Listen to the oldest known recording of a human voice | BBC Global
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- Опубліковано 5 жов 2024
- Thomas Edison is often credited with being the first person to record sound.
But it was in fact a Frenchman named Edouard-Léon Scott de Martinville who invented sound recording via his phonautograph in 1857 - 20 years before Edison invented his phonograph.
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No auto tune back then, just raw talent.
🤣!
😅😂
😂
Simon Cowell would have been so proud if he was alive back then!
LOL well done.
Please someone remind the young audience that cassette player is not the ancient recording device from 1860s.
Also, you don't press record to playback.
@@Munakas-wq3gp Yes, he's just recorded over it.
Ha,
🤣
@@Richard_Ashton lol. I think the cassette player was just stock footage 🤔
All the way from recording audio on a metal sheet to now streaming it on the internet throughout the world. What an astonishing feat of humanity.
And it all happened in less than 200 years. Crazy how fast technology progresses!
Now if humanity would only desist from violence and wars maybe we would have even greater feats
I remember watching the early photos and whatever else from the New Horizons visit to Pluto on my phone, amazed that, as a kid, this was some cold rock in waytheheckout, and there I was, watching it not on the small black and white screen in my childhood home but a much smaller screen with higher resolution, just a few decades later.
@@leinster22 ⬅️ Found the communist!
Europeans were good with curiosity and making workable applications of their concepts. You guys are aliens, with those alien brains lol.
So haunting. The idea that he recorded that and never imagined someone would ever be able to listen or it. It's crazy.
I thought the idea of recording it was so that one day people would be able to hear it otherwise it’d be pointless
@@TayWoode I think it was more a test to see if he could record it. A scientific experiment.
Exactly. Stuff like this kind of freaks me out just as much as it fascinates me.
@@ericmackrodt9441 yeah but if how would he know if it had been recorded successfully if there was no way of playing it back to prove he had?
If you see what I mean
Incredible. A long dead voice being exhumed after almost 170 years.
Uh, it sounds eerie and magical😊
@suzylux: Little did he know that human beings, over the entire plane in the future, could listen to him sing that song. It wouldn’t even have been conceivable to him that would even be a possibility.
Who said he was dead? Don’t go jumping to conclusions.
@@jacobrivers5728Settle down, Dracula.
An archeologist found an ancient clay pot from several thousands years BC. It had a pattern on it that had been made with a stick. The grooves made on the pot contained analog information from vibrations transcribed into the clay. He put a laser to the pot and turned it and was able to replay the sound from inside the ancient pottery shop. It didn't sound like much, but it's from the time before the Roman Empire, not bad.
I was expecting, "Your call is very important to us. You are currently number 29 in the queue. Please wait 170 years for the next operative."
I was expecting “we’ve been trying to reach you about your car’s extended warranty.”
*buggy
😂
Oh, you are a Comcast customer, too?
Hahahhaa
It sounds like a wasp trapped inside a jam jar desperately trying to get out.
Yeah. People who throw around the term “lo-fi” today to mean “sparse arrangement” have NO IDEA what lo-fi really means, and they need to listen to this ass recording and get educated.
Singing potato.
Thats exactly what 1860 France was like. Stuck in a jar
😂
Heelllp me!
this never fails to bring tears to my eyes - can you imagine? of all of the powerful voices of the 1860s - all of the politicians and generals and celebrities - the one voice that has been saved from that time isn't the voice of someone powerful. It's the voice of an ordinary man singing claire de la lune. The first recording we have and it''s a song.
😢
makes me wonder about 'aliens' locating that gold record we sent to space......and hundreds of years from now, them finally sitting up all night to hear "i cant get no......satisfaction''''''' 🤣
We must salute that individual. He was a pioneer of karaoke 🎤
My replies are double posting I think, IDK. But yeah, imagine that, he had no idea he was going to live on, long after he passed. It truly is remarkable and made me tear up as well.
You just took it to a whole new level 😊
The first play was better than the second.
That's what I thought too!! Couldn't understand the second. At all.
@@robandrews4815 Second one sounded like a ghost.
I mean... shrug? If you played it back at 4x speed it would sound even better. Obviously halving the speed is going to halve the represented frequencies and make it sound more muffled. If the guy had ever envisioned that his recordings would be used for more than simply studying waveforms on paper, perhaps he would have finetuned it to pick up higher frequencies better, but we got what we got.
@@brianxyzI paid just $23, you've been bamboozled!!!
The first goth song ever.
This is why UA-cam is great, being able to randomly find stuff like this and learn something really cool.
And now we can play it back. [pushes record]
thats what happens when you ask a gen z to make a vid about old tech lol
Hahahah this is too right
“That was the last surviving copy.”
Just go back and dele. . .
I don’t hear anything. Oh my bad, I accidentally recorded over it.
I was hoping the voice will say
"Never gonna give you up"
rick astley was only a molecule swimming in a bladder back then
Bye 😂😂😂😂
@@fidelcatsro6948A bladder?
The world's oldest rickroll?! I think you're 127 years too early! 😆👍
The syncing with the tuning fork is very clever
That's also what caught my ear. I instantly thought damn that's good.
I thought it was a bit daft to play another sound while recording, and I don't quite how they did that without interference.
They could have used a purely mechanical device (like a clock) to draw on the paper at certain intervals.
That was very forward thinking, and suggests there was in fact an expectation that future generations would attempt to play back this recording.
@@brinta2868 Clocks aren't accurate. No one knows what clock they would have used. The frequency of a note is something that was understood then and now, and can be easily and accurately reproduced
It is the same method that made it possible for motion pictures to talk for many years. A 60 cycle tone was recorded along with the sound, by using this it was possible to determine the correct speed of the original and sync it to the film image.
Brought to you by the same technology used at drive through windows across the US.
Most underappreciated comment pol😅
Sounds like an angry bee.
The bee was angry that day my friend
When you're a bee and your job is to be angry, but you secretly dream about being a singer
3:14
Just pushed ‘Record’
There goes THAT historic recording.
😂😂😂😂😂
I thought the same thing 😂
I was thinking the same thing.
Their A&R man said, "I don't hear a single." The future was wide open.
The sky was the limit.
Into the great wide-open.
Under them skies of blue
A rebel without a clue
"Experts believe they can make out another voice, saying something about 'more cowbell'".
Man. I wish I was that encouraged to explore a topic enough to realize an unknown fact of a matter. Bravo to these people.
🙂💯👍
I think you'll eventually do it someday
my cat says
Sure you can! never give up!
@@fidelcatsro6948if that’s your cat in your pfp, then it’s a cutie 🥰
Play it backward and see if you can hear, "Paul is dead!"
Predictive programming
What in the world are you talking about?
@anti-ethniccleansing465 you never heard of the Beatles Paul is dead conspiracy?
@@timhollis3390😂😂
I buried Paul.
This should be no 1 in the charts.
😂😂😂😂😂😂
If the Billboard Hot 100 really existed in the 1800s...
@3:12 - someone accidentally pushes the "RECORD" button and erases the tape...
Freakin amateurs
That’s what I thought, he’s recording over whatever they recorded
That was so obvious I knew someone would comment on that.
They could use that bit if they do something about the Watergate tapes.
@@QuarrellaDeVilI think we're past that.
This is the short version of the recording. I heard that at the end of the full recording the man says "don't forget to subscribe and smash that like button!"
And click the bell!
@@RhomegaAnd dont forget to leave a comment below for the algorithm!
Why was I expecting the voice to say "We've been trying to reach you about your cars extended warranty"
😂😂😂😂😂
Because you are sleepy GenZzz
Good question. The recording is 170 years old. Perhaps it would be, ""We've been trying to reach you about your horse and buggy's extended warranty."
OMG
💀
Fascinating. Standing in my kitchen eating dinner in San Francisco, California 7/16/2024. Listening
You should buy a chair.
Bay Area!
hope it was carnivore
@@fidelcatsro6948
He said San Fran... vegan
No one calls it that.
Somehow that second version of the recording is harder to understand.
Yeah, the speed-corrected one sounds like straight ass compared to the double-speed.
Yes!
I agree.
That's incredible! As a recording engineer and music producer I have seen the evolution of audio technology in the past 30 years but to think it all started here makes me understand and marvel at how far the technology has come. Thanks for making this piece.
...i don't think you have to be over 30 to realize that the the guy presses record on the cassette deck at the end, and in fact you would hear nothing.
😂
Usually hitting play and record was for dual cassette decks in order to record from one tape to the other. I dunno what play + record would do on a single tape recorder.
@@RavenMobile it would record. on that model most likely from a built-in microphone, though it probably had RCA in as well as an external 1/8" microphone jack
@@RavenMobileMechanical buttons need rec + play pressed together to record. Since 'Play' turns the motor on
@@RavenMobile It would record nothing,since there's nothing connected.
Just forward to 3:30 to hear the voice
I think it’s worthwhile to listen to the first part of the video. I tend to get impatient myself but I’m glad I suffered through the first three whole minutes. Time well spent.
3:14 *
Little did that guy know that people in the future, all over the planet, could listen to him sing that song, on a small device they could hold in their hand. It would not even have been conceivable to him that would even be a possibility. What is it now - that we cannot even conceive of that will be an everyday thing 100 years from now ?
The mark of the beast
@@TaxingIsThievinglol wut
It's breathtaking to wonder just what will be available & it's scary too.
I just hope it's mainly wonderful stuff rather than scary things.
travelling faster than light
There’s something so incredibly eerie about this recording.
you dont press record on a tape recorder to play
He's recording over the precious tape! Somebody stop him!!
Thank you! I thought I was going nuts.
Also a tape recorder was in no way used in this process.
Anyone who knows how to use one of those old tape recorders understands that TWO buttons are required for record, not one. The Play button AND the Record Button.
I dont think that's the ACTUAL TAPE that records the audio being played. Maybe its just one of those stock videos to show its playing.
The one we are hearing is the recorded from that old machine
03:13 You’re welcome.
For skipping and not understanding the backstory. You're everything wrong with people
Thanks, but it was very interesting to listen to the man who discovered the way to play it
Summary: Édouard-Léon Scott recorded the vibrations caused by his voice in 1860 by having those vibrations vibrate a needle so it could write onto a rotating cylindrical surface. There was no way to play back what was on the cylinder, so thanks to this guy in the interview, Patrick Feaster, in 2008 he managed to decode and read from it, resulting in hearing the recorded sound from 1860 for the first time. That's amazing tech, and what is even crazier is knowing it has not yet been 200 years since that discovery. Stories like these really baffle me in how far technology has gone since the industrial revolution.
@Lexyvil: Can’t help but think that something else has been at play here. I don’t believe human beings developed this technology on their own merits. I’m not sure what.
@Lexyvil: Thanks for summarizing that.
Yeah,they were recording the new slowed down version on a tape recorder.they weren’t using that tape recorder for playback
Important Addendum: Scott used the stable frequency of a tuning fork recorded in a track alongside the voice track to remove variations in the hand-cranked speed of the recording. This may be the first known application of frequency clocking, which is used today in all digital applications.
Technically they were not trying to record a voice, they were just trying to ‘see it’ mapped out as the device drew the vibrations for visual representation. It’s remarkable this guy even thought to reverse the process and try to play it!
Astonishing and a little haunting
That is truly astounding. Like listening to the voice of a ghost
That guy was just 1 step short of creating the 1st record and/or phone.
Genius anyway. Great stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Gave me chills. Wow.
Well, those are the two scariest sounds I’ve ever heard..
Literally the voices of dead people.
@warwickscram1656 how do you know he's dead
@@robbiecollier501 Because he'd be like 250 years old if he was still alive?
@@warwickscram1656 your point?
@@robbiecollier501 are you stupid
It is wild as one can hear the "big bowl" sound that the chamber he crafted introduced into the "output transducer". That would qualify as the first audio transducer, in fact. A transducer is a device which converts one form of energy into another. In this case sinusoidal auditory vibrations against a flat membrane "drum head" which then 'transduces' into linear mechanical motion set up to cause a 'stylus' to engrave the vibrations onto a linear 'tape', appearing again to match the sinusoidal signature of the original stimulus. Now we do it with electrons, just like Antonio Meucci did.
3:09 here it is
Playing it back, it’s almost like hearing a ghost’s voice.
I read that Edouard-Léon Scott de Martinville visited the white house and demonstrated this device to Abraham Lincoln. This means that the potential exist for there to be a sound wave diagram of Abraham Lincoln's voice. Wouldn't that be something to hear?
You can even hear him rolling the r's when he says 'Pierrot'.
I remember hearing this some while ago on a Radio 4 programme. The presenter couldn’t stop herself laughing about it sounding like a bee trapped in a jam jar.
Indeed - Charlotte Green in 2008.
How many of the commenters here actually got that we may have been been "Listening to the oldest known recording of a human voice" ??
Got what? Been been?
“One more video before bed”
**the video**
That guy didn't even for a second know we'd be playing him over our digital devices on the internet 170yrs later
Isn’t that incredible?
People ’feel’ a voice. It’s vibratory. Hearing aids went from hon-looking funnels to digital. They weren’t capturing noise, they were capturing vibrations on a grand scale. Bravo.
The background music is absolutely unnecessary. It is annoying
Agreed: it is pointless, intrusive, and annoying.
Ah now I can't unheard it!
It is unnecessary but I don't find it annoying
FAR better than the dogshit on TikTok.
That happens in so many videos and television commercials. I'd rather have dead silence in between spoken word.
The end of the video have me the
'You're recording over it!'
Fear
1% the actual recording
99% explaining sound
As it should. What would you do with that sound if you wouldn't know the context?
From the time when BBC was still a quality label.
Now they need to digitally enhance that recording to reveal the undistorted voice.
If you'd ever heard the earliest versions of this recording, you'd already know that they did _considerable_ cleanup on the recording for this video. The original has crackle and pops like the most damaged audio you ever heard from film.
Autotune. “Lorde ya ya ya sittin on a Wednesday”
@@BenvolioCapulet9"Ya Ya Ya, I am Lorde, Ya Ya Ya"
Oldest that wasn't destroyed both purposely or accidentally. Either way, this approach is scientifically and technologically brilliant. Fantastic work!
Still better than most modern music.
Most modern music won't last 50 years, let alone 170
@@SpiderxPunkthe best music of every generation lasts for centuries. 99% gets lost.
Truth
@@SpiderxPunkPlenty of music from 50 years ago has survived. As for 170 years ago, 99.995% has not survived
@MagicToenail and it’s getting worse by the day. It really sucks
Sounds better than most music today!
This is a wonderful story, which I have followed for years. But I have a question: what's the point of the clip with the cheapo cassete player in the end? Are we supposedly hearing the voice through this thing? And, if we are, why is the hand pressing the RECORD button?!? Just "play" would suffice...
It was probably used as a prop for the video or the clip was taken from another video. Not the best choice.
'Stock footage' filler
They should have used a sped up video of a big drip of tar detaching from a big viscometer and falling.
The oldest recording of a voice isn't of a leader or a politician... but of a curious soul.
Combing, wrong focus, low resolution, horrible oversharpening, reels and cassettes to illustrate a 19th-century audio, playback is illustrated by pressing record button? What a mess.
I thought I was the only one to notice.
As someone with bad OCD, you are my kind of nitpicker.
Given that the tape recorder indicates it has “One Button Record” I’d assume that given the fact the Play button is already pressed the Record button is functioning as a Pause switch. Although I certainly don’t understand why they would introduce another layer of noise by recording the voice to a cheap tape recorder and replaying the song on it.
@@KevinBrown-v4j It'll be free royalty free stock footage
What's your opinion on politics? I bet you don't miss much
To hear a 167 year old voice was eerie - like listening to a ghost. I find it amazing!
Can’t believe we got 1876 “Clair de la Lune” before GTA VI 😔
But which was in development longer?😂
that's eerie
Dude explained it beautifully.
Since the first time I knew about this, in my childhood, this piece of recording gave me goosebumps even before hearing it for the first time. I had to wait for the internet to be a thing to search for it. It's one of very few things in the world that is difficult for me to listen.
How is you title about memory, any thing to do with recording the voice…
Maybe they made a mistake and fixed it, because the title I see, one day after you, is Listen to the oldest known recording of a human voice.
A recording is a memory.
Seems like they fixed the title.
This is beyond amazing. Edouard-Leon must be so proud.
I think BBC should really learn improving memory techniques, if you look at the title.
The distortion and low volume recording adds to its haunting quality
Interesting short video- but its not about memory?
Memorex!
What are you saying
Seems like they fixed the title.
Man from the past giving a message to the future ❤
In a weird way it worked. It reminded me of Charlotte Green's fits of laughter while reading the news after hearing this recording. So it sort of exercised my memory.
I'm listening to someone dead since 1850+?
I need to hear the whole audio
That's what I wanted too!
That was it I think
How fascinating.. and you can feel all the excitement, glee and joy in Dr Patrick’s voice as he is describing the discovery.. what a smart team of researchers
Interesting to hear BUT
no reel to reel, and no cassette, and NO OTHER magnetic tapes were used. Just some BS in this presentation. Heck, why not show a CD or DVD while they were at it.
Or a wire recorder?
It sounds better than anything put out in the last 20 years.
I’m confused as to why that tape recorder in the last shot needed to have its ‘Record’ button pressed if all it was doing was playing back the cassette… ?
They accidentally recorded over it. Damn.
Stock photo/video.
This needs to be on Spotify outrageous talent pitch perfect 👌🏼
“Uh yeah it’s gonna be a no for me dog”
The foresight that Edouard-Léon Scott de Martinville had in including the tuning fork reminds me of the Voyager Golden Record that was sent out into space in 1977 with detailed instructions on how to play it back to an alien race that had never seen a record before.
So that’s what Ozzy 🤘sounded like in the early dayz
Zoomers talking to millennials be like: so this is how music quality was when you were young?
'Recognizable' is a very generous description of that recording
no in French it is the go-to song, the most recognizable thing you can imagine. there is absolutely no doubt he is singing au clair de la lune. and it makes sense that if you are doing an experiment trying to artificially create a human ear, you would use this "signal". would have been nice to find his lab book recording the details of what he was doing .
@@alainprostbis 2 yeras old in 1970 this was the first song I learned to sing (Danish version that is). I even have it on an old reel tape. But 1860? I didn't know the original was that old. Yes, in France everyone would easily recognise this song.
So basically, the first ever voice actor ever. Incredible.
So, Edison didn’t invent the phonograph? 😂 Half right. His had playback.
And still not the first...
Hits play:
"Hi, we've been trying to reach you about your cars extended warranty."
👎 for the background music.
Dude recorded himself singing with no intention of it ever being played back or heard again. This would absolutely blow his mind.
While interesting, this is akin to someone writing a book in ink that can't be seen or read. Edison knew that to be useful, the sound has to come back out and be recognizable.
no thats not the point. you have the oldest voice recording, and that's all there is to it, but it is a lot. the oldest voice recording is a big deal. also he sold his inventions to several labs and analysis of sounds, of vowels, were made from his device. So it is extremely likely that any recording devices that followed built up on this first invention which was patented and scientifically published very openly.
Truly amazing! We just listened to a man singing from the 1800s!
I forgot what this video was about by the end.
I would probably get that checked out; something is seriously wrong with your brain. Maybe early onset dementia?
@@zm12123brain rot is real. These mfs have attention spans shorter than fruit flies 💀💀
It built to the singing potato.
Go see a doctor
That was a strong message. I almost cry. Thanks Mr. Bee 🐝
Many things are often attributed to Edison of which he was not the first.
They played it back in 2023. Edison did it about 150 years ago.
Playing this at 2am. Now I can't sleep anymore.
"We've been trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty."
No Gilmour solo, but still incredible!
164 years for people to hear that he was singing flat.
I was led to believe Thomas Edison was the first. He sang Mary had a little lamb, using exactly the same principle. More intriguing. Could you follow a persons lip movements on old films and convert to voice vibrations using a photo cell sensor?
How does this relate to memory? Has quality control been lost everywhere?
The last replay was so eerie.
So…recorded on a potato.