WHAT GOES AROUND
GLORIA STEFAN
AND MIAMI SOUND MACHINE
LET IT LOOSE
SIDE ONE
BETCHA SAY THAT
LET I LOOSE
CANT STAY AWAY FROM YOU
GIVE IT UP
SURRENDER
SIDE TWO
RHYTHM IS GONNA GET YOU
LOVE TOY
I WANT YOU SO BAD}
1-2-3
ANYTHING FOR YOU
CBS 142042
GLORIA STEFAN
IN THE LIGHT
EXITOS DE GLORIA ESTEFAN
CBS
14464645
RENACER
CONGA
NO SERA FACIL
DR. BEAT
REGRESA A MI
NO TE OLVIDARE
DINGUI-LI BANGUI
NO ME VUELVO A ENAMORAR
SI VOY A PERDERTE
OYE MI CANTO
AIR SUPPLY
GTRATEST HITS
ARISTA 18 093 00247
LOST IN LOVE
EVEN THE NIGHTS ARE BTTER
THE ONE THAT YOU LOVE
MAKING LOVE OUT OF NOTHING AT ALL
SWEET DREAMS
ALL OUT OF LOVE
EVERY WOMAN IN LOVE
HERE I AM
CHANCES
HISTORIA DEL LP
TOMDO DE WIKIPEDIA
Un
LP1 o
elepé2 (del
inglés long play), también llamado
disco de larga duración, es un
disco de vinilo de tamaño grande, de 12
pulgadas (30,5 cm) de diámetro, en el cual se puede grabar, en formato
analógico, un máximo de unos 20 a 25 minutos de sonido por cada cara. Los LP suelen constar de unas ocho, diez o doce canciones, dependiendo de su duración, y están grabados a una velocidad de
33 y 1/3 revoluciones por minuto (33 RPM).
Los primeros discos de larga duración se comercializaron hacia 1948, aunque ya existía un precedente de este formato, desarrollado en 1930. Este tipo de disco fue la principal manera de publicar música grabada desde la década de 1950 hasta la de 1980.
A partir de mediados de los años 1980, los LP empezaron a perder protagonismo en favor de los
casetes, más pequeños y resistentes, y ambos formatos fueron desplazados por los
CDs. En la actualidad, en algunos países como Estados Unidos y países europeos hay un resurgimiento del formato, lo que hace que, ocasionalmente, sean publicadas grabaciones nuevas en LP.
Historia de los LP[editar]
Discos de banda sonora[editar]
Un antecesor directo del formato LP fue el disco de banda sonora utilizado por el sistema de cine sonoro
Vitaphone, desarrollado por la empresa estadounidense
Western Electric e introducido en 1926. Para los fines del sistema Vitaphone, los menos de cinco minutos de tiempo de reproducción de cada lado de un disco convencional de 12
pulgadas reproducido a
78 rpm no eran aceptables. El sonido debía ser reproducido de forma continua durante al menos 11 minutos, tiempo suficiente para acompañar a una bobina de película de
35 mm de 1000
pies (304,8
m) de longitud proyectada a razón de 24 fotogramas por segundo. El diámetro del disco se aumentó a 16 pulgadas (40,64 cm) y la velocidad se redujo a
33 1⁄3 rpm. A diferencia de los LP posteriores, estos discos se grabaron con el mismo "surco estándar" ancho utilizado por los discos de 78 rpm e incluso, el surco se iniciaba en el interior de la zona grabada cerca de la etiqueta del disco hacia el borde. Como los 78s, los primeros discos de banda sonora fueron prensados en un compuesto de
goma laca abrasivo y reproducidos con una aguja de acero de un solo uso instalada dentro de un fonocaptor electromagnético masivo con una fuerza de seguimiento de 5
onzas de fuerza (1,39
N).
A mediados de 1931, todos los estudios de cine de Estados Unidos adoptaron el sistema de grabación de sonido en bandas sonoras ópticas, aunque estos editaron también hasta finales del año 1936, conjuntos de discos de banda sonora, matrizados mediante la transcripción de las bandas sonoras ópticas y reducidos a un tamaño de 12 pulgadas a fin de disminuir los costos, los cuales eran distribuidos a los cines que todavía estaban equipados con proyectores de sonido del sistema Vitaphone.
3
Discos de transcripción de radio[editar]
La programación de radio bajo licencia a diferentes estaciones se distribuyó en discos de 78 rpm a partir de 1928. La conveniencia de un tiempo de reproducción continua más largo pronto condujo a la adopción del formato de disco del sistema Vitaphone. Aproximadamente en 1930, comenzaron a ser utilizados discos de 16 pulgadas a 33 1⁄3 rpm para la mayoría de estas "transcripciones eléctricas" que reproducían unos 15 minutos por cada lado. Los discos eran grabados desde el borde interno al externo como en los discos de banda sonora o en sentido inverso.
Las piezas musicales más largas transmitidas en vivo que se extendían a lo largo de varios discos, se registaron en los lados impares (Lado "A") de adentro hacia afuera y los lados de número par (Lado "B") de afuera hacia adentro.
Algunos discos de transcripciones fueron grabados con surcos modulados de forma vertical, ya que se encontró que esto permitía no sólo un sonido de bajo más profundo, sino también una extensión de la respuesta de frecuencia de gama alta, ninguno de los cuales era necesariamente una gran ventaja en la práctica debido a las limitaciones de la
radiodifusión de AM. Sin embargo, hoy en día es posible disfrutar de los beneficios de esas grabaciones de mayor fidelidad, a diferencia de las audiencias de radio originales.
Inicialmente, los discos de transcripción fueron prensados sólo en
goma laca, pero hacia el año 1932 fueron apareciendo discos prensados por
RCA Victor en un plástico denominado "Victrolac" basado en acetato de vinilo. Se utilizaron a veces otros plásticos para realizar estos prensajes. A finales de la década de 1930, el vinilo era estándar para casi todo tipo de discos prensados excepto los discos de 78 rpm comerciales ordinarios, que continuaron siendo fabricados de goma laca.
A partir de mediados de la década de 1930, los
discos de acetato de 16 pulgadas grabados a
33 1⁄3 rpm fueron utilizados por las redes de radio para archivar grabaciones de sus emisiones en vivo, y por las estaciones locales estadounidenses para retrasar la emisión de la programación de las redes a las que estaban afiliadas o para pregrabar sus propias producciones. A fines de los años 1940, grabadoras magnéticas fueron adoptadas por las redes radiales y emisoras independientes para grabar espectáculos o repetirlos para ser emitidos en diferentes zonas horarias, pero los prensajes en vinilo de 16 pulgadas se siguieron utilizando en la década de 1960 para su distribución fuera de la red de la programación pregrabada. El estándar del LP de microsurco comenzó a ser incorporado a finales de la década de 1950, y en la década siguiente los discos se redujeron a 12 pulgadas de diámetro, haciéndose físicamente indistinguibles de los LPs ordinarios.
A menos que la cantidad requerida fuera muy pequeña, el prensado de discos era un medio más económico para la distribución de audio de alta calidad que la cinta magnética, y la masterización de
CDs fue, en los primeros años de esa tecnología, muy cara, por lo que el uso de discos de transcripción en formato de LP continuó hasta la década de 1990.
Desarrollo inicial por RCA Victor[editar]
RCA Victor introdujo una primera versión de un disco de larga duración para uso doméstico en 1930. Estos discos, denominados por RCA Victor "Transcription Program" (
Transcripción de programa en idioma español), eran de 12 pulgadas (30,48 cm) de diámetro, se reproducían a
33 1⁄3 rpm y tenían surcos de 4,5
mil (114,3 µm) y más estrechamente espaciados que los típicos 78s. Estos discos debían ser reproducidos con una aguja de acero cromado especial denominada "Chromium Orange" (
Cromo Naranja, en idioma español).
4 Su tiempo de reproducción era de hasta 15 minutos por cada lado, eran utilizados principalmente para la música clásica "seria" y normalmente se prensaban en el plástico Victrolac desarrollado por RCA Victor, que proporcionaba una superficie de reproducción mucho más silenciosa. La
Quinta Sinfonía de Beethoven, interpretada por la Orquesta Sinfónica de Filadelfia bajo la dirección de
Leopold Stokowski, fue la primera grabación de 12 pulgadas editada. Desafortunadamente, muchas de las ediciones posteriores no eran grabaciones nuevas sino simplemente transcripciones hechas de conjuntos de discos de 78 rpm existentes. Las transcripciones eran notablemente inferiores a los 78s originales. Los tocadiscos provistos con la velocidad de
33 1⁄3 rpm sólo eran máquinas caras de gama alta, que se vendieron en pequeñas cantidades, y el público no estaba comprando muchos discos de ningún tipo en el momento. Las ventas de discos en general, en los EE.UU. habían caído desde un máximo de 37,6 millones de discos vendidos en 1927 a 3,6 millones en 1933,
5 debido a la competencia de la radio y los efectos de la
Gran Depresión. Pocos o ningún nuevo disco de Transcripción de Programa se grabaron después de 1933 y los tocadiscos de dos velocidades pronto desaparecieron de la línea de productos de consumo. A excepción de algunas grabaciones de música de fondo, los últimos de los títulos emitidos habían sido sacados de catálogo de discos de la compañía a finales de la década.
Desarrollo comercial por Columbia Records[editar]
Peter Goldmark, científico investigador en jefe de los
Laboratorios CBS, lideró el equipo que desarrollaría un disco fonográfico que tuviera, por lo menos, 20 minutos de reproducción por cada lado.
6 La investigación se inició en 1941, fue suspendida durante la
Segunda Guerra Mundial, y luego se reanudó en 1945.
7
Columbia Records dio a conocer el LP en una conferencia de prensa en el Hotel
Waldorf Astoria el 18 de junio de 1948, en dos formatos: 10 pulgadas (25,4 cm) de diámetro, equivalente a la de los
sencillos de 78 rpm y 12 pulgadas (30,48 cm) de diámetro.
8 El lanzamiento inicial de los primeros 102 discos en formato LP constaba de 71 discos de doce pulgadas de
música clásica y semiclásica, 20 discos de música clásica y ligera de diez pulgadas y 11 discos de música popular de diez pulgadas. De acuerdo con el catálogo inicial de estos discos publicado 3 días después y presentado por la publicación ''The Billboard'' el día 3 de julio de 1948,
9 el primer LP de doce pulgadas fue el Concierto en
Mi menor Opus 64, de
Felix Mendelssohn, ejecutado por el violinista
Nathan Milstein con el acompañamiento de la
Orquesta Filarmónica de Nueva York, dirigida por
Bruno Walter y cuyo número de serie fue ML 4001.
Este primer LP en 12 pulgadas, había sido grabado en una sola sesión el 16 de mayo de 1945 en el teatro
Carnegie Hallde Nueva York, mediante el método de corte directo de discos maestros de acetato de 16 pulgadas grabados a
33 1⁄3 rpm. Los discos maestros grabados en este formato fueron almacenados por Columbia Records, anticipándose así, al lanzamiento del LP en 1948.
10 Según Edward Wallerstein, empleado de Columbia Records, él insistió en que todo lo realizado por la empresa en discos de 78 rpm se grabara en formato de 16 pulgadas a
33 1⁄3 rpm, mencionando también que el técnico de CBS, Adrian Murphy envió, después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, desde
Luxemburgo una
grabadora de cinta alemana Magnetophon a su empresa, la cual adquirió otros grabadores de cinta a las empresas
Ampex y
EMI, descontinuando en 1947 el método de
masterización por corte de disco y suplantándolo por el de grabación de cinta maestra, el cual fue adoptado después de esa época por las empresas radiales y fonográficas en todo el mundo para el registro de audio. De hecho, el 40% de la producción inicial de LPs fue realizado mediante la masterización con cinta maestra magnética.
10 11
Formatos competidores[editar]
El LP fue pronto confrontado por el "45", un disco de vinilo de 7 pulgadas (17,78 cm) de diámetro de surcos finos, grabado y reproducido a 45 rpm desarrollado y presentado por RCA Victor en 1949. En un intento por competir con los discos LP, se editaron cajas de álbumes de 45, junto con 45s del tipo
EP (
Extended Play, Duración Extendida, en idioma castellano), que contenían dos o incluso tres temas en cada lado. A pesar de estos esfuerzos, el 45 tuvo éxito sólo en la sustitución directa del disco de 78 como el formato para edición de sencillos de canciones populares individuales.
Las
grabadoras de carrete abierto plantearon un nuevo reto para el LP en la década de 1950, pero el mayor costo de las cintas pregrabadas presentadas por las compañías discográficas fue uno de varios factores que limitaron este formato a un pequeño nicho en el mercado. Los
cartuchos de 8 pistas y los
casetes eran más convenientes y menos costosos que las cintas de carrete abierto y se hicieron populares para el uso en los automóviles a partir de mediados de la década de 1960. Sin embargo, el LP no fue seriamente cuestionado como el medio principal para escuchar música grabada en el hogar hasta la década de 1970, cuando la calidad de audio del formato de casete se mejoró en gran medida gracias a mejores formulaciones de cinta y sistemas de reducción de ruido. La introducción mundial del disco compacto en 1983, que ofreció una grabación normalmente sin ruidos y sin degradado audibles por repetidas reproducciones o por rozaduras leves y arañazos, finalmente tuvo éxito en destronar al LP, ya que los precios inicialmente altos de los CDs y reproductores de CD comenzaron a bajar.
Junto con los discos fonográficos en general, algunos de los cuales fueron hechos de otros materiales, los LPs son ahora ampliamente conocidos como "vinilos". Desde finales de la década de 1990 y con un crecimiento constante a través del siglo 21 en adelante, se ha producido un renovado interés en el vinilo y la demanda por el medio ha estado en un constante aumento anual en nichos de mercado, sobre todo entre los audiófilos,
discjockeys y fanáticos de la
música independiente. La mayoría de las ventas de música, al momento de escribir esta sección, son de descargas de formatos de archivos digitales, debido a sus precios generalmente más bajos y amplia disponibilidad, las cuales han hecho disminuir la venta de CDs.
12
LP HISTORY
FROM WIKIPEDIA
The
LP (long playing
[1]), or
33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove
vinyl record, is a format for
phonograph (gramophone) records, an
analog sound storage medium. Introduced by
Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry. Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of
stereophonic sound capability, it has remained the standard format for vinyl
albums.
Format advantages[edit]
At the time the LP was introduced, nearly all phonograph records for home use were made of an abrasive (and therefore noisy)
shellac compound, employed a much larger groove, and played at approximately 78 revolutions per minute (rpm), limiting the playing time of a 12-inch diameter record to less than five minutes per side. The new product was a 12- or 10-inch (30 or 25 cm) fine-grooved disc made of vinyl and played with a smaller-tipped "microgroove"
stylus at a speed of
33 1⁄3 rpm. Each side of a 12-inch LP could play for more than 20 minutes. Only the microgroove standard was truly new, as both vinyl and the
33 1⁄3 rpm speed had been used for special purposes for many years, as well as in one unsuccessful earlier attempt to introduce a long-playing record for home use.
Although the LP was especially suited to classical music because of its extended continuous playing time, it also allowed a collection of ten or more typical
pop music recordings to be put on a single disc. Previously, such collections, as well as longer classical music broken up into several parts, had been sold as sets of 78 rpm records in a specially imprinted "record album" consisting of individual record sleeves bound together in book form. The use of the word "album" persisted for the one-disc LP equivalent.
History[edit]
Soundtrack discs[edit]
Neumann lathe with SX-74 cutting head
The prototype of the LP was the soundtrack disc used by the
Vitaphone motion picture sound system, developed by
Western Electric and introduced in 1926. For soundtrack purposes, the less than five minutes of playing time of each side of a conventional 12-inch 78 rpm disc was not acceptable. The sound had to play continuously for at least 11 minutes, long enough to accompany a full 1,000-foot (300 m) reel of
35 mm film projected at
24 frames per second. The disc diameter was increased to 16 inches (40 cm) and the speed was reduced to
33 1⁄3 revolutions per minute. Unlike their smaller LP descendants, they were made with the same large "standard groove" used by 78s.
Unlike conventional records, the groove started at the inside of the recorded area near the label and proceeded outward toward the edge. Like 78s, early soundtrack discs were
pressed in an abrasive shellac compound and played with a single-use steel needle held in a massive electromagnetic pickup with a tracking force of five ounces (1.4
N).
By mid-1931, all motion picture studios were recording on
optical soundtracks, but sets of soundtrack discs, mastered by dubbing from the optical tracks and scaled down to 12 inches to cut costs, were made as late as 1936 for distribution to theaters still equipped with disc-only sound projectors.
[2]
Radio transcription discs[edit]
Syndicated radio programming was distributed on 78 rpm discs beginning in 1928. The desirability of a longer continuous playing time soon led to the adoption of the Vitaphone soundtrack disc format. 16-inch
33 1⁄3 rpm discs playing about 15 minutes per side were used for most of these "
electrical transcriptions" beginning about 1930. Transcriptions were variously recorded inside out like soundtrack discs or with an outside start.
Longer pieces recorded live which extended over the course of several discs, pioneered the system of recording odd-numbered sides inside-out and even-numbered sides outside-in so that the fidelity would match when changing sides or discs. Since no changers were present in radio broadcasting, the sides had to be pressed in a hybrid of manual and automatic sequencing, arranged in such a manner that no single disc had to be turned over to play its other half, i.e., instead of a three-disc set having 1–2, 3–4 and 5–6 for manual or 1–6, 2–5 and 3–4 for automatic, broadcast sequences would have 1–4, 2–5 and 3–6.
Some transcriptions were recorded with a vertically modulated "hill and dale" groove, as this was found to allow not only a deeper bass due to the fact that turntable rumble was laterally-modulated in early radio station turntables, but also an extension of the high-end frequency response, neither of which was necessarily a great advantage in practice because of the limitations of
AM broadcasting. However, today we can enjoy the benefits of those higher-fidelity recordings, even if the original radio audiences could not.
Initially, transcription discs were
pressed only in shellac, but by 1932 pressings in RCA Victor's vinyl-based "Victrolac" were appearing. Other plastics were sometimes used. By the late 1930s, vinyl was standard for nearly all kinds of pressed discs except ordinary commercial 78s, which continued to be made of shellac.
Beginning in the mid-1930s, one-off 16-inch
33 1⁄3 rpm
lacquer discs were used by radio networks to archive recordings of their live broadcasts, and by local stations to delay the broadcast of network programming or to prerecord their own productions. In the late 1940s, magnetic tape recorders were adopted by the networks to prerecord shows or repeat them for airing in different time zones, but 16-inch vinyl pressings continued to be used into the early 1960s for non-network distribution of prerecorded programming. The LP's microgroove standard started to be incorporated in the late 1950s, and in the 1960s the discs were reduced to 12 inches, becoming physically indistinguishable from ordinary LPs.
Unless the quantity required was very small, pressed discs were a more economical medium for distributing high-quality audio than tape, and CD mastering was, in the early years of that technology, very expensive, so the use of LP-format transcription discs continued into the 1990s. The
King Biscuit Flower Hour is a late example, as are Westwood One's
The Beatle Years and
Doctor Demento programs, which were sent to stations on LP at least through 1992.
[3]
RCA Victor[edit]
RCA Victor introduced an early version of a long-playing record for home use in September 1931. These "Program Transcription" discs, as Victor called them, played at
33 1⁄3 rpm and used a somewhat finer and more closely spaced groove than typical 78s. They were to be played with a special "Chromium Orange" chrome-plated steel needle. The 10-inch discs, mostly used for popular and light classical music, were normally pressed in shellac, but the 12-inch discs, mostly used for "serious" classical music, were normally pressed in Victor's new vinyl-based Victrolac compound, which provided a much quieter playing surface. They could hold up to 15 minutes per side.
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, performed by the
Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra under
Leopold Stokowski, was the first 12-inch recording issued.
The New York Timeswrote, "What we were not prepared for was the quality of reproduction ... incomparably fuller."
[4][5][6] Unfortunately for Victor, it was downhill from there. Many of the subsequent issues were not new recordings but simply dubs made from existing 78 rpm record sets. The dubs were audibly inferior to the original 78s. Two-speed turntables with the
33 1⁄3 rpm speed were included only on expensive high-end machines, which sold in small numbers, and people were not buying many records of any kind at the time. Overall record sales in the US had crashed from a high of 105.6 million records sold in 1921 to 5.5 million in 1933, because of competition from
radio and the effects of the
Great Depression.
[7] Few if any new Program Transcriptions were recorded after 1933 and two-speed turntables soon disappeared from consumer products. Except for a few recordings of background music for funeral parlors, the last of the issued titles had been purged from the company's record catalog by the end of the decade. The failure of the new product left RCA Victor with a low opinion of the prospects for any sort of long-playing record, influencing product development decisions during the coming decade.
Columbia[edit]
Research began in 1941, was suspended during World War II, and then resumed in 1945.
[10] Columbia Records unveiled the LP at a
press conference in the
Waldorf Astoria on June 18, 1948, in two formats: 10 inches (25 centimetres) in diameter, matching that of
78 rpm singles, and 12 inches (30 centimetres) in diameter.
[11] The initial release of 133 recordings were: 85 twelve-inch classical LP's (ML4001 to 4085), 26 ten-inch classics (ML2001 to 2026), 18 ten-inch popular numbers (CL6001 to 6018) and 4 ten-inch juvenile records (JL 8001 to 8004). According to the 1949 Columbia catalog, issued September 1948, the first twelve-inch LP was Mendelssohn's Concerto in E Minor by Nathan Milstein on the violin with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Bruno Walter (ML 4001). Three ten-inch series were released: 'popular', starting with the reissue of
The Voice of Frank Sinatra (CL 6001); 'classical', numbering from Beethoven's 8th symphony (ML 2001), and 'juvenile', commencing with
Nursery Songs by Gene Kelly (JL 8001). Also released at this time were a pair of 2-LP sets, Puccini's La Bohème, SL-1 and Humperdinck's Hansel & Gretel, SL-2.
[12]
Public reception[edit]
When the LP was introduced in 1948, the 78 was the conventional format for phonograph records. By 1952, 78s still accounted for slightly more than half of the units sold in the United States, and just under half of the dollar sales. The 45, oriented toward the single song, accounted for just over 30% of unit sales and just over 25% of dollar sales. The LP represented not quite 17% of unit sales and just over 26% of dollar sales.
[13]
Ten years after their introduction, the share of unit sales for LPs in the US was almost 25%, and of dollar sales 58%. Most of the remainder was taken up by the 45; 78s accounted for only 2% of unit sales and 1% of dollar sales.
[7] For this reason, major labels in the United States ceased manufacturing of 78s for popular and classical releases in 1956 with the minor labels following suit, with the final US-made 78 being produced in 1959.
Canada and the UK continued production into 1960 and India, the Philippines and South Africa continued to produce 78s up until 1965, with the last holdout, Argentina continuing the practice until 1970.
The LP's popularity ushered in the
Album Era of English-language popular music beginning in the 1960s as performers took advantage of the longer playing time to create coherent themes or concept albums. Although the popularity of LPs fell in the late 1970s with the advent of first
cassettes and later
compact discs, the album survived as a popular format well into the 2000s.
Vinyl LP records have enjoyed an increased resurgence amongst a younger generation in the early 2010s.
[14] Vinyl sales in the UK reached 2.8 million in 2012.
[15]
Competing formats[edit]
The LP was soon confronted by the "45", a 7-inch (180 mm) diameter fine-grooved vinyl record playing at 45 rpm. It was introduced by
RCA Victor in 1949. In an attempt to compete with the LP, boxed albums of 45s were issued, along with EP (
Extended Play) 45s, which squeezed two or even three selections onto each side. Despite these efforts the 45 succeeded only in directly replacing the 78 as the format for issuing
singles of individual popular songs.
Reel-to-reel magnetic tape recorders posed a new challenge to the LP in the 1950s, but the higher cost of prerecorded tapes was one of several factors that confined tape to a niche market.
Cartridge and
cassette tapes were more convenient and less expensive than reel-to-reel tapes and they became popular for use in automobiles beginning in the mid-1960s. However, the LP was not seriously challenged as the primary medium for listening to recorded music at home until the 1970s, when the audio quality of the cassette format was greatly improved by better tape formulations and noise reduction systems. 1983 saw the world-wide introduction of the digital
Compact Disc (CD), which offered a recording that was, theoretically, completely noiseless and not audibly degraded by repeated playing or slight scuffs and scratches. At first, the much higher prices of CDs and CD players limited their target market to affluent
early adopters and
audiophiles, but the prices gradually came down and by the early 1990s the CD had definitively succeeded in toppling the LP from its throne.
Along with phonograph records in general, some of which were made of other materials, LPs are now widely referred to simply as "vinyl". Beginning in the late 1990s and continuing into the 2010s, a modest renewed interest in vinyl has developed and the demand for the medium has been on a steady increase in niche markets, particularly among audiophiles, DJs and fans of indie music. However, the vast majority of recorded music sales are of compact discs and downloadable digital audio files, because of their greater convenience of use, generally cheaper prices and wider availability.
[16]
Playing time[edit]
When initially introduced, 12-inch LPs played for a maximum of 45 minutes, divided over two sides, with 10-inch versions carrying a maximum of 35 minutes again over two sides.
Owing to marketing attitudes at the time, the 12-inch format was reserved solely for higher-priced classical recordings and
Broadway shows. Popular music appeared only on 10-inch records. Executives believed classical music aficionados would leap at the chance to finally hear a
Beethoven symphony or a
Mozart concerto without having to flip over a seemingly endless series of four-minute-per-side 78s, but popular music fans, used to consuming one song per side at a time, would find the shorter time of the 10-inch LP sufficient. This belief would prove to be erroneous in the end, and by the mid-1950s the 10-inch LP, like its similarly sized 78 rpm record, would lose out in the format wars and be discontinued. Ten-inch records would reappear as
mini-albums in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the United States and Australia as a marketing alternative.
Exceptions[edit]
However, in 1952,
Columbia Records began to bring out extended-play LPs that played for as long as 52 minutes, or 26 minutes per side.
[citation needed] These were used mainly for the original
cast albums of some
Broadway musicals, such as
Kiss Me, Kate and
My Fair Lady, or in order to fit an entire play, such as the 1950 production of
Don Juan in Hell, onto just two LPs. The 52+ minute playing time remained rare, however, because of mastering limitations, and most LPs continued to be issued with a 30- to 45-minute playing time throughout the lifetime of their production.
An extremely limited number of albums would eventually exceed even the 52-minute limitation, with single albums going to as long as ninety minutes in the case of
Arthur Fiedler's 1976 LP
90 Minutes with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, made by
Radio Shack.
[17] However, such records had to be cut with much narrower spacing between the grooves, which allowed for a much smaller amount of dynamic range on the records, and meant that playing the record with a worn needle could damage the record. It also resulted in a much quieter sound. Other notably long albums included the UK version of
The Rolling Stones'
Aftermath, with each side exceeding 26 minutes in length; Genesis'
Duke, with each side exceeding 27 minutes;
Bob Dylan's 1976 album
Desire, with side two being just shy of thirty minutes;
Brian Eno's 1975 album
Discreet Music, whose A-side exceeded 30 minutes;
Miles Davis' 1972 album
Get Up with It, totalling 124:15 min over four sides;
Todd Rundgren's 1975 album
Initiation, totaling 67:32 min over two sides, and his 1973 album
A Wizard, A True Star, whose second side reaches almost thirty minutes;
La Monte Young's
Dream House 78' 17", whose two sides were each just under 40 minutes (the running time of the album is indeed 78:17 min); and
André Previn's
Previn Plays Gershwin,, with the
London Symphony Orchestra, whose sides each exceeded 30 minutes.
[18] Single-LP releases of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony contained over 30 minutes on each side, with the third movement split into two parts. The
Greenpeace International Record Project released in 1985 also approaches 40 minutes per side over its two sides. An extremely rare two-disc German pressing restores full sonic clarity and dynamic range lost by the compression to single-disc.
Spoken word and comedy albums, not having a wide range of musical instrumentation to reproduce, can be cut with much narrower spacing between the grooves; for example,
The Comic Strip, released by Springtime Records in 1981, has a side A lasting 38:04 min and a side B lasting 31:08 min, for a total of 69:12 min.
In any case, the standard 45-minute playing time of the LP was a significant improvement over that of the previous dominant format, the 78 rpm single, which was generally limited to three to four minutes. At around 14 minutes per side for 10-inch and 23 minutes per side for 12-inch, LPs provided a measured time to enjoy a recording before having to flip discs.
Changers[edit]
Some record turntables, called
record changers, could play a stack of records piled on a specially designed
spindle and arm arrangement. Because of this, many multiple-record sets were released in what is called "
automatic sequence". A two-record set would have Side 1 and Side 4 on one record, and Side 2 and Side 3 on the other, so the first two sides could play in a changer without the listener's intervention, and then they could simply flip the stack over. Larger boxed sets used appropriate automatic sequencing (1–8, 2–7, 3–6, 4–5 for example) to allow for ease of continuous playback, but difficulties if searching for an individual track.
In contrast to compact disc players, very few record players, e.g.,
laser or selected
linear tracking turntables like Sharp RP-107/117,
[19] could provide a per-track
programmable interface, so the record albums play in the same order every time. As the LP achieved market dominance, musicians and producers began to pay special attention to the flow from song to song, to keep a consistent mood or feel, or to provide thematic continuity, as in
concept albums.
Vulnerabilities[edit]
Vinyl records are much more vulnerable to scratches than CDs. On a record, a scratch can cause popping sounds with each revolution when the needle meets the scratch mark. Deeper scratches can cause the needle to jump out of the groove altogether. If the needle jumps ahead to a groove further inward, information gets skipped. And if it jumps outward to the groove it just finished playing, it can repeat in an
infinite loop. This particular result of damage spawned the common simile "like a broken record", referring to anything that repeats seemingly endlessly. Additionally, records used in radio stations can suffer
cue burn, which is a result of putting the needle on the record and then backing it up approximately a quarter turn so that it will play at the proper speed when the DJ starts the song. When this is done repeatedly, a hissing sound will preface the start of the actual song.
The large surface area of the record, being vinyl which is a material that is susceptible to becoming
statically charged, pulls
dust and
smoke suspended particles out of the air, also causing crackles, pops, and (in the worst cases of contamination) distortion during playback. Records may be cleaned before playing, using
record cleaner and/or antistatic record cleaning fluid and anti-static pads.
[20]
Since LP discs are delicate, as well as heavy for their size, people are less inclined to lug a stack of them around – for example, when visiting friends or when traveling – than a similar quantity of music compiled onto
90-minute cassettes,
compilation-tapes, or today's digital formats.
The average LP has about 1,500 feet (460 m or about a third of a mile) of groove on each side. The average tangential needle speed relative to the disc surface is approximately 1 mph, 1.4 km/h or 0.4 m/s. It travels fastest on the outside edge, unlike audio CDs, which change their speed of rotation to provide constant linear velocity (CLV). (By contrast, CDs play from the inner radius outward, the reverse of phonograph records.)
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Thin, closely spaced spiral grooves that allowed for increased playing time on a
33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove LP led to a faint pre-echo warning of upcoming loud sounds. The cutting stylus unavoidably transferred some of the subsequent groove wall's impulse signal into the previous groove wall. It was discernible by some listeners throughout certain recordings but a quiet passage followed by a loud sound would allow anyone to hear a faint pre-echo of the loud sound occurring 1.8 seconds ahead of time.
[21] This problem could also appear as "post"-echo, with a ghost of the sound arriving 1.8 seconds after its main impulse.
The
RIAA equalization curve (used since 1954) de-emphasizes (weakens) the bass notes during recording, allowing closer spacing of record grooves and hence more playing time. It also boosts the high frequencies so the playback mirror image correction reduces surface noise. On playback, the turntable cartridge pre-amplifier reverses the RIAA curve to flatten out the frequencies again restoring the bass notes to normal and reducing the high frequencies to normal while reducing the inherent background hiss produced by the stylus contacting an imperfect vinyl surface. The net effect of RIAA equalization is to allow longer playing time and lower background noise while maintaining full fidelity of music or other content.
Fidelity and formats[edit]
LPs
pressed in multicolored vinyl (Sotano Beat: A Todo Color, a various-artists compilation) and clear yellow vinyl - (Rock On Elvis by Tulsa McLean) both from Argentina.
The audio quality of LPs has increased greatly since their 1948 inception. Early LP recordings were
monophonic;
Alan Blumlein patented
Stereophonic sound in 1931 (although stereophony
had been demonstrated in 1881) but unsuccessful attempts
were made to create stereophonic records from the 1920s, including
Emory Cook's 1952 idea of using two tracks, and a system using vertical modulation (harking back to Edison's 1877 experiments) for one channel and (then-universal) horizontal for the other, until the modern system ultimately released by
Audio Fidelity Records in November 1957. This format uses two modulation angles, equal and opposite 45 degrees from vertical (and so perpendicular to each other), that can also be thought of as using traditional horizontal modulation for the sum of Left plus Right channels (mono), making it essentially compatible with simple mono recordings, and vertical-plane modulation for the
difference of the two channels.
The following are some significant advances in the format.
- stereo sound became commercially available in late 1957/early 1958
- helium-cooled cutting heads that could withstand higher levels of high frequencies (Neumann SX68)— (Previously, the cutting engineer had to reduce the HF content of the signal sent to the record cutting head, otherwise the delicate coils could burn out.)
- Elliptical Stylus (marketed by several manufacturers at the end of the 1960s)
- cartridges that operate at lower tracking forces (~200 mN), beginning from mid-1960s
- half- and one-third-speed record cutting, which extend the usable bandwidth of the record
- Matrixed quadraphonic records (SQ, QS, EV-4, UHJ)
- "discrete" quadraphonic CD4 records, which enabled frequencies of up to 50 kHz to be recorded and played back
- longer-lasting, antistatic record compounds (e.g.: RCA Dynaflex, Q-540)
- better stylus tip shapes (Shibata, Van den Hul, MicroLine, etc.)
- Direct Metal Mastering
- noise-reduction (CX encoding, DBX encoding), starting from 1973
- In the late 1970s, engineers Gerry Block and Burgess Macneal devised a preview system of mastering vinyl which allowed about 10-20% more music per disc while not sacrificing dynamic range. The preview tape head was positioned far enough before the program tape head to allow the disk computer enough time to measure the peaks in low frequency and thereby expand the feed appropriately for the greater excursions of groove modulation they produce. The ne-plus-ultra Compudisk system was unveiled at the 1980 AES Convention, alongside the Zuma Disk Computer (made by John W. Bittner) and the Neumann VMS-80 lathe, which had its own advanced Disk Computer, on board.
- In the 1970s, quadraphonic sound (four-channel) records became available, both "discrete" and "matrix". These did not achieve the popularity of stereo records, partly because of scarcity of consumer playback equipment, competing and incompatible quad record standards (most of which were compatible with two-channel stereo equipment) and partly because of the Analog Quadraphonic Formats lack of quality in quad-remix releases. Quad never escaped the reputation of being a "gimmick", and the various (mutually incompatible) discrete 4-channel sound required an ultrasonic carrier signal that was technically difficult to capture and suffered degradation with playing.[22] Three-way and quadraphonic recordings, which were favored and championed by artists like Leopold Stokowski and Glenn Gould,[23]are now making a modest comeback, with older masters being turned into multi-channel Super Audio CDs. (However, a fair number of new surround recordings—primarily classical—are being made for SACD and Blu-ray Audio.)
The composition of vinyl used to press records (, a blend of polyvinyl chloride and polyvinyl acetate,) has varied considerably over the years. Virgin vinyl is preferred, but during the
1970s energy crisis, it became commonplace to use recycled vinyl. Sound quality suffered, with increased ticks, pops and other surface noises.
[citation needed] Other experiments included reducing the thickness of LPs, leading to warping and increased susceptibility to damage. Using a biscuit of 130 grams of vinyl had been the standard, but some labels experimented with as little as 90 grams per LP.
[citation needed]Today, high fidelity pressings follow the Japanese standard of 160, 180 or 200 grams.
[citation needed]
Besides the standard black vinyl, specialty records are also pressed on different colors of PVC/A or special "
picture discs" with a card picture sandwiched between two clear sides. Records in different novelty shapes are also produced.
Use by disc jockeys[edit]
Disc jockeys (or DJs) in clubs still rely heavily on vinyl records, as cuing tracks from cassette tapes is too slow and CDs did not allow creative playback options until quite recently. The term "DJ", which had always meant a person who played various pieces of music on the radio (originally 78s, then 45s, then tape cartridges and reels; now cuts from CDs or tracks on a computer) – a play on the horse-racing term "jockey" – has also come to encompass all kinds of skills in "
scratching" (record playback manipulation) and mixing
dance music,
rapping over the music or even playing
musical instruments, but the original dance club (non-radio) definition was simply somebody who played records, alternating between two turntables. The skill came in subtly matching beats or instruments from one song to the next, providing a consistent dance tempo. DJs also made occasional announcements and chatted with patrons to take requests while songs were actually playing, similar to what radio disc jockeys have been doing since the 1940s.