What is Sound recording and reproduction?
[[File:soundrecordingstamp.jpg|thumb|200px|A U.S. [[postage stamp]] commemorating one hundred years of sound recording]] {{Listen|filename=Au Clair de la Lune (1860).ogg|title=Au clair de la lune|description= Earliest recognizable recording of human voice, from 9 April 1860<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.firstsounds.org/sounds/scott.php|title=FirstSounds.ORG|publisher=}}</ref>|filename2=1860-Scott-Au-Clair-de-la-Lune-05-09.ogg|title2=Au clair de la lune|description2= The recording slowed down to match what is now believed to be the correct speed; the result reveals a man's voice, presumably Scott's.<ref>http://www.firstsounds.org/sounds/1860-Scott-Au-Clair-de-la-Lune-05-09.ogg{{Dead link|date=January 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>}} '''Sound recording and reproduction''' is the [[Recording|storage]] of [[sound]] and playing it back so that a person can hear the same sound more than once. It is a [[process]] wherein sound [[Wave (physics)|waves]] are [[wikt:capture|captured]] by a [[machine]]. The machine converts the waves into [[Analog signal|electrical signals]] or [[Digital signal|digital data]], that are then stored on [[Storage medium|recording media]] (such as [[gramophone record]]s, [[cassette tape]]s, [[compact disc]]s or computer [[hard drive]]s). The sound can then be played back by reversing the process. Most recordings are of [[music]], [[Speech|people speaking]] or [[singing]], and [[sound effect]]s. They are usually used for entertainment (fun), or for scientific and historical reasons. Sound is recorded onto a medium by different methods. The ways that recordings are made have changed a lot since sound was first recorded. ==Technology== ===Analog cylinder=== The first machines for recording sound were mechanical, not electrical. The [[phonograph]] was invented by [[Thomas Alva Edison]] in 1877. Phonographs have a spinning [[phonograph cylinder|cylinder]] covered in a soft material such as [[tin foil]], [[lead]], [[wax]], or [[amberol]]. Sound [[Wave (physics)|waves]] sh