The Sound Of Song

[TestMangler]

BBC Four, last three weeks. Anyone watch it ?

Catalogued the history of recorded music from the beginning too recent(ish) times.

Interesting stuff. Didn't realise multi track tape was so 'recent' and magnetic tape in general would have taken a lot longer of come about but for Bing Crosby !

[NotAllThere]

I've been watching it. Great stuff. I loved the story of Bruce Springsteen's "Nebraska". It's interesting that some bands (Nirvana) sound better when just recorded, and others need to be produced to get a good sound.

[DannyF1966]

I missed this series but knowing BBC4 it'll be repeated soon. Or I could get with the times and watch it on iPlayer on my phone while piggybacking on the totally open wireless internet of the company just down the corridor.

[TykeMerc]

What's impressed me is the speed at which mag tape went from single track mono 1/4" to 24 tracks on 2" tape, then 48 tracks on synched recorders.

Classic case of letting a bunch of talented engineers loose with a new technology and a mandate to see what they can come up with. The music business has innovated a fair bit, I think it's all the enthusiasts and whizzbang odd ideas that go with the creative natures.
Having worked with mainframes in my distant past and spent more than a few hours inside their tape drives it's clear some serious engineering time went into that technology too (related possibly?).

[darmstadt]

Having worked with mainframes in my distant past and spent more than a few hours inside their tape drives it's clear some serious engineering time went into that technology too (related possibly?).

Mmmm, tape cleaner fluid