One of the important pioneers in the world of audio recording is Major Jack Mullin. Although he was a soldier in the US, he was also interested in technology. When he moved through Germany, mopping up Nazis at the end of World War II, he discovered a secret broadcasting lair. Inside, he found two specially-modified tape machines.
The idea of a tape machine wasn’t that big of a deal because they were known to exist by many people. What made these two machines special is that they employed technology that greatly enhanced the quality of audio they could store.
Major Mullin realized this, disassembled one of the machines, and had it sent back to the States. Once home, he got a company called Ampex interested in the tech, and magnetic audio tape recording was introduced to the market.
To say that magnetic audio recording shook up the music industry doesn’t even begin to explain its effects.
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