Analog recording is a category of techniques used for the recording of

analog signal An analog signal (American English) or analogue signal (British and Commonwealth English) is any continuous-time signal representing some other quantity, i.e., ''analogous'' to another quantity. For example, in an analog audio signal, the ins ...

s. This enables later playback of the recorded analog audio. Analog audio recording began with mechanical systems such as the phonautograph and

phonograph A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration Waveform, waveforms are recorded as correspond ...

. Later, electronic techniques such as

wire file:Sample cross-section of high tension power (pylon) line.jpg, Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample d ...

and

tape recording An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present ...

were developed. Analog recording methods store analog signals directly in or on the media. The signal may be stored as a physical texture on a

phonograph record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The g ...

, or a fluctuation in the

field strength In physics, field strength refers to a value in a vector-valued field (e.g., in volts per meter, V/m, for an electric field ''E''). For example, an electromagnetic field has both electric field strength and magnetic field strength. Field str ...

of a

magnetic recording Magnetic storage or magnetic recording is the storage of data on a magnetized medium. Magnetic storage uses different patterns of magnetisation in a magnetizable material to store data and is a form of non-volatile memory. The information is ...

. Analog transmission methods use analog signals to distribute audio content. These are in contrast to

digital audio Digital audio is a representation of sound recorded in, or converted into, digital signal (signal processing), digital form. In digital audio, the sound wave of the audio signal is typically encoded as numerical sampling (signal processing), ...

where an analog signal is sampled and quantized to produce a

digital signal A digital signal is a signal that represents data as a sequence of discrete values; at any given time it can only take on, at most, one of a finite number of values. This contrasts with an analog signal, which represents continuous values; ...

which is represented, stored and transmitted as discrete numbers.

References

Film and video technology Film and video terminology Mass media technology Recording Television terminology Video storage {{Sound-tech-stub

See also

References