Finally Moving On

Transition from Vinyl to 8-track Tape

The main recording technique during the early 50‘s and a little later on is still vinyl recordings and engineers in America continued to develop this technique even though it was not an editable medium. The Hot stylus technique was developed in 1951 for disk recording to ease the strain on the cutter and give a smoother groove for the needle to later read. But eventually, people started to see the multiple benefits of tape recording. This now made audio smaller and easier to transport as well as lasting longer, holding more information in a much smaller volume and the obvious benefit of being able to edit the recording. A company named Ampex led the way in the mainstream development of the tape recorder announcing its Model 300 professional studio recorder in the later part of 1949. From there they then developed a 4-track, 35mm magnetic film system and in 1954 released its Model 600 portable tape recorder. The first commercial 2-track tapes are not even released until the end of 1954 when tape first begins to be widely used.
    From this point on magnetic tape recording explodes and within two years, Les Paul creates the first 8-track recording method. 3M continues to improve their magnetic tape system. Noise reduction continues to improve and eventually, in 1963 compact cassettes are released by Phillips. Digital tape recording finally takes over studio recordings in 1975. From this point on the digital world of audio exploded. In the same year the first digital reverb unit was released by a company known as EMT.