Oldest Audio Record EVER!

SuchFriendsAreDangerous · 03.28.2008, 02:06 PM

Oldest recorded voices sing again

The recording was made using a phonautograph

Ancient audio

An "ethereal" 10 second clip of a woman singing a French folk song has been played for the first time in 150 years. The recording of "Au Clair de la Lune", recorded in 1860, is thought to be the oldest known recorded human voice.
A phonograph of Thomas Edison singing a children's song in 1877 was previously thought to be the oldest record.
The new "phonautograph", created by etching soot-covered paper, has now been played by US scientists using a "virtual stylus" to read the lines.
"When I first heard the recording as you hear it ... it was magical, so ethereal," audio historian David Giovannoni, who found the recording, told AP.
"The fact is it's recorded in smoke. The voice is coming out from behind this screen of aural smoke."
Sheet music
The short song was captured on April 9, 1860 by a phonautograph, a device created by a Parisian inventor, Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville.
The device etched representations of sound waves into paper covered in soot from a burning oil lamp.
Lines were scratched into the soot by a needle moved by a diaphragm that responded to sound. The recordings were never intended to be played.
It was retrieved from Paris by Mr Giovanni, working with First Sounds, a group of audio historians, recording engineers and sound archivists who aim to make mankind's earliest sound recordings available to all.
To retrieve the sounds scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in California made very high-resolution digital scans of the paper and used a "virtual stylus" to read the scrawls.
However, because the phonautograph recordings were made using a hand-cranked device, the speed varied throughout, changing the pitch.
"If someone's singing at middle C and the crank speeds up and slows down, the waves change shape and are shifting, Earl Cornell, a scientist at LBNL, told AP.
"We had a tuning fork side by side with the recording, so you can correct the sound and speed variations."
Previously, the oldest known recorded voice was thought to be Thomas Edison's recording of Mary had a little lamb. The inventor of the light bulb recorded the stanza to test another of his inventions - the phonograph - in 1877.
"It doesn't take anything away from Thomas Edison, in my opinion," Mr Giovannoni told Reuters.
"But actually, the truth is he was the first person to have recorded [sound] and played it back."
The new recording will be presented on 28 March at a conference of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections at Stanford University in California.

SuchFriendsAreDangerous · 03.28.2008, 02:08 PM

deal with it bob digi aka prince rakeim

m1rr0r dash · 03.28.2008, 02:08 PM

i bet da vinci did this also.

floatingslowly · 03.28.2008, 02:10 PM

that's awesome. I wish I could listen to that right now, but my work comp is soundless.

m1rr0r dash · 03.28.2008, 02:13 PM

no onboard sound card in yr cpu?

Rob Instigator · 03.28.2008, 02:24 PM

it is indeed very strange to hear "recorded" voices from 17 years before "mary had a little lamb." very cool stuff

SYRFox · 03.28.2008, 02:27 PM

That's really creepy to think that this voice comes from 150 years back in the past... can you imagine this was so far... that's incredible. I wonder if people will fall onto our records in 150 years and find it so creepy

Glice · 03.28.2008, 02:51 PM

Those reading this on the BBC may have noticed this related story

SpectralJulianIsNotDead · 03.28.2008, 03:24 PM

This is why analog rules.

the ikara cult · 03.28.2008, 03:27 PM

I prefer their earlier stuff

LittlePuppetBoy · 03.28.2008, 03:32 PM

Sounds like something a noise band would do nowadays..................strange.

king_buzzo · 03.28.2008, 03:34 PM

awesome!

✌➬ · 03.28.2008, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the ikara cult

I prefer their earlier stuff

That needed rep.

Danny Himself · 03.28.2008, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glice

Those reading this on the BBC may have noticed this related story

MY TAXES PAY FOR THAT FILTH?!

the ikara cult · 03.28.2008, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ✌➬

That needed rep.

Christ, the most obvious gag ever for this story and i get three positive reps!

so much for insightful points eh?

m1rr0r dash · 03.28.2008, 07:10 PM

ahhh! what was a kneejerk comedic reaction turns out to be inadvertantly clever because we were talking precisely about the very earliest analog recording ever.

the vanilla tapes of the analog world, that mythical outake tape from the unreleased debut album of the most obscure inde rock band ever. they burned the masters when another band out indie-rocked them by never actually forming a band.

terminal pharmacy · 03.28.2008, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpectralJulianIsNotDead

This is why analog rules.

Why?

m1rr0r dash · 03.28.2008, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by terminal pharmacy

Why?

what?

i'm sorry... i can't hear you - there's too much static on the line.

hello?

*click*

pbradley · 03.28.2008, 10:42 PM

And I don't have the software to listen to the clip.

I'll let the irony resonate.

terminal pharmacy · 03.28.2008, 11:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbradley

And I don't have the software to listen to the clip.

I'll let the irony resonate.

The big irony is that the original analog recording could only be reprodced with highend digital technology and then was uploaded into the digital domain.

software is incredibly easily to attain and generally can be found for free..... try find a phonautograph for free or infact anywhere outside of a nerd collector's house or a museum

03.28.2008, 02:06 PM	#1
SuchFriendsAreDangerous invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: fucking Los Angeles Posts: 14,801	Oldest recorded voices sing again The recording was made using a phonautograph Ancient audio An "ethereal" 10 second clip of a woman singing a French folk song has been played for the first time in 150 years. The recording of "Au Clair de la Lune", recorded in 1860, is thought to be the oldest known recorded human voice. A phonograph of Thomas Edison singing a children's song in 1877 was previously thought to be the oldest record. The new "phonautograph", created by etching soot-covered paper, has now been played by US scientists using a "virtual stylus" to read the lines. "When I first heard the recording as you hear it ... it was magical, so ethereal," audio historian David Giovannoni, who found the recording, told AP. "The fact is it's recorded in smoke. The voice is coming out from behind this screen of aural smoke." Sheet music The short song was captured on April 9, 1860 by a phonautograph, a device created by a Parisian inventor, Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville. The device etched representations of sound waves into paper covered in soot from a burning oil lamp. Lines were scratched into the soot by a needle moved by a diaphragm that responded to sound. The recordings were never intended to be played. It was retrieved from Paris by Mr Giovanni, working with First Sounds, a group of audio historians, recording engineers and sound archivists who aim to make mankind's earliest sound recordings available to all. To retrieve the sounds scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in California made very high-resolution digital scans of the paper and used a "virtual stylus" to read the scrawls. However, because the phonautograph recordings were made using a hand-cranked device, the speed varied throughout, changing the pitch. "If someone's singing at middle C and the crank speeds up and slows down, the waves change shape and are shifting, Earl Cornell, a scientist at LBNL, told AP. "We had a tuning fork side by side with the recording, so you can correct the sound and speed variations." Previously, the oldest known recorded voice was thought to be Thomas Edison's recording of Mary had a little lamb. The inventor of the light bulb recorded the stanza to test another of his inventions - the phonograph - in 1877. "It doesn't take anything away from Thomas Edison, in my opinion," Mr Giovannoni told Reuters. "But actually, the truth is he was the first person to have recorded [sound] and played it back." The new recording will be presented on 28 March at a conference of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections at Stanford University in California. __________________ Today Rap music is the Lakers
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03.28.2008, 02:08 PM	#2
SuchFriendsAreDangerous invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: fucking Los Angeles Posts: 14,801	deal with it bob digi aka prince rakeim __________________ Today Rap music is the Lakers
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03.28.2008, 02:08 PM	#3
m1rr0r dash invito al cielo Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: atari Posts: 2,228	i bet da vinci did this also. __________________
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03.28.2008, 02:10 PM	#4
floatingslowly invito al cielo Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 21,165	that's awesome. I wish I could listen to that right now, but my work comp is soundless.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

03.28.2008, 02:13 PM	#5
m1rr0r dash invito al cielo Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: atari Posts: 2,228	no onboard sound card in yr cpu? __________________
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03.28.2008, 02:24 PM	#6
Rob Instigator invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: In the land of the Instigator Posts: 27,930	it is indeed very strange to hear "recorded" voices from 17 years before "mary had a little lamb." very cool stuff __________________ RXTT's Intellectual Journey - my new blog where I talk about all the books I read.
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03.28.2008, 02:27 PM	#7
SYRFox invito al cielo Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Paris Posts: 7,492	That's really creepy to think that this voice comes from 150 years back in the past... can you imagine this was so far... that's incredible. I wonder if people will fall onto our records in 150 years and find it so creepy
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

03.28.2008, 03:24 PM	#9
SpectralJulianIsNotDead invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 7,409	This is why analog rules.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

03.28.2008, 03:27 PM	#10
the ikara cult invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: London sink Posts: 4,576	I prefer their earlier stuff __________________ "It is absolutely ridiculous, they are behaving like a cult" - The Vatican
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03.28.2008, 03:32 PM	#11
LittlePuppetBoy expwy. to yr skull Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Aylmer(now Gatineau), Quebec Posts: 1,756	Sounds like something a noise band would do nowadays..................strange. __________________
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03.28.2008, 03:34 PM	#12
king_buzzo invito al cielo Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 11,110	awesome!
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

03.28.2008, 07:10 PM	#16
m1rr0r dash invito al cielo Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: atari Posts: 2,228	ahhh! what was a kneejerk comedic reaction turns out to be inadvertantly clever because we were talking precisely about the very earliest analog recording ever. the vanilla tapes of the analog world, that mythical outake tape from the unreleased debut album of the most obscure inde rock band ever. they burned the masters when another band out indie-rocked them by never actually forming a band. __________________
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

03.28.2008, 10:42 PM	#19
pbradley invito al cielo Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: SoKo Posts: 10,621	And I don't have the software to listen to the clip. I'll let the irony resonate.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|