Ever Wondered how Vinyl Works? Here you Go

The format we know as vinyl has a lot of components to get our music out to us, that is what I am going to cover, the science and mechanics behind technology that is at least 60 years old.

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Let's start with some history, it all started in the 1920s when Peter Carl Goldmark invented cylinder records, what you basically did was put the cylinder on a machine with a stylus in the middle that would pick up sound waves, then there was the gradual advancement to the circular records of today around the 1930s, when RCA Victor came out with the very first LP 33 1/3 record pressed on a 12" plastic disc, which had lines in it called grooves that, when the stylus hit them you could have sound waves converted by electric pulses creating the ability to hear what is on an album, my favorite albums I listen to are usually Country or classic rock among other things.

When artists record their songs, the distribution company puts what is just an empty wax piece into a machine that cuts the tracks for the particular artist, you can have up to 12 cuts on one album or a minimum of 4 cuts on LP format. Other forms include the 45 RPM and the 78 RPM, these vinyl formats usually just have one song on each side, to use a 45 you have to get an adapter to put on your player as they have big centers, and a 78 is usually made for recording a fast song of a length of two minutes or less, I would pick a 45 after the LP if it were me. WARNING: Don't use 45s without an adapter, you'll mess up your player!!

I recently went record shopping at this place called High Fidelity, it's inside of a place called The Nat, which back in the 20s and 30s served as a dance hall playing old country like Bob Wills and Meryl Haggard, people would dance the night away on the dance floor. I got one LP from 80s artist Charlie Sexton and two 45s, KC and the Sunshine Band that has the hit "Keep it Comin Love" and Wham!, another band from the 80s. I got home and listened to all three of them, they all sounded well taken care of, barely any clicks or pops, I was pleased with the quality of the albums.

Picture this, you in a bar or another music joint and you want to hear your favorite song on the jukebox, well before the days of digital cloud storage you had up to four or five records in the machine and you would walk over, put your money in and push a certain code for a song, I am referring to how it was in say the 50s or 60s, you had artists like Chuck Berry and Fats Domino playing at your favorite restaurant or bar, vinyl made a huge impact on this and was ultimately the mainstay up until the mid 90s when automation started gaining popularity.

So next time you feel like pulling out and dusting off some memories, think about what it really means to have a piece of history that continues to be cherished to this day. I think I am going to keep the tradition alive by going and getting mine out soon.

Thanks for reading