Abstract
‘Electronic sound’ explains the conversion of sound to electricity through the development of microphones, amplifiers, and loudspeakers. There are several types of microphones, but only three types in common use: the dynamic or moving coil microphone, the condenser microphone, and the piezoelectric microphone. Directionality is also important; an omnidirectional microphone is equally sensitive to sound from any direction, and is required to capture a full soundscape, whereas a unidirectional microphone picks up sound from one direction only—ideal for picking up speech or song in noisy environments. The development of sound storage from stereophonic phonographs, to analogue cassette tapes, compact discs, and now MP3 audio files is also described.
