful demonstration of analogue recording for audio was by Thomas Alva Edison. The first analogues of moving pictures were those of the Lumiere Brothers.
The modern examples of the analogue audio recording are:
- Gramophone record (aka phonograph record, vinyl, etc).
- Wire recording
- Magnetic tape
The earliest forms of video recording used analogue technology initially. John Logie Baird developed a system in the 1920's for the storage of video signals on conventional phonograph records, which he called Phonovision. In the 1930's, he further developed the Intermediate Film Technique, which provided for an analogue method of temporary video storage by using cine film.
The analog recording method stores signals as a continual wave in/on the media, rather than the discrete numbers used in digital recording. The wave is stored as a physical texture on a phonograph record, or a fluctuation in the field strength of a magnetic recording.
A perceived drawback of many analog recordings was noise of the media, or of the equipment, and of production equipment limitations. Repeat playing of a gramaphone record introduces wear that made the original recording more difficult to hear over the noise level. Careful removal of dirt is helpful; as is careful handling.