The Compact Disc represents a multi-disciplinary field. While only a data storage medium by itself, the CD industry involves a variety of activities that pertain to developing, producing, marketing and distributing the contents as well as the discs themselves. CD technologies have brought about fundamental changes in the way music is produced and used. Relying on digital rather than analog technology, CDs and other technologies like DVDs and MP3s have revolutionized music recording and even the recording industry itself. This analysis will explore the difference between analog and digital technology to demonstrate the kind of equipment, computer technologies, and reproduction technologies that are encompassed in modern CD technology.
Upon their introduction in the early 1980s, the only purpose for CDs was to store music in digital format. Before understanding how digital recording and playback work, we need to look at the difference between analog and digital technologies. Thomas Edison’s original phonograph worked by using a mechanical diaphragm controlled by a needle. The needle would scratch an analog wave representing the vibrations of sounds. While the cylinder rotated, a needle scratched (recorded) sound onto the tin. When the diaphragm vibrated so did the needle connected to it and marks were etched on the tin. When you wanted to hear the recorded sounds, you merely moved the needle over the scratched grooves made during the recording process. In 1887, Emil Berliner improved on this analog recording system with the invention of the gramophone whose major improvement was “the use of flat records with a spiral groove, making mass production of the records easy” (Brian 3). Modern phonographs still operate using the same method, but instead of recording the signals picked up by the needle mechanically they are amplified electronically. In this type of system, a pure tone is a sine wave vibrating at a certain fr...