ABSTRACT
While much of our current focus on music technology concerns computers, it is really recording technology-in particular the tape recorder-that has had the biggest impact on music making and learning in the twentieth century. The integration of computing and recording in the form of sampling and digital recording makes the distinction between computers and digital recorders, if not quite semantic, at least a matter of degree. The computer has taken over the role of primary recording device and at the start of the twenty-first century its cousin, the Internet, is quickly becoming the primary music distribution channel. Downloaded tracks and original recordings can be transferred to portable music players, such as the Apple iPod, for listening anywhere. In this chapter I will explore ways in which recording technology can be useful in music education, as well as provide a road map of the principles and mediums of recording and production. We begin by looking at how short digital recordings, samples, were the first use of computing technologies for recording, then go on to examine hard disk recording practices that eventually replaced tape recording for the most part.
