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The history of vinyl records. Vinyl records: difference in formats Color and shape

Types of records

There are rare application plates that were embedded in computer magazines in the late 70s and on which computer programs were recorded (later, before the mass distribution of floppy disks, compact cassettes were used for these purposes). This standard of records was called Floppy-ROM and on such a flexible plate at a rotation speed of 33.3 rpm, up to 4 KB of data could be stored.

Old X-ray records are also flexible plates (see below).

Also previously produced flexible postcards. Such souvenirs were sent by mail and contained, in addition to writing, handwritten congratulations. They met two different types:

  • Consisting of a flexible rectangular or round plate with one-sided writing, fastened to a polygraphic base card with a hole in the center. Like flex plates, they had a limited operating frequency range and playing time;
  • The tracks of the plate were printed on a varnish layer covering the photograph or postcard. The sound quality was even lower than on flexible phonograph records (and postcards based on them), and such records were not stored for a long time due to warping and drying out of the varnish. But such records could have been recorded by the sender himself: there were recorders, one of which can be seen in work in the film "Carnival Night".

The color of the records is mostly black, although multi-colored ones are often produced for children and DJs. There are also gramophone records, where under a transparent layer with tracks is a layer of paint, repeating the design of the envelope or replacing the information on it (as a rule, these are expensive collector's editions). Decorative plates can be square, hexagonal, circular saw blade, as well as in the form of animals and birds.

Formats

Various formats of gramophone records: 30 cm at 45 rpm, 25 cm at 78 rpm and 17.5 cm at 45 rpm (in the latter, you can break off the central "apple" to get a hole with a diameter of 24 mm for automatic turntables)

Mainly, records were produced with a diameter of 30, 25 and 17.5 cm (12 ", 10" and 7 "), traditionally called" giant "," grand "and" minion ", respectively. Occasionally there are other sizes - 12, 15, 23, 28, 33 cm (5 ″, 6 ″, 8 ″, 9 ″, 11 ″, 13 ″). Non-standard diameter of the sound track on the record or sound card can lead to false triggering of the auto-stop of the player.

The rotational speed can be 78, 45, 33⅓ and 16⅔ rpm.

The hole diameter of the plate is 7 or 24 mm, the thickness varies from 1.5 to 3 mm, the weight is 120-220 g. Plates with a hole of 24 mm are intended for turntables with automatic change of records (jukeboxes), as well as a number of household turntables of foreign production. They were often made with a 7mm hole (for conventional turntables) and 24mm arcuate notches. Along these notches, it was easy to break off the central part and get a large hole.

Vinyl records made in the USSR were marked with an inverted triangle in the case of mono recording or intersecting circles in the case of stereo.

On modern discs intended for DJs, about 12 minutes of music is "cut" on one side - in this case, the distance between the grooves is much greater, the disc is more wear-resistant, makes less noise over time, is not afraid of scratches and careless handling.

Stereo records

Records "on the bones"

X-ray copy of the recording

History

The most primitive prototype of a gramophone record can be considered a music box, in which a metal disc is used for preliminary recording of a melody, on which a deep spiral groove is applied. In certain places of the groove, point depressions are made - pits, the location of which corresponds to the melody. When the disk rotates, driven by a clock spring mechanism, a special metal needle slides along the groove and "reads" the sequence of the applied points. The needle is attached to a membrane, which emits a sound every time the needle hits the groove.

The oldest gramophone record in the world is now considered to be a sound recording, which was made in 1860. Researchers from the First Sounds Recording History Group discovered it on March 1, 2008 in a Paris archive and were able to play a sound recording of a folk song made by French inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville using a device he called a "phonautograph" in 1860. Its length is 10 seconds and is an excerpt from a French folk song. The phonautograph scribbled sound tracks on a sheet of paper, blackened by the smoke from an oil lamp.

Thomas Edison Phonograph, 1899

In 1892, a method was developed for galvanic replication from a positive zinc disk, as well as a technology for pressing ebonite gramophone records using a steel printing matrix. But ebonite was quite expensive and was soon replaced by a composite mass based on shellac, a wax-like substance produced by tropical insects from the family of lacquer bugs that live in southeast Asia. The plates became better and cheaper, which means more affordable, but their main drawback was their low mechanical strength - they resembled glass in fragility. Shellac records were produced until the middle of the 20th century, until they were supplanted by even cheaper ones - made of polyvinyl chloride ("vinyl").

One of the first real gramophone records was the one released in 1897 by Victor in the USA.

First revolution

The earliest blades were 6.89 inches in diameter and were called 7 "or 175 mm blades. This oldest standard dates back to the early 1890s. Such records are designated 7 ″, where ″ is the designation of the diameter in inches. At the beginning of their evolution, the records had a high rotation speed and a large track thickness, which significantly reduced the duration of the sound - only 2 minutes on one side. Double-sided gramophone records became in 1903, thanks to the developments of the company "Odeon". In the same year, the first 11.89 or 12 inch (12 ″) records with a diameter of 300 mm appeared. Until the beginning of the 10s of the XX century, they produced mainly excerpts from the works of musical classics, since they could fit in a total of only up to five minutes of sound.

The third, the most popular, was the size of 10 "(10") or 250 mm, on such records one and a half times more material was placed than on the standard 7 ". The" life "of such records was short-lived - the pickup weighed more than 100 grams, and the steel the needles had to be changed after each side was played, and sometimes the same track was recorded on both sides to prolong the life of a favorite piece.

In the 30s of the XX century, records were released one composition on one side, and often one concert of one performer was sold as a set of records of several pieces, often in cardboard boxes, less often in leather boxes. Because of external similarity These boxes of photo albums began to be called record albums or "album with records."

Second revolution

Single recorded on a disc with a rotational speed of 45 rpm

With the advent of long-playing records with rotation speeds of 45 and 33 rpm. circulation of gramophone (78 rpm) began to decline, and at the end of the 60s. their production was curtailed completely (in the USSR in 1970).
Depending on the content of the 45 rpm record. used the names Single, Maxi-Single or Extended Play (EP).

Present time

Currently, phonograph records and players are not mass produced or used, being superseded by CDs. In the USSR, the use of gramophone records continued until its collapse. However, a few years later, up to the mid-90s, circulations were produced by the former branches of the state company "MELODIA" in the former Soviet republics, which were completely transferred to commercial structures, albeit in significantly smaller circulations. So, for example, in 1991 the first vinyl of independent Ukraine "Samotny Doshch" by the pop group "Evening School" was released in a circulation of only 10,000 copies ("Audio-Ukraine" company).

In certain areas, vinyl LPs with a diameter of 30 cm, eng. LP are still used today:

  • for DJ work and experiments in the field of sound;
  • fans of this type of sound recording (including audiophiles);
  • lovers of antiquity, collectors;
  • The Voyager 1 spacecraft carries on board a gramophone record with a recording of the sounds of earthly civilization, along with a phonographic capsule and a needle for playing the recording. The choice of this method of storing sound is dictated by its reliability and naturalness. The simplicity of the device gives it reliability. In addition, digital methods for recording and reproducing sound (which were not developed in 1977 enough to fit into the tasks of the Voyager program) use approximations, the possibility of which is dictated by the characteristics of human hearing (for example, the relative inertia of hearing, inability to hear sounds with a frequency of more than 20 kHz) ... In hypothetical extraterrestrial beings, hearing may be arranged differently. And besides, the gramophone record is the only sound carrier that can be reproduced without the aid of electricity.

Nevertheless, it is too early to give up on the development of the vinyl industry. Vinyl sales have already passed their lowest point in 2005 and are showing fairly steady growth, according to the RIAA.

There are two main markets for gramophone records:

  1. Primary
  2. Secondary

In the primary market, the main buyers are DJs and audiophiles who prefer analogue music. It is the pace of development of this segment that the record companies are most interested in; its statistics are presented above.

Currently, expensive collectible records are produced on the so-called "heavy" vinyl, such a record is really heavy and weighs 180 grams, such records provide a greater dynamic range. The quality of stamping and the material itself of such records is higher than on ordinary vinyl. Although the majority of users buy music on modern media (whose convenience, portability and durability are much higher), many music lovers and audiophiles still buy vinyl records.

The secondary market is the sale of used vinyl. Collectibles and private vinyl collections are traded in this segment. Currently, the cost of especially rare records can exceed several thousand dollars.

The special attention of collectors is traditionally given to the first issues (the so-called first press) of records (for their considered the best sound), as well as records released in limited editions, various collector's editions. The main places of sale are online auctions, as well as local stores of used music goods.

Since now a significant part of trade is carried out via the Internet, and the buyer cannot directly assess the quality of the offered product (on which both the sound quality and its price depend extremely significantly), sellers and buyers use a standard system for evaluating vinyl records.

see also

Notes (edit)

Literature

  • Vasiliev G.A. Sound recording on celluloid discs. (Mass radio library, issue 411) - M.-L.: Gosenergoizdat, 1961

Links

  • Construction set for making a mechanical recording gramophone (eng.)

The "grandfather" of the vinyl record player was the phonograph, invented by Thomas Edison back in 1877. Instead of plates, rollers covered with foil or paper soaked in wax were used. The principle of operation of the phonograph was very similar to the principle of operation of modern turntables: the needle played sounds, moving along the grooves on the roller.

  • The records as we know them were invented by Emil Berliner in 1897. He spent 10 years searching for the perfect material to make them and ultimately decided the best material would be shellac, a wax-like substance produced by tropical insects from South Asia.

  • The first records were 7 inches in diameter (175 mm), and they fit audio recordings that lasted no more than 2 minutes. Then 12-inch (300 mm) and 10-inch (250 mm) records appeared, on which tracks up to 5 minutes long were placed.

  • 7 "LPs were called minions, 10" LPs were called giants, and 12 "LPs were called giants.

  • Initially, sound could only be recorded on one side of the record. Only in 1903 did the Odeon company find a way to make them two-sided.

  • Until the mid-1960s, almost all records contained literally two songs: on the one hand, there was some hit, for which the record was bought, and on the other hand, a completely different song, which went “in the appendage”. Such records were sold, as a rule, in ordinary newspaper envelopes without decoration.

  • Sometimes records were sold in sets: for example, five records in a set, each with two songs. Together they composed a concert of some performer. They were sold in cardboard or leather boxes, and such a set of records bore a resemblance to a photo album. Therefore, a collection of several songs by one artist began to be called an album.

  • Since the mid-60s, the album has become the main format. A typical album was about 40 minutes long and was recorded on 12-inch records. Albums were sold in bright envelopes with beautiful covers, which favorably distinguished them from the rest of the vinyl.

  • The largest vinyl production in the world was located in the USSR. For example, the Aprelevsky plant, the largest enterprise of the Melodiya company, in the 1970s and 1980s produced about 100 million vinyl records a year. However, in the 90s, production volumes decreased significantly, which was associated not only with the widespread crisis in the country, but also with the emergence of CDs, which were actively gaining popularity.

  • Since the 50s, independent production of records with songs of foreign and prohibited performers has been widely developed in the USSR. Whole handicraft factories for the clandestine production of records appeared. Developed X-ray images were used as material. Such records were called "bone-in" records.

  • The most expensive album to date is the album of The Quarrymen, created by John Lennon and later turned into The Beatles. It was recorded on July 14, 1958, and there are only two songs on it: a cover version of Buddy Holly's song That’ll Be the Day and his own In Spite of All the Danger. The cost of the disc is estimated at $ 180,000 - $ 200,000. It exists in a single copy and belongs to Paul McCartney.

  • Plates made with an acetate varnish spray are called acetates. They are used to hear how audio will sound on vinyl, that is, they serve as a trial version of future vinyls. However, among the acetates, there are also those on which the initial versions of songs are recorded, which are very different from the final ones, and unreleased tracks.

  • Since 1977, a golden plate has been plowing through the vastness of space, on which images and sounds are recorded, briefly telling about life on Earth. This is done so that, if aliens exist, they could familiarize themselves with our civilization using the information from this disc. Music was also recorded on it: Mozart, Bach, Stravinsky and even Chuck Berry.

  • In 2007, Record Store Day was established, when limited edition rare albums go on sale in vinyl stores around the world. This holiday is celebrated on the third Saturday in April (in 2017, it fell on April 22). Every year, an ambassador for the holiday from the world of music is appointed. His task is to popularize the holiday and draw the attention of fans to vinyl. Ozzy Osbourne (encouraged everyone to go shopping for vinyl), Jack White (took a tour of the vinyl factory), Iggy Pop (celebrated his 65th birthday at a record store) and others served as ambassador.

    • While many users have already thrown their records in the trash bin, and their turntables have been shoved into the closet, they are still alive and developing. Although the number of stores selling gramophone records has noticeably decreased even here in Russia (while CDs can be found in almost every shop selling industrial goods), the world's leading companies continue to produce and improve vinyl record players.

    To obtain records with stereophonic information, two channels of it are recorded on two sides of the V-shaped groove. The highest chic is the direct recording at the beginning of the creation of the original, without the use of auxiliary studio tape recorders. Alas, such records are very rare.

    To reproduce the records, a double pickup with one needle is used - the components of its vibrations from the two inclined walls of the groove are mechanically transferred to two systems for converting mechanical vibrations into electrical ones. The needle has a U-shaped end with a small radius of curvature and is located inside the V-shaped groove of the plate, without touching its bottom. Therefore, only the groove profile changes are transmitted to the needle. The needle is made of a hard, low-wear material - usually corundum or diamond. In more or less high-quality players, only diamond needles with a service life of up to 500-1000 hours are used.

    The reasons for the long life of gramophone records are not only that many music lovers and simply music lovers have accumulated entire collections of these products, but many find that the sound of the record being played is softer, more natural and warmer than that of digital systems... And one cannot but agree with this. Even the records' own noises have become so commonplace that the developers of CD players are forced to create a faint noise during the pauses.

    Gramophone record (usually just a record) - analog medium audio information- a disc, on one or on both sides of which a continuous spiral groove (track) is applied by one method or another, the shape of which is modulated by a sound wave.
    For "playing" (sound reproduction) of gramophone records, devices specially designed for this purpose are used: gramophones, gramophones, hereinafter - electric players and electrophones.
    When moving along the track of the gramophone record, the needle of the player begins to vibrate (since the shape of the track is uneven in the plane of the plate along its radius and perpendicular to the direction of movement of the needle, and depends on the recorded signal). When vibrated, a piezoelectric material or an electromagnetic pickup coil generates an electrical signal, which is amplified by the amplifier and then reproduced by the speaker / speakers, reproducing the sound recorded in the recording studio.
    The words "gramophone record" and "gramophone" are abbreviations for "gramophone record" and "gramophone record", although gramophones themselves have not been widely used for a long time. At the end of the 19th and throughout the 20th century, the gramophone record was (until it was replaced by the compact disk in the mid-1990s) the most popular means of distributing audio recordings, inexpensive and accessible.
    The main advantage of the gramophone record was the convenience of mass replication by hot pressing, in addition, the gramophone records are not subject to the action of electric and magnetic fields. The disadvantages of a gramophone record are its susceptibility to temperature changes and humidity, mechanical damage(the appearance of scratches), as well as the inevitable wear and tear with constant use (decrease and loss of audio characteristics). In addition, vinyl records provide a lower dynamic range than more modern audio recording formats.
    Hard plates Various standard sizes of gramophone records: 30 cm (45 rpm), 25 cm (78 rpm) and 17.5 cm (45 rpm). In the latter, you can break off the central "apple" to get a hole 38.24 mm in diameter for automatic turntables. Early gramophone records are most often called "shellac" (according to the material of manufacture), or "gramophone" (according to the common device for playing them). Shelled plates are thick (up to 3 mm), heavy (up to 220 g) and fragile. Before playing such records on relatively modern electrophones, you need to make sure that their tonearm is equipped with a replaceable head or swivel needle marked "78", and that the turntable can rotate at the appropriate speed. The gramophone records are not necessarily made of shellac - as technology developed, they began to be made from synthetic resins and plastics. In the USSR, in 1950, 78 rpm vinyl records appeared, they were marked "PVC" and "Beshellachnaya". The last "beating" shellac gramophone record was released at the Aprelevsk plant in 1971.
    But usually vinyl records mean later ones, designed to be played on electric players, not mechanical gramophones, and at a rotation speed of no higher than 45 rpm.
    Flexible plates There are rare application plates that were invested in computer magazines in the late 1970s and on which they were recorded computer programs(later, before the mass distribution of floppy disks, compact cassettes were used for these purposes). This disk standard was called Floppy-ROM, and it could hold up to 4 KB of data at 33⅓ rpm on such a flexible disk. Recordings on old X-rays are also flexible plates.
    Also previously produced flexible postcards. Such souvenirs were sent by mail and contained, in addition to the recording, handwritten congratulations. They came in two different types:
    Consisting of a flexible rectangular or round plate with one-sided writing, fastened to a polygraphic base card with a hole in the center. Like flex plates, they had a limited operating frequency range and playing time;
    The tracks of the plate were printed on a varnish layer covering the photograph or postcard. The sound quality was even lower than on flexible phonograph records (and postcards based on them), such records were not stored for a long time due to warping and drying out of the varnish. But such records could have been recorded by the sender himself: there were recorders, one of which can be seen in work in the film "Carnival Night".
    Souvenir and decorative plates"Sound souvenir" - a photograph with a recording. They were made in the presence of the customer by small semi-handicraft recording studios in the resort cities of the USSR. The usual color of the records is black, but multi-colored ones are also available. There are also gramophone records, where under the transparent layer with tracks there is a layer of paint that repeats the design of the envelope or replaces the information on it (as a rule, these are expensive collector's editions). Decorative plates can be square, hexagonal, circular saw blade, animal, bird, etc.
    Handicraft records. "Music on the ribs" Gramophone x-ray film
    In the 1950s and 1960s in the USSR, underground recording studios recorded musical works, which, for ideological reasons, were forbidden to be distributed by Melodiya, on large-format X-ray films. This is where the expression "Jazz on the bones" came from (also such "self-made" recordings in everyday life were called "ribs" or "recordings on ribs"). In those years, the recordings of many Western singers and musical groups (for example, The Beatles) could only be heard on such underground records. Due to the drying of the emulsion, the films of such plates curled over time, and in general were short-lived.
    Such original way sound recording found its reflection in art, for example, in the song of Viktor Tsoi "Once you were a beatnik" there are the words: "You were ready to give your soul for rock and roll, extracted from a picture of someone else's diaphragm." Also in the song “My Old Blues” by the leader of the Moscow acoustic group “Bedlam” (late 1990s - 2002) Viktor Klyuev there are the words: “The disc 'on the bones' is still intact, but you cannot understand individual phrases.” The very process of recording "on the bones" is demonstrated in the 2008 film "Hipsters" (originally called "Boogie on the bones"). As soon as affordable tape recorders were on the market, handicraft recordings all but disappeared.
    Recording formats
    Monophonic records     Historically, the first to appear were monophonic records (one sound channel). The overwhelming majority of such records had a transverse, or Berliner recording, in which the stylus oscillates left and right. However, at the dawn of the era of gramophone recording, there were also discs with a depth ("Edison") recording, where the needle went up and down. Some gramophones had the ability to rotate the head with a membrane by 90 °, which allowed them to play both types of records. The first monophonic records of serial production had a rotation speed of 78 rpm, then there were records calculated at speeds of 45 and 33⅓ rpm (for music) and 16⅔ and 8½ rpm (for speech). Monophonic records made in the USSR were marked with a triangle or square sign. On early records and turntables, the speed of rotation was written within a geometric figure. Sometimes only the rotation speed was indicated, without marking.
    Stereo records In monophonic gramophone records, the profiles of the left and right walls of the V-shaped sound track do not differ, and in stereophonic (two sound channels, for the right and left ear), the right side of the track is modulated with the signal of the first channel, and the left - with the signal of the second channel. A stereo phono cartridge has two sensing elements (piezoelectric crystal or electromagnetic coils) located at an angle of 45 ° to the surface of the plate (and at 90 ° to each other) and connected to the stylus by so-called pushers. Mechanical vibrations, which the stylus perceives from the left or right wall of the sound track, excite an electrical signal in the corresponding sound channel of the player. Such a scheme was theoretically substantiated by the English engineer Alan Blumlein back in 1931, but practical implementation received only in 1958. It was then that the first modern stereo records were first demonstrated at the London Exhibition of Recording Equipment.
    Stereo players can also play monaural recordings, in which case they perceive them as two identical channels.
    In early experiments on recording a stereo signal on one track, they tried to combine the more traditional transverse and depth recording: one channel was formed based on the horizontal oscillations of the stylus, and the other on the basis of vertical ones. But with this recording format, the quality of one channel was significantly inferior to the quality of the other, and it was quickly abandoned.
    Most stereo LPs were recorded at 33⅓ rpm with a 55 µm soundtrack. Previously (especially in a number of countries outside the USSR) records with a rotational speed of 45 rpm were widely produced. In the United States, their compact versions were especially popular, intended for use in jukeboxes with automatic change or selection of records. They were also suitable for playback on home turntables. For recording speech programs, gramophone records were produced with a rotational speed of 8⅓ rpm and a duration of one side playing up to one and a half hours. Stereo records are available in three diameters: 175, 250 and 300 mm, which provides an average sounding time of one side (at 33⅓ rpm) of 7-8, 13-15 and 20-24 minutes. The duration of the sound depends on the density of the cut. One side of a tightly chopped record can hold up to 30 minutes of music, but the needle on such records can jump and will generally be unstable. Also, LPs with compacted recording wear out faster due to the narrower groove walls.
    Quadrophonic records The quadraphonic records contain information about four (two front and two rear) audio channels, which makes it possible to convey the volume of a piece of music. This format received some, rather limited, distribution in the 1970s. The number of albums released in this format was very small (for example, a quad version of the famous Pink Floyd album "Dark Side of the Moon" was released in 1973), and their circulation was limited - this was due to the need to use them to reproduce rare and expensive special players and amplifiers for 4 channels. By the 1980s, this direction was curtailed. In the USSR, the first and only experiment on the development of four-channel sound took place in 1980, when an album of the Yabloko group was recorded and released under the name Country-folk-rock group Yabloko (KA90-14435-6). The disc cost more than the usual one - 6 rubles (a giant stereo disc with pop music cost 2 rubles 15 kopecks at that time, released under a foreign license - somewhat more expensive), and the total circulation was 18,000 copies.
    Manufacturing The sound with the help of special equipment is converted into mechanical vibrations of the cutter (most often sapphire), which cuts concentric sound tracks on the layer of material. At the dawn of recording, the tracks were cut on wax, later on phonographic foil covered with nitrocellulose, later the phonographic foil was replaced by copper foil. In the late 1970s, Teldec developed the DMM (Direct Metal Mastering) technology, according to which tracks are formed on the thinnest layer of amorphous copper, covering a perfectly flat steel substrate. This made it possible to significantly improve the fidelity of the reproduction of the recorded signal, which led to a noticeable improvement in the sound quality of phonographic recordings. This technology is still used today. From the disc obtained in this way, by means of electroforming, in several successive stages, the required number of nickel copies are obtained with both positive and negative display of the mechanical phonogram. The negative copies made at the last stage, which serve as the basis in the process of pressing vinyl records, are called dies; all intermediate nickel copies are usually called originals.
    The production of originals and matrices is carried out in the electroplating shop. Electrochemical processes are carried out in multi-chamber galvanic installations with automatic stepwise regulation of electric current and nickel build-up time.
    Mold parts are manufactured on CNC machines and are high-temperature brazed in vacuum furnaces using a special technology. The molds themselves provide high uniformity of the temperature field on the forming surfaces, low inertia of the temperature regime, and therefore high productivity. Tens of thousands of gramophone records can be made with one mold. The material for the manufacture of modern gramophone records is a special mixture based on a copolymer of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate (polyvinyl chloride) with various additives necessary to give the plastic the necessary mechanical and temperature properties. High quality mixing of powder components is achieved using two-stage mixers with hot and cold mixing.
    In the press shop, a heated portion of vinyl is fed into the press with labels already glued on top and bottom, which, under pressure up to 100 atm, spreads between two halves of the mold and, after cooling, forms a finished gramophone record. Then the edges of the disc are trimmed, inspected and packed. The first record, made after installing nickel dies on the press, and then each specially selected from the edition, are carefully checked for dimensional characteristics and listened to in specially equipped sound booths. In order to avoid warping, all pressed phonograph records undergo the required temperature holding, and before packing into an envelope, the appearance of each phonograph record is checked additionally.
    Playback The reproduction of vinyl records has a number of peculiarities associated with both the physical nature of this medium, and with the technical features of reproducing vinyl sound and its amplification. So, for example, a phono stage is an indispensable element for electrophones with a magnetic pickup head.
    History The most primitive prototype of a gramophone record can be considered a music box, in which a metal disc is used for preliminary recording of a melody, on which a deep spiral groove is applied. In certain places of the groove, point depressions are made - pits, the location of which corresponds to the melody. When the disk rotates, driven by a clock spring mechanism, a special metal needle slides along the groove and "reads" the sequence of the applied points. The needle is attached to a membrane, which emits a sound every time the needle hits the groove.
    The oldest gramophone record in the world is now considered to be a sound recording, which was made in 1860. Researchers from the First Sounds Recording History Group discovered it on March 1, 2008 in a Paris archive and were able to play a sound recording of a folk song made by French inventor Edouard Leon Scott de Martinville using a device he called a "phonautograph" in 1860. Its length is 10 seconds and is an excerpt from a French folk song. Phonautograph scribbled sound tracks on a sheet of paper blackened with smoke from an oil lamp
    In 1877, the French scientist Charles Cros was the first to scientifically substantiate the principles of recording sound on a drum (or disk) and its subsequent reproduction. In the same year, namely, in the middle of 1877, a young American inventor Thomas Edison invented and patented a phonograph device in which sound is recorded on a cylindrical roller wrapped in tin foil (or paper tape covered with a layer of wax) using a needle (cutter) associated with the membrane; the needle traces a helical groove of variable depth on the surface of the foil. His phonograph with a wax roller was not widely used due to the difficulty of copying a recording, rapid wear of the rollers and poor reproduction quality.
    In 1887, Emil Berliner, an American engineer of Jewish origin, proposed using a disc-shaped medium for recording. Working on his idea, Berliner first built and tested the Charles Cros device, proposed 20 years ago, using a zinc plate instead of chrome. Emil Berliner replaced the rollers with discs - metal dies from which copies could be replicated. With their help, gramophone records were pressed. One matrix made it possible to print a whole print run - not less than 500 plates, which significantly reduced production costs, and, accordingly, production costs. This was the main advantage of Emil Berliner's gramophone records compared to Edison's wax rollers, which could not be mass-produced. Unlike Edison's phonograph, Berliner developed a special apparatus for recording sound - a recorder, and for sound reproduction created another - a gramophone, for which a patent was received on September 26, 1887. Instead of Edison's depth recording, Berliner used a transverse, in which the needle left a tortuous trail of constant depth. In the 20th century, the membrane was replaced by microphones that convert sound vibrations into electrical ones, and electronic amplifiers.
    In 1892, a method was developed for galvanic replication from a positive zinc disk, as well as a technology for pressing ebonite gramophone records using a steel printing matrix. But ebonite was quite expensive and was soon replaced by a composite mass based on shellac, a wax-like substance produced by tropical insects from the family of lacquer bugs that live in southeast Asia. The plates became better and cheaper, which means more affordable, but their main drawback was their low mechanical strength - they resembled glass in fragility. Shellac records were produced until the middle of the 20th century, until they were supplanted by even cheaper ones - made of polyvinyl chloride (“vinyl”). One of the first real records was a record released in 1897 by Victor in the USA.

    Buying a vinyl turntable in the 21st century can say one thing: either you are a connoisseur of antiques, or you are a real audiophile.

    The peak of vinyl popularity came in the middle of the last century. The disc remained one of the most popular carriers of music for a long time. A beautiful insert album with the artist's image, a neat transparent bag that protects the surface of the record from scratches, deteriorating needles, fuses and the indescribable sound of warm, gentle crackling in the speakers ... Few could have predicted that the appearance of magnetic tape drives and the digital era of sound recording (read the article :) will not be able to break the listeners' love for vinyl sound.

    How it all started

    The principle of sound recording, which for many years will become a reference in the creation of vinyl records, was discovered back in 1857 Edouard Leon Scott de Martinville... A phonautograph device patented in France proposed recording a sound wave on a glass roller covered with soot or paper. The sound itself was caught through a large horn, at the end of which a needle was installed.

    Twenty years later, another significant development will appear on the way to improving the recording system. While serving on the telegraph, the inventor and scientist Thomas Edison, while observing the work of punch cards, noticed a certain pattern. Each contact that touched the holes on the card made sounds of different heights. A few months later, in 1877, a description of the device appears in the US Patent Office, which will become the real progenitor of vinyl players.

    Principle of operation phonograph Edison consisted in playing sound from small tin or wooden rollers covered with foil or a sheet of paper soaked in wax. The production of such rollers required a lot of effort, and the sound carriers themselves were not ready for even minimal deformations and were too sensitive to the storage environment.

    The search for a simpler recording device and the development of a medium capable of withstanding transportation and harsher operating conditions prompted the American inventor Emil Berliner refuse to use the method proposed by Martinville and then modified by Edison. In 1897, Berliner became the author of patents for two devices at once: recorder and gramophone.

    For the first time, as a medium on which sound recording was carried out, zinc flat disc... This decision made it possible to significantly reduce the cost of the entire production cycle of records. By means of a recorder, a "sound picture" was applied to the surface of a zinc disk, and the resulting print was already used as a mold for making copies.

    The engineers of that time were faced with a difficult task - to find material suitable for replicating sound recordings. Among the main requirements for the composition are low cost and durability.

    In search of the perfect material

    For the production of the first records, a dark brown vulcanized rubber called ebonite... This material vaguely resembles plastic and lends itself well to processing, which was especially noteworthy when creating duplicates. Alas, the material has not passed the test of time due to its tendency to oxidize when exposed to daylight and organic material is replacing ebonite - shellac.

    For the next thirty years, the technology for the production of records remains unchanged. Thick and weighty "shellac" records are gradually settling in the homes of novice music lovers. Gramophone, and his successor, which came out in 1907 - mechanical gramophone, become not only regulars in clubs, restaurants and educational institutions, but also confidently enter the life of an ordinary consumer.

    In large cities, shops began to appear offering a wide range of "music albums" (all records were presented in a cardboard box-book, reminiscent of a photo album). Alas, the imperfection of the recording technology and the specificity of the material used for the production made it possible to store only one composition on one side of the disc. Due to the short lifespan of the record and its high level of amortization during playback, the same song was recorded on both sides.

    The “one song” barrier was overcome only in 1931, when pioneers of sound engineering discovered the technology of stereo recording in one groove. The stereo disc began to fit up to six songs of average length. Nevertheless, the life cycle of a shellac plate was calculated only for a few months of active use. In the mid-thirties, the record has a new competitor - magnetic tape. In the fight for potential buyer chemists-technologists enter and in 1948 the first batch leaves the assembly line of the "Columbia" plant vinyl records.

    Since 1950, vinyl records have been produced on the territory of the USSR. PVC was distinguished by a high level of wear resistance, and the production process itself made it possible to significantly reduce the final thickness of the plate from 3 to 1.5 millimeters. The principle of recording records, laid down at the end of the century before last, turned out to be simple for the mastery of "folk craftsmen". In the mid-50s - 60s, whole artisanal factories for the clandestine production of records appeared.

    As a material for the production of the desired disc with "unhuman songs" prohibited by the authorities, was used x-ray film... In the private collections of vinyl lovers, you can find The Beatles albums and jazz compositions recorded "on bones" - developed X-ray films.

    Battle of "formats"

    The entire evolution of gramophone records is shrouded in disagreements in the world of standards: sizes, recording principles, materials of manufacture, recording speed.

    The size. In the late 1890s, there was a single approved standard - a 7-inch plate with a high rotational speed. In 1903 comes into use new standard- "giant" with diameters of 12 inches. A few years later, another option appears - 10-inch gramophone records. In the CIS market, the generally accepted dimensions are plates with diameters of 175, 250 and 300 mm.

    Recording technology. Until 1920, the only method of recording was mechanical. The frequency range for such a recording was a meager 150 - 4000 Hz. In 1920, the era of electro-acoustic recording begins, and a microphone is used as a pickup. It is in this year that the era of gramophone records receives a new "sound breathing" with the ability to reproduce BH from 15 to 10,000 Hz.

    Boundary capacity. Rotational speed. Another characteristic of the entire recording era that has experienced constant changes is the speed of rotation of the record. The generally accepted "Soviet standard" of 78 rpm allowed for up to 12 minutes of sound. For continuous recording of the conversation, we used "slow records" with a rotation speed of 8 and 1/3 revolutions per minute. Another standard is 45 rpm. The final point in the battle of speeds was the release of LPs of 33 1/3 revolutions.

    Mono-stereo-quad. The principle of reproduction of gramophone records is based on the "reading" of a sound pattern with a needle located in multiple grooves (tracks) of the record. Until 1958, records of the mono class were produced: the needle read only vertical vibrations. Then stereo plates appear: the vertical is responsible for the left channel, and the roughness placed horizontally is for the right. There were also options for quadraphonic sound, but the technology did not justify itself.

    Vinyl today

    Since the advent of the Edison phonograph and up to the present day, the principle of recording records has practically not changed. Sound vibrations with the help of the recorder are converted into mechanical ones, fed to the cutter, which puts the picture of the composition on a copper-plated steel disk. The resulting template is transferred to nickel copies, and only then the replication of vinyl records by pressing method begins.

    The principle of operation of playback devices - players from the point of view of mechanics also remained practically unchanged. All the same rotating disc, all the same pickup needles.

    The cost of modern "vinyls" directly depends on several factors:

    • design;
    • installed preamplifier;
    • form factor.

    The introduction of the CD in 1980 seriously shook the demand for vinyl. For more than 20 years, records left the field of vision of music lovers, and bulky turntables gave way to compact CD players. But history is confidently adhering to the boomerang principle: since 2005, there has been an era of vinyl renaissance. Vinyl has become the subject of experimentation and a sought-after medium among DJs. Warm, soft sound with virtually no harmonic distortion and incredible detail - this is not only the sound that the discerning music lover or audiophile deserves. This is a sound that everyone should hear and this opportunity does not require an impressive financial investment.

    What to choose?

    The real audiophile is familiar with the world of vinyl sound firsthand. In his mind, the horizon of "sane" turntables starts at a price point of several thousand dollars. However, the choice of such an expensive technique is more like a ritual and a kind of tribute to the sound, but you can join the world of records with a much smaller amount.

    Japanese company Audio-Technica on the market of sound equipment can rightfully carry the status of a veteran. It is the turntables that have become the fateful product in the life of the brand. In 1962, Audio-Technica introduced two high quality pickups (popularly referred to as "needles") AT-1 and AT-3... The overwhelming success of the firstborn was supported by the model AT-5, and 7 years after its foundation, the Japanese company enters the world market.

    The influence of Audio-Technica on the world of turntables is hard to overestimate. The company became the first manufacturer of PCOCC ultrapure monocrystalline copper pickups; behind her shoulders the legendary portable vinyl players Mister disc and Sound burger, and three years ago the Japanese announced a specialized turntable player AT-LP1240 equipped with a DJ unit.

    Player entry level from company Audio-Technica AT-LP60 USB.

    If your evolution as a music lover began with MP3 and OGG, smoothly transposed into listening to FLAC and ALAC formats, and the old CD player is no longer a pleasure, Audio-Technica AT-LP60 USB is able to introduce you to how vinyl sounds. This turntable is the perfect choice for the novice listener.

    1888 - year of birth of the record

    Back in 1888. Emil Berliner proposed to record information on a compact medium - a record. The recording was done along a spiral path, which turned out to be a simple and productive idea. For modern CDs and DVD discs the same recording system applies. The only drawback of Berliner's disc was that, unlike Edison's roller, it did not have the ability to record at home.

    In the 60s of the XX century, tape recorders for home listening and recording began to be produced, but the quality of their sound left much to be desired. At the end of the 19th century, gramophones began to be used to listen to records. They had a spring drive and a huge horn, from which sounds poured like a river! As ugly as this unit looks, the sound quality of this car still makes many people buy them at auctions. The fact is that gramophones have the ability to filter high-frequency noise and clicks that occur when moving from one track of a record to another.

    The plate was quickly erased

    The only problem for vinyl records was the steel sound reader - it seriously scratched the record, so one lacquer disk was enough for two or three listens. The vinyl makers quickly solved this problem too: they began to duplicate the record on the back!

    In the XX century, the main manufacturers of lacquer discs in Russia were such enterprises as "Pishuschiy Amur", "Pathee". There were also branches of foreign record companies: Zonofon Record, Bermenere Record, Victor and Beka. In 1922 the Gramoplastinka association took over the full authority to produce records in Russia. They are produced in two formats: grand and giant.

    Unbreakable records

    Recording speed was usually 78 rpm, but standards in various companies differed, so some enterprises could have slower speed. This is one of the reasons why it is difficult to transfer old vinyl records to digital media - spring-driven recorders sometimes simply could not provide a stable recording speed.

    Unbreakable records first appeared in 1938. The diameter of one disc was 25 centimeters, and the plates were made of cellulose acetate. To release, say, a live recording, you had to combine the records into sets. Even politicians' speeches were recorded and released in the same way.

    "Melody"

    In 1964, the well-known All-Union company of gramophone records "Melodia" was created, thanks to which all the lacquer disc manufacturers in the USSR were united. At this time, children's turntables began to be produced - they were approached by "toy records", on which they recorded the tales and songs of the pioneers. Magazines, such popular publications as "Krugozor" and "Kolobok", began to be recorded on the records. They included poetry, fairy tales, conversations. Melodiya even released sound recordings for filmstrips. Special records were released to tune the playback system, such records were attached to equipment purchased in the store.

    Despite the fact that we live in a digital world, vinyl records are back in fashion! Many are ready to give a lot of money in order to get another disc in their collection, the sound quality of which will never cease to delight!