It’s very easy to take microphone technology for granted, but it’s been with us since the 1860s or so. The initial invention by Emile Berliner, Thomas Edison, and David Edward Hughes was based on a carbon element that was fragile and really didn’t have much fidelity. It took around another 60 years until there was a major improvement, which came 100 years ago in 1925.
Before then, all recording was done by the band recording into a conical disc directly onto a disc (see below). Musicians complained that the result was limited dynamics that never captured the expression of the player (sound familiar?).
That was about to change on Feb. 25, 1925, when vocalist Art Gillham entered Columbia Phonograph Company’s studio to test out a new technology that would impact how we hear reproduced sound more than perhaps any other electronic audio innovation. That day, the studio microphone was born.
The microphone used, thought to be a ribbon mic designed by Harry F. Olsen, brought a new level of fidelity to recordings, and the technology only got better from there.
Venerable microphone manufacturer Shure is also celebrating its 100 year anniversary, although its first unit didn’t come around until 1931. That said, there’s a wonderful look back at the history of Shure below.
The studio microphone has both come a long way since then, and at the same time, not that far as we’re still using basically the same technologies. Regardless, thanks to a world of wonderful microphones, studio recording can sound better than ever.
