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 1874 to the 2010s.
Dates 1874 : Elisha Gray's Musical Telegraph 1876 : Alexander Graham Bell completed his designs for the telephone. This device contributed to electric technologies that would subsequently be used in music technology 1877 : The microphone was first invented by David Edward Hughes, despite Thomas Edison being granted the patent. Hughes discovered that electrical currents varied when sound vibrations were passed through carbon packed into a confined space. His first broadcast was of scratching insects. 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 : Utah Mormon and Nathaniel Baldwin construct the first set of headphones from an operator's headband and copper wire. Baldwin failed to commercialize the opportunity through attracting orders from private companies and even the Smithsonian Institution, though the Navy purchased hundreds of sets of them in anticipation of possible world war. 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, an instrument which is played without touching it, as it detects the proximity of the hands 1921 : First commercial AM radio Broadcast made by KDKA, Pittsburgh, PA 1925 : The Victor Orthophonic Victrola Phonograph was invented. A far superior product in comparison to other phonograph manufacturers was an acoustic sound design that was far superior to current offerings. 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, precursor to tape 1929/c. 1934: 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 completes the Westinghouse Organ 1930 : Freidrich Trautwein invents the Trautonium 1931 : RCA-Victor began manufacturing 33 1/3 vinyl record players. The Great Depression unfortunately made the market unreceptive due to their high cost and initial marketing of these devices being as "Program Transcriptions", rather than for listening to music. Despite their existence, it was not until 1948 that Columbia Records reintroduced this format. 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 The 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 (it picks up less sounds from the sides of the microphone, reducing unwanted sound pickup) 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 : Halim El-Dabh produces The Expression of Zaar, the earliest piece of electroacoustic tape music 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 reveals the first transistor 1948 : The microgroove 33-1/3 rpm vinyl record (LP) is introduced by Columbia Records 1951 : Pultec introduces the first passive 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 electro-mechanical drum machine 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 1968 : King Tubby pioneers dub music, an early form of popular electronic music 1970 : ARP 2600 is manufactured 1971 : Busicom's Masatoshi Shima and Intel's Federico Faggin complete 4004, the first commercial microprocessor 1977 : Apple founder Steve Jobs introduces Apple II, an early home computer 1981 : IBM introduces the IBM PC, a 16-bit personal computer 1982 : Sony and Philips introduce the compact disc 1982 : First MIDI synthesizers released, Roland Jupiter-6 and Prophet 600 1983 : Introduction of MIDI, unveiled by Roland's Ikutaro Kakehashi and Sequential Circuits' Dave Smith 1984 : Apple markets the Macintosh computer 1985 : Atari releases the Atari ST computer, designed by Shiraz Shivji 1986 : The first digital consoles appear 1987 : Digidesign markets Sound Tools
Japan-specific timeline
This section shows the Japan-specific timeline of music technology. Note: Some items in the list are not the first even in Japan.
1934 : NEC engineer Akira Nakishima's switching circuit theory lays foundations for digital circuit design 1935 : Yamaha releases Magna Organ, an early electrostatic reed organ 1963 : Keio Electronics (later Korg) produces the DA-20, an earliest electronic drum machine in Japan 1964 : Ikutaro Kakehashi debuts Ace Tone R-1 Rhythm Ace, their first electronic drum 1965 : Nippon Columbia patents their early electronic drum machine 1966 : Korg releases Donca-Matic DE-20, an early electronic drum machine 1967 : Ace Tone releases FR-1 Rhythm Ace, the first electronic drum machine to enter popular music 1967 : First PCM recorder developed by NHK 1968 : Sharp engineer Tadashi Sasaki conceives single-chip microprocessor 1968 : Release of Shin-ei's Uni-Vibe, designed by Fumio Mieda, an effects pedal with phase shift and chorus effects 1969 : Matsushita engineer Shuichi Obata invents first direct-drive turntable, Technics SP-10 1972 : Sord Computer Corporation develop Sord SMP80/08, an early microcomputer 1973 : Yamaha releases the Yamaha GX-1, the first polyphonic synthesizer 1974 : Yamaha builds the first digital synthesizer 1976 : Boss, a Roland subsidiary, releases Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble, the first chorus pedal 1977 : Roland release MC-8 Microcomposer, their early microprocessor-driven CV/Gate digital sequencer 1977 : Sord Computer Corporation introduces Sord M200, an early home computer 1977 : Panafacom releases the Lkit-16, an early 16-bit microcomputer 1978 : Roland releases CR-78, the first microprocessor-driven drum machine 1979 : Casio releases VL-1, the first commercial digital synthesizer 1980 : Fujio Masuoka invents flash memory at Toshiba 1980 : Roland releases TR-808, a widely used drum machine in popular music 1980 : Roland introduces DCB protocol and DIN interface with TR-808 1980 : Yamaha releases GS-1, the first FM digital synthesizer 1980 : Kazuo Morioka creates Firstman SQ-01, the first bass synthesizer with a music sequencer 1981 : Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi conceives MIDI 1981 : Roland releases TB-303, a bass synthesizer that lays the foundations for acid house music 1981 : Toshiba's LMD-649, Japanese first PCM digital sampler, introduced with Yellow Magic Orchestra's Technodelic 1983 : Roland releases TR-909, the first MIDI drum machine 1983 : Yamaha releases DX7, the first commercially successful digital synthesizer The Yamaha DX7 goes on to become one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units. 1983 : Roland releases MSQ-700, their first MIDI sequencer 1985 : Akai releases the Akai S612, a digital sampler 1988 : Akai introduces the Music Production Controller (MPC) series of digital samplers 1990 : The music production program Logic Pro was created by German software developer C-Lab, which later became known as Emagic. 1994 : Yamaha unveils the ProMix 01 2002: Apple acquires Logic Pro
See also Sound recording
References