How Vinyl Records are Made

Lacquer disc used to make the metal stamper.

The first step in making a vinyl record is obviously having a master recording made in a studio. After the recording is perfected by an engineer, a lacquer object (similar to nail polish) is put onto a record-cutting machine. As the lacquer rotates, a stylus etches grooves into the lacquer from electrical signals from the master recording. Once this is done, the lacquer is sent to a production company which takes care of the rest of the work. When the lacquer arrives at the production facility, it is then coated in some kind of metal, nickel or silver. This metal coating will be used as the stamper. A stamper is just a negative copy of the original recording. Instead of having grooves like the lacquer copy, the metal copy will have ridges. After the metal stampers are completed, they place it into a hydraulic press with a vinyl in between the two. Then steam is used to soften the plastic vinyl so that the stampers can make an impression onto the vinyl. Finally, they use cool water to stiffen the vinyl so that it is ready to be played.

Metal stampers used to press vinyls.

Sources: 

Bower, Meredith.  "How Record Players Work"  07 December 2009.  HowStuffWorks.com. <http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/record-player.htm>  27 November 2011.

RCA Victor and Columbia

In 1919, RCA moved into the music business by purchasing the music publishing company, the Victor Company. Victor, at the time, was the leading company and force in recording technology. It was a large company, so in order for RCA to acquire the Victor company they had to take loans from GE and Westinghouse. When they merged, they called the new company RCA Victor, and manufactured radio sets, radio-phonograph combination sets and records.
In 1930, RCA released the first available vinyl long-playing record, they called them Program Transcription discs. The discs, that were 12" in diameter, were designed to be played at 33 and a third rpm. However, the launch of these program transcription discs proved to be a commercial failure because of its affordability, lack of reliable playback equipment and The Great Depression.
During 1948 to 1950, the rivalry between RCA Victor and Columbia grew as consumers were unsure about which of the formats would overcome the other in the market. Columbia created the 12", 33 1/3 rpm long play (LP) microgroove record in 1939. So to compete against that, RCA Victor created a 7", 45 rpm extended play (EP) record. It was eventually decided that the LP was dominant for albums, as it could play for a half hour on each side, and the EP was dominant for singles, since it played for a short amount of time and could only fit one song on each side.

Sources:
Millard, André. America on Record : a History of Recorded Sound. Second ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005. Print.
"About Vinyl Records." The Record Collectors Guild :: A Website for the Record Collector. (News). The Record Collectors Guild, 1998. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://www.recordcollectorsguild.org/modules.php?op=modload>.

Amberol and Blue Amberol Cylinders

Edison's Blue Amberol Record

10" records were introduced in 1901, followed by 12" records in 1903. These records were capable of three to four minutes of playback, while Edison's cylinders were only capable of around two minutes of playback. Because of the advantages that discs had over cylinders, Edison created the Blue Amberol cylinder, first introduced in 1912, which was capable of up to four minutes of playback at 160 rpm. The Blue Amberol replaced the original Amberol cylinder Edison created which was also capable of four minutes of playback,but often shattered when they broke. The surface of the Blue Amberol was made of celluloid, a plastic that was less fragile than what the original Amberols were made from, it was also able to be played many times without breaking. Although Edison had made these improvements to the cylinder, the discs had an upper hand as the cylinders consumers started to drop significantly.

Sources:
"Edison Blue Amberol Cylinders (1912-1929)." Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project. University of California Santa Barbara. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. <http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/history-blueamberol.php>.

Berliner's Gramophone

Emile Berliner and the Gramophone

Lateral-cut disc records were patented in the U.S. in 1887 by a German inventor named Emile Berliner. The first gramophones recorded sound by using a horizontal modulation on a cylinder that was coated with a low resistance material. It was then covered with varnish, then copied by using a photoengraving on a metal playback cylinder. A year later, Berliner realized it was simpler to record sound if you use discs instead. These flat discs that were first marketed in Europe in 1889 were five inches and diameter and had to be played by a small hand-propelled machine. These records and machines were not considered good enough to be used for anything else besides a toy and to see how it works. The main problem with the records was getting a turntable to spin at a constant speed. To solve this problem, Berliner had the help of Eldridge R. Johnson to design a clock-work spring bound motor. This improved the sound quality tremendously.

Victor Talking Machine Co.

In 1895 Berliner was able to convince some business men to give him $25,000 to help him create the Berliner  Gramophone Company. The gramophone records being sold by this company were now seven inches and were no longer seen as a toy or an instrument for curiosity. However, they could not be sold in the U.S. due to an argument between Berliner and Frank Seamans, who Berliner had gave Seamans an exclusive right to sell his product in the U.S. Because of this, Berliner moved to Canada. Later in 1901, Johnson founded a company called The Victor Talking Machine Company. The products from this company would control the market for years to come.


Sources:
Knott, Michael. "Emil Berliner: Google Würdigt Den Schallplatten-Erfinder - NETZWELT."Computernews, Testberichte Und Software - NETZWELT. Netzwelt, 20 May 2011. Web. 06 Nov. 2011. <http://www.netzwelt.de/news/86810-emil-berliner-google-wuerdigt-schallplatten-erfinder.html>.
Wallace, Robert (November 17, 1952). "First It Said 'Mary'". LIFE (Time Inc): 87–102.

History of Vinyl Records

1859 Koenig Phonautograph

Before there were vinyl records (gramophone records) there was the phonautograph then the phonograph. The phonautograph is considered the earliest known device capable of recording sound. It was patented in France on March 25, 1857 by Édouard-Léon Scott. The phonoautograph would graphically record sound waves as tracings on pieces of paper by using a vibrating diaphragm and stylus. These tracings were intended to be used as a laboratory instrument to study acoustics. They could look at the tracings and measure the amplitude envelopes and wave forms of each sound. At first, they were to be used for visual analysis with no intentions of the tracings being played back as sound. It wasn't up until 2008 when these tracings were played as sound for the first time by scanning them and digitally converting them into audible sound.

Edison Wax Cylinder Phonograph

Sometime during November 1877 Thomas Edison invented the phonograph. It was a device that was capable of recording and reproducing sounds. Edison used a diaphragm which had an embossing point that was held against a rotating grooved metal cylinder wrapped with tin foil. Sound vibrations would move a stylus to indent the tin foil while the cylinder rotated. There was also a second needle that was used for playback of the indents. A decade later, Edison improved the phonograph by using hollow wax cylinders instead of tin foil. It was a major improvement because the wax cylinders sounded better and was far more useful.




Sources:
"First Sounds." FirstSounds.ORG. FirstSounds, 2008. Web. 06 Nov. 2011. <http://www.firstsounds.org/>.
Scientific American. (1877). The talking phonograph. Scientific American, 14 December, 384.

Introduction

For this blog, I'm going research the production of vinyl records and the history of the phonautograph, phonograph and the gramophone. Basically how vinyls work and why they work the way they do. Also why they have made a recent "come back" in sales over the past few years.

It is important for students majoring in audio to learn how vinyls are made and how they work simply because it was at one point a major part of the audio industry.