What is a phonograph record, in our time, perhaps, only those who were born in the USSR know. For the rest - this is something insignificant and forgotten. But once they were very popular. Having a library of records at home was prestigious. In addition, it was with them that the evolution of analogue storage media began. Nevertheless, it is worth a little deeper into the past and find out all the details.
Features
It’s much more common today to have discs at home. But even they are already gradually getting out of fashion. The gramophone record looks like a circle, on the sides of which there are continuous spiral recesses - tracks. The shape of the groove is modeled only by the sound wave, it is thanks to it that the sound goes.
To read such media, special devices were used. Initially, these were gramophones, and then, already at the end of the era of records, special players appeared. If the CD moves very fast during reading, the speed of the gramophone sound media is equal to the speed of sound reproduction. For example, when there were gramophones and gramophones, the sound was extracted by scrolling the knob. If you increase the scroll speed, then the sound accelerates.
Advantages and disadvantages
The main advantages of the gramophone record were the following factors:
- a kind of immunity to the effects of magnetic and electric fields;
- relatively high sound quality, given the time frame in which the records were popular;
- The cheapest mass production method is hot pressing.
There were some minuses in this historically important thing:
- For the material from which the plates were made, temperature changes were dangerous.
- Exposure to structural distortion at high humidity.
- The appearance of scratches for this kind of sound carrier was fatal.
- Still, their sound is imperfect, gramophone records are noisy, especially when damaged.
- Loss of sound quality during prolonged use. In simple terms - wear.
All of the listed minuses nevertheless outweighed the advantages, the inventors began to look for new ways of recording sound and more reliable carriers. Over time, compact discs were invented, but among their minuses was one, the most significant - the inevitable appearance of scratches.
How it works
The devices for reproducing sound changed, but the principle of extracting sound from gramophone records remained the same. The thing is precisely in the needle, which was present in all players. She moves along a path, the shape of which changes constantly, and fluctuates. Oscillations are gradually transmitted to the membrane, it is she who is responsible for the translation of sound.
If the player was electric, then there was no membrane - needle vibrations were read by means of a mechanical vibration transducer, and from there they were transmitted to the amplifier. This is how gramophone records worked.
History
Of course, such players and media were not invented first, they were preceded by many scientific achievements and several invented devices. The progenitor of a record known in the modern world can be considered a simple music box. But not everyone knows that there were several types of caskets.
Gramophone records include those in which a metal disc with an uneven and deep spiral groove was used to reproduce sound. In this type of casket there was also a needle, it glided along the groove and read out the complete sequence of points, transmitting vibrations to the membrane. The playback principle was the same as on the gramophone, the only exception was that the sound from the records was more professional. Not only the melody was recorded in the red, but also the voice, even several, for example, choral singing.
Development
Initially, serial pre-revolutionary gramophone records were small, with a diameter of only 175 millimeters, they were called simply - seven-inch ones. This standard appeared at the end of the 19th century, in the 90s. Initially, the speed of the gramophone record was high, and the width of the track was incomparable with future more practical products. They could only play 2 minutes of recording and only on one side.
Only at the beginning of the XX century, namely in 1903, they became bilateral. The first to think of creating such a device were employees of the Odeon gramophone record factory. And after their developments in the same year, 300 mm diameter records were invented, which also increased the playing time. During this decade, only works by classics were recorded on media. They fit only 5 minutes of real-time music. There were four total changes in the size of the plates, two of which have already been mentioned. The most popular of all formats was 250 mm media, they already fit 1.5 times more sound than seven-inch media.
Records in the USSR
For a very long time in Soviet times, eight-inch gramophone records with an actual diameter of 185 millimeters were popular. This lasted until the mid 60-ies of the XX century, then the production of conventional (gramophone) media was curtailed, and new, more advanced, “fitted” for playback from electronic readers appeared on sale. Soviet gramophone records were completely replaced with newer ones, eight-inch ones were left only for recording children's fairy tales and songs.
What now?
Despite the large-scale use of records by Soviet people, smaller compact disks still replaced them. But citizens of the USSR continued to use gramophone media until perestroika. Nowadays, vinyl LPs are used in few places; they can be seen:
- During the work of the DJ and experiments in the field of sound processing.
- In the collection of an audiophile (a person who is a fan of this type of recording).
- At the collector and in the antique store.
- In other cases, they are simply stored on shelves as a memory. Of course, there are those who sometimes play the record through the player, but only in order to recall past times.
Despite the narrow specialization, such carriers are also used in the star industry. They record anniversary albums or simply their own music by famous artists.
Records in the 21st Century
Morally and technically, such carriers are outdated, they can not be bought everywhere, and not everyone can listen to them. Despite this, some people still gravitate to records. Experts believe that this choice of sound is far from the technical characteristics of the medium. Someone thinks that the sound of phonograph records is warmer, livelier and better conveys the mood. Someone like nostalgic. There are few such people, but they are still there.
A major role is played by the psychological factor. Initially, all significant albums and music tracks were released precisely on records. In this regard, people still think that it is prestigious and fashionable to have vinyl media in their collection.
A small release of records is another psychological factor. Young people, and not only, are drawn to everything rare and small in number. This is a kind of way to show your personality. In this case, mass production is contraindicated. In addition, the plates are a fragile thing, they hold them in special conditions. If such media in the collection look perfect, not damaged, then this speaks of the owner of the thing as a very neat person.
What were and are
Records, like all sound carriers, are divided into types, depending on the material and properties. The following types are available:
- Hard plates are thick, up to 3 mm, and rather heavy sound carriers. Very fragile and very picky in reproduction. They are called “gramophone” (reproduction method) or “shellac” (production material).
- Flexible media. They have a capacity of up to 4 KB of data, where only 4 songs were placed, two on each side. Their size is quite small, and they were closest in properties to CDs.
- Decorative plates and souvenirs. They were colorful, did not carry sound information as such, they were issued only as an element of the interior. Could be of any shape.
- Also made artisanal plates on thick films from under x-rays. They called them a little with humor - "music on the ribs." These were unlicensed recordings of music.
Species and subspecies have accumulated quite a lot in the history of records. Now mainly vinyl flexible products are produced.
Gramophone records are one of the important parts in the history of mankind. At that time, everyone was fond of them. Players improved, having a library of records in those years was prestigious and fashionable. However, sooner or later, everything is becoming a thing of the past, and this popular sound carrier had to go down in history. Already replaced disks, flash cards and much more.
Today's youth prefers to listen to music immediately via the Internet, which greatly facilitates the search for the desired recording. In addition, the available tracks are now much better than on gramophone records. Whether they will revive is unknown. Yes, and is it worth it? You don’t need to be nostalgic about the past fashion, every year the methods of transmitting sound and images are improving more and more, it is becoming easier to find the right melody or audiobook.