Average tangential needle speed[edit]

The average tangential needle speed relative to the disc surface is approximately one mile per hour according to the article. Averging over a radius from 15 to 7 cm we get 1.382300768 km/h or 0.383972435 m/s, which is about 1 mph. Jimp 06:38, 2 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Someone here needs a lesson in doing calculations and giving results using significant figures. 1.38 km/h or 380 mm/s, neither of which is close to 1 mi/h or 447 mm/s. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ametrica (talk • contribs) 12:02, 9 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

You mean 384 mm/s ... if you're going to nitpick over sigfigs, you need to be consistent about it. Also, that's 0.859 mph. Though it's probably better to give the typical outer and inner diameter speeds to show how much they vary through the course of playback... 46.208.118.253 (talk) 10:24, 9 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Album or LP[edit]

What is the essential difference between a LP record and an album? If there isn't one, then the articles should be merged. If there is one, then that should be described. What, for Wikipedia purposes, is the distinction between LP record and Gramophone record? I'm wondering if LP record is stuck between describing album and Gramophone record, and if so, should the article be refocused, or should it be merged? SilkTork ✔Tea time 09:12, 4 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

An album is a collection of tracks that could be physically on an LP, CD, cassette, 8-track, minidisc, etc. An LP is a vinyl record, and one type of gramophone record, that usually contains an album. --Michig (talk) 12:30, 5 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with Michig. An "album" of recordings was originally a set of 78s packaged together like a photograph album. The fact that the word was used colloquially, later, as synonymous with an LP or CD is certainly deserving of mention, but doesn't warrant any merging of articles. Ghmyrtle (talk) 11:17, 10 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

An album can be made up of one LP record, a pair of them (a Double Album), three (a Triple Album), etc., or as was said above, could be music released on other formats such as CD or cassette. An LP record is just that. One Long-Playing record. A single lump of plastic. A Gramophone record is not necessarily an LP. A gramophone record is playable on a gramophone, but that doesn't carry with it the long-playing aspect. 45RPM and 78RPM records are both gramophone records, but are of short duration, therefore not LPs Musicfan1353 (talk) 16:51, 1 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Does all of the above get solved by merely changing the first sentence of the introduction from "This article is about vinyl or gramophone records. " to "This article is about the long-playing (LP) vinyl record, a type of gramophone record. "  ??? Musicfan1353 (talk) 17:00, 1 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see that as a problem. We are not talking about the article itself here - we are talking about the hatnote at the top of the article, which is only there to point readers to the right article if they arrive here by mistake. Ghmyrtle (talk) 18:42, 1 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Competing Formats[edit]

it might be time to update the last sentences of this section, specifically

"...by the early 1990s the CD had definitively succeeded in toppling the LP from its throne." and "...a modest renewed interest in vinyl has developed and the demand for the medium has been on a steady increase in niche markets, particularly among audiophiles, DJs and fans of indie music. However, the vast majority of recorded music sales are of compact discs and downloadable digital audio files, because of their greater convenience of use, generally cheaper prices and wider availability."

in 2016, vinyl dominates existing bricks and mortar stores, which are themselves a niche market ... whether or not this is a fad is debatable but the record companies and stores are clearly exploiting the demand while it exists ... there are plenty of articles on the "vinyl revival" in the mainstream press that could be used as citations, including info on new and old pressing plants ... J Edward Malone (talk) 19:42, 15 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

It probably is time to update it, but please note that hard facts (numbers) and good references will be needed. And we need the format-independent numbers to put the LP numbers into context. (As an example of what we don't want, the popular press is fond of raving e.g. "sales increased by 40%!" when they increased from 10 units per year to 14.) Jeh (talk) 21:27, 15 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Like a broken record[edit]

This. Ought be difficult to prove one way or the other, but I would suspect the record referred to in this simile is in fact a 78, not a vinyl record. Vinyl records do not very easily break, although it is easy to scratch one. Shellac records are rather easy to crack or break, and if you have a record that remains on one piece but has a crack, it will skip. I guess you could call a severely scratched vinyl as being "broken", as sometimes "broken" is used as a synonym for "defective", but I remember this saying from as far back as the early 1959s, when 78s were still quite common while vinyl was more of a niche market. Wschart (talk) 13:45, 14 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Except that this simile does not refer to a record that has been physically broken into multiple pieces. (You're right about that being far easier to do to a 78 than to a vinyl LP... you can bend the latter practically double... 45s are almost as easy to break as 78s.) When someone is accused of "sounding like a broken record", it means they are repeating the same thing over an over.... like a record with a scratch in it that pulls the stylus back a few groove-widths, so that short section of the material, one or a few revolutions' worth, repeats over and over. Given how soft the vinyl LP is, together with lighter tracking forces and much shallower grooves than the 78, this was much easier to do on an LP (or a 45) than a 78. It doesn't require a crack. Jeh (talk) 16:46, 14 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Jeh is correct. Binksternet (talk) 18:51, 14 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I recently made an edit regarding this matter, but just now belatedly discovered this discussion. My edit added a parenthetical noting the precedent of a cracked (rather than simply scratched) shellac 78, as it seemed readers might otherwise be puzzled about why a merely scratched record could be called "broken" in the simile. The expression certainly goes back to the shellac era: there was a now-obscure popular song in 1936 entitled "The Broken Record" (lyric excerpt: "My Sweetheart, you're gorgeous, you're gorgeous, you're gorgeous, you're gorgeous, you're gorgeous, you're gorgeous tonight / That's a song I heard on the phonograph / The needle caught on the broken half / And kept playing..."), waxed by at least a half dozen bands ranging from Guy Lombardo to Red Norvo and Wingy Manone. Relevant OR: it takes one hell of a scratch or divot to cause the steel needle in the very heavy pickup of a typical prewar record player to jump outward from the beefy groove it is playing and repeat. In my experience, skipping ahead is almost always the journey made by a needle thus momentarily dislodged. An open crack, especially a break resulting in misalignment across the fracture, is a far more likely cause. I sometimes get the impression that many writers, including collectors who ought to know better, are falling into the error of contemplating vintage phonographic technology through the lens of their own experiences with semi-permanent styli (which do not wear out in the course of playing one side of a 16" shellac disc) and featherweight pickups that can get bounced by a lead-footed stroll across the floor or a fleck of crud in the groove. 66.81.220.154 (talk) 15:56, 9 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think calling a record that skips "broken" requires that it be physically cracked. It's "broken" as far as correct functionality is concerned, right? Anyway, the current text (as last edited by .154) seems to address both usages and the historical connection between them, so that seems fine to me. Jeh (talk) 19:08, 9 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Emory Cook's binaural LPs[edit]

I do believe that Cooks binaural records belong in this article as they are the first commercially available two channel recordings on disk but some of the details are inaccurate.

Here's the text: "Emory Cook's 1952 idea of using two tracks, and a system using vertical modulation (harking back to Edison's 1877 experiments) for one channel and (then-universal) horizontal for the other".

I believe that there are two issues here (although perhaps only one is inaccurate).

The two channels on Cook's binaural disks are recorded with different equalizations but both are horizontal. A Cook binaural tonearm (such as that manufactured by Livingston) simply required two standard cartridges. For more detail see the discussion in the Cook Records entry.

Also, Edison's disks were successfully marketed for a number of years (1912-1929) and were cut vertically (hill and dale) so I don't know that characterizing the method as harking back to his experiments gives the right impression (although this is, of course, accurate).

I'd have changed this but I thought that the original author may want to investigate and change.

RichardBeckwith (talk) 18:27, 25 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

You are correct, I have a few of these discs. I'm not sure where the vertical modulation came from. 78.26 (spin me / revolutions) 18:32, 25 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
RichardBeckwith Actually, I'm pretty sure the vertical/horizontal system is referring to a system that is independent of Cook's, at least that's how I read the sentence ("...and a system..."). I'd leave it alone for now, but if no references can be found for this system (I've not heard of it, did it ever see commercial production?) then it should be removed. 78.26 (spin me / revolutions) 18:36, 25 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Nice to know someone else owns some of these. I have a few myself. I have a thing for obsolete technology so I have collected a bit of Cook-binaural equipment over the years and have interacted with others about this. imagine that I'd have heard of another format if it existed. This is especially the case since it would suggest a different style tonearm and I have spent an embarrassing amount of time obsessing about tonearms. As a consequence, I am fairly certain that there are no disks quite like those described. It is certainly the case that there are no tonearms that have ever been manufactured for playback (which, oddly enough, I'll admit doesn't mean that the disks were never made). I wonder if this description is not a kind of permutation of the description of standard Westrex-style stereo, which essentially combines the vertical and lateral (as noted later in the paragraph). — Preceding unsigned comment added by RichardBeckwith (talk • contribs) 16:39, 26 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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Run-out diameter?[edit]

I know it might vary somewhat, but there's presumably a certain set range that the run-out area and lock groove occupy in order to maximise play time whilst remaining compatible with automatic systems? And it's probably not changed since the days of the macrogroove 78, so that people can still play their shellac on a modern turntable equipped with a suitably robust needle... Do we know what it is? I guess at about 10cm or four inches before but apparently that's wrong. It's a useful thing to know both for calculating linear media speed at the end of a disc (from which we can estimate frequency range for a particular playback stylus and/or cutting head, both at the start and end of a side), and how wide a recording band is provided on a typical 7, 10 and 12 inch disc (and so how many grooves of a particular width will fit in that space, and thus the theoretical maximum playing time)... It's not given anywhere in this article, nor in the general "vinyl record" one. 46.208.118.253 (talk) 10:28, 9 April 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting point. In the days of '78's, it appears that there was no actual specified standard, though almost all '78's produced had a central label that was between 3.0–3.25 inches (76–83 mm) in diameter, though the diameter of the end point of the recorded groove was dependant on the length of the recorded track. The shortest playing 78 in my collection has a 5.5 inches (140 mm) diameter end point of the recorded area (not including one '78' where the 'B' side is entirely run-out groove as it is just a single sided disc).
However, the lack of standardisation of the time is revealed because at least one manufacturer of '78' records (Broadcast) had central labels that were just 2 inches (51 mm) in diameter. With the end of the recorded area just 1.5 inches (38 mm) in diameter, it was smaller than most labels. I have not come across any wind-up gramophone fitted with an auto-stop that fails to play the entire record. Modern 33/45/78 capable auto-stop turntables will stop before the record has finished playing suggesting that they are designed with a minimum size of recorded groove in mind. 81.129.194.214 (talk) 17:05, 4 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]

This article needs sections added on The Audiophile Companies such as Mobile Fidelity who produce extremely high qualilty products.

This and other related sections need to be updated and added to reflect the fact that Vinyl never stopped being produced and now, as we near the end of the Physical CD format in favor of streaming, that Vinyl sales have been skyrocketing in the last few years. New Products are being announced at CES and the value of Vintage Record Equipment is on the increase — Preceding unsigned comment added by Imagineer2018 (talk • contribs) 01:44, 8 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

It is incorrect to say that vinyl has never stopped being produced. Fifteen years ago, it would have been impossible to source vinyl recordings or indeed new equipment on which to play them. Today, it is very different. The record stores are full of vinyl records, and the players to play them. Even the stores that sell very high end audiophile equipment will now stock expensive turntables (amplifiers have always featured a 'phono' input, mainly to support legacy turntables).
Why the resurgence in vinyl? There can be many reasons, but one of the main drivers is that many bands producing recordings insist that analogue sounds superior to digital recordings. It is not true of course otherwise the record companies would issue 'prestige' recordings on vinyl, which they do not.[1] The insistence comes from vested interests, in particular, a major change in the business model of record production.
In the middle of the 20th century, if a band was signed up with a recording company, that recording company would record their single or album, mix it, edit it, market it and sell it - paying the band a per track sold royalty of one old penny.
In the 21st century, all that has changed. A contract with a recording company now only covers producing the final records and their distribution. The band is expected to provide the record company with a finished master tape having funded the recording, mixing and editing of the tracks out of their own pocket. The band is even expected to market the recordings themselves (or more usually, pay a marketing company to do the job). The main issue is that analogue recording and mixing suites using (largely) legacy equipment are relatively cheaper to hire, whereas digital suites with their more complex and newer equipment are proportionally much more expensive to hire. Basically, the bands convince themselves (and others) that analogue is better simply because they do not want to pay to do it digitally.
For the vastly reduced service that the record companies provide, they pay the bands exactly the same number of pence per track sold today that they used to pay in 1970.[2]

References

  1. ^ 'Prestige' recordings are recordings on which the record company expects to make a substantial loss on their sales. They are released solely so that those who review the recordings will comment on what superb quality recordings they are (from both the performance and technical viewpoint). The record company gains prestige from the reviews.
  2. ^ In 1970, bands were paid a royalty of 1d (one old penny) per track sold (or about 10d for a typical ten track album). In 2019, bands are still paid a royalty of 1d (though it is now 0.4 new pence) per track sold (or 10d (4p) for a typical 10 track album). Note: that prior to World War II, royalties were much more generous.

Move discussion in progress[edit]

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Longplay (video games) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 02:16, 14 July 2019 (UTC)[reply]

90 Minutes With The Magnificent Maestros[edit]

I actually own this album. It's not a single LP with 90 minutes of music. It's 2 LPs. I don't think that this is a good example for an extended play LP. Tdknox (talk) 20:52, 30 August 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Uncited material in need of citations[edit]

I am moving the following uncited material here until it can be properly supported with inline citations of reliable, secondary sources, per WP:V, WP:NOR, WP:CS, WP:NOR, WP:IRS, WP:PSTS, et al. This diff shows where it was in the article. Nightscream (talk) 14:42, 23 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Much of the material you tagged in June is basic factual stuff, widely known to every topic expert. Wikipedia:You don't need to cite that the sky is blue. I think the tagging was excessive. Binksternet (talk) 01:49, 23 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
It never ceases to amaze me how often people try to use this argument. First of all, "it's factual stuff, known to every expert" is not a basis for inclusion. The basis for inclusion is verfiability. How do you know it's factual stuff? How do you know it's known to every expert? I don't know that. WP:BLUE, aside from being an essay, and not a policy or guideline, references information that is "common knowledge" or "obvious". The information moved to this talk page is not.
Second, the sky is not always blue. When rainclouds are overhead, it's gray. At night, it's black. On clear night with no light pollution, it's filled with stars. When it snows, it's pink. And on other planets, it's various other colors. The color of the sky is a phenomenon determined by the science of atmospheric optics, which is purely scientific. How is that not requiring of citations??
Lastly, it should be pointed out that in the sky article, the parapraph that describes the color of the sky has........a citation!
Bottom line: This argument, when used to argue against requiring citations, is a really shitty one. Nightscream (talk) 16:47, 23 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Extended content

Format advantages[edit]

Only the microgroove standard was new, as both vinyl and the 33+1⁄3 rpm speed had been used for special purposes for many years, as well as in one unsuccessful earlier attempt (by RCA Victor) to introduce a long-playing record for home use.[citation needed]

Although the LP was suited to classical music because of its extended continuous playing time, it also allowed a collection of ten or more pop music recordings to be put on a single disc. Previously such collections, as well as longer classical music broken up into several parts, had been sold as sets of 78 rpm records in a specially imprinted "record album" consisting of individual record sleeves bound together in book form. The use of the word "album" persisted for the one-disc LP equivalent.

Soundtrack discs[edit]

Neumann lathe with SX-74 cutting head
Neumann lathe

The prototype of the LP was the soundtrack disc used by the Vitaphone motion picture sound system, developed by Western Electric and introduced in 1926. For soundtrack purposes, the less-than-five minutes of playing time of each side of a conventional 12-inch 78 rpm disc was not acceptable. The sound had to play continuously for at least 11 minutes, long enough to accompany a full 1,000-foot (300 m) reel of 35 mm film projected at 24 frames per second. The disc diameter was increased to 16 inches (40 cm) and the speed was reduced to 33+1⁄3 revolutions per minute. Unlike their smaller LP descendants, they were made with the same large "standard groove" used by 78s.[citation needed]

Unlike conventional records, the groove started at the inside of the recorded area near the label and proceeded outward toward the edge. Like 78s, early soundtrack discs were pressed in an abrasive shellac compound and played with a single-use steel needle held in a massive electromagnetic pickup with a tracking force of five ounces (1.4 N).[citation needed]

Radio transcription discs[edit]

From 1928 onward, syndicated radio programming was distributed on 78 rpm discs. The desirability of longer continuous playing time soon led to the adoption of the Vitaphone soundtrack disc format. Beginning in about 1930, 16-inch 33+1⁄3 rpm discs playing about 15 minutes per side were used for most of these "electrical transcriptions". Some transcriptions were, like soundtrack discs, pressed with the commencement at the center of the disc and the needle moving outward (in the era of shellac pressings and steel needles, needle wear considerations dictated an 'inside start' for such a long recording); conversely, some commenced at the edge.[citation needed]

Longer programs, which required several disc sides, pioneered the system of recording odd-numbered sides inside-out and even-numbered sides outside-in so that the sound quality would match from the end of one side to the start of the next. Although a pair of turntables was used, to avoid any pauses for disc-flipping, the sides had to be pressed in a hybrid of manual and automatic sequencing, arranged in such a manner that no disc being played had to be turned over to play the next side in the sequence. Instead of a three-disc set having the 1–2, 3–4 and 5–6 manual sequence, or the 1–6, 2–5 and 3–4 automatic sequence for use with a drop-type mechanical record changer, broadcast sequence coupled the sides as 1–4, 2–5 and 3–6.[citation needed]

Some transcriptions were recorded with a vertically modulated "hill and dale" groove. This was found to allow deeper bass (because turntable rumble was laterally modulated in early radio station turntables) and also an extension of the high-end frequency response. Neither of these was necessarily a great advantage in practice because of the limitations of AM broadcasting. Today users enjoy the benefits of those higher-fidelity recordings, even if the original radio audiences could not.[citation needed]

Initially, transcription discs were pressed only in shellac, but by 1932 pressings in RCA Victor's vinyl-based "Victrolac" were appearing. Other plastics were sometimes used. By the late 1930s, vinyl was standard for nearly all kinds of pressed discs except ordinary commercial 78s, which continued to be made of shellac.[citation needed]

Beginning in the mid-1930s, one-off 16-inch 33+1⁄3 rpm lacquer discs were used by radio networks to archive recordings of their live broadcasts, and by local stations to delay the broadcast of network programming or to prerecord their own productions.[citation needed]

In the late 1940s, magnetic tape recorders were adopted by the networks to pre-record shows or repeat them for airing in different time zones, but 16-inch vinyl pressings continued to be used into the early 1960s for non-network distribution of prerecorded programming. Use of the LP's microgroove standard began in the late 1950s, and in the 1960s the size of discs was reduced to 12 inches, becoming physically indistinguishable from ordinary LPs.[citation needed]

RCA Victor[edit]

However, many of the subsequent issues were not new recordings but simply dubs made from existing 78 rpm record sets. The dubs were audibly inferior to the original 78s. Two-speed turntables with the 33+1⁄3 rpm speed were included only on expensive high-end machines, which sold in very small numbers, and most people had little money to spend on groceries, let alone phonograph records in the depths of the Great Depression. Record sales in the US had dropped from a high of 105.6 million records sold in 1921 to 5.5 million in 1933 because of competition from radio and the effects of the Depression Few if any new Program Transcriptions were recorded after 1933, and two-speed turntables soon disappeared from RCA Victor's phonographs. Except for a few recordings of background music for funeral parlors, the last of the issued titles had been purged from the Victor record catalog by the end of the decade. The failure of the new product left RCA Victor with a low opinion of the prospects for any sort of long-playing record, influencing product development decisions during the coming decade.[citation needed]

Columbia[edit]

There have been three repressings of this LP, one on Columbia's budget reissue Odyssey label in 1977 honoring Edison's invention of recorded sound in 1877, one from Classic Records to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the LP in 1998 and one from HMV (England) celebrating the 70th anniversary of the LP in 2018. There is also a CD copy of ML 4001. As of 2021, the original ML4001 is quite scarce and a few have sold on Ebay for $200 to $500.[citation needed]

Public reception[edit]

For this reason, major labels in the United States ceased manufacturing of 78s for popular and classical releases in 1956 with the minor labels following suit, with the final US-made 78 being produced in 1959.[citation needed]

Canada and the UK continued production into 1960, while India, the Philippines, and South Africa produced 78s until 1965, with the last holdout, Argentina, continuing until 1970.[citation needed]

Competing formats[edit]

The LP was soon confronted by the "45", a 7-inch (180 mm) diameter fine-grooved vinyl record playing at 45 rpm, introduced by RCA Victor in 1949. To compete with the LP, boxed album sets of 45s were issued, along with EP (extended play) 45s, which squeezed two or even three selections onto each side. Despite intense marketing efforts by RCA Victor, the 45 ultimately succeeded only in replacing the 78 as the preferred format for singles.[citation needed]

The "last hurrah" for the 78 rpm record in the US was the microgroove 78 series pressed for the Audiophile label (Ewing Nunn, Saukville, Wis.) in the early 1950s. This series was labeled AP-1 through about AP-40, pressed on grainless red vinyl. Today AP-1 through AP-5 are very scarce. By very tightly packing the fine groove, a playing time of 17 minutes per side was achieved. Within a couple of years Audiophile switched to 33+1⁄3.[citation needed]

Playing time[edit]

Economics and tastes initially determined which kind of music was available on each format. Recording company executives believed upscale classical music fans would be eager to hear a Beethoven symphony or a Mozart concerto without having to flip over multiple, four-minute-per-side 78s, and that pop music fans, who were used to listening to one song at a time, would find the shorter time of the 10-inch LP sufficient. As a result, the 12-inch format was reserved solely for higher-priced classical recordings and Broadway shows. Popular music continued to appear only on 10-inch records. Ten-inch records briefly reappeared as mini-LPs in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States and Australia as a marketing alternative.[citation needed]

Exceptions[edit]

In 1952, Columbia Records introduced "extended-play" LPs that played for as long as 52 minutes, or 26 minutes per side.[citation needed] These were used mainly for the original cast albums of Broadway musicals, such as Kiss Me, Kate and My Fair Lady, or to fit an entire play, such as the 1950 production of Don Juan in Hell, onto two LPs. The 52-minute playing time remained rare, however, because of mastering limitations, and most LPs continued to be issued with a 30- to 45-minute playing time.[citation needed]

...side two of Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother and both sides of the Division Bell and Wings' Greatest all exceed 28 minutes. Finally, several recordings of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony were reissued on single discs; these LPs contained about 35 minutes on each side, with the third movement split into two parts.[citation needed]

Spoken word and comedy albums require a smaller dynamic range compared to musical records. Therefore, they can be cut with narrower spaces between the grooves. The Comic Strip, released by Springtime Records in 1981, has a side A lasting 38 min 4 s, and a side B lasting 31 min 8 s, for a total of 69 min 12 s.[citation needed]

Changers[edit]

Turntables called record changers could play records stacked vertically on a spindle. This arrangement encouraged the production of multiple-record sets in automatic sequence. A two-record set had Side 1 and Side 4 on one record, and Side 2 and Side 3 on the other, so the first two sides could play in a changer without the listener's intervention. Then the stack was flipped over. Larger boxed sets used appropriate automatic sequencing (1–8, 2–7, 3–6, 4–5) to allow continuous playback, but this created difficulties when searching for an individual track.[citation needed]

Disadvantages[edit]

Vinyl records are vulnerable to dust, heat warping, scuffs, and scratches. Dust in the groove is usually heard as noise and may be ground into the vinyl by the passing stylus, causing lasting damage. A warp can cause a regular "wow" or fluctuation of musical pitch, and if substantial it can make a record physically unplayable. A scuff will be heard as a swishing sound. A scratch will create an audible tick or pop once each revolution when the stylus encounters it. A deep scratch can throw the stylus out of the groove; if it jumps to a place farther inward, part of the recording is skipped; if it jumps outward to a part of the groove it just finished playing, it can get stuck in an infinite loop, playing the same bit over and over until someone stops it. This last type of mishap, which in the era of brittle shellac records was more commonly caused by a crack, spawned the simile "like a broken record" to refer to annoying and seemingly endless repetition.[citation needed]

Records used in radio stations can suffer cue burn, which results from disc jockeys placing the needle at the beginning of a track, turning the record back and forth to find the exact start of the music, then backing up about a quarter turn, so that when it is released the music will start immediately after the fraction of a second needed for the disc to come up to full speed. When this is done repeatedly, the affected part of the groove is heavily worn and a hissing sound will be noticeable at the start of the track.[citation needed]

The process of playing a vinyl record with a stylus is by its very nature to some degree a destructive process. Wear to either the stylus or the vinyl results in diminished sound quality. Record wear can be reduced significantly by the use of a high-quality, correctly adjusted turntable and tonearm, a high-compliance magnetic cartridge with a high-end stylus in good condition, and careful record handling, with non-abrasive removal of dust before playing and other cleaning if necessary. Wear from playback is eliminated by using an optical record player, as no needle comes into contact with the record.[citation needed]

Groove[edit]

The average LP has about 1,500 feet (460 m; 0.28 mi) of groove on each side. The average tangential needle speed relative to the disc surface is approximately 1 mile per hour (1.6 km/h; 0.45 m/s). It travels fastest on the outside edge, unlike audio CDs, which change their speed of rotation to provide constant linear velocity (CLV). (By contrast, CDs play from the inner radius outward, the reverse of phonograph records.)[citation needed]

This problem could also appear as post-echo, with a ghost of the sound arriving 1.8 seconds after its main impulse. Pre- and post-echo can be avoided by the use of direct metal mastering.[citation needed]

The first LP records introduced used fixed pitch grooves just like their 78 predecessors. The use of magnetic tape for the production of the master recordings allowed the introduction of variable pitch grooves. The magnetic tape reproducer used to transfer the recording to the master disc was equipped with an auxiliary playback head positioned ahead of the main head by a distance equal to one revolution of the disc. The sole purpose of this head was to monitor the amplitude of the recording. If the sound level from both the auxiliary and main magnetic heads was loud, the cutting head on the disc recording lathe was driven at its normal speed. If the sound level from both magnetic heads was quieter, however, then the disc cutting head could be driven at a lower speed reducing the groove pitch with no danger of the adjacent grooves colliding with each other. The playing time of the disc was therefore increased by an amount dependent on the duration of quieter passages.[citation needed]

The record manufacturers had also realised that by reducing the amplitude of the lower frequencies recorded in the groove, it was possible to decrease the spacing between the grooves and further increase the playing time. These low frequencies were then restored to their original level on playback. Furthermore, if the amplitude of the high frequencies was artificially boosted on recording the disc and then subsequently reduced to their original level on playback, the noise introduced by the disc would be reduced by a similar amount. This gave rise to an equalization frequency response applied during record coupled with an inverse of the response applied on playback. Each disc manufacturer applied their own version of an equalization curve (mostly because each manufacturer's equalization curve was protected by interlocking patents). Low-end reproduction equipment applied a compromise playback equalization that reproduced most discs reasonably well. By contrast, amplifiers for audiophile equipment were equipped with an equalization selector with a position for most, if not all, disc manufacturers. The net effect of equalization is to allow longer playing time and lower background noise while maintaining full fidelity of music or other content.[citation needed]

In 1954, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) introduced a standard equalization curve to be used by all record manufacturers. Consequently, both low-quality and audiophile reproducers alike could replay any recording with the correct equalization. There are two versions of the reproduction RIAA equalization curve. The first curve is the inverse of the recording curve designed for cheaper equipment using crystal or ceramic reproduction cartridges. The second curve is intended for equipment fitted with magnetic reproduction cartridges where the output voltage is dependent on the frequency of the recorded signal (the voltage output is directly proportional to the frequency of the recorded signal; that is: the voltage doubles as the recorded frequency doubles).[citation needed]

The audio quality of LPs has increased greatly since their 1948 inception. While early LP recordings were monophonic, stereophony had been demonstrated in 1881 and Alan Blumlein had patented Stereophonic sound in 1931. Unsuccessful attempts were made to create stereophonic records starting in the 1920s, including Emory Cook's 1952 "binaural" LPs using two precisely spaced tracks on the record (one track for each channel) that had to be played with two monaural pick-ups on a tuning-fork-shaped tonearm. The modern system ultimately released by Audio Fidelity Records in November 1957 uses two modulation angles, equal and opposite 45 degrees from vertical (and so perpendicular to each other.) It can also be thought of as using traditional horizontal modulation for the sum of left and right channels (mono), making it essentially compatible with simple mono recordings, and vertical-plane modulation for the difference of the two channels.[citation needed]

Fidelity and formats[edit]

Quad never escaped the reputation of being a gimmick, and the various (mutually incompatible) discrete surround solutions required an ultrasonic carrier signal that was technically difficult to capture and suffered degradation with playing. With the advent of DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD, multi-channel recordings once favored and championed by artists like Leopold Stokowski and Glenn Gould. have made a modest comeback. In addition, new surround recordings have been made for these formats and Blu-ray Audio.

  • In the later 1970s, engineers Gerry Block and Burgess Macneal devised a preview system of mastering vinyl that allowed about 10–20% more music per disc while not sacrificing dynamic range. The preview tape head was positioned far enough before the program tape head to allow the disk computer enough time to measure the peaks in low frequency and thereby expand the feed appropriately for the greater excursions of groove modulation they produce. The Compudisk system was unveiled at the 1980 AES Convention, alongside the Zuma Disk Computer (made by John W. Bittner) and the Neumann VMS-80 lathe, which had its own advanced disk computer.[citation needed]

Other experiments included reducing the thickness of LPs, leading to warping and increased susceptibility to damage. Using a biscuit of 130 grams of vinyl had been the standard. Compare these to the original Columbia 12-inch LPs (ML 4001) at around 220 grams each. Besides the standard black vinyl, specialty records are also pressed on different colors of PVC/A or picture discs with a card picture sandwiched between two clear sides. Records in different novelty shapes have also been produced.[citation needed]

Use by disc jockeys[edit]

Disc jockeys (or DJs) in clubs still frequently use vinyl records, as cueing tracks from cassette tapes is too slow and CDs did not allow creative playback options until the advent of the CDJ-1000 turntable in 2001. The term "DJ", which had always meant a person who played various pieces of music on the radio (originally 78s, then 45s, then tape cartridges and reels; now cuts from CDs or tracks on a computer) – a play on the horse-racing term "jockey" – has also come to encompass all kinds of skills in "scratching" (record playback manipulation) and mixing dance music, rapping over the music or even playing musical instruments, but the original dance club (non-radio) definition was simply somebody who played records, alternating between two turntables. The skill came in subtly matching beats or instruments from one song to the next, providing a consistent dance tempo. DJs also made occasional announcements and chatted on the side with patrons while songs were playing to take requests, similar to what radio disc jockeys have been doing since the 1940s.[citation needed]

Disputed logo (LPlogo.svg)[edit]

While it’s nice to have some logo visuals, File:LPlogo.svg lacks both source and author information, and above that, any authority to provide a logo for this type of medium. I suggest it being removed, or anyone could provide a phantasy version of “a logo for LP record”. -- WA1TF0R䷟ 09:35, 30 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The LP logo clearly shows at the bottom of this old-style Columbia Masterworks label (in spite of the poor photography with the flash glare)
That logo is not "ficticious". (WA1TF0R's original word) Columbia used it on its first commercially-released LP's and players in 1948 and it should not be removed. Its provenance must be available somewhere. JustinTime55 (talk) 16:14, 1 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]
There are images of labels with the logo in this Library of Congress article and in Columbia Records 1949 catalogue. —Carter (Tcr25) (talk) 18:01, 12 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

theory[edit]

In theory, quantization noise for 16 bit audio CDs is about -100dbB. That isn't zero. Practically, it is below just about every other noise around, in just about ever environment. Maybe except for an anechoic lab. Gah4 (talk) 09:40, 1 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]

images[edit]

There are 2 images referencing "Neumann lathe." Yet there is nothing in the article referencing the subject. More information is needed. 76.88.55.202 (talk) 03:19, 11 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Original specs[edit]

I noticed this article does not cite a patent or a paper showing the original specs (e.g. weight, groove size...) of the long play vinyl record. Do they exist?-- Carnby (talk) 22:10, 17 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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