Long-playing record

History

Presented for the first time by the discs Columbia to the the United States in 1948, for marketing, it is into 1946 that this firm publishes the first microgroove. They are works of Mendelsohn and Tchaïkovski. The most important factor was the use of thermoplastic synthetic matters for manufacture. This made it possible to reduce the background noise considerably and to increase the range of the frequency. The discs vinyls succeeded the 78 turns in the middle of the Années 1950. In France it is Eddie Barclay which imports the process. The vinyls have makes them-even place with the compact disks starting from 1983. The discs vinyls however were given to the honor in the Années 2000 by their use in discotheque (only platinums vinyls had an adjustable speed, condition sine qua non to connect pieces in a mix ) and by others disc jockeys for a use in " scratching " . Moreover some Audiophile S reproach the compact disk its principle sampling. According to the latter, the play-back head of the record player producing a real physical and analogical movement, would produce the best made sound, much nearer to the sound " Live" and much hotter than CD. However for several years already, numerical platinums (all supports) have abounded in as many functionalities as platinums vinyls, if it is not advantage.

In the Years 1960 and 1970, they were distributed most of the time by specialized stores held by Disquaire S which today yielded the place to large surfaces and the store chains specialized.

Today the discs vinyls still make the beautiful days of collectors, audiophiles specialized or simply of amateurs of large small pockets out of paperboard, or the object in him even. Certain musical currents like the reggae, the rap, the funk or the electronic musics, still are very attached to vinyls from their use by the disc jockeys.

The production in France nowadays (2006) is limited to two or three manufacturers, of which most known are MPO (plastic Mouldings of the west) and DFI (Disco music France Industry). The cost of pressing of a disc vinyl is of 2 or 3 euros for a quantity of 1000 specimens. The manufacture of a disc vinyl requires the preliminary engraving of a matrix or Galvano. Several studios in France (especially with Paris) are equipped with machines allowing their creation starting from lacquers, manufactured to date only with the the United States or the Japan.

Characteristics

The pressing of the support

The disc vinyl is an analogical source, i.e. information is stored in a direct way on the support. It differs from this manner of the CD, source numerical which encode the audio signal while proceeding to a sampling. This encoding makes it possible to separate the means of storing the data, of the data itself. This absence of separation makes that with the degradation of the support, an analogical signal will be also degraded (disc striped or dusty which cracks), whereas a numeric signal, will be either readable, or illegible (presence of sound or absence of sound, but not of its range). The disc vinyl with this absence of encoding benefits on the other hand from a sound quality that some judge hotter and nearer to the aural signal of origin. The disc vinyl is in a hurry on its two faces (has and B) contrary manufacturing disks compact generally produce them with only one face of exploitable even if the numerical supports also exist in double face.

Reading of the disc

Whereas a compact disk is read by a light unit thanks to a laser, the disc vinyl as for him is read using a Platine vinyl on which a diamond is assembled which traverses the microgroove by direct contact. This friction of the needle of the play-back head on the disc vinyl causes a light wear of the head, defect that the compact disk read by laser does not have. However there exists since the beginning of the Nineties, a system with laser reading for disc vinyl. It is very rare, and still very expensive. The name of the machine, is " Laser The Turntable" , it is manufactured in Japan. Several beams laser are used during the reading. Some of them have for only task to direct the laser beam of reading. Discs scratched, gondolés, broken can be read. It is recommended to have a machine of cleaning of disc vinyls by air space because platinizes it laser functions correctly only with perfectly clean discs. The system of reading of the discs vinyls by laser generates a little background noise however, and that being it thus does not meet the needs for the demanding audiophiles which judge only the use of a diamond produces a cleaner sound. In addition various colorings of the sound can be obtained according to the cell used, and the listened music, it is another advantage of the reading by diamond.

Raw material

Resulting one time when sustainable development did not exist yet, the long-playing record is in general out of PVC (Chloride polyvinyl). This PVC is a plastic highly pollutant which releases from the Hydrochloric acid and other products (dioxane) while burning. It is imperative not to throw its discs vinyls in food household waste.

Types

Disc 78 turns

Disc 45 turns

The discs turning with 45 turns per minute generally had a diameter of 17 cm (7 inches) and contained a song by face. They are the ancestors of the MINOR ROAD two titles (so called Individual CD ) and their principal customers were the Adolescent S - over one period being spread out Années 1960 with the Années 1990 - which passed there a big part of their pocket money.

There exists in addition of the 7 inches of 4 titles known as EP for " Extended play" ; those are too long to be invited individual but too short to be called album . These 7 inches generally turn to 45 turns per minute but it can happen that they turn to 33 turns per minute.

Some Super 45 turns 30 cm in diameter were published, mainly to contain Classical music. At the end of the Years 1970, super the 45 turns (or maximum-individual, maximum-45T) spreads mainly to contain longer pieces (from 5 to 20 minutes, sometimes more) related to the music Disco and Funk which profits from an exploitation in discotheque. The maximumones were also voted by plebiscite by the disc jockeys who found their handling easier, allied with a quality of its higher. One also finds on these discs of the versions with remixées additional tracks or the new pieces not being reproduced on the album (B-sides).

Certain vinyls have even a face in 45 turns and a face in 33 turns. One also saw discs whose reading is made center towards outside, as it is the case today for the CD.

Disc 33 turns

Discs turning with 33 turns 1/3 (either: hundred thirds of turns) per minute generally have a diameter of 30 cm (12 inches), or more rarely of 25 cm (10 inches), at the beginning of the history of the disc vinyl and more recently for unquestionable republication and unquestionable disc of music Punk. The 33 turns of 17cm (7 inches) are called EP (for Extended play) and generally contain 4 titles. They are used as support with album S of song or with classical music. In the field of the song, the format of the disc 33 turns, one duration from 40 to 60 minutes, is at the origin of the concept of album by the means of the concept of long-playing record (LP for “Play Length”).

Disc 16 turns

The discs turning with 16 turns per minute were not a great business success. They were especially intended to be used as support for spoken texts. These long-playing records turn exactly to 16 turns 2/3, that is to say half of 33 turns 1/3. They appeared in 1957 and exist in various diameters: 17 cm for the training of the languages (school use), 25cm for some commercial editions (in France, the marks Sails and Ducretet-Thomson published some), 30 cm for long literary works or plays bound for the blind men and of the partially-sighted persons.

In this field, in France, the Union of the Blind men of War left many boxes (from 6 to 10 discs) including/understanding up to 1 hour of recording per face. The discs included in these boxes have as a characteristic to present a central label printed on a face and, on the other face, a black label with the title of the work written in Braille. In the USA, the firm RCA pressed such discs. In the USA always, of 1956 to 1958 the Columbia firm pressed discs 16 turns (diameter 17 cm) for its record players car " Highway Hi-fi phonograph". These discs lasted 40 to 45 mn by face but were to be read exclusively on the record player of car, the furrow, being 2 times narrower, required a specific play-back head.

The majority of the manufacturers of record player S had envisaged this speed 16 turns on their apparatuses, but in front of the very weak commercial production of these discs, this option disappeared in a few years. It is to be specified that as regards analogical sound reproduction, plus the support turns (or ravels) quickly, better is quality in particular in the high frequencies (acute). From this point of view, the 16 turns had some evil to convince the informed audiophiles.

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