The TASCAM Portastudio was the first four-track recorder based on a standard compact audio cassette tape. The term portastudio is exclusive to TASCAM, though it is generally used to describe all self-contained cassette-based multitrack recorders dedicated to music production. The Portastudio, and particularly its first iteration, the Teac 144, is credited with launching the home-recording wave, which allowed musicians to cheaply record and produce music at home, and is cited as one of the most significant innovations in music production technology.
30-480: The Teac 144 Portastudio made its debut in 1979, at the annual meeting of the Audio Engineering Society . It was followed by several other models by TASCAM, and eventually by several other manufacturers. For the first time it enabled musicians to affordably record several instrumental and vocal parts on different tracks of the built-in four-track cassette recorder individually and later blend all
60-728: A Board of Governors and officers, who jointly set policies and procedures for the Society. The AES is a tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation headquartered in New York. The AES publishes a peer-reviewed journal, the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society ( JAES ). The AES produces two conventions each year as well as a number of topic-specific conferences. The fall convention is in North America and
90-881: A band to actually hear themselves and have the audience hear what the band was hearing on stage. The band made copies of the book for all of the Dead's sound crew. The Wall of Sound influenced all modern high-quality PA systems for live music. Harry F. Olson was born in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, on December 18, 1901. He was the first of two children. His parents were Swedish immigrants. Olson married Lorene Johnson of Morris, Illinois in 1935. Both his mother and his wife were talented amateur artists — Lorene's paintings were displayed in Olson's RCA office for many years. Olson died at Princeton Medical Center in Princeton, New Jersey on April 1, 1982, at
120-507: A charge to both members and non-members. The AES Gold Medal is the Society's highest honor, and given in recognition of outstanding achievements, sustained over a period of years, in the field of Audio Engineering. The award was established in 1971; it was formerly known as the John H. Potts Memorial Award. The AES British Section, which was the first and is also the largest outside the US, issues
150-518: A consensus system open to anyone materially affected by such standards, develops and publishes a number of standards on the subject of analog and digital audio recording, transmission, and/or reproduction. Notable standards include: AESSC also provides input to IEC for development and revision of international standards in audio engineering. AES does not charge for participation in the standards process, but does charge non-members for online copies of published standards. Printed copies are available for
180-557: A monthly newsletter and holds regular lectures, usually in London, with occasional visits to studios and other places of interest. Lectures, which are often on topics of topical interest to audio enthusiasts are usually recorded, with past lectures available to all as free MP3 downloads, sometimes with accompanying slides in PDF format. Although there are several German sections of the AES and there
210-660: A standard two-sided stereo cassette, the second two channels would play in reverse. An additional feature was support for external signal processing during recording and on final output. Audio Engineering Society The Audio Engineering Society ( AES ) is a professional body for engineers, scientists, other individuals with an interest or involvement in the professional audio industry. The membership largely comprises engineers developing devices or products for audio, and persons working in audio content production. It also includes acousticians , audiologists , academics, and those in other disciplines related to audio. The AES
240-400: A thing, and that they were interested in holding an organizational meeting. He asked interested persons to contact him for details. The response was enthusiastic and encouraging. Fellow engineer Norman C. Pickering published the date for an organizational meeting, and announced the appointment of LeBel as acting chairman, and himself as acting secretary. The organizational meeting was held at
270-562: Is no formal connection to the Verband Deutscher Tonmeister , the goals and activities of both organizations are closely related and there are several instances of double memberships, e.g. in the persons of Benjamin Bernfeld, Gerhard Steinke and Günther Theile. Harry F. Olson Dr Harry Ferdinand Olson , E.E., Ph.D. (December 28, 1901 – April 1, 1982) was a prominent engineer and inventor with RCA Victor ,
300-493: Is the only worldwide professional society devoted exclusively to audio technology. Established in 1948, the Society develops, reviews and publishes engineering standards for the audio and related media industries, and produces the AES Conventions , which are held twice a year alternating between Europe and the US. The AES and individual regional or national sections also hold AES Conferences on different topics during
330-599: The Gold Medal in 1981. He won the IEEE Lamme Medal in 1970, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1959, and was the recipient of many honorary degrees during his lifetime. Olson retired from RCA in 1967, continuing as a consultant for RCA Laboratories. Shortly after World War II, Dr. Olson conducted an experiment, now considered a classic, to determine the preferred bandwidth for
SECTION 10
#1732791401797360-558: The RCA Victor Studios in New York City on February 17, 1948. Acting chairman LeBel spoke first, emphasizing the professional, non-commercial, independent nature of the proposed organization. Acting Secretary Norman Pickering then discussed the need for a professional organization that could foster an exchange of knowledge in this quickly-growing field. The group agreed to form the Audio Engineering Society, and confirmed
390-535: The University of Iowa then continued to earn a master's degree with a thesis on acoustic wave filters in solids and a doctorate in physics , working with polarization of resonance radiation in mercury . Immediately after completing his course of study in 1928, Olson moved to New Jersey to work for RCA Laboratories. Olson would remain at RCA for almost four decades. Olson had a continuing interest in music, acoustics, and sound reproduction, and, by 1934, he
420-565: The dynamical analogies between electrical, acoustical and mechanical systems. In 1949, Olson was honored by being the first recipient of the Audio Engineering Society's John H. Potts Memorial Award , an award program which was later renamed the gold medal. In 1953-4 Olson served as president of the Acoustical Society of America , which awarded him the very first Silver Medal in Engineering Acoustics in 1974 and
450-544: The Acoustic Research Director of RCA Laboratories, Princeton , and a pioneer in the field of 20th century acoustical engineering notably in the fields of high-fidelity, digital music synthesis, microphones, loudspeakers, acoustics, radar, submarine communication, magnetic tape and noise reduction. Olson wrote ten books including Dynamical Analogies , on electrical-mechanical-acoustical analogies , and had over one hundred patents. Harry F. Olson
480-488: The acting executive committee, which consisted of John D. Colvin, C. J. LeBel, C. G. McProud, Norman C. Pickering and Chester O. Rackey. The first AES technical membership meeting followed on March 11, with about 3500 attendees. The guest speaker at the first meeting was Harry F. Olson , a prominent engineer and scientist at RCA and author of Acoustical Engineering , who spoke on Problems of High-Fidelity Reproduction . As of 2020 has over 12,000 members. Members elect
510-404: The complex four-track production of late-sixties Beatles compositions. A limitation was the introduction of tape hiss, which was a particular issue with early models. This was eliminated with more recent digital models. Unlike standard audio cassette machines that recorded a pair of stereo channels per side, the cassette-based Portastudios recorded four channels in one direction. If you played back
540-497: The fields of underwater sound and anti-submarine warfare . After the war Olson, along with Herbert Belar, developed the first modern electronic synthesizer. Equipped with electron tubes, the Mark II Sound Synthesizer was used to compose music, which was recorded and sold to the public. A prolific inventor and engineer, Olson was awarded more than 100 patents for the various types of microphones (including
570-483: The following decades. The design and manufacture of everything from microphones , to tape recorders , vinyl records , amplifiers, and loudspeakers were impacted. The Grateful Dead 's early sound engineering team, led by Owsley Stanley and Dan Healy , considered Harry Olson's 1957 book "Acoustical Engineering" the Dead's "bible" on building the Wall of Sound (Grateful Dead) , the first touring sound system that allowed
600-473: The machines were four-track, but there were also six-track and eight-track units. Some newer digital models record to a hard disk , allowing for digital effects and up to 32 tracks of audio. The Portastudio supported the bouncing of content between tracks, such as creating a mix of three tracks and recording the sum onto the fourth track. By carefully balancing the volume and equalization, this could be done multiple times to create very lush tracks, reminiscent of
630-816: The parts together, while transferring them to another standard, two-channel stereo tape deck ( remix and mixdown ) to form a stereo recording. The Tascam Portastudio 244, introduced in 1982, improved upon the previous design with overall better sound quality and more features, including: dbx noise reduction, dual/concentric sweepable EQ's, and the ability to record on up to 4 tracks simultaneously. In general, these machines were typically used by amateur and professional musicians to record demos , although they are still used today in lo-fi recording. The analog portastudios by TASCAM (a division of TEAC ) and similar units by Fostex , Akai , Yamaha , Sansui , Marantz , Vestax , Vesta Fire, TOA, Audio-Technica, Peavey, and others generally recorded on high-bias cassette tapes. Most of
SECTION 20
#1732791401797660-455: The range only below 5000 Hz. At first, a small orchestra sat and performed on one side of the screen, while a group of test subjects sat on the other and listened. The listeners were asked to select their preference between two conditions: full bandwidth or restricted bandwidth. There was overwhelming preference in favor of the full bandwidth. Next, the orchestra was replaced with a sound-reproduction system with loudspeakers positioned behind
690-576: The reproduction of music. Previous experimenters had found that listeners seemed to prefer a high-frequency cutoff of 5000 Hz for reproduced music. Dr. Olson suspected that this was likely due to imperfections in the sound, especially in the higher frequencies, as reproduced by equipment in common use at the time. These imperfections included clicks and pops (from 78 rpm recordings ), added noise (from AM radio broadcast static), hiss and harmonic distortion (from amplifier circuits), and non linear frequency response from primitive loudspeaker designs. If
720-539: The screen instead. When the sound system was free of distortion, the listeners preferred the full bandwidth. But when he introduced small amounts of nonlinear distortion, the subjects preferred a restricted bandwidth, thus demonstrating clearly the importance of high quality in audio systems. As a result of this experiment and the work of others, such as Avery Fisher and later Edgar Villchur , high fidelity sound recording, transmission, and reproduction equipment saw increased investment, development, and public acceptance in
750-437: The sound was free of these problems, he reasoned, listeners would prefer full frequency reproduction. In his experiment, he set up a room which was divided diagonally by a visually opaque but acoustically transparent screen. The screen incorporated a concealed low-pass acoustical filter having an upper frequency cutoff of 5000 Hz. This filter could be opened or closed, allowing either the full range of frequencies to pass or
780-669: The spring convention is in Europe. The first convention was in 1949. 23 Technical Committees advise the AES Technical Council on emerging trends and areas of interest in the audio engineering community. The Committee meetings, held at Conventions, are open to participation by members and non-members alike, and are the venue for planning workshops, seminars and conferences in specific technical areas. The AES has been involved in setting technical standards for audio since 1977. The AES Standards Committee ( AESSC ), through
810-456: The widely used 44- and 77-series ), cardioid (directional) microphones, loudspeaker baffles , air-suspension loudspeakers , isobaric loudspeakers , early video recording equipment, audio recording equipment, phonograph pickups , underwater sound equipment, noise reduction , sound technology in motion-pictures , and public-address systems he developed. He also authored 135 articles and ten books including an interdisciplinary text charting
840-504: The year. The idea of a society dedicated solely to audio engineering had been discussed for some time before the first meeting, but was first proposed in print in a letter by Frank E. Sherry, of Victoria, Texas, in the December 1947 issue of the magazine Audio Engineering . A New York engineer and audio consultant, C.J. LeBel, then published a letter agreeing, and saying that a group of audio professionals had already been discussing such
870-493: Was born in Mount Pleasant, Iowa , to Swedish immigrant parents. Technically inclined from an early age, he built and flew model airplanes, constructed a steam engine and invented a wood-fired boiler that drove a 100-volt DC generator. Olson designed and built an amateur radio transmitter, gaining enough proficiency to be granted an operator's license. Olson went on to earn a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from
900-494: Was placed in charge of acoustical research at RCA. At RCA, Olson worked on a wide range of projects, which included developing microphones for the broadcasting and motion picture industries, improving loudspeakers , and making significant contributions to magnetic tape recording . Like many engineers of the World War II generation, Olson also made significant contributions to military technology as well, particularly to
#796203