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. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. How Record Players Work. Audio Tech Image Gallery Record players started the trend of portable music by making it accessible to people. See more audio tech pictures. Edison's Discovery In , Thomas Edison and his assistants attached a needle to the diaphragm of a telephone receiver with the idea that the needle could be used to etch an impression of sound onto quickly moving paper, thus creating a recording or sound writing.
Who Was First? Evolution of the Record Player " ". An old gramophone with a horn and flat disc like this is similar to Emile Berliner's design. How a Vinyl Record is Made The success of the gramophone to play recorded sounds was dependent on the ability to mass produce records.
What's in a Number? The fragile records were made with shellac. Successfully introduced in , they played for about 25 minutes per side. Because they were made of polyvinyl chloride, these records earned the nickname "vinyl. Read More. How Records Are Played " ". The vibrations from the record's grooves travel up by the needle, through the cartridge and the arm to the amplifier, where they are magnified into sound waves. How Records Influenced Culture The invention of the record player is considered by many to be one of the most significant influences on music and culture.
Have You Seen This Dog? Record Resurgence The popularity of record players and vinyl recordings peaked in the s, but they are enjoying a comeback among certain music fans.
Converting to Digital. How do record players work? A stylus touches the top of the record and rides around the disk. It picks up vibrations that are then sent to a cartridge, which then converts them into electrical signals. These signals are sent to an amplifier which converts the signals back to sound through speakers. Is it worth buying a record player? If you want the best sound quality, then investing in vinyl probably isn't worth it.
CDs are better. But if you have some vinyl records sitting around that you want to play, then why not? What is the best record player to buy? It features exceptional musical accuracy and pure analog performance.
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. Unfortunately, the digital age has some drawbacks, especially when it comes to music. Long before the digital age came along, devices like Thomas Edison's phonograph were born.
The phonograph is considered the granddaddy of modern record players today. The word phonograph actually means sound-writer. Essentially, the phonograph recorded and stored sound mechanically by etching sound waves or more accurately, the electrical signal of the sound waves with a needle, onto tinfoil cylinder.
The cylinder was rotated by a hand crank and the needle moved to cut a groove into the tinfoil, recording the sound wave signal. A needle and amplifier were used to reverse the process in the case of the phonograph, the amplifier was a horn and the recorded sound was then played back.
Of course, the phonograph had many limitations, but it was the early vision of what would later become known as the record player. Originally, Thomas Edison created the phonograph as a way to record dictation, with intentions for using it in office work and as a way for teachers to record lessons. Not long after Thomas Edison set aside his vision to work on other projects, Emile Berliner came along and developed similar technology, except instead of etching grooves to record sound waves into a tinfoil coil, the grooves were cut into a flat disk using a needle.
Another needle was used to read the grooves and it was called the gramophone. It has a much closer resemblance to record players today.
Unlike the phonograph, which could record and play sound from one machine, the gramophone could only playback sound. Disks or records to play on the gramophone were made separately, which opened the door to recordings being produced in mass to be shared with listeners over and over, using the gramophone to play them.
The size of the horn determined the volume of the playback. A decade later, Emile Berliner used the same principles, recording to a flat rubber disc and then shellac — the predecessor of the vinyl used for modern-day release. The process is similar to how records are enjoyed today. A stylus, or record needle, is one component in a transducer — a device that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy or vice versa.
In the case of a record player, this transducer is a cartridge — composed of a stylus, cantilever, magnets, coils, and body — which converts the mechanical energy of the recorded vibrations into sound waves, which are amplified and broadcast through speakers. A stylus is cone-shaped and typically made from diamond or other gemstone or hard metal. In a stereo record groove, the right channel is recorded on the right wall, and the left channel is recorded on the left.
While mastering engineers preparing a recording for transfer to vinyl will adjust the groove pitch to account for dynamics in the program i.
Too much low frequency information combined with a lot of information spread across the stereo field can result in the stylus jumping out of the groove and skipping. Too shallow and narrow a groove, and the recorded sound can lose its stereo image and suffer from low volume.
Furthermore, a record only has so much space to contain the grooves. The length of your program — as well as the levels and frequencies contained in your recording — will affect the depth and width of the grooves, and ultimately the quality of the playback.
0コメント