History of Looping and Sampling, something I read as being deficient

[matthew hahn <esker@mail.utexas.edu>]

I have read Looper Delight's history of looping, I have read a couple
book's dissections of sampling and looping, I have read magazines ideas of
the history of looping and sampling
and none of them give a succinct version of what technologies when
converged created sampling and looping?
What I want to know is how did we go digital, I've learned that A/D
converters translate analog to digital, but as to what these devices are, I
want to understand better just in general.  It seems to me that what it is
is that you can send an electric guitar's analog signal through an analog
line, to
a digital device whose A/D converter changes it into digital.
But maybe there's more to it, for example how did it happen, to digital
audio?  What did the audiotape serve to influence uses of digital?  What
besides the Altair were the first important uses of digital music either
plugged in or via computer language, and how did the plug in side come
about.  THat seems paramount to me because without original creation of
analog signals developed, digital sounds while in theory can be created,
they would not relate so well to what many want to hear.
Thanks for humoring me, if you would answer (;
Mjh