Sound recording and reproduction refers to the inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects.
The inscription could be electrical, mechanical, electronic or digital in nature. The earliest method of music reproduction was done through mechanical systems.
Today, there are two main classes of sound recording technology – analogue recording and digital recording.
Acoustic analogue recording is done with the help of a microphone diaphragm that can detect and sense the changes in atmospheric pressure caused by acoustic sound waves. It then records the waves as a mechanical representation on a medium such as a phonograph record.
In digital recordings, analogue signals picked by a microphone are converted to a digital form by a process called digitization.
The first all-digitally-recorded popular music album, Ry Cooder’s ‘Bop till You Drop’ was released in 1979.