Thursday, October 01, 2015
Electron Microscope Shows How Vinyl LP's Are Played
IFLScience: Have you ever wondered how a vinyl player actually plays a record? How Elvis' crooning voice can slip from a vinyl right into your ears like he's standing beside you (ignoring the odd scratch or bump of course – nothing is perfect)? Well, wonder no more. Microscopic Images shared this image on their Twitter some months back, showing what a record's groove looks like under 1000x magnification.
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3 comments:
This article is really cool, it gives a new perspective (or refreshes an old one) on the science behind physical mediums of information storage. Now unlike probably the majority of people I’ve run into, I’m very much in to vinyl. To me, it just sounds better in little ways that I don’t think I’m able to describe. There’s a whole culture to it too, it’s nice to hold in your hands, to drop the needle and listen to an album all the way through.
Now, every time I pick up the needle of my turntable I will undoubtedly think of the science behind the sound. I guess it highlights difference between understanding a concept conceptually, and understanding it visually.
Something that I would like to look into are the EQ curves that they run the music through before they create the press, which the turn table then reverses before it’s sent to the speakers. This was done because lower frequencies would cause the needle to skip, but it would be very interesting to lok into that aspect of the cut of a record. Fun stuff.
As an avid collector of records, this video was very cool to watch. Vinyl is often lauded for it's fidelity, creating an effect similar to being in the studio booth and listening to the band recording, but often people neglect to understand why vinyl sounds so much better than your digital mp3 tracks. The common thought is that the movement of the needle creates a grinding sound, and that sound is somehow transformed into music. However, the actual process is much more complicated. The needle rubs against the grooves, and the grooves cause vibrations in the electrical signals within the record player, which is then converted into the sound we hear come out of the speakers. Vinyl has kind of seen a resurgence in recent years, thanks to the dumb white girls of tumblr wanting to be hip and the next generation of idiots rambling about audio fidelity in every day conversation. But if the renaissance means more quality content regarding records, I'm all for it.
Watching this video was incredibly fascinating. I never really knew how record players worked, and know I have a pretty thorough understanding of they operate. I think I may even have a grasp on how compact disc’s and DVD’s work. What was even more astounding was Capacitence Electronic Disc that was developed by RCA. I knew that 8-track was a thing, but had never even heard about these nifty things. Technology is so crazy, I was baffled that this gentleman had all of these cool devices but had to come up with some pretty unique ways to get a video of the what was happening. This man’s ingenuity and curiosity are to be respected and lauded. It’s somewhat shocking that he had to go through such a convoluted method to go from the magnified view to what is essentially a video clip. Not to mention that he had to prepare each of the mediums he was magnifying in special way. I had a pretty hearty laugh when the solution for getting the aluminum from the CD was double sided tape, it was a classic ‘easy solution is the best solution’ kind of moment. A TD I worked with a few years ago gave me a piece of advice akin to this mantra, he called it the KISS principle. KISS stood for Keep It Stupid Simple. Everything about this video kept reminding me of that principle for some odd reason. I think it was because some of the equipment this guy was using looked so antiquated when paired with the fancy scientific name for the piece of equipment.
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