How Vinyl Records are born

Prithvi schrieb:

Hi! Guys, Saw this link and thought that all you guys who are interested in vinyl (LP) records and always wondered how they are made will appreciate this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYf4u-oEqhI Watch the full video where they show how the master is made and then copies out of it. Very interesting. check it out

Beautiful!!
I soo want a turntable now.
That's a lot of work to turn out a vinly copy from a master.

Thanks Prithvi,
That was nice.
Purnendu

over 60 years of trying to perfect the medium, you bet its going to sound good !

manek.

Very nice. Very informative. You can tell it's a labour of love. No wonder vinyl sounds so sweet.

Prithvi schrieb:

Hi! Guys, Saw this link and thought that all you guys who are interested in vinyl (LP) records and always wondered how they are made will appreciate this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYf4u-oEqhI Watch the full video where they show how the master is made and then copies out of it. Very interesting. check it out

that was excellent! thanx for the link!

Mind blowing stuff...

Thanks for the link Prithvi. I was of the impression that vinyl discs were injection moulded. May be they are still stuck with the obsolete technology they had to use for shell lac discs

Anil

now I know why they are called pressings...and why first pressings are so special...

thanks for sharing...

Thanks guys, it just shows how much LPs are becoming more and more the the main medium of people who love music, not just audiophiles.

Lot of people pay huge amounts for the first pressing. Know a certain client who paid UK 650 for one LP, which was a first pressing and only 50 of them were made. Period.

Long live LP.

Any news of LPs making a comeback in India?

ani schrieb:

Thanks for the link Prithvi. I was of the impression that vinyl discs were injection moulded. May be they are still stuck with the obsolete technology they had to use for shell lac discs Anil

what an irrelevant & off-the-cuff statement!
how can a vinyl disc be injection moulded & yet have the gooves pressed into it?
The grooves need to be stamped or pressed into the vinyl material.
not everything in life needs to be made with the latest, greatest, whizz-bang technology! use the technology that is appropriate for the job - if old technology is best-suited, then use old technology; if newer technology is more appropriate & does a better job, then use that. Just because it is old technology does not mean that is obsolete or bad! That technology does a mighty fine job pressing modern day vinyl, thank you very much! if you bought, say, a 180gm LP of "Kind of Blue" & listened to it, you'd be floored how good a job that "obsolete technology they had to use for shell lac discs" did!!

I really don't know why people make such a big deal of this Kind of Blue album.

While i admit that i am new to Jazz, i do like(coming to love) Jazz, mostly west coast artists. I listened to the Kind of blue album a couple of times but just couldn't keep myself from hitting the stop button.

Are there no other albums that are as revered as this album in Jazz?

sachi...

I dont know if you will like this album "Poll Winners Three", Barney Kessel, Shelly Manne, Ray Brown. Awesome stuff recorded in the late fifties....and the recording was one of the cleanest I've heard.

Manek.

Dear Bombaywalla,

I dont understand why you have jumped up on my loud observation in this manner. PVC can be injected into a mould at high pressure and you can get all that is there on the mould tranfered, the CD's are moulded in this manner.

My observation of obsolete technology of extruding PVC compound and then cutting it to a circular patty which is then pressed is because this is what they used for thermoset plastic mouldings. Vinyl disc were a development which came as a replacement for thermosets used prior to the invention of PVC discs.

There must be valid reason for them using this method, which you have not bothered much except to go on about using appropriate technology.

If you are wondering why I am touchy about the process is because plastic processing is my bread and butter, it is what helps me buy those LP's

Regards

Anil

Savyasaachi schrieb:

I really don't know why people make such a big deal of this Kind of Blue album.

not trying to make a big deal of this album. atleast it was not my intent to. I just picked one album that is universally known.

Savyasaachi schrieb:

While i admit that i am new to Jazz, i do like(coming to love) Jazz, mostly west coast artists. I listened to the Kind of blue album a couple of times but just couldn't keep myself from hitting the stop button.

sorry to read this! the music on this album begs the "repeat continuously" button instead!

Savyasaachi schrieb:

Are there no other albums that are as revered as this album in Jazz?

Oh, I'm sure there are.

ani schrieb:

Dear Bombaywalla, I dont understand why you have jumped up on my loud observation in this manner. PVC can be injected into a mould at high pressure and you can get all that is there on the mould tranfered, the CD's are moulded in this manner.

Dear Anil,
yes, I think that I might have over-reacted to your post. Sorry about that.

ani schrieb:

If you are wondering why I am touchy about the process is because plastic processing is my bread and butter, it is what helps me buy those LP's Regards Anil

perfect! YOU might be the best one to inform us why they use this process over injection moulding?
Honestly, I would also like to know.

Hi all,

Got a reasonable explanation for my doubts, thought will share with you all.

In injecction moulding process the two halves of the mould is closed and held against each other at a specified pressure. The material is injected into this cavity and then cooled.

Problems for LP's

a) The PVC has to be melted to a very fluid state for all the micro grooves to be filled. Injection moulding cannot be done with such watery state of plasticisation.

b) Complete evacuation of air from the micro gooves is not possible, trapped air will render the disc useless.

c) while cooling the most plastics shrink and thus we cannot get a true replica of the grooves on the stamper.


Compression moulding of LP's

a) A semi plasticised thick disc of PVC is pressed by the stamper that is heated to about 300deg Cels using SH steam. This high temp causes the PVC that is in direct contact with the stamper to melt to a free flowing fluid.

b) The high pressure of the press will spread the vinyl from centre to the periphery filling the grooves and pushing air out at the same time.

c) The most important part, since the press applies constant presssure while the vinyl is cooled ( this heating cooling cycle is very fast)any shrinkage of PVC and subsequent groove distortion is corrected by stamper pressing against the material, thus we get a truer replica of the stamper.

Bombaywala, thanks for provoking me to spend half a day reading and talking to experts in this field I hope that now you may have a better understanding of my concern, things like this will keep you on your toes. I now feel stupid for not thinking about the above points before

SO we can conclude that CD's are made using low accuracy process compared to LP,s and the poor playback system is asked to correct for it

Regards

Anil

SO we can conclude that CD's are made using low accuracy process

Ani, how are original Cds made?

Kamal,
this link is a good one and hope it will give you an idea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD_manufacturing