Phonograph Record

The original author of the word phonograph was F.B. Fenby an inventor in Worcester, Massachusetts; he was granted a patent in 1863 for an unsuccessful device called the “Electro-Magnetic Phonograph”. His concept detailed a system that would record a sequence of keyboard strokes onto paper tape. Although no model or workable device was ever made, it is often seen as a link to the concept of punched paper for player piano rolls. Arguably, any device used to record sound or reproduce recorded sound could be called a type of “phonograph”, but in common practice it has come to mean historic technologies of sound recording. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the alternative term talking machine was sometimes used. The phonograph, or gramophone, was the most common device for playing recorded sound from the 1870s through the 1980s. Usage of these terms is not uniform across the English-speaking world. In more modern usage, this device is often called a turntable, record player, or record changer. The phonograph was the first device for recording and replaying sound.

A gramophone record (also phonograph record, or simply record) is an analogue sound recording medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed modulated spiral groove starting near the periphery and ending near the center of the disc. Gramophone records were the primary medium used for commercial music reproduction for most of the 20th century. They replaced the phonograph cylinder as the most popular recording medium in the 1900s, and although they were supplanted in popularity in the late 1980s by digital media, they continue to be manufactured and sold as of 2007.

The terms LP record (LP, 33, or 33-1/3 rpm record), EP, 16-2/3 rpm record (16), 45 rpm record (45), and 78 rpm record (78) each refer to specific types of gramophone records. Except for the LP and EP (which are acronyms of Long Play and Extended Play respectively), these type designations refer to their rotational speeds in revolutions per minute (RPM). LPs, 45s, and 16s are usually made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and hence may be referred to as vinyl records or simply vinyl.

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There is no doubt that electronics and related equipment have an impact on nearly every facet of life today. Everything from music to recreational equipment, from medical diagnostics to telephones rely upon components built with and containing electronics. Electronics equipment consists of input, processing and output modes, often accomplished by the use of circuit boards dedicated to one specific task.

The study of the movement of electrons, or electronics began with the inventions of telephones and telegraphs and has steadily gained more influence since that time. With the invention of the radio, however, electronics took a giant leap in development and has been growing at the same or an advancing rate since. For example, radio was followed by television. At the same radio was becoming more sophisticated as smaller units known as pocket radios were invented.

By adding headphones to a portable radio–music, news and entertainment the listener can listen without any outside noises entering into the listening zone. This makes entertainment very portable so that music and even games can be enjoyed while on the move.

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An electronic keyboard is a keyboard instrument that uses electricity to amplify the sound. Electronics keyboards are mostly used in musical instruments such as synthesizers, pianos and electric organs.

Electric organs are one the earliest instruments which used an electronic keyboard. They used oscillators and frequency dividers along with a network of filters to produce desirable sound in waveforms.

Keyboards reached a major milestone with the development of the synthesizer in the 1960s. Now, various advanced types of synthesizers using electronic keyboards are available in market.

Many instruments which have electronic keyboards are equipped with Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI). This helps in the diversified use of the electronics keyboard. Some keyboards are not attached to any instrument, but are only MIDI controllers.

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