Music, as a part of human spiritual and cultural fields, its communication mode and media technology develop synchronously with all human information communication. Any musical phenomenon in social life is inseparable from music communication. In these phenomena, or behind them, people "share" (partially understand) or "enjoy" (fully understand) the communicators' musical artistic intentions and musical ideas carried by music information (in the form of sound or score). In this way, the musical relationship between people is a musical communication relationship. Therefore, it can be considered that music communication is a social behavior of people whose music phenomenon can exist and whose music works can realize their functions. The essence of human music practice for thousands of years is the practice of music communication. In the infinite music communication chain counted by astronomical figures, various nationalities and regions have formed a number of music style systems, music mode frameworks and countless shining music art works. The spread of music has enriched the space-time environment of human beings. In the vast space-time field, music communication has deepened people's artistic thinking and made music one of the most precious spiritual wealth of mankind.
In the development of human information dissemination, the development of media technology is one of the most important driving forces, and the form of media is formed according to the development level of media technology. Media technology is directly related to all aspects of human life, and will inevitably affect human music communication activities. The development of media technology is the key factor for music to gradually develop from a folk self-entertainment activity into a mass cultural communication industry of the art of princes and nobles salons. Every major progress and invention of media technology has promoted social development and change, and also promoted the spread and development of music.
Primitive Music Communication —— An Incomplete Form of Music Communication
The most primitive communication tool in human history is language communication, and then about 3 1 10,000 years later, words appeared, that is, text communication, and then developed into printed communication. A large number of folk music phenomena enable us to infer the original form of music communication in the long historical development of human society. In this primitive form, people who participate in music communication only include music communicators (creation, singing and performance) and music receivers (listeners), without any media. The music disseminator transmits music information to the receiver, and the receiver receives the music information and sends feedback information in a corresponding way to coordinate the behavior of the music disseminator. Because there is no intermediary media and media technology to promote this mode of communication, the scope of music communication is small and the speed is slow, so in a long historical stage, music can only be the art of a few people, and music activities can only be local activities.
The invention of music score is a great event in the history of human music. The appearance of music score enables people to communicate and inherit music on a relatively standard platform. When music is spread by printing technology, its spread scale is greatly expanded. But this is only the spread of music text form, and the acoustic form of music cannot be recorded and copied. Therefore, print communication is still an incomplete form of music communication.
Realization of Human Dream —— Breakthrough of Recording Technology
Humans have long dreamed of recording sound directly without words, symbols or music scores. With the progress of science and technology, this dream has finally become a reality. /kloc-scientists in the 0/9th century realized that sound has energy. To this end, they further thought: how can we manage this energy to generate electricity? If we can control it and use it, then the recording and storage of sound is a natural thing.
1877 The recorder invented by American scientist Edison successfully managed the sound energy and established the first recording company in the world-Edison Recording Company. Since then, recording, a new recording profession, has developed around the world. From 65438 to 0888, emile berliner, a German-born American telecommunications technician, gave a demonstration lecture on the phonograph at Franklin College in Philadelphia, USA. The "phonograph" laid the foundation for the appearance of modern phonograph, and also became the historical starting point of world record history.
What really makes music enter the stage of mass communication is the development of modern audio technology.
1898 Danish polson invented the wire recorder, which was the first to record and play sound signals through magnetic orientation, laying a technical foundation for magnetic recording. 1928, german Fremaz company successfully coated magnetic powder on paper tape instead of steel wire, which solved the problems that steel wire is easy to twist off and difficult to couple with magnetic head. The invention of the tape recorder made a qualitative and quantitative leap in the recording industry. In 1930s, hand-held CD players and rough track records (78 rpm) became popular all over the world. In the late 1940s, it began to produce slow track records with dense track records (33 rpm) and its supporting electro-acoustic phonograph. In 1950s and 1960s, the United States and Britain began to develop and produce stereo records, and in 1970s, four-channel stereo records were born. The development of record industry has also promoted the development of radio broadcasting, making music mass communication a relatively complete system.
A Leap of Music Communication Technology —— From Analog to Digital
With the continuous progress of recording technology, analog cassette tape, as a substitute for vinyl disc (LP) that can't record new information, was first developed by Philip Company in 1963. This development not only allows users to play pre-recorded sounds, but also allows users to record new information. Analog cassette tapes continue to be sold in various formats, such as walkman and car stereo, because compared with other formats, analog cassette tapes have the advantages of low price, small size and simple operation, and their tape sales quickly occupy a large area of the record market. Cassette recorders are a convenient tool for people to spread and exchange music information.
The digital audio technology developed in 1970s is a milestone in the history of human communication. Analog recording is different from digital recording because it records a continuous signal, while digitization is to discretize the signal with sampling frequency, and then carry out quantization coding to generate binary discrete pulses. Sampling theory was founded by Nyquist of Bell Laboratories in the 1920s. He concluded that if the sampled signal contains a frequency band, as long as the sampling frequency is higher than twice the highest frequency of the frequency band, the original waveform can be restored without distortion. Although the discovery of Nyquist frequency pioneered digital audio, it was not until the late 1970s that low-cost and miniaturized laser and chip technologies were developed. Therefore, it can be considered that the development of Nyquist sampling theorem, lasers and chips led to the birth of the first generation of digital audio media CD, which was introduced to consumers in 1982.
Since the listing of CD-ROM, it has developed rapidly. In less than four years, it almost completely replaced LP compact records at the peak of the audio market. By 1997, consumers all over the world had nearly 600 million CD players, and the output of CD records exceeded 1000 billion. This is undoubtedly an earth-shattering event in the history of music mass communication.
1985, another digital playing and recording technology, namely digital audio cassette DAT, was developed. It consists of rotating magnetic head and PCM digital technology. The combination of this technology has greatly promoted the development of PCM digital cassette tape recorder. This recorder has a very wide dynamic range, low distortion, no jitter, no hiss of analog cassette and no external noise. Its design meets or exceeds the indexes of many standard digital devices. Unexpectedly, such a successful technology is a burden to oneself, because DAT may bring losses to the music and recording software production industry and artists' income. In order to prevent piracy and reproduction, the 1992 Home Recording Ordinance (AHRA) stipulates that companies making DAT must compensate the recording companies and artists for their copyright fees, and at the same time, they must attach restrictions to the recording. The success of DAT has had a great impact on the professional record market and computer technology, and at the same time, it has challenged the intellectual property field in music communication for the first time because of the advanced technology.
In the early 1990s, Sony developed the first MD player/recorder that was completely family-oriented. The MD player operates much like a CD player. The new function is that users can scrub, repeat and select specific tracks. At the same time, Philip Company has developed a DCC tape recorder compatible with analog tape and digital tape. In addition to the function of MD, another convenient feature of DCC is that it can record ID tags, that is, it allows the machine to skip unnecessary parts of the tape.
Although DAT, DCC, MD are all interested in entering the consumer market as soon as they are listed, it seems that these three technologies have their own different directions. DAT not only occupies a favorable position in the professional recording market, but also enters the computer market. However, DCC was launched one step later than DAT, and the sales volume was not good. On the one hand, MD combined with digital compression technology MP3 to replace the cassette player in the consumer market, on the other hand, it replaced the original bulky machine to enter the radio station, which also left a deep impression on the technological development of the computer industry. DAT and MD are still the main audio recording and playback technologies used by mass media organizations such as TV stations and radio stations.
In the professional audio technology market, a linear recording method for recording digital audio data on an audio tape in a vertical manner and a nonlinear method for processing sound by computer technology and storing the audio data in a digital memory or storage medium have been developed.
The biggest difference between tape-based recording system and sampling-based recording system is that the latter is random access. Random access means that digital audio data can be stored in read-only memory (ROM) or random access memory (RAM) or disk/disk-based storage media, and the data can be accessed and processed almost instantly, or played back in any order and at any time. The difference between magnetic tape media and random access media is that magnetic tape media is linear, and it needs to find the location where audio data is stored in the order of recording time. Can't say which media is better, each has its own advantages and disadvantages. In fact, in practical use, both media are widely used.
The recording system based on magnetic tape produces two formats: fixed head and rotating head. The fixed head uses DASH format, which was proposed by Sony, Stude, AG and Panasonic in 1980s. The DASH format was developed to establish a standard between digital tape recorders and different products of tape manufacturers. However, the price of DASH system is undoubtedly expensive.
The system for recording audio signals with rotating magnetic heads can be roughly divided into three formats: digital processor -VCR format, DAT (digital audio tape) format and MDM (modular digital multi-channel) recording format. Because the recording and playback of PCM digital signals need amazing data recording density, in order to work in such a wide frequency band, the spiral scanning mode of rotating magnetic head is adopted, which effectively improves the contact speed between the whole magnetic head and the magnetic tape, and can actually slow down the running speed of the magnetic tape, thus greatly slowing down the consumption of the magnetic tape.
In the history of modern recording, the introduction of modular digital multi-channel system (MDM) is a milestone development. MDM is a small multi-track digital video recorder, which can record eight-track digital audio signals on standard video tapes. This kind of tape recorder is called modular equipment because it can be interconnected in a special synchronous form and can add additional tracks (eight-track board) in the system, which can theoretically reach 128 tracks. The low price makes this modular and extensible recording system cause a burst of excitement in the music industry. Home recording studios have mushroomed. Musicians can carefully modify their creations in their own recording studios, and new technical means have been added to music communication. Sampling-based recording system has developed rapidly, including digital sampling system, hard disk recording system and computer audio workstation. Sound is sampled by computer technology, and audio data is encoded and stored in digital memory or storage medium, which can be used as sample text or sound text.
In recent years, Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) has developed into a special computerized hard disk recording system, and on this basis, it has realized basic and advanced editing and signal processing functions. Although a workstation can accomplish many audio-related functions independently, its greatest advantage lies in its obvious ability to combine other devices, production systems and functional software (for music production, etc.). In fact, these systems can cooperate with other systems to create a multifunctional environment, which can transmit data and perform tasks related to MIDI sequence sample playback, editing, sampling, hard disk recording, digital signal processing, synthesis and re-synthesis, and music reproduction.
Throughout the history of music and audio production, we have become accustomed to the concept that some devices perform special tasks: the recorder is responsible for recording and playback, the limiter is responsible for limiting, and the mixer is responsible for mixing. Accordingly, the digital audio workstation can be regarded as a chameleon, which can change its functions to adapt to different jobs. In fact, digital audio workstation is such a system, which can easily and quickly complete many tasks related to audio production.
The development of digital audio workstation not only has incomparable advantages in music production, but also promotes the development of digital audio broadcasting (DAB). DAB is an important part in the field of radio and television information dissemination, which has the characteristics of high quality, multimedia and audio-video integration. Its communication quality has reached the standard of CD and is the most ideal music communication medium.
Finally, the MIDI technology developed in the 1980s and its influence on music production and music communication are emphatically introduced. Simply put, MIDI is a digital communication language, which enables all kinds of compatible hardware in an Internet, such as multiple electronic musical instruments, real-time performance controllers, computers and other related devices to transmit information to each other. MIDI is used to convert behavior states related to performance or control into equivalent digital signals, and then transmit these signals to other MIDI devices to control sound generation or control various parameters in performance. The system can handle various new tasks in the field of sound production, including music production, video dubbing, film post-production, multimedia and stage performance design.
This system is accepted and recognized, largely because of its cost performance and product development speed. At present, MIDI instruments and equipment with different prices can be bought on the market. Once MIDI system is available, it usually reduces the need to hire other musicians for some works. At the same time, the multi-channel working environment of MIDI allows musicians to create, edit and intersperse music paragraphs very flexibly without recording them on multi-track recording tapes. This integrated production system with reasonable price, unlimited expansion potential and increasingly strong control ability has given birth to the personal production mode of audio industry. It makes it possible for individuals to practice the whole process of sound production in an ideal way in terms of cost and time efficiency. In addition, because MIDI is a real-time recording medium, it can be auditioned and edited at all stages of production, whether in a comfortable home or in a personal studio. From an artistic point of view, by using this digital language, musicians can create their own music or other works in a flexible, feasible and affordable environment. Musicians can not only make and play music, but also fully control the timbre (timbre and timbre attributes) of various sounds and their integration (real-time control such as equalization and pan) like technical guidance.
The development of MIDI technology has greatly integrated music creation, music performance and music production, greatly changed the mode of music communication, and made it easier for ordinary people to realize their dreams of becoming musicians. To some extent, MIDI technology is the embodiment of computer virtual reality technology in the audio field.
The Development Trend of Media Technology —— Digitalization, Interaction and Integration
We live in an era of rapid technological development. The era of human communication with the help of paper, pen and eraser lasted for 1600 years, and the era of pen without eraser lasted for more than 200 years. Before 1990, 16 was very different. Bell's telephone has created a way of real-time communication, and overseas broadcasting and cable TV have realized the globalization of communication. In the 1970s, we began to see the breakthrough development of large-scale integrated circuits, which made media technology and products more practical, compact and easy to manage. In 1980s, UNIX and PC made computer technology more widely used and popularized in various fields. Distributed computing and WWW appeared in 1990s, also known as the information age. Some people regard 2 1 century as the knowledge age.
In today's knowledge age, technological progress may change the lifestyle of society. 10 years ago, who could have predicted that the internet would have such an amazing impact on computers and communications? To be sure, the change from 1990-2006 will be greater than the previous 160. This amazing change will cause a * * in all fields of society, including music.
The biggest progress of media technology is the rapid transition from analog mode to digital mode, which is the general trend and will further promote the development of multimedia in the world. It is only a matter of time before digital audio will completely replace analog audio as recording and playing media. Maybe DCC, MD or DAT systems can't do this, but one day, digital audio will become the only sound source. With the rapid development of technology, a new recording/playing medium and technology may be born every year and every month, which will completely change the digital world we see and hear today.
Radio and television in music mass media will gradually upgrade from traditional single function and one-way broadcasting to interactive communication system. Due to the improvement of people's cultural quality, people of all ages, occupations and genders have different hobbies. They need different cultures, entertainment programs and information. For radio and television system, 2 1 century will be an era to meet the different requirements of different audiences. The on-demand of music programs and other film and television programs is bound to be the development trend of radio and television technology, and also the development direction of other media technologies.
Families in the 2 1 century will no longer be like this: they must enjoy music and obtain information through corresponding terminal equipment and network systems, such as radios, televisions, stereos and personal computers. With the integration caused by digitalization, the above process will be completed by integrated information terminal equipment and unified integrated information network. Musicians' activities, the display of musical works, the discussion of musical problems, etc. will be transmitted on this unified information network at any time. Music will spread faster, cheaper and more transparent.
Change, ubiquitous change, the future development of media technology will also become the fashion theme of the music industry.