How Do Vinyl Records Work? | Earth Science

Over 100 years after the technology's invention some people still consider vinyl as the only proper way to listen to music but how does vinyl work? Greg Foot explains the science behind a record.

Footnotes

[aidancook]

How the hell were the smart enough to figure this out way back when. I can’t even wrap my head around a scratch in a disk will play back an identical sound

[cgron]

I don’t know about you, but I for some reason searched for this.

[LunchBXcrue]

What doesn't make any sense to me at all is how a single speaker can produce the sound of a guitar, bass, drums and vocals at the same time. Just blows my mind how does one speaker vibrate in a way to produce the sounds of many things coherently lol

[jake_]

i’ve listened to every word and i still have no clue on how it works LOL

[danxepha]

I got into collecting vinyl because I missed having something physical to collect for my music. I went fully MP3 many years ago, selling all of my CDs and only listening to digital music.
But there's just something nice about owning your favourite albums on vinyl. The artwork looks great when it is that big, you get gatefold sleeves that look amazing, limited editions and coloured vinyl, the little ritual of starting your player and placing the stylus and just the sheer joy of having something physical to represent your musical interests.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it isn't all about if it sounds "better" or not. It's much more than that.

Plus I also kind of like the way it sounds too. Maybe not necessarily better, but just nicer.

[shifthappensradio]

I understand everything this guy said in the video...

Yet, I still have absolutely no idea how vinyl records work.

[pun-isher]

I made a vinyl disc with grooves in 2 minutes.
I think that's a record.

[noahway]

It blows my mind that every sound, .every infinite combination of sound, can be cut into a groove. You could have Elvis singing along with a car horn and glass breaking, and there is a pattern that will duplicate that exactly.

[CT]

i still don't understand how the different bumps and depth of the grove contain the sounds of voices, horns, pianos and so forth. this explained nothing.

[finlaymcewan]

I'm a vinyl guy and I'm glad this video stayed neutral, cba with arguing

[freedomjudge]

No matter how many times anyone explains this to me it still feels like some type of amazing sorcery. I can't get my head round why it works. It feels unbelievable, yet it is everywhere. Super amazing science that twists my melon!

[doctorelbruz]

It's a miracle that we have discovered that certain vibrations of a cutting stylus can produce bumpy grooves in wax/resin material, and those grooves can vibrate a needle to reproduce those exact (well, at least roughly) sounds recorded in the disc.

[creamy]

How vinyl records work is just so mind blowing to me.

[johncollins]

I enjoy listening to audio books about the Irish Famine on my potato.

[PixelOverload]

Part of the "vinyl is better than digital" thing partly seems to be a misunderstanding regarding changes in the music industry when they switched to CD. It _is_ actually true that an album originally released on vinyl is typically better than a later CD re-release because it probably has better dynamic range, but that's not due to the CD format, that's due to the industry deciding around that time that "louder" was more important than range.

[AndyMoranPhoto]

I'm pretty much devoted to vinyl, but it's not neccessarily because of the quality. For me it's more of the experience and connection the listener gains when dealing with a physical copy of the song or album. Now a days millions upon millions of songs are available at just a few clicks away (Which is by no means a bad thing!), but for me there's this massive disconnect that I think the artist who created the media wouldn't appreciate - considering how much time he or she put into that project. For some people, months worth of work and several thousands of dollars went into some of the albums being released today, and I just think we owe it to the artist to support and enjoy that media in a way that reflects how much work was put into it. And not just a simple click and a small $0.99 donation.

For instance, Kamasi Washington's "The Epic" is this truly epic 3 hour jazz goliath of an album that had so many people put work into and I have *zero* idea how it was funded, but it was. And every song is worth so much more than $0.99. Which is why I buy vinyl - To connect with and support the artists who truly deserve the support, with a significantly larger contribution to their art.

[TheAndrew]

too much info crammed into such a small vid. id love to see a longer vid on this precisely

[TheMidRage]

If you play the vinyl and turn of the speaker, you can hear the music if you put your ear ringt next to the stylus.
Thats cool :)

[god_pharaoh]

its seriously blowing my mind that its basically vibrations that we're hearing. i had a really hard time comprehending that exactly for the longest time. i really get it now

[MrMoo]

Difference between digital and vinyl:
Digital music is put on when you wanna casually listen to something whilst doing something else, its easy, quick and plays endlessly in a playlist. Its to make everyday life less boring and its used to remove noise and silence.
Vinyl is put on when you wanna sit there and actively listen to every note being played and every word being sung by your favorite artists, putting on a vinyl whilst your busy is pretty pointless.