Music on Vinyl

       We simply used to call them records or LPs.  Now they are referred to as vinyl.  Let’s have a little backgrounder.  It was Thomas Edison who actually invented the phonograph when he recorded his voice saying, “Mary had a little lamb”.  His microphone was simply a funnel on which a needle was attached to a diaphragm at the small end.  The needle was laid on a heated wax cylinder (resembling a rolling pin) which was then turned by hand as he spoke. The funnel concentrated his voice, vibrating the diaphragm and made the needle indent corresponding valleys on the soft wax.  Those valleys were an analog recording of his actual voice.  Later, the wax cylinder was allowed to cool and harden.   When the cylinder was then turned, the needle now rode on the valleys and this vibrated the diaphragm back, reproducing his voice.  This is basically how analog recording and playback works.

       In time, the crude wax cylinder was replaced by flat discs.  The recording and playback process remained the same. However, the needle now recorded sound as side to side wiggles as it made spiral tracks from the outer rim of the disc going in towards the spindle.  The rotational speed of the first records was 78 revolutions per minute, meaning the turntable made 78 rotations every minute.  Typically, only one song could be recorded on one side of the disc at this speed.  Later as finer needles were made, the rotational speed was reduced to 45 rpm, and later to 33 1/3 rpm.

       The discs were then called phonograph records because they were sound recordings. (Obviously, LOL!)  The first discs were made of shellac. These were sturdy and hard but also very brittle, so they literally broke into little pieces when subjected to stress.  It was not uncommon in those days to accidentally drop records on the floor and that was the end of them.  There was virtually no way to glue them back together, and the next move was to sweep the debris off the floor and say goodbye.  Worse was when someone sat on your records lying on the bed.  The inevitable cracking sounds would send chills up your spine as you lose more records again…

My wind-up RCA gramophone playing a 78 rpm record

       It’s good that a more flexible material was later found and this was a type of plastic called vinyl. (Now you know why they’re called vinyl—LOL!) Records made from this material could be made thinner and be reasonably flexed without breaking.  Now they could be dropped on the floor without shattering (they were actually labeled as unbreakable, as a matter of fact) and, unless you were really heavy, and/or the mattress was extra soft, they usually didn’t break even if you sat on them.

       Vinyl also had less surface noise during playback as the needle traced its way in the grooves compared to shellac, so the blank groove was practically quiet when there was no music.  Being the material of choice, vinyl now refers to any analogue record, either 33 1/3 or 45. Let’s go to the 45 rpm records first.

       One distinguishing feature of the 45 rpm records is the big hole in the center.  The records themselves were smaller than the 78s but still held only one song per side.  I believe these were developed primarily for the juke box industry, though the discs were also very popular with the teen generation, as detailed further below.  For now, let’s share some historical tidbits regarding those ubiquitous juke boxes, the likes of which we may never see again.

        Juke boxes were automated mechanical record players capable of playing hundreds of songs and were standard equipment installed in bars and diners all over the world, either they be soda, snack, or drinking bars—just about anywhere where people went for meals or refreshment.  The units were coin operated and had pushbuttons which were internally set for selection of particular songs from a list.  These automated machines, about as tall as refrigerators, were really novel.

       I can still remember the ritual involved in operating a juke box.  It usually had attractive blinking colored lights, standing in a conspicuous corner like a robot waiting for anyone to come up to it, with its illuminated list of songs behind its glass cover.  After seeing a song one wants to listen to, a coin is inserted into the coin slot.  After hearing the familiar clunks as the coin rolls inside, the machine confirms by turning on some lights, and waits until the buttons corresponding to the song number are pushed. This done, a whirr would be heard as a mechanical arm fetches the record and places it on the spindle. The tone arm appears and places the needle on the rotating record and the music then starts playing.  When the song was done, the machine would revert to standby mode, waiting for the next coin to be dropped in. Several songs could be played automatically by selecting them sequentially and dropping in more coins

       By the way, the records were typically played standing up, rotating in a vertical position, not flat on a platter as is customary on record players. Using some ingenious designs, some of these units actually flipped the record over when a desired song was on the other side.  In others, the tone arm had two needles on both sides so it was merely moved to the selected side of the record to play.  It was fun watching the mechanical part of the contraptions operate.  The overall sound was quite good, too, with adequate bass and treble and relatively loud volume.  They occasionally even served as music sources for  dance parties.

       One social aspect I observed about those juke boxes, however, was that everyone in the bar would hear what song/s you selected, and this in some way revealed your musical taste; branding you to your particular choice of songs. On the business side, I think juke boxes made good money as their popularity continued up until the late 1960s.

       With advancement in technology in the recording industry, in the 1960s with finer needles and thinner grooves on the disc, the recording speed was reduced to 33 1/3 rpm and it was now possible to store at least six songs on one side of the disc.  These new discs were called long-playing records, later abbreviated as LPs. They were wider, even bigger than the 78s, but they held 12 songs overall, on both sides.

       The audio quality was also much improved to the extent that when played on state-of-the-art equipment, the reproduction was almost indistinguishable from the actual live performance.  Thus came the label hi-fi, which stands for High Fidelity   Further improvements were to come.  The original records were recorded in mono, and were reproduced only from a single channel, or speaker system.  However, for a realistic listening experience in which one can perceive depth and more minute detail, each ear should be hearing a slightly different sound, much like our eyes are able to perceive distance because each sees a slightly different view.  Aurally, this was accomplished by using two microphones, one for the left and the other for the right ear.  Eventually it was discovered that two channels could be recorded on a single groove without interfering with each other, and thus full stereophonic (or binaural) sound reproduction was achieved. Stereophonic was eventually shorted to stereo.  Two-channel reproduction had became a standard, that in time stereo came to mean any music system in the house.

       Later there were attempts to increase the number of channels to four, called quadraphonic, but technical issues prevented its adoption or further development. Four-channel recording was still done on a single groove, but the mathematical interpolations on the musical waveforms plus an ultrasonic signal proved too complex for decoders and less expensive cartridges—and this approach was eventually discontinued.

       I’d like to expound a bit on those 45 rpm records, or 45s as they were fondly known.  Aside from being used in juke boxes, I mentioned above that these small discs were also very popular with the teen generation of that period.  They were very inexpensive, had great portability and the issues involved in sharing records with others was no big concern even if a record was damaged or not returned.  For about the price of a sandwich, you just bought a new one.

       Another big plus was the convenience to be able to store only selected songs individually in one’s collection, because typically if you only liked a song or two in an LP, you still had to buy the whole album and LPs were more expensive.  The audio quality of the 45s was on par with the 33s, but the latter was viewed as superior and it was unthinkable to be playing 45 rpm records on a high-end system.  It was perhaps also for this reason that very few songs were released in stereo in this format.

       LPs continued to be manufactured even as the CD was invented and had become the more popular choice of music lovers.  Eventually, however, the digital format dominated, especially with the invention of the mp3 format which allowed compression of file size without significant loss in quality. Aside from computer hard drives, recordings are now also stored in memory cards, obviating the need for mechanical motors, transducers and their associated costs and limited life spans.

       No heresy here or guilt feelings involved, but I now listen regularly to my music collection using flashdrives and memory cards.  But on some lazy afternoons and late nights, I occasionally fire up my turntables and pop on an LP or two, playing these on tube amplifiers.  There is a discernible difference in aural quality between the analog and digital formats, and between solid-state and tube equipments, but those discussions are for another time.  Meanwhile, let’s enjoy the music.  As they say, “If music be the food of love, play on…”