Audio Recording — Questions and answers
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What could Scott de Martinville's Phonautograph machine do?
Choices
- A. It could play back the sounds it captured.
- B. It could make the machine speak what it had seen.
- C. It could draw sound waves as lines on paper. ✓
- D. It could make the patterns mean something to the ear.
Answer: C. It could draw sound waves as lines on paper.
From page 2
What kind of material did Jean and Scott de Martinville think they needed to successfully record and play back sound?
Choices
- A. A material that absorbs and holds energy without returning it.
- B. A surface that offers no resistance to the stylus.
- C. A material that can return the energy, like a spring. ✓
- D. A very soft and easily torn paper.
Answer: C. A material that can return the energy, like a spring.
From page 3
What was Thomas Edison working on right before he thought about recording human voices?
Choices
- A. Creating brighter electric lights.
- B. Making a system to record and replay telegraph messages. ✓
- C. Designing better wax-coated paper disks.
- D. Improving Morse code signals.
Answer: B. Making a system to record and replay telegraph messages.
From page 4
How did Emile Berliner's Gramophone make it easier to share recorded music with many people?
Choices
- A. It used wax cylinders that could be shaved down and re-recorded.
- B. It was a flat disc that could be easily pressed into many copies from one master. ✓
- C. It recorded sound vertically, which was a new method.
- D. It made fragile tubes that artisans copied by hand.
Answer: B. It was a flat disc that could be easily pressed into many copies from one master.
From page 9
What big change did audio recording bring to music?
Choices
- A. It made music only available through live performances.
- B. It stopped music from being a shareable art form.
- C. It turned music into something that could be mass-produced and shared widely. ✓
- D. It made music harder to find and listen to.
Answer: C. It turned music into something that could be mass-produced and shared widely.
From page 10