Gizmodo
Audio historian David Giovannoni and scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered and brought back to life the first audio recording ever made, 17 years before Edison's patent. The ten-second snippet was made on a phonoautograph, a device that only recorded sounds but didn't play them back, so they had to do some voodoo to resurrect it and play it back. And after you hear it, you will agree on the voodoo part.
Audio historian David Giovannoni and scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered and brought back to life the first audio recording ever made, 17 years before Edison's patent. The ten-second snippet was made on a phonoautograph, a device that only recorded sounds but didn't play them back, so they had to do some voodoo to resurrect it and play it back. And after you hear it, you will agree on the voodoo part.
The audio recording, a verse of "Au Clair de la Lune" sung by a woman/zombie/spirit/ghostard, was made by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville. Scott was a Parisian typesetter and inventor who invented the phonoautograph, and died thinking Edison stole his idea for recording sound (just like he stole and ran Méliès out of the movie business).
However, while the fact is that Edison stole many things, this is not one of them, according to Giovannoni: "Edison is not diminished whatsoever by this discovery." Another scholar, Paul Israel, director of the Thomas A. Edison Papers at Rutgers University remarked that "what made Edison different from Scott was that he was trying to reproduce sound and he succeeded."
The phonoautograph is a device that only prints the sound it captures, but it can't reproduce it. Giovannoni and his team had to digitally process the recording, made on April 9, 1860, to create the version you can listen to here. [NYT]
Comments
Voodoo?
Who do?
Hello Beautiful. Where did you get that one from, Jesus?
@strider_mt2k: You just made me think of David Bowie in tight pants.
I bet if you play that backwards it will summon the Eshu de Cappa Preta.
THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELLS YOU!
*** DUSTYBUTT BEGINS TO FLICK HOLY WATER EVERYWHERE ***
That line that separates an original idea versus one that was stolen is very much a matter of perspective, isn't it? It is impressive that even back in the 1870's we have an example of a contested patent. Whether we agree with the merits or not (and, based on this, probably not), it certainly does lend credence to the argument that patents need a major upgrade.
(By the way, I have patented the concept of a patent upgrade.)
This was only possible because they used Pear Cables.
@chasema: Actually I thought of Maxim Reality from the Prodigy..
"The Voodoo who do what you don't dare do..."
@Lukewpnunn: do what?
Uhhh... Giz... American Idol is going to get pissed what with you guys playing back audio snippets and snapshots from their show, are they not?
If you could never hear it again, what is the point in recording it?
@johnnyabnormal: But then they couldn't play it back anymore because the cat ate the cables.
uhh did i hear her say, "redrum, redrum"? lol
@strider_mt2k: That Voodoo that you do.
@strider_mt2k: Hoodoo Voodoo by Wilco came to mind...
this is how our society will see cassettes in about 50 yrs.
heh they used Monster paper though, probably not worth it.
Bernie?
The "recording" was eah. But the video was awesome!!
@duckballs: I like the idea of recording something that has the potential of never being heard again. The arcaic recording medium makes the object all the more precious and interesting. The thought of a paper material containing sonic data is jaw-dropping to me....but then again, I am a sucker for the analogue goodness.
I thought about Hedley Lamar.
Go on, put a scream over that last part. You know you want to.
Do that voodoo that you do so well.
Wow, it records things but you can't play it back?
I think I'll make claims like that about everything.
"See that sheet of loose leaf paper sitting on the desk? It's no ordinary sheet of loose leaf. It is a recorder. It takes still photographs of everything around it. What? You want me to actually see the pictures? It isn't capable of doing that. But trust me, they are very hi-rez"
Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville was then promptly sued by concert musicians for destroying their business model.
This makes an old 4 track reel-to-reel I have, feel awesome again!
What's cool/brilliant, is that they were able to convert that old recording to audio.
Looks like that song was "Top of the Pops" back in the 1860's. I guess he was trying to figure out how to get a ringtone on his iPhonoautograph.
I nearly shat myself. I've got a weak stomach for spooky ish like that, thanks giz.
Ooooooooo scary!
The end reminded me of one of those "follow-the-maze-until-a-grusome-creature-pops-out-and-scares-the-shit-out-of-U" games.
Only without actually scaring anyone.
@wjousts: I see what you did there.
@strider_mt2k: quoting the Teen Girl Squad back to me? For shame!
In related news, the RIAA has filed suit against audio historian David Giovannoni and scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for making digital copies of the original work.
"A device that only recorded sounds but didn't play them back".
I think Gibson patented that a few years ago.
@Peeje: DAMN YOU RIAA!!! DAMN YOU TO HELLLLLLL!!!!!!!
lol
great joke =D
I think this is how Ghost Hunters records there stuff. But, this sample sounds much clearer.
Very cool.. All but the stupid bloody pic. That was lame.
Klingon opera it's not.
If you couldn't play them back, how could they prove the thing worked? Could a third party look at that graph at all and be able to decipher what they're looking at?
-----______-----_____----======+++_---___-__
That translates to the secret of life. Don't worry, it'll make sense someday when they can decipher it.
@Way: after Leo Fender and Rickenbacker of course ....
@suburbancowboy: My laptop's screen is a HD write-only fingerprint reader.
write-only: In-freaking-fallible security. NOBODY can read it. EVER.
naturally. this is what all recordings sound like having traversed hell and back.
@DustyButt: lmao
Reminds me of that freaky-ass video recording from the movie Event Horizon for some reason. Oy!
they already did this on CSI, with a clay pot and some lasers...
The RIAA files a lawsuit against Martinville and Gizmodo in 5...4...3...2...
I like listening to the songs at the same time. (original and 1931 versions.) It makes me "feel" the music.
Well now we know that the sound could played back. Sure it took 148 years! But we now know. Shame nobody is still left from when it was made to hear it but, whatever.
Also this story kind of reminds me of the guest that Chris Perillo had on Tech TV one day. The guy brought in some cylinders from early Edison recording (or something to that effect) and he dropped one. The irreplaceable item shattered on the floor.
In the light of the moon, Peirrot, respond?
Pretty amazing. And yes, Edison is well known for being the Bill Gates of his time. Can't invent it, buy it and sell it as your own invention.
Remember, it was Edison that insisted that DC power be used, thank god he didn't win that battle. Kind of reminds me of the HD-DVD vs BluRay battle...or vis-versa.
@duckballs: and to expand on @Jimbuck: The idea was, like a sonogram, to figure out a way to optically decode the sound. It apparently went no where. The clipping is caused because of the range of recording device, and that same problem is something that digital recording still has problems with.
I love how the earliest known deliberate recording is on an optical medium. It makes CD's not look so modern. I always wondered why optical recording never caught on. It is non destructive, and was common place from the first talking pictures.
Oh well, if I had a working time machine.
John Fogerty here.
@flyboy: Not to mention Les Paul.
Oh, wait. He did both...
Carly Simon here.
@DeadWriter: Not to mention player piano rolls which also, after all, store music as binary digital information.
sounds like: bjork as a fetus singing through untrasound from inside the womb. ...close?
It sounds like dying pigons.
If that's what the machine actually looked like, I can only imagine how much more advanced technology would be today if inventors of the past hadn't wasted so much time putting pointless curlycues into everything they built.
Is it just me, or does it sound like a cat in heat trapped in a foot locker?
jeez...ok, this whole 'edison stole this idea' business is just run o' the mill press bullshit...there were tons of different audio recording media before edison came along...he just packaged his better/standardized the medium.
i read a few years back that they found a whole ton of old wax cylinder recordings dating from the middle of the 19th century (including recordings of florence nightingale and lincoln!) in the stacks at the library of congress...problem was they were all dried up and cracked and unplayable. so, they started scanning them with an electron microscope and turned the images into audio using some sort of difference engine...
@jimbuck...if you like the analog goodness you should have seen this piece i saw at the whitney in new york a few years ago...it was by this art group that specialized in technology that never existed...they made a video set-up that used vinyl records to record a few minutes of PXL-quality b/w video...the camera was crazy! the player just looked like a record player hooked up to a tv...
Oh cool... it says Paul McCartney's great-grandfather is dead.
Turn the paper inside out and you can hear Sabbath
lyrics The lyrics are "Au clair de la lune, mon ami Pierrot". Didn't sound so spooky to me, but I'm French ;-)
@jdhuck