Vinyl Record

A vinyl record is a physical analog music format that usually runs at around 33 RPM or 45 RPM. They come in 7-inch, and 12-inch formats. Audio is decoded through a special kind of needle used on many vinyl record turntables produced. The format was originally released in 1949, but as music quality improved over the years, it took a hiatus in the 90s for major label albums, but later revived in the late 2000s. As of December 2020, vinyl records are still being produced. The colour of the vinyl record is usually black, but can also be in clear, colour, or picture vinyl discs for artists wanting to make their vinyl record releases fancy. Katie Cadet has collected around 100 albums released on the format.

Operation of Vinyl Records
To play a vinyl record, the tonearm and needle both have to be placed at the beginning of the record. There are three kinds of mechanisms, Fully Automatic, Semi-Automatic, and Fully Manual.

Fully Manual: It has to be done gently. If used improperly, the needle would cause damage and scratch the record.

Semi-Automatic: There is a cue switch which sustains the needle in the air and automatically drops onto the record when the cue switch is let go to produce music.

Fully Automatic: A button is pressed to automatically drop the needle onto the record.

Automatic turntables are designed for the beginner in mind, but Manual turntables are commonly used for DJs. There are two types of motors on turntables, which are Direct Drive and Belt Drive. Direct Drive would be the easiest to maintain as it is done electronically than Belt Drive, which the latter is done physically.

Why Vinyl Records sound better than any other format!
Vinyl Records usually produce up to 50 kHz of frequency response, even on Direct Metal Mastering and 180 gram Vinyl Records. It is the analog equivalent to a 192 kHz 24-bit digital audio file. If you have a stereo amplifier with a Phono Input and up to 50 kHz frequency response and an audio interface with a Line Out and with 96 kHz 24-bit support the minimum, you would get amazing results in terms of quality if you look at the spectrogram analyzer in your audio editing package.