The History of Vinyl: How Tin Rollers Turned into Records

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

A person from the Soviet Union does not need to explain what a gramophone record is. Rather, on the contrary - everyone has something to remember about these vinyl disks, because they recorded their favorite melodies of childhood and youth. The unforgettable smell of the record, the crackling sound that was heard when the needle was lowered onto the disc, the "warm" sound heard in the speakers - all these analog wonders, seemingly forgotten in the modern digital world, are still in no hurry to give up their positions.

Who invented the gramophone records and how they are arranged

The era of sound recording seems to be quite long, even if we do not consider very early and rather primitive devices, such as the "water organ". In a sense, the development and flourishing of the domestic gramophone record almost coincided with the period of the existence of the USSR. That is why records so often become part of a nostalgically decorated interior, become the same sign of a bygone time, like old film cameras, samovars or flags from the May Day demonstration.

The invention of the device for recording and reproducing sound is the merit of Thomas Edison, who in 1877 patented his "phonograph". A cylinder-shaped roller wrapped in tin foil or covered with wax paper was the prototype of the record, and sound was "recorded" on it. During the recording, the roller rotated, and the needle applied a groove of variable depth to the surface, depending on the sound. During playback, a different needle was used, its vibrations were transmitted to the membrane, and mechanical signals were converted into sound signals, which were amplified by a cone-shaped horn.

Such a medium - a roller - was not particularly convenient, first of all, because of the rapid wear and tear and the difficulty of copying the recording on it. And ten years later, in 1887, a disc medium was invented - the prototype of a vinyl record. Then zinc became the material for making the sound carrier. The inventor of the records, Emil Berliner, somewhat changed the principle of recording - unlike Edison's apparatus, here the needle left a "groove" of constant depth, but sinuous, in accordance with the vibrations of the sound.

Now it became easier to replicate a sound recording - a steel matrix was used for production, and the records themselves were made from ebonite - vulcanized rubber. Subsequently, it was replaced by a cheaper material - shellac, which is a natural resin secreted by some species of insects.

What were the records in the XX century

A separate page in the history of gramophone records is the evolution of their size and rotation speed. The very first ones, released at the end of the century before last, could play no more than two minutes of recording. The diameter of these records was seven inches, or 175 millimeters, the track was quite wide, and the rotation speed during the playback of the record was 78 rpm. Double-sided records appeared, which increased the total recording time. Since 1903, they began to make 12-inch discs, and on each side it was already possible to listen to up to five minutes of music recording.

The creation of long-playing records in 1948 became a kind of revolution - now the rotation speed was 33 1/2; revolutions per minute. In addition, the material of the records changed again: instead of the fragile and noisy shellac, they began to use vinyl, more precisely - a copolymer of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate, a material that is unbreakable and much cheaper than shellac. Almost immediately another company began to produce records for a speed of 45 rpm - this the format required a separate apparatus for playback. At this stage, the development of gramophone records was already determined by competition between different record companies. Later Soviet players allowed using any of the three main playback speeds: 33, 45 and 78. And the sizes of the records belonged to the categories of "small", or "minion", with a diameter of 7 inches (7 ")," grand "- 10" and "giant" - 12 ".

In addition to the usual vinyl records, flexible records were also produced - they were made of PVC. Usually such discs could be found between the pages of some Soviet magazines, first of all "Krugozor" and "Kolobok". The reproduction quality on such a disc was somewhat lower, but the manufacturing cost was also low.

To reproduce musical and any other audio recordings, a special apparatus was used, which in colloquial speech was called a turntable, but officially it was called an "electroradiogramophone", and then - an "electrophone". The first such devices in the USSR began to be produced in 1932.

The entire sound industry in the Soviet Union was concentrated in the hands of a single company, of course, the state one, which was Melodiya. It was founded in 1964 and united both the record factories and the recording studios. Melodiya had two dozen Houses of gramophone records throughout the Union - stores selling both domestic and foreign audio recordings to Soviet citizens. And the company itself was well known abroad, both thanks to the export of products to many countries, and as one of the leaders in the field of creating high-quality gramophone records.

In the seventies, Melodiya's audio products were already diluted with compact cassettes, and since the nineties, the time for compact discs has come.

Old records for thousands of dollars

Listening to any music recording now is so simple that it requires almost no effort. You certainly don't have to go to a special store for the sake of the cherished song, look there among hundreds and thousands of vinyl records for one, and then store it in accordance with the rules - vertically, without overheating, away from sunlight and everything that can affect the integrity of the track or scratch the surface of the disc. And yet, even in our time, the demand for gramophone records has not disappeared, moreover, researchers even record an increase in sales of vinyl records in the first two decades of the XXI century.

The old albums of The Beatles have repeatedly become the bestsellers of the last decade. By the way, the very word "album" in relation to a collection of musical compositions did not appear by chance. Once, before the era of LPs, several discs of the same artist were released together, this set of records was packed in a box that very much resembled the then photo albums. Among the buyers there are both collectors or DJs experimenting with sound, as well as ordinary music lovers. The digitalization of the modern world is not to everyone's liking - some music lovers claim that the sound of analog discs significantly wins in terms of playback quality, even the concept of "tube sound" has emerged - that is, "rich and warm", as opposed to the soulless and cold sound of "digital". records among collectors can reach several thousand dollars. And here what pictures celebrities buy and how much they are willing to pay for the work of art they like.