Recording

"Recordings" redirects here. For the Porcupine Tree album, see Recordings (album).

Recording is the process of capturing data or translating information to a recording format stored on some storage medium, which is often referred to as a record or, especially if an auditory or visual medium, a recording.

Types

Historical records of events have been made for thousands of years in one form or another. Amongst the earliest are cave painting, runic alphabets and ideograms.

Ways of recording text suitable for direct reading by humans includes writing it on paper. Other forms of data storage are easier for automatic retrieval, but humans need a tool to read them. Printing a text stored in a computer allows keeping a copy on the computer and having also a copy that is human-readable without a tool.

Technology continues to provide and expand means for human beings to represent, record and express their thoughts, feelings and experiences. Common and easy ways of recording information are by sound and by video.

Analogue and digital

Recording is commonly denoted by a solid red circle or the letters REC on professional and consumer equipment.

Analogue recording records analogue signals only.

Digital recording records both analogue signals and digital signals.

See also

• Recording (real estate)
• Recording consciousness
• Sound recording
• Writing

Further reading

• McWilliams, Jerry. The Preservation and Restoration of Sound Recordings. Nashville, Tenn.: American Association for State and Local History, 1979. ISBN 0-910050-41-4
• Read, Oliver, and Walter L. Welch. From Tin Foil to Stereo: Evolution of the Phonograph. Second ed. Indianapolis, Ind.: H.W. Same & Co., 1976. N.B.: This is an historical account of the development of sound recording technology. ISBN 0-672-21205-6 pbk.
• Read, Oliver. The Recording and Reproduction of Sound. Indianapolis, Ind.: H.W. Sams & Co., 1952. N.B.: This is a pioneering engineering account of sound recording technology.
• St-Laurent, Gilles. "Notes on the Degradation of Sound Recordings", National Library [of Canada] News, vol. 13, no. 1 (Jan. 1991), p. 1, 3-4.am:ቀረፃ