Sound recording

Sound recording captures sound as a physical or digital representation that can be stored, reproduced, or distributed later.

Microphone: A transducer that converts sound waves into an electrical signal. It converts incoming sound into a signal that recording systems can capture.
Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville: A French inventor who created the phonautograph, an early device for tracing sound waves. His device made visual sound traces decades before playback was possible.
Multitrack recording: A method of recording separate sound sources on independently controllable tracks. It lets musicians record and adjust parts separately before combining them.
Acoustic recording: A recording method that directs sound mechanically to a stylus without electrical amplification. It captures sound mechanically, unlike microphone-based electrical recording.
Analog recording: A method that represents sound through continuously varying physical or electrical signals. It preserves sound as a continuous signal rather than discrete digital values.
Phonautograph: An 1857 device that traced sound waves onto a surface but could not play them back. It was the first known machine to record sound as a visible trace.
Field recording: The capture of sound outside a studio, often to document environments or events. It records sounds whose setting and ambience are part of the subject.
Optical sound: A method that stores audio as variations in a photographic track on film. It embeds sound information on film rather than in grooves or magnetic patterns.
Digital audio: Sound represented as numerical samples of a waveform. It stores recorded sound as numbers that can be copied and processed.
Phonograph: A device invented by Thomas Edison that recorded and reproduced sound using a stylus and cylinder. Its playback capability turned sound capture into practical recording.

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