page_title: History of multitrack recording
section_title: Digital multitracking
hierarchical_section_title: History of multitrack recording / Digital multitracking
caption_attribution_description: Grabador Multipista Digital de disco duro Alesis HD24
context_page_description: Multitrack recording of sound is the process in which sound and other electro-acoustic signals are captured on a recording medium such as magnetic tape, which is divided into two or more audio tracks that run parallel with each other. Because they are carried on the same medium, the tracks stay in perfect synchronisation, while allowing multiple sound sources to be recorded asynchronously. The first system for creating stereophonic sound was demonstrated by Clément Ader in Paris in 1881. The pallophotophone, invented by Charles A. Hoxie and first demonstrated in 1922, recorded optically on 35 mm film, and some versions used a format of as many as twelve tracks in parallel on each strip. The tracks were recorded one at a time in separate passes and were not intended for later mixdown or stereophony; as with later half-track and quarter-track monophonic tape recording, the multiple tracks simply multiplied the maximum recording time possible, greatly reducing cost and bulk. British EMI engineer Alan Blumlein patented systems for recording stereophonic sound and surround sound on disc and film in 1933.
context_section_description: By the early 1970s, Thomas Stockham of Sound Stream Digital, created the first practical use of pulse code modulation, also called PCM digital recording, for high fidelity purposes. The first to be released were rereleased cleaned up versions of acoustic recordings made by the great tenor, Enrico Caruso. Early computer algorithms were used in the process of cleaning up the scratchy old 78 RPM records. The process could not be done in "real time" as the early computers were not very powerful or fast, compared to 2010-era computers. All of the data had to be stored on linear digital tape and then played back, in real time. The actual ingest from the 78 RPM records to the digital tape was also done in real-time. The computer processing to clean up the surface noise, pops and scratches took the early computers quite some time to process.
  By the late 1970s, 3M introduced the first digital multi-track recorder. It used 1-inch wide tape and recorded 32 tracks. Unlike analog tape, edits could not be accomplished with a grease pencil, razor blades and splicing tape. So a secondary 4 track editing & mix down recorder was also created with an electronically-controlled edit controller to make effective digital edits. This early system used a 16-bit digital "word". The only converters of the day were 12 bit & 4 bit. So two were cascaded/daisy-chained to create the necessary 16-bit "word" for 96 DB of dynamic range. The signal was then sampled faster than any other digital recordings made up until that time at 50,000 times per second (50 kHz). It was known to be the best sounding of all the later digital multi-track recorders because their use of 50 kHz sampling did not become the industry standards later established as 44.1 kHz for CD's & 48 kHz for digital video.
  The accepted world standard was created by Sony along with Philips. Sony created a 24 track digital recorder and Mitsubishi Corporation created a different 32 track digital recorder. The Mitsubishi recorded their data differently and it could be edited, the old-fashioned analog way, with a razor blade and splicing tape. The Sony used 1/2-inch tape whereas the Mitsubishi used 1 inch wide tape. So the first recordings that were released produced on the 3M, 32 track digital recorder were still analog vinyl releases, since the CD had yet to be invented. These professional linear tape digital recorders established the "DASH" format meaning, " Digital Audio Stationary Head". By the time the other manufacturers released their digital multi-track recorders, the CD had already been developed. The sampling rate dictates the upper range of the frequency response, whereas the bit depth dictates the dynamic range and signal to noise ratios.
  Starting in 1992, the ALESIS Corporation, a company which made digital drum machines and inexpensive analog audio mixers introduced the first multitrack, eight track, project studio, digital 8 track machine. It was named the ADAT, after the earlier 2 track digital recorders of the time known as DAT (Digital Audio Tape), which were based upon a small spinning head, similar to a consumer video recorder. The ADAT machine recorded its data in an already well-established consumer format based on VHS videotape recorder technology. Eight separate data tracks were recorded within the same bandwidth it took to record a TV show on a home video recorder (VHS). Numerous machines could be electronically locked together with a single cable. You could plug in enough 8 track machines together to create one giant 128 track machine. And like the professional studio recorders before it, a large full function remote control was also available.
  The following year, the TEAC/TASCAM Corporation, introduced their DA-88. Those used the smaller 8 mm video format tapes. Those recorded four duplexed pairs of data tracks and would require a "read before write" function for overdubbing purposes of adjacent tracks. A full size remote and remote metering was also made available. Later units introduced by both companies provided for higher bit depths such as 20 & 24 bit. These machin
caption: The Alesis HD24 stand-alone multitrack hard disk recorder.
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