Timeline of audio formats
{{Short description|none}}
An audio format is a medium for sound recording and reproduction. The term is applied to both the physical recording media and the recording formats of the audio content—in computer science it is often limited to the audio file format, but its wider use usually refers to the physical method used to store the data. Note on the use of analog compared to digital in this list; the definition of digital used here for early formats is that which is represented using discrete values rather than fluctuating variables. A piano roll is digital as it has discrete values, that being a hole for each key, unlike a phonograph record which is analog with a fluctuating groove.
Music is recorded and distributed using a variety of audio formats, some of which store additional information.
Timeline of audio format developments
| class="wikitable"
! Year ! Physical media formats ! Recording formats |
| 1805
| Digital, automated sound reproducing machine. |
|---|
| 1817
| Digital, automated sound reproducing machine. |
| 1851
| Digital, automatically played by means of revolving cylinders |
| 1877
|File:Edison and phonograph edit1.jpg Analog; sound waveform transcribed to tinfoil |
| 1883
|File:Piano Roll Open.png Digital (vacuum-operated piano) |
| 1886
| Music Box disc |File:Music Box discs.jpg Digital (vacuum-operated music box) |
| rowspan="3" |Late 1880s
| Brown Wax cylinder |File:Brownwaxcylinders.jpg Analog; vertical groove, vertical stylus motion - could be re-recorded |
| Organ Cob
| Mechanical digital (vacuum-operated organ) |
| Ediphone, Dictaphone
|File:Dictaphone sylinder.jpg Analog, the Ediphone and subsequent wax cylinders used in Edison's other product lines continued to be sold up until 1929 when the Edison Manufacturing Company folded. |
| 1894
| Pathé cylinder |File:Pathé Cylinder.png Mechanical analog; vertical grooves, vertical stylus motion |
| 1897
| 7 | Mechanical analog; lateral groove, horizontal stylus motion - made from hard rubber |
| 1898
|File:Peirce wire recorder.jpg Analog; magnetization; DC bias |
| 1901
| 10 |File:Record, sound (AM 1999.155.94-4).jpg Mechanical analog; lateral groove, horizontal stylus motion - made from shellac |
| 1902
|File:Edisongoldmoulded.jpg Mechanical analog; vertical groove, horizontal stylus motion - made from hard black wax - 160rpm standard - 100 threads per inch |
| rowspan="2" |1903
| 12 | Mechanical analog; lateral grooves, horizontal stylus motion |
| Phonograph Postcard
|File:Gramophone-Postcard-front.png Mechanical analog; lateral groove, horizontal stylus motion |
| rowspan="2" |1905
|Centre-start phonograph Record |File:Lazaretto-centre-start-detail.jpg Mechanical analog; lateral groove, horizontal stylus motion, starts from the centre of the disc |
| Pathé disc
|File:Pathe disc.png Mechanical analog; vertical groove, vertical stylus motion |
| 1907
|File:Edison indestuctable record.png Mechanical analog; vertical groove, vertical stylus motion - made from black celluloid with cardboard and inner metal bands |
| 1908
|File:Edison Amberol Record.png Mechanical analog; vertical groove, vertical stylus motion - made from hard black wax - 160rpm standard - 200 threads per inch |
| rowspan="2" |1912
|File:DiamondDiscPhonograph.jpg Mechanical analog; vertical groove, vertical stylus motion - made from Bakelite or china clay |
| Blue Amberol cylinder record
|File:Edison Blue Amberol Cylinder.jpg Mechanical analog; vertical groove, vertical stylus motion - made from blue celluloid with plaster of paris core - 160rpm standard - 200 threads per inch |
| 1924
| Mechanical analog; electrically cut from amplified microphone signal, lateral groove, horizontal stylus motion, discs at 7", 10", 12", most at 78 rpm{{Cite web|url=https://historyofrecordingblog.wordpress.com/24-2/|title = The Electrical Era|date = August 2017}}{{better source needed|date=August 2024}} |
| rowspan="2" | 1930
| Filmophone flexible record |File:Fimophone flexible record.jpg Mechanical analog; lateral groove, horizontal stylus movement - made from cellulose of various colours - 78rpm |
| Durium Record or Hit of the Week Records
|File:Durium Record.png Mechanical analog; lateral groove - made from paper coated in a brown resin (Durium) |
| rowspan="2" | 1930s
|File:Open reel audio tape.jpg Analog; magnetization; AC "bias" dramatically increases linearity/fidelity, tape speed at 30 ips, later 15 ips and other refined speeds: {{frac|7|1|2}} ips, {{frac|3|3|4}} ips, {{frac|1|7|8}} ips |
| Electrical transcriptions
| Mechanical analog; electrically cut from amplified microphone signal, high fidelity sound, lateral or vertical groove, horizontal or vertical stylus motion, most discs 16" at {{frac|33|1|3}} rpm |
| 1942
|File:Sound Scriber Discs.png Mechanical analog; vertical groove, 4–6 inch discs, it recorded sound by pressing grooves into soft vinyl discs |
| 1947
| Dictabelt (Memobelt) | Analog, medium consisting of a thin, plastic belt 3.5" wide that was placed on a cylinder and rotated like a tank tread, developed by the Dictaphone company in 1947 |
| 1948
| Vinyl LP record (Columbia) | Analog, with preemphasis and other equalization techniques (LP, RIAA); lateral groove, horizontal stylus motion; discs 7", 10" and 12" at {{frac|33|1|3}} rpm, 1st LP Columbia ML 4001 Milstein, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto |
| 1949
| Vinyl 45 record (RCA) |File:Richard Burton narrating 'The Little Prince', short 45 RPM demo excerpt.jpg Analog 45 rpm vinyl 7" disk, first 45 pressed "PeeWee the Piccolo" RCA 47-0147 Indianapolis |
| rowspan="2" | 1950
| Tefifon |File:Tefifon 4078533.JPG Electro–mechanical analog, vinyl belt housed in a cassette, used an embossing technique using a stylus to imprint the information, was the first thing to resemble a modern audio cassette |
| 16 2/3rpm vinyl record
|File:1959 Seeburg 16 rpm record.jpg Mechanical analog; lateral groove, horizontal stylus motion - played at half the regular speed of an LP |
| 1951
| Minifon P55 |File:Minifon Kassette.jpg Analog, magnetic wire on reel, 30 cm/s or about 11.8 ips was quickly adopted by many governments as being the ultimate "spy" recorder of its day |
| rowspan="2" | 1957
| Stereophonic vinyl record |File:Audio Fidelity first stereo LP.jpg Analog, with pre-emphasis and other equalization techniques. Combination lateral/vertical stylus motion with each channel encoded 45 degrees to the vertical |
| Dictet
|File:Dictet cassette.png Analog, {{frac|1|4}} tape, 2.48 in/s, (3" reels housed 5.875 × 3 × .4375 inch cassette), developed by the Dictaphone Corp |
| 1958
| RCA tape cartridge (Sound Tape) (Magazine Loading Cartridge) |File:RCA Sound Tape Cartridge.png Analog, {{frac|1|4}} inch wide tape (stereo & mono), {{frac|3|3|4}} in/s & 1.875 in/s, one of the first attempts to offer reel-to-reel tape recording quality in a convenient format for the consumer market |
| rowspan="2" | 1959
| NAB Cart Tape (Fidelipac) |File:Fidelipac.png Analog, {{frac|1|4}} inch wide tape in cartridge, {{frac|7|1|2}} in/s & 15 in/s, Introduced in 1959 by Collins Radio, the cart tape format was designed for use by radio broadcasters to play commercials, bumpers and announcements |
| Synchrofax Sound Paper
| Magnetic coating on paper. |
| 1962
| 4-Track (Muntz Stereo-Pak) | Analog, {{convert|1/4|in|mm|adj=mid |
| wide}} tape, {{frac|3|3|4}} in/s, endless-loop cartridge |
| 1962
|File:CassetteTypes1.jpg Analog, with bias. {{convert|0.15|in|mm|2}} tape, {{frac|1|7|8}} ips. 1970: introduced Dolby noise reduction |
| 1964
| Sanyo Micro Pack 35 | File:Micro Pack thirty-five.jpg {{frac|1|4}} inch wide tape housed in a transparent cartridge measuring 2.6 × 2.9 × 1.9 inches, tape was stored on two reels residing atop one another, keeping the cartridge compact |
| 1964
| A cartridge format for embedding and easy handling usual 3-inch-tape-reels with {{frac|1|4}} inch tape, compatible to reel-to-reel audio recording in {{frac|3|3|4}} ips. |
| rowspan="2" | 1965
| 8-Track (Stereo-8) |File:8track inside.JPG Analog, {{frac|1|4}} inch wide tape, {{frac|3|3|4}} in/s, endless-loop cartridge |
| DC-International cassette system
|File:DC-International Kassette.jpg Analog cassette format introduced by Grundig, Telefunken and Blaupunkt: 120 × 77 × 12 mm cassette with {{frac|1|4}} inch wide tape run at 5.08 cm per second. |
| 1966
| PlayTape | File:PlayTape.png Analog, {{frac|1|8}} inch wide tape, endless-loop cartridge, introduced by Frank Stanton |
| rowspan="2" | 1969
|File:Microcassette and minicassette.jpg Analog, {{frac|1|8}} inch wide tape, used generally for note taking, mostly mono, some stereo (developed in the early '80s). 2.4 cm/s or 1.2 cm/s |
| Minicassette
| Analog, {{frac|1|8}} inch wide tape, used generally for note taking, 1.2 cm/s |
| 1970
| Quadraphonic 8-Track (Quad-8) (Q8) |File:Quad 8 Track (white background).jpg Analog, {{frac|1|4}} inch wide tape, {{frac|3|3|4}} in/s, 4-channel stereo, endless-loop cartridge |
| 1971
| Quadraphonic Vinyl Record (CD-4) (SQ Matrix) |File:Crystal Awards004.jpg Analog, introduced by CBS Records for matrix and RCA / JVC for CD-4 Recorded two tracks on both stereo channels, requiring a decoder to hear all four tracks. Despite this, the format is playable on any LP turntable. |
| 1971
| HiPac | Analog, a successor of the 1966 PlayTape, using tape width of the 1963 Compact Cassette, Japan only |
| rowspan="2" |1976
| Dolby Stereo cinema surround sound | Analog |
| Elcaset
|File:Elcaset and Compact Cassette size comparison.jpg Analog, name comes from "L-Cassette/Large Cassette" |
| 1982
| Compact Disc (CD-DA) |File:Compact Disc-Korrosion-03.jpg Digital. Linear PCM (LPCM) |
| 1986
| High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD) |File:HDCD.png Digital. Redbook compatible physical CD containing 20–24 bit information (uses linear pulse-code modulation (LPCM)) |
| 1987
| Digital Audio Tape (DAT) |File:Dat-cartridge.jpg Digital. This audio format famously caused controversy among recording companies when released due to the potential of perfect digital copies to increase piracy{{Cite journal|date=1990-01-01|title=The challenge of introducing digital audio tape technology into consumer markets|journal=Technology in Society|language=en|volume=12|issue=1|pages=91–100|doi=10.1016/0160-791X(90)90031-7|issn=0160-791X|last1=Demetris|first1=Jordan}} |
| 1988
| Digital. Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) |
| rowspan="4" | 1992
| Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) |File:Digital Compact Cassette rear.jpg Digital, {{frac|1|8}} inch wide tape, {{frac|1|7|8}} in/s, introduced by Philips and Matsushita in late 1992, marketed as the successor to the standard analog compact cassette |
| WAV (file format)
| Digital. Named after the waveform created by a sound wave. |
| Dolby Digital Cinema Sound
| Digital. Also known as Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. |
| MiniDisc (MD){{cite web |author=Cornell University Library |author-link=Cornell University Library |location=USA |title=Digital Preservation and Technology Timeline |work=Digital Preservation Management |url=http://www.dpworkshop.org/dpm-eng/timeline/viewall.html |year=2003 |access-date=February 28, 2017 |archive-date=August 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150806054331/http://www.dpworkshop.org/dpm-eng/timeline/viewall.html |url-status=dead }}
|File:MiniDisc.jpg Digital. Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC) |
| 1993
| DTS, SDDS, MP3 (file formats) |File:Jurassic Park DTS CD-ROM Disc (1993).jpg Digital. Digital Theatre System (DTS), Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS), MPEG-1 Audio Layer III (MP3) |
| 1994
| TwinVQ | Digital. |
| 1995
| |
| 1997
| DTS-CD | Digital. DTS audio |
| 1998
| WavPack (file format) | Digital. PCM, lossless compression (2002 hybrid compression) (2016 DSD support) |
| rowspan="4" | 1999
| Digital. Including Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP), Linear PCM (LPCM), Dolby Digital (AC-3) and Digital Theatre System (DTS) |
| Super Audio CD (SACD)
| Digital. Direct Stream Digital |
| WMA (file format)
| Digital. Windows Media Audio |
| TTA (file format)
| Digital. The True Audio Lossless Codec. |
| rowspan="4" | 2000
| FLAC (file format) | Digital. Free Lossless Audio Codec (open, non-proprietary, patent-and-royalty-free) |
| Ogg Vorbis (file format)
| Digital. Vorbis compressed audio format (open, non-proprietary, patent-and-royalty-free) |
| DSDIFF (file format) |
| APE (file format)
| Digital. Monkey's Audio |
| 2001
| AAC (file format) | Digital. Advanced audio coding |
| 2002
| WSD (file format) | Digital. DSD |
| 2004
| Digital. Apple Lossless |
| 2005
| DSF (file format) | Digital. DSD |
| rowspan="2" | 2008
|File:SlotMusic.jpg Digital. Usually at 320 kbit/s MP3 on microSD or microSDHC. |
| Blu-spec CD
| Digital. PCM |
| 2012
| Opus (file format) | Digital. Opus lossy audio coding format (IETF standard, open, non-proprietary, royalty-free) |
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://recordinghistory.org/technology/history-of-the-technologies-for-recording-music-and-sound-an-overview/ History of Recording Technologies]
- [https://www.obsoletemedia.org/audio/ Museum Of Obsolete Media – Audio Formats]
{{DigitalPreservation}}
{{Audio formats}}
{{Music technology}}
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