Usually, when you pick up a record, on the sleeve there is only information about the name of the group, a list of songs, pictures, and on the apple itself - the playback speed (33 and 45, for very early records - 78). But sometimes you can find the inscriptions Super Sound Single or Direct Metal Mastering. What are they talking about?
DMM "Direct Metal Mastering" is the direct recording of analog audio onto a copper-plated aluminum master disc. The technology was developed in 1982 by two German companies Telefunken-Decca (TelDec) and Georg Neumann. She eliminated intermediate recording on magnetic tape and subsequent galvanic processing of the varnish master disc.
Advantages of vinyl records
What are the main advantages? Firstly, it is wear resistance. If handled with care, vinyl can last a very, very long time. And although the cost of one record often exceeds the cost of several CDs, it is worth it. Modern records do not deteriorate quickly from frequent playback, as happened with their ancestors - gramophone records from the times of the USSR. Secondly, it's sound quality. Music lovers from all over the world prefer clear and high-quality sound, which can be heard exclusively on vinyl. Moreover, many famous rock musicians recorded their creations on records, and then did not even re-record them in digital format. Thirdly, these records are quite difficult to counterfeit. This means that when you buy records on vinyl, 99 times out of 100 you are buying a licensed product. Fourthly, compared to conventional digital discs, vinyl discs are not susceptible to the effects of various fields (electric or magnetic).
Vinyl record sculptures
How does vinyl work? History of sound
Have you ever wondered how something as complex as music can be perfectly recorded onto the surface of a flat, round vinyl disc so that we can own it and listen to it whenever we want?
Let's start with the basics.
History of sound recording and playback
Having access to music anytime, anywhere is something many take for granted, but did you imagine what it was like before it was possible?
Before people discovered how to record and play back sound, the only way to hear music was to have (politely ask) someone to play it, or to play it yourself. Imagine what a huge conceptual shift recorded music would have been for people at that time if they could hear music at will, without someone playing it in front of them. To understand the magic of vinyl, you first need to know the origins and history of sound recording and playback.
The history of sound recording and reproduction is a period spanning more than a century. In 1877, Thomas Edison invented a device that, for the first time, could record and reproduce sound not on a disk, but on a metal cylinder - the phonograph. And the term "gramophone" was coined by Emil Berliner, whose system played side-cut records that were first sold in Europe in 1889. The golden age of vinyl records as we know them was the creation of the vinyl record from 1948 to 1988, when compact CDs pushed vinyl out of the market. Until then, vinyl records had their first taste of competition with the cassette from Philips when they were first released in 1962.
After decades of seemingly disappearing music from computer hard drives, vinyl sales topped three million copies in January 2022, the highest in the UK in 25 years. More than 3.2 million records were sold in 2016, up 53% from the previous year. What conclusion can be drawn from this? Vinyl remains the single most impressive format for recording and playing music.
Sound waves
Sounds are produced by vibrations and travel through the air in the form of waves, which are vibrating particles. Waves transfer energy from a sound source to its surroundings. Your ear picks up sound waves when vibrating air particles cause your eardrum to vibrate. The more vibration, the louder the sound. The grooves that you see on a vinyl record are sound waves, or rather the imprints of sound waves, imprinted on the varnished disc that we call a vinyl record. These three-dimensional grooves cut into a vinyl record are a record of how sound waves behave as they move through air.
Sound waves and grooves on a vinyl record
Record grooves and pickup stylus
Every turntable has a stylus pickup, also called a "stylus," that fits neatly into one of the grooves of the vinyl record. The stylus is a tiny sapphire or diamond crystal attached to the very end of a lightweight metal rod, similar to a needle. As the vinyl record rotates, the stylus moves along the grooves from the edge to the center of the disc.
Various types of needle (stylus) sharpening. The topic of sharpening is worthy of a separate article - coming soon to the blog.
When the crystal vibrates in the groove, its microscopic bounces are transmitted along the rod (needle holder). The stylus is placed on the end of an electromagnetic device called a cartridge containing a piezoelectric element. A metal rod is pressed against the crystal, and each time it moves, it wobbles the crystal slightly, generating an electrical signal.
Moving Magnet pickup device
These signals are fed to an amplifier to produce the sounds you hear through speakers or headphones. Not all record player cartridges use piezoelectricity to convert sound vibrations into electrical signals. Some have tiny electrical coils and a magnet inside them. As the stylus moves, it pushes the magnet up and down past the coil, generating electrical signals that are sent to an amplifier to play sound through the speakers.
Many record collectors and DJs say that the sound of vinyl is much warmer and better than digital music (although in fact this is not true - the sound from vinyl is simply different), and this is why vinyl has always been the #1 choice among analog media for any music lover. The resurgence of vinyl is a testament to its superiority over all music formats as it continues to be the single most impressive format for recording and playing music. It's hard to imagine vinyl will ever be replaced by another analog music format. Or should we still expect a boom in cassettes and CDs? Share your opinion in the comments
