DDrift

Chapter 02 of 5

The Microphone Changes Singing

Crooners, radio, magnetic tape and a guitarist who recorded with himself.

  1. The Arrival

    Electrical recording

    From 1925 record companies switched to electrical recording using microphones. Sound quality leapt forward.

  2. The Subtlety

    Every whisper

    Microphones could pick up soft, intimate sounds that acoustic horns had missed.

  3. The Style

    Crooning

    Singers no longer had to belt. A new style emerged: crooning, a soft, close, conversational way of singing.

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Could you answer this?

Why did Bing Crosby invest in magnetic tape?

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📻 The Sound That Changed Everything

  1. 01Capturing SoundThe first recordings, a talking tinfoil machine and why pop songs last three minutes.
  2. 02The Microphone Changes SingingCrooners, radio, magnetic tape and a guitarist who recorded with himself.
  3. 03The Studio as InstrumentWalls of sound, backwards guitars and the Beatles' sonic experiments.
  4. 04Machines Make MusicThe synthesizer, the sampler and the six-second drum break heard on thousands of records.
  5. 05From CD to Auto-TuneDiscs, downloads, streams and the pitch fixer that became a sound of its own.