Recording is the process of capturing data or translating information to a recording format stored on some storage medium, which is often referred to as a record or, especially if an auditory or visual medium, a recording.
Historical records of events have been made for thousands of years in one form or another. Amongst the earliest are cave painting, runic alphabets and ideograms.
Ways of recording text suitable for direct reading by humans includes writing it on paper. Other forms of data storage are easier for automatic retrieval, but humans need a tool to read them. Printing a text stored in a computer allows keeping a copy on the computer and having also a copy that is human-readable without a tool.
Technology continues to provide and expand means for human beings to represent, record and express their thoughts, feelings and experiences. Common and easy ways of recording information are by sound and by video.
Analogue recording records analogue signals only.
The vast majority of states in the United States employ a system of recording legal instruments that affect the title of real estate as the exclusive means for publicly documenting land titles and interests. This system differs significantly from land registration systems, such as the Torrens System that have been adopted in a few states. The principal difference is that the recording system does not determine who owns the title or interest involved. That determination is ultimately made through litigation in the courts. What the system does do is to provide framework for determining whom the law will protect with relation to those titles and interests when a dispute arises.
The recording systems are established by state statute. They usually provide for the office of a recorder in each county or other jurisdiction. The names of these offices are usually the "Recorder of Deeds" or something similar. State statutes also prescribe the following elements: