How does Recording happen?


RECORDING



 To record sound, the pattern of vibrations in the air must be turned into a form that can be stored. The gramophone was the first sound-recording device. To record, the sound was made to vibrate a needle, which cut a wavy groove in a foil surface. To play back, the needle moved along the groove, making a diaphragm vibrate to reproduce the sound. In the electric gramophone, introduced in the 1920s, the vibrating needle created an electrical signal, which was amplified to drive a loudspeaker.



The first type of gramophone was the phonograph, invented in 1877 by the American inventor Thomas Edison.



Tape recording was developed in the 1940s. To record on to tape, the electrical signal from a microphone is sent to an electromagnet, which creates a pattern in the tiny magnetic particles that coat the tape. This pattern recreates the signal as the tape plays, and the signal is amplified before going to a speaker.



Most sound recording is now done digitally. A microphone turns the sound into an analogue electrical signal, which is then digitized more than 44,000 times a second to create a long string of binary numbers. The binary numbers can be stored in a computer’s memory or disc drives, or on a compact disc (CD). On a CD, the binary digits 0 and 1 are represented by flat areas or shallow pits in the surface. In a CD player, these are detected by a laser as the disc spins and reflected to a light-sensitive device. Electronics rebuild the original electric signal, which is amplified and sent to speakers. Computer CD-ROMs and DVDs work in the same way.




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How would you distinguish between Pitch and Volume of Sound?


PITCH AND VOLUME



Sound has two important features. One is pitch. A low-pitched sound is deep, like a roll of thunder or a booming big drum. A high-pitched sound is shrill, like a snake’s hiss or the tinkle of a triangle. Pitch depends on the frequency of sound waves - the number of waves per second. High-pitched sounds have high frequencies.



Some sounds are so high-pitched that our ears cannot detect them. They are known as ultrasounds. Many animals, like dogs and bats, can hear ultrasounds.



The second important feature of sound is its loudness or volume. Some sounds are so quiet that we can only just hear them, like a ticking watch or the rustling of leaves. Other sounds are so loud, like the roar of engines or the powerful music in a disco, that they may damage the ears. Sound volume, or intensity, is measured in units called decibels (dB). Sounds of more than 80-90 decibels can damage our hearing.



            An ultrasound scanner beams very high-pitched sound waves into the body. The echoes are analyzed by a computer to form an image, the baby in the womb.



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What do you know about Sound?


SOUND



One of the most familiar forms of energy in daily life is sound. We hear natural sounds like birdsong and wind. We hear the noise of vehicles and machines, and sounds such as speech and music from radios, televisions and stereo systems. We also rely on sounds to communicate when we talk to others.



Sounds are made by objects that vibrate (move to and fro rapidly). As an object vibrates, it alternately pushes and pulls at the air around it. The air is squashed and stretched as the molecules of the gases in air are pressed close together and then pulled farther apart. These are regions of high and low air pressure. They pass outwards away from the object in all directions. They are called sound waves.



Sound waves start as the energy of movement in the vibrations. This is transferred to the energy of movement in air molecules. As the sound waves spread out they widen and disperse, like the ripples on a pond after a stone is thrown in. So the sound gradually gets weaker and fades away. However if there is a hard, smooth surface in the way, such as a wall, then some sound waves bounce off it and come back again. The bouncing is known as reflection and we hear the returning sound as an echo.



Sounds also travel as vibrations through liquids, such as water, and solids, such as metals. The atoms or molecules are closer together in liquids than in air, and even closer still in solids. So sounds travel through them much faster.



            An object that vibrates to produce sound waves is a sound source. A bow rubs over the cello’s string and makes it vibrate. The vibrations pass into the air and also to the cello’s hollow body making the sound louder and richer.



The speed of sound varies depending on the substance it travels through. Atoms in steel are closer than molecules in air, so the vibrations of sound move faster and further.



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