How do records work

You can see the grooves, the little paths that the needle follows. It contains a collection of standardized tones and clicks and other noises. And while it probably never made the Billboard Top , it can help us understand how records work.

Using this simple tone, we can see how the sound is encoded in the record. The groove for this simple tone is just a sine wave; when the needle is being dragged through it, this groove wobbles the needle back and forth times per second.

A sensor on the needle detects this wobble and converts it to an electrical signal which oscillates times per second. The master copy is ridged instead of grooved. The stamp is pressed into steam-softened vinyl, using a hydraulic press. The vinyl disc is cooled with water and viola… a finished vinyl record is born. Once a vinyl record is made, it is played on a record player. A record player is sometimes called a turntable. Turntables spin wheels using an electric motor.

Some are called direct-drive turntables, which use gears to turn the table, and some are called belt-drive turntables, which use a rubber belt and central axle to turn the table. The cartridge and stylus of a record player trace the groove in the record to reproduce the sound information contained there.

With modern music today, sound waves are basically stored on tiny computers. The microcomputers available in this generation can house everything from photos, to videos, to games and apps, to text files, to music. Music is merely information, just like everything else. In digital form, that music or information is stored as numbers.

Digital information can be read in a number of different ways. A computer hard drive reads and records sound by moving a tiny electromagnetic arm on a disk that spins at high speed. The arm writes that information in little magnetic zones. Music can also be stored on flash memory music players by recording sound using something called transistors. Transistors basically amount to tiny electrical switches.

And of course, there are compact discs. Does your brain hurt yet? With the arrival of the digital age, all of these modes of recording and retaining information could be stored and saved even if there was no power source.

When it comes to reproducing sound, your modern record player does it similarly to the original invention thought up by Edison, but it instead uses electricity and a magnetic cartridge. When you turn your record player on and lower the needle properly known as a stylus onto the record surface, it begins to ride in the grooves. Instead of vibrating a diaphragm, however, the stylus vibrates and moves a small magnet in what is known as the cartridge the part holding the stylus itself.

Your speakers are merely large magnets connected to coils, which are connected to a cone. When an electrical signal enters the speakers, it moves the magnet and vibrates the cone. The cone pushes air, creating sound, allowing you to listen to your favorite tunes. Your record player can produce stereo music due to the way the grooves in your record have been cut.

When Edison released the cylinder phonograph, its grooves moved up and down over what was known as hills and valleys. When the middle of the 20th century rolled around, and record companies wanted to record two tracks at once — one in the left channel and one in the right — they opted for a bit of a hybrid design. Record companies decided to cut the grooves at a degree angle. Initially, recorded sounds were mainly monophonic, meaning all of the sound signals are combined and come through one speaker or channel.

The introduction of stereophonic sound systems in allowed for a richer, more lifelike sound as two sets of sound waves were recorded. When played, the vibrations travel simultaneously along two different channels and are converted and dispersed through two different speakers. Record players became more common as recorded music grew in popularity, but not everyone jumped on the bandwagon. Read on to discover which famous band leader didn't like the idea of recorded music.

The invention of the record player is considered by many to be one of the most significant influences on music and culture. Much of the first recorded music was performed by marching bands, but John Phillip Sousa, one of America's most recognized band leaders, wrote in that a live performance was unique and that recordings cheapened the experience.

He admitted that the machines were "remarkable" and were sufficient for people who weren't able to learn music or attend a performance, but he feared that they would undermine the incentive to acquire musical ability and create original pieces [source: Sousa]. Access to recorded music, however, resulted in greater exposure to a wide variety of music for all types of people. Local musicians who made a recording could share their tunes worldwide.

Additionally, recorded music helped begin to bridge a racial divide between whites and blacks in the United States. Black artists' recordings grew in popularity, including jazz musicians in the s, Motown recording artists in the s and most recently many rap artists. The record industry continued to grow throughout the midth century, but after World War II, portable music became popular. The second half of the century saw music quickly move through a variety of mediums from transistor radios to tape players and most recently to compact disc and MP3 players.

But even as the way people listen to recorded music has evolved over the years, the record player can be considered the trendsetter. And these days, as we'll talk about next, vinyl records are making something of a comeback. Nipper is perhaps one of the world's most recognizable dogs, though probably more by product than by name.

In the iconic logo, Nipper is the Terrier sitting beside a gramophone, head slightly cocked, listening to his master's voice coming out of the cone-shaped amplifier. The original painting had Nipper listening to an Edison cylinder phonograph, but the image was sold to Emile Berliner's Gramophone Company in to be its trademark on condition that the phonograph be repainted as a gramophone with a horn.

In , Berliner's company became the Victor Talking Machine Company, which manufactured record players with the trademark, eventually giving Nipper iconic status [sources: BBC , Edie ]. The popularity of record players and vinyl recordings peaked in the s, but they are enjoying a comeback among certain music fans.

In the early days of hip-hop , disc jockeys in dance clubs wanted to keep people dancing to the best parts of a variety of songs. Using multiple turntables, they mixed music right on the spot. The process, called turntablism, includes cutting quickly between two records, stopping and starting the music, and dragging the needle against the record to create a rhythmic scratching sound [source: Neal ].

It's considered by many to be an art, just like playing another instrument. Also, many music lovers just prefer the sound of a vinyl record. They argue that, despite the occasional extraneous noises on a record from dust or a scratch, vinyl has a deeper, richer sound than a digital version, which can feel too perfect.

They also enjoy other aspects of records, such as liner notes, photos, posters and other album extras. And many simply like the social aspect of gathering together with friends or family to listen to music on the record player -- just like people did in the old days [source: Dell]. Learn more about record players by visiting some of the links and related articles on the next page.

Perhaps you bought into each wave of recorded music and now have boxes of records and cassettes that you'd like to have on your MP3 player -- or at least on CD -- without buying them a second time. One option to try is a converting machine that can transfer both records and tapes to CDs.

It's about the size of a breadbox, and it opens to reveal a turntable on the top and inputs for a tape deck on the back [source: Pogue ]. You can record an entire album or select favorite songs to make unique compilations. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots.

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