Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Timeline of music technology

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit

The timeline of music technology provides the major dates in the history of electric music technologies inventions from the 1800s to the early 1900s and electronic and digital music technologies from 1917 (the date of the Theremin's development) and electric music technologies to the 2010s.

Dates

  • 1874 : Elisha Gray's Musical Telegraph
  • 1876 : Alexander Graham Bell completed his designs for the telephone
  • 1877 : Thomas Edison and Emile Berliner simultaneously invented the first prototypes of the phonograph
  • 1888 : Thomas Edison introduces the electric motor-driven phonograph
  • 1896 : Edwin S. Votey completes the first Pianola
  • 1898 : Valdemar Poulsen patents the Telegraphone
  • 1906 : Thaddeus Cahill introduces the Telharmonium to the public
  • 1906 : Lee De Forest invented the Triode, the first vacuum tube
  • 1910 : Vladimir Baranoff-Rossine constructed the Piano Optophonique
  • 1912 : Major Edwin F. Armstrong is issued a patent for a regenerative circuit, making radio reception practical
  • 1915 : Lee de Forest created the Audion Piano
  • 1917 : Leon Theremin invented the prototype of the Theremin
  • 1921 : First commercial AM radio Broadcast made by KDKA, Pittsburgh, PA
  • 1926 : Jorge Mager presented his electronic instruments, in the Spharaphon line
  • 1927 : Pierre Toulon and Krugg Bass invent the Cellulophone
  • 1928 : René Bertrand invents the Dynaphone
  • 1928 : Fritz Pfleumer patents a system for recording on paper coated with a magnetizable, powdered steel layer. A precuser to tape.
  • 1929 : Laurens Hammond created the first Hammond Organ
  • 1929 : Nikolay Obukhov commissioned Michel Billaudot and Pierre Duvalie to design the Sonorous Cross
  • 1929 : Peter Lertes and Bruno Helberger developed the Hellertion
  • 1930 : Robert Hitcock comletes the Westinghouse Organ
  • 1930 : Freidrich Trautwein invents the Trautonium
  • 1931 : Alan Blumlein, working for EMI in London, in effect, patents stereo
  • 1932 : Nicholas Langer built the Emicon
  • 1932 : Yevgeny Alexandrovith Sholpo constructed the Variophone
  • 1932 : Harry F. Olson patents the first cardioid ribbon microphone
  • 1933 : Ivan Eremeef invents the Gnome
  • 1934 : Milton Taubman constructed the Electronde
  • 1935 : BASF prepares first plastic-based magnetic tapes
  • 1936 : Harald Bode designed the Warbo Formenn Organ
  • 1936 : Oskar Vierling and Winston Kock designed the Grosstonorgel
  • 1937 : Orson Welles, first director to use studio electronics, during his broadcast of War of the Worlds
  • 1938 : Georges Jenny develops the Ondioline
  • 1938 : Benjamin B. Baur of Shure Bros. engineers a single microphone element to produce a cardioid pickup pattern
  • 1939 : Homer W. Dudley invented the Parallel Bandpass Vocoder
  • 1940 : Karl Wagner early development of Voice Synthesizers, precursors of the vocoder
  • 1940 : Homer W. Dudley introduced the Voder Speech Synthesizer
  • 1940 : The Hammond Organ Company releases the Solovox
  • 1941 : Commercial FM broadcasting begins in the US
  • 1944 : Harold Rhodes built the first prototype of the Rhodes Piano
  • 1945 : The Hammond Organ Company commissioned John Hanert to design the Hanert Synthesizer
  • 1946 : Jennings Musical Instruments releases the Univox
  • 1946 : Raymond Scott patented the Orchestra Machine
  • 1947 : Constant Martin constructed the Clavioline
  • 1948 : Bell Laboratories reveal the first transistor
  • 1948 : The microgroove 33-1/3 rpm vinyl record (LP) is introduced by Columbia Records
  • 1951 : Pultec introduces the first active program equalizer, the EQP-1
  • 1952 : Harry F. Olson and Herbert Belar invent the RCA Synthesizer
  • 1952 : Osmand Kendal develops the Composer-Tron for the Canadian branch of the Marconi Wireless Company
  • 1955 : Ampex develops “Sel-Sync” (Selective Synchronous Recording), making audio overdubbing practical
  • 1956 : Les Paul makes the first 8-track recordings using the “sel-sync” method
  • 1956 : Raymond Scott develops the Clavivox
  • 1958 : First commercial stereo disk recordings produced by Audio Fidelity
  • 1958 : Evgeny Murzin along with several colleagues create the ANS synthesizer
  • 1958 : At Texas Instruments, Jack Kilby creates the first Integrated Circuit
  • 1959 : Daphne Oram develops a programming technique known as Oramics
  • 1959 : Wurlitzer manufactures The Sideman, the first commercial electronic drum machine
  • 1963 : Keio Electronics, (later Korg) produces the DA-20
  • 1963 : The Mellotron starts to be manufactured in London
  • 1963 : Phillips introduces the Compact Cassette tape format]
  • 1963 : Paul Ketoff designs the SynKet
  • 1964 : the Moog Synthesizer is released
  • 1970 : ARP 2600 is manufactured
  • 1981 : IBM introduces a 16-bit personal computer
  • 1983 : Development of MIDI
  • 1984 : The Apple Corporation markets the Macintosh Computer
  • 1986 : The first digital consoles appear
  • 1987 : Digidesign markets “Sound Tools
  • 1994 : Yamaha unveils the ProMix 01

    • References

    Timeline of music technology Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA