(fabris) the very first phonograph used tinfoil as a recording medium.t the time, he was working on improving alexander graham bell's telephone and was also trying to develop a recording telegraph, so he put these two ideas together in his mind and made essentially a recording telephone. if you were to walk into a recording studio in edison's era, there'd be no microphones. instead of a microphone, what was used was known as an acoustical horn or a recording horn. that was what captured the sound and transferred the sound waves onto the master record. ♪ is that a tear in your eye, dear? ♪ as the singer sang or a band played, the air in the room would vibrate and an acoustical recording horn would collect the sound waves, and these would be transferred through sound pressure down onto a cutting stylus which cut the sound pressure waves into the record. musicians really had to play for the recording equipment so you would set up the recording equipment, and then the musicians would gather around the recording horn, and, for example, if someone had a solo,