 Perhaps earlier than Schaeffer conducting his preliminary experiments into sound manipulation (assuming these were later than 1944, and not as early as the foundation of the Studio d'Essai in 1942) was the activity of Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh.As a student in Cairo in the early to mid-1940s he began experimenting with "tape music" using a cumbersome wire recorder.He recorded the sounds of an ancient "zaar" ceremony and at the Middle East Radio studios processed the material using reverberation, echo, voltage controls, and re-recording.