VINYL
“The vinyl record is a type of gramophone record, most popular from the 1950s to the 1990s, that was most commonly used for mass-produced recordings of music.�
A vinyl gramophone or phonograph record consists of a disc of polyvinyl chloride plastic, engraved on both sides with a single concentric spiral groove in which a sapphire or diamond needle, stylus, is intended to run, from the outside edge towards the centre
DEFINITION
While a 78 rpm record is brittle and relatively easily broken, both the microgroove LP 33 rpm record and the 45 rpm single records are made from vinyl plastic which is flexible and unbreakable in normal use. 78s come in a variety of sizes, the most common being 10 inch (25 cm) and 12 inch (30 cm) diameter, and these were originally sold in either paper or card covers, generally with a circular cutout allowing the record label to be seen. The Long-Playing records (LPs) usually come in a paper sleeve within a colour printed card jacket which also provides a track listing. 45 rpm singles and EPs (Extended Play) are of 7 inch (17.5 cm) diameter, the earlier copies being sold in paper covers. Grooves on a 78 rpm are much coarser than the LP and 45. Common format for vinyl pressing are 12� (30 cm) 33 rpm long-playing (LP) format and 7� (17.5 cm) 45 rpm (single) format.
PRESSING CUTTING
The first part of the process is taking the digital recording and translating it into a copper plate. When an album is being cut, grooves are etched into the copper disc using a cutting stylus. One technological advancment used in this process is called Direct Metal Mastering (DMM). One company that does custom vinyl printing maps out a digital cutting path which can undergo troubleshooting before the information is transferred to copper. It also helps to increase the sound quality.
ELECTROPLATING
The second stage of creation takes the copper plate and makes an opposite version. Since records require grooves cut in them, the plate used for pressing must have ridges. The first part of this process is to clean the copper plates to prevent debris from affecting the mold. The disc is then submerged in a plating bath which has a nickel solution in it. Electricity is then introduced so that the nickel fuses to the copper disc. When separated, the nickel creates a miror image of the original copper plate. It’s this copper plate which is them used to create copies of an album. Each stamper set can produce about 1, 000 records.
TEST PRESSING
After the copper originals hav been cut andthe stampers are made, give test pressings are made for review. Once the tests have been given the okay, production can procede.
There are private presses in business which allows small, local bands the option to sell vinyl copies of their music.
G VINYL MANUFACTURING Vinyl is made from a compound called PVC (polyvinyl chloride). First, the PVC-granulate is loaded into a hopper, then melted and extruded into biscuit form. Once placed on a hydraulic press with a label on top and bottom, the biscuit is then pressed in between your A and B side stampers with the introduction of steam to heat it up and cold water to solidify the record. This is a production cycle that lasts approximately 30 seconds per vinyl record. Once the vinyl has been pressed, a quality control operator inspects the records for technical and cosmetic flaws to ensure our high standards of production have been adhered to.
PRINTING & PACKAGING While records are being pressed, the record jackets, center labels, and inserts are printed and prepared for their package. Once all the pieces are assembled, they are ready to be compiled into a single product and shipped.
TIME 1877 1889 1910 1925 WWII 1948
Thomas Edison invents the phonograph which can both record and reproduce sound. Edison’s machine recorded sound when a stylus that was vibrated by sound let indents in tinfoil that wrapped around a metal cylinder; the recorded sounds could be played back immediately. Eventually the tinfoil and metal cylinder was replaced with a hollow wax tube. Emile Berliner designs a system which plays flat discs with a 5” diameter. This system was first released in Europe, but was mostly used as a toy due to poor sound quality. Berliner continued to refine the gramophone including the production of 7” diameter discs, but Edison’s wax cylinders remained in favor. With the assistance of Elridge R. Johnson, Berliner formed the Victor Talking Machine Compnay and vastly improved the sound quality of the gramophone. After 1910, the flat discs of the gramophone dominated Edison’s wax cylinders--until 1929 when the phonograph stopped being used to record sound. Sound recording gets a boost when Western Electric’s engineers start using microphones to capture sound and vacuum tubes as amplifiers. Before this time, bands were staggered throughout the recording space with the singers as close to the phonograph as possible.
During World War II, the United States military made large amounts of 12” 78rpm ‘V-Discs’ to send the troops overseas. The discs were mostly made of vinyl because it was durable and felexible. This material continued to be used after the war due to it’s light weight and compatiblity with newer models of record players. Vinyl becomes the prominent material used to produce records for public enjoyment. This trend continues until the rise of CDs.
1962 1974 1988 2007 2017
Vinyl records get their first real competitor with the introduction of the casette tape. The casette was portable, more durable, and easier to control than a record. They were able to pause, play, rewind, and fast-forward.
Compact Discs (CDs) are launched by Phillips which revolutionized digital recording. CDs were even more lightweight, carried infinitely more musical data, had the same functional playback abilities as the casette tapes, and were easily shared.
CD sales outnumber vinyl record sales for the first time. Doubling the vinyl record sales that year, there were 150 million CDs sold in comparison to the 72 records sold. This year started a continual decline in vinyl sales.
The first Record Store Day takes place on a Saturday in April. This annual event features new releases specific to participating stores. Record Store Day takes place across the world in countries such as the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, and Australia.
January 2017 had the highest number of vinyl records sold since 1991. The year prior more than 3.2 million LPs were sold. The deaths of musical icons like David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, and George Martin correlated with an increase in vinyl sales. Bowie was the bestselling artist of 2016.
The top selling albums in the US in 2016 were Twenty One Pilot’s Blurryface, David Bowie’s Blackstar, and Adele’s 25.
TOP SELLE 2017 St. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Clu Band - The Beatles
Abbey Road - The Beatles Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 - Various Artists ÷ - Ed Sheeran
ERS OF Back to Black - Amy Winehouse Purple Rain - Prince and the Revolution Legend - Bob Marley and the Wailers The Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd La La Land Sountrack - Various Artists Thriller - Michael Jackson Rumours - Fleetwood Mac
Turntables can track color vinyl differently than black vinyl, and some people report skips on color record copies which do not happen on the same record in black vinyl.
LOVE
“I had this album growing up. We’ve got to get it; you’re going to love it.” My dad was right; I do love that album. At the Artist and Fleas Market in Chelsea, my father and I got caught up looking at boxes upon boxes of vinyl records. While Artist and Fleas has more to it than just vinyl, it was those little discs that brought my dad and I so much joy. We spent time talking about which Rolling Stones album was worth buying over the others, which records were clearly placed in the wrong genre bin, and what songs were the best. I easily could have taken home 35 pounds—in weight measurement not monetary measurement—worth of records, but I got one. I really got it because my dad became so excited when he saw it. It was a “like-new” copy of Otis Redding and The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded at the Monterey International Pop Festival. I didn’t even know such an album existed, but my dad was insistent that if I took anything home, it had to be at least this particular recording. It’s one side Otis Redding, one side Jimi Hendrix, and all a reminder of my dad. I was just starting high school during the resurgence of vinyl. Urban Outfitters had one model of Crossley players on their displays which came in every color of plastic imaginable. I just had to have one. Most of my favorite bands at the time were classic rock bands who all originally released their music on vinyl, but the modern albums that I enjoyed like The Killers’s Hot Fuss was for sale in the racks of UO which meant I could listen to all my favorites on vinyl. Despite the fact that I had an extremely large library of music on demand at any time on my phone, I was drawn to the records. They made me feel like I was in the 80s, and like I was one step closer to being Molly Ringwald. My collection of records has grown steadily over the years. It has some contemporary presses like the Band of Skulls self-titled album, some showtunes like the the Sound of Music, and of course, lots of classic rock albums like an original pressing of Tommy by The Who. It’s not the biggest collection in the world, but it’s growth has contributed to one of my most valued frienships. In my freshman year of high school, I met a guy who would change my music collecting hobby forever. Charles “Dylan” Comsa owns more vinyl than anyone I know. Organized first by genre and then alphabetically by artist, in the past six years I’ve seen his collection grow from just below a hundred that could fit tightly on one shelf to nearly 550 with multiple record players
and tapes. While mostl y classic rock and punk, his collection ranges from the Sex Pistols to Chance the Rapper to the Charlie Brown Christmas album. His bedroom is like a shelter where people bring the records they don’t have the space to store anymore. He loves them and gives them a home. Because of this he has doubles and different releases of several popular albums. Dylan and I share a love for music and all things vintage, so when we’re both in town, the first thing we do is hit up our favorite record stores to check on what came in while we were gone. While there’s not anything I can think
of that’s missing from his collection, he always seems to walk away with a new addition. Sometimes we have a bit of a fight about who found what album first and who is going to take it home. Usually these things resolve themselves in the store, and everyone goes home happy. There is only one time on record that we were—I was still—bitter after the shopping trip was over. I picked up a copy of the Rolling Stones’ Tattoo You along with several other records and couldn’t purchase them all. Dylan convinced me that there are better Rolling Stones albums (which there are…Sticky Fingers is by far the album to have…especially if you can get an original with the zipper), and then he went and bought it. I was so frustrated because I know he talked me out of it so that he could have it, but it all worked out in the end. Backstory to how this album brought Dylan and I together: for two years, Dylan and I record shopped, tried on vintage clothing, and watched movies that took place during the seventies—mostly Dazed and Confused and Almost Famous. Dylan and I dated briefly our junior year of high school, and we broke up in fall with a big fight in which we weren’t really on speaking terms. Nearly a year later, I was at an event in the house next door and was parked on the street; when I came back to my car a few hours later, there was a flat wrapped package laying on my windshield. On the wrapping was a message, something to the effect of “I hope you had a great summer and that you have a great senior year. I hope that we can be friends again this year because I miss you. - Dylan” Inside was the Tattoo You album. The one that we fought over a few years before. For every occasion in which gifts can be given, I get a new album from Dylan. I’ve been given Pinups by David Bowie, The Breakfast Club soundtrack, the Flash Gordon soundtrack, St. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, and the Charlie Brown Christmas album. Dylan always jokes that if he were to pass away before me, I would inherit all of his records. It terrifies to think about him passing away at all, but I know that if I did have his records, I’d have a huge piece of him that would make me feel close to himn whenever music was playing around me. These simple polymaterial discs have brought me one of my best friends in the whole world— along with hours of great music. We can sit and listen to music for hours, aruge about what albums are the best, and sing along--very poorly--to the songs we like. He is the Duckie to my Andie, so thank you, vinyl.
PLA Y PLA Y PLAY MORE MORE MORE MUSIC. MUSIC. MUSIC. SOURCES
http://www.phonostage.co.uk/history-vinyl-records/ http://www.recordcollectorsguild.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=44&page=1 https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/8085951/us-vinyl-album-salesnielsen-music-record-high-2017 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2018/01/13/thelist-of-2017s-top-selling-vinyl-albums-shows-the-format-isnt-just-for-trendy-fans/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.db73e01206a1 http://www.precisionpressing.com/process.html#printing
VINYLRECORD VINYLRECORD VINYLRECORD VINYLRECORD VINYLRECORD VINYLRECORD VINYLRECORD VINYLRECORD VINYLRECORD VINYLRECORD