From mono to surround - a brief history of sound

In recent years, the high-quality sound that accompanies our everyday lives has been taken for granted. The internet gives access to new or classic albums that often sound just as good as if we heard them on a physical medium. Just twenty years earlier, things weren't quite the same, and in what follows we'll look at key moments in the history of sound to consider what the future holds.

In the beginning was the mono

Experiments with sound recording began in the late nineteenth century. From the phonograph of Edward-Léon Scott de Martinsville, to the phonograph of Thomas Edison, all the way to the gramophone record of Emile Berliner, all recordings of the time were monophonic. That is, all instruments, voices and sounds are mixed together to be played by a single speaker. The fact that all the elements in the recording come from the same source is far from the main problem of early recordings. The quality of the recorders and media is also far from perfect. Still, they carry the spirit of a bygone but important era.

Mixing in mono is practiced to this day. In mono the sound lacks the sense of depth and space, you can't take advantage of stereo effects like reverb, delay, imaging etc, but by single channel mixing you can deal with issues like phasing or frequency masking. If a piece sounds good in mono, it will certainly sound good on any type of speakers. You'd be surprised how many people listen to music in mono - bluetooth speakers, speakers at the airport or in the store, the radio in the car, sometimes even the sound system at your favorite club.

Bloomline's Stereo Picture

British engineer Alan Bloomline was the brains behind the invention of stereophony, although there are reports of similar experiments in Germany. He patented his discovery in the 1930s, but died before he could create speakers that could achieve a convincing stereo effect. For nearly two decades his idea languished in obscurity, but fortunately his mission was continued. The 1950s also saw the first stereo phonograph records, but the development of the format would continue in the decades that followed.

The first attempts at stereo recordings were quite problematic. Often there seemed to be a hole in the centre of the sound picture. Labels began to release albums in mono and stereo, and the results varied. John Coltrane's legendary ‘A Love Supreme’ in mono sounds much more natural and organic than the stereo version, where we hear the saxophone on the left, the piano and bass in the middle, and the drums all on the right. Although hardcore fans of The Beatles swear by their mono albums, their 1969 ‘Abbey Road’ was only released in stereo because the two-channel sound was used as a compositional element. Stereo takes the soundtrack to its next level of development - it becomes part of the creative process. The goal is to create musical products that are composed, arranged and produced for home listening. Sound recording is no longer just a means of documenting musical performances.

The digital age and surround sound
Experiments with multi-channel sound systems began in the film industry as early as the 1950s. Composers of experimental electroacoustic music from the same period also became interested in them. In 1967, Pink Floyd performed the first rock concert with quadraphonic sound, and 15 years later, the eternal experimentalist Brian Eno released the album Ambient 4: On Land, the cover of which contains instructions on how to make your own three-channel audio system. Surround configurations like 5.1 or 7.1 have the same drawback as stereo speakers - the listener has to be in a certain place to feel the maximum effect.

Over the last ten years, the hottest topic in surround audio has been Dolby Atmos. In this format, soundbars lose their traditional roles as channels (left, right, center, etc.). For it is not mixed by sending certain instruments, groups of instruments or sounds to a channel because Dolby Atmos works with audio objects that are placed in a three-dimensional sound space. Apple's Spatial Audio technology also lets you hear your favorite albums in a whole new way with devices like 3rd Gen AirPods, AirPods Pro, Beat Fits Pro, or Apple TV 4K.

Surround technologies are unlikely to find application in all musical genres, but pop music and electronica are certainly already benefiting from their potential, not just on record but live. The Sphere (Las Vegas), Ministry of Sound (London), MONOM (Berlin) and Envelop (San Francisco) are a few of the venues that offer multi-channel concert sound, where artists can unleash their musical ideas in 360 degrees.