The needle, or stylus of a record player is one of several parts that make up a transducer. A transducer is what changes mechanical energy into electrical energy and changes electrical energy into mechanical energy.
The whole system contains a stylus, magnets, coils, cantilever, and a body within a cartridge. The mechanical energy from the sound waves is converted into electrical energy, which is then sent into the amplifier and out to the speakers. When a vinyl record is made, a needle is used to create grooves in the vinyl that is basically recorded information of the desired sound or music. A needle or stylus is also used to read the information contained in the grooves, playing it back so that we can hear the recorded information.
On the left side of the groove and on the right side are channels of audio information that makeup stereo sound. Fun factoid; once upon a time, records were made of rubber. Now, they are vinyl. Another fun factoid; the little grooves in a record would be roughly meters long if you were to unwind it into a straight line. A master copy of a record is made using a stylus to cut grooves into a round disk. 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. A multi-track is a recorded song with all sounds on their own separate tracks. Curtis Daniel the owner and studio manager at Patchwerk Recording Studios explains it perfectly.
So the way that the song was typically recorded, if it was recorded properly, all the different sounds that make up the song are recorded on multiple tracks.
Any sound that makes up the song is on its own separate track. Thanks for reading, I hope I fully answered any questions you had. I have a lot of educational articles related to vinyl and record players. Also, consider subscribing to my free newsletter below. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Skip to content Record Player Expert. Blog Vinyl Tube About Me.
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The rest, as they say, is history. It seems impossible to kill off the vinyl format. But work it does — and, with the right equipment, to a fabulous level. And whether you're a seasoned collector or you're just looking to purchase your first turntable, a little knowledge of what's going on can only be a good thing.
A record's groove — and there is generally just one that spirals gently to the centre of the disc — is tiny, usually around 0. If you were to unravel it, the groove on a inch LP would extend to a length of about metres. The two sides of the groove sit at right-angles to each other, with the point of that angle facing down. Each side of the groove carries what can only be described as wiggles that represent the right- and left-channel audio information.
The side closest to the outside edge of the record carries the right-channel signal. This information can be stored in an area as small as a micron one-thousandth of a millimetre , so the scale of the task to retrieve it is immense. This also explains the sensitivity of record players to external vibrations and other disturbances.
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