1 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:07,200 Speaker 1: Get in text with technology with tech Stuff from half 2 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:13,760 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 3 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:16,840 Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm a host and a 4 00:00:16,840 --> 00:00:20,720 Speaker 1: producer and I love all things tech and this here 5 00:00:20,760 --> 00:00:22,840 Speaker 1: show is the one where I talk about what is 6 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:26,360 Speaker 1: technology and how it affects us. Now. In our last episode, 7 00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:30,120 Speaker 1: we followed the development of the predecessors to the modern 8 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:33,680 Speaker 1: turntable leading up to the conclusion of World War One, 9 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:35,080 Speaker 1: and I'm gonna have to do a little bit of 10 00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:39,440 Speaker 1: backtracking in this episode, because oddly enough, history does not 11 00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:43,600 Speaker 1: unfold as a single series of events one after the other. 12 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:46,919 Speaker 1: There's a lot of stuff that's all happening concurrently, and 13 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:49,760 Speaker 1: that makes it difficult to talk about various developments. But 14 00:00:50,159 --> 00:00:52,800 Speaker 1: we're gonna chat a little bit about what was happening 15 00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:55,240 Speaker 1: at the end of that era. At that time, due 16 00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:57,760 Speaker 1: to the war, manufacturing facilities were ready to go into 17 00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:01,080 Speaker 1: full production mode for non war time use, and you 18 00:01:01,120 --> 00:01:04,240 Speaker 1: suddenly had all these factories and pieces of equipment and 19 00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:08,960 Speaker 1: processes and stuff like that in place to make stuff. 20 00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:11,119 Speaker 1: Originally it was going to be military stuff, but now 21 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:14,280 Speaker 1: it could be turned to making consumer stuff for the 22 00:01:14,319 --> 00:01:18,759 Speaker 1: average citizen, and people finally finding themselves with more spare 23 00:01:18,800 --> 00:01:21,760 Speaker 1: time at their disposal thanks to industrialization. It was the 24 00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:24,919 Speaker 1: perfect time for entertainment technology to make its way into 25 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:28,560 Speaker 1: the home. Now. If it hadn't been for radio, the 26 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:31,720 Speaker 1: predecessors to the modern turntable would likely have found their 27 00:01:31,720 --> 00:01:35,880 Speaker 1: foothold in the common household at that time. But radio 28 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:39,760 Speaker 1: gave people the chance to experience all sorts of different programming. 29 00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:42,680 Speaker 1: They weren't limited to whatever songs they could find pressed 30 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:46,080 Speaker 1: on record discs or carved into wax cylinders, and the 31 00:01:46,120 --> 00:01:48,720 Speaker 1: recording media at that time was still limited in how 32 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:52,880 Speaker 1: much information it could actually carry. Typically, a recording could 33 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:55,240 Speaker 1: be no longer than a couple of minutes on either 34 00:01:55,360 --> 00:01:59,400 Speaker 1: cylinders or discs. Even in nineteen o one, when Eldridge 35 00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:02,600 Speaker 1: Johnson produced the ten inch record disc, you could only 36 00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:05,440 Speaker 1: fit about three minutes of audio on the records. The 37 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:08,920 Speaker 1: playback speed for recorded media was not standardized at this 38 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:12,160 Speaker 1: time and could range between sixty and a hundred thirty 39 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:16,440 Speaker 1: revolutions per minute. Now, that depended both on the medium 40 00:02:16,520 --> 00:02:20,040 Speaker 1: and the equipment you played the media on. Right, so 41 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:22,520 Speaker 1: a wax cylinder might say that it needs to be 42 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:25,880 Speaker 1: played back at seventy revolutions per minute, so you'd have 43 00:02:25,919 --> 00:02:29,680 Speaker 1: to have a player that could play at that speed. 44 00:02:30,200 --> 00:02:32,720 Speaker 1: And there were a lot of issues at that time 45 00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:37,200 Speaker 1: of these non standard formats, and it created a lot 46 00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:42,200 Speaker 1: of incompatibilities across systems. The physical records just could not 47 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:46,200 Speaker 1: hold more than a couple of minutes of audio, largely 48 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:49,720 Speaker 1: because the grooves in the records. We could talk about cylinders, 49 00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:53,880 Speaker 1: but I'm specifically talking about record discs. The groups were 50 00:02:53,880 --> 00:02:57,200 Speaker 1: pretty large by today's standards, so you couldn't fit as 51 00:02:57,240 --> 00:03:00,120 Speaker 1: many lines of grooves. Remember, a group is essentially a 52 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:02,799 Speaker 1: spiral carved into the surface of a disk, and it 53 00:03:02,919 --> 00:03:06,920 Speaker 1: spirals from the outer edge to the inner edge, and 54 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:11,040 Speaker 1: you couldn't make those grooves too tight. Back in those days, 55 00:03:11,160 --> 00:03:14,600 Speaker 1: we didn't have the precision there. So the gramophone and 56 00:03:14,600 --> 00:03:17,120 Speaker 1: phonograph and other such devices started to fall out of 57 00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:20,880 Speaker 1: favor as far as home use is concerned. While the 58 00:03:20,919 --> 00:03:23,919 Speaker 1: recording and playback speeds weren't standardized yet. The technology that 59 00:03:23,919 --> 00:03:28,280 Speaker 1: would make that possible did emerge in eight so this 60 00:03:28,360 --> 00:03:31,400 Speaker 1: is before well before World War One. That tech was 61 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:34,639 Speaker 1: called a governor, and the governor is a general term 62 00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:40,320 Speaker 1: for various types of mechanical devices. Typically it is something 63 00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:43,600 Speaker 1: that regulates speed within a system. So you have governors 64 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:46,560 Speaker 1: and all sorts of things, including vehicles. There are governors 65 00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:50,720 Speaker 1: that are in place and vehicles that top out how 66 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:53,920 Speaker 1: fast a car can go, for example, and if you 67 00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:56,880 Speaker 1: were to remove that governor, you could, in theory, push 68 00:03:56,880 --> 00:03:59,840 Speaker 1: your vehicle to move faster than what it was rated for, 69 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,560 Speaker 1: although you do so at your own peril because you 70 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:06,360 Speaker 1: could cause some pretty bad damage, and not to mention, 71 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:09,440 Speaker 1: have a vehicle that doesn't control very well at those 72 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:15,600 Speaker 1: high speeds. Now, the governor in would eventually allow for 73 00:04:15,640 --> 00:04:18,080 Speaker 1: standardized playback speeds, but it took a few decades to 74 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:21,640 Speaker 1: become adopted universally. So people started to put them into 75 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:25,919 Speaker 1: their various machines like the phonograph and the gramophone to 76 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:30,440 Speaker 1: make sure that the revolutions per minute we were regular, 77 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:34,800 Speaker 1: that that they kept at that specific speed, because otherwise 78 00:04:35,120 --> 00:04:39,359 Speaker 1: you would have issues where the revolutions might speed up 79 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:41,520 Speaker 1: or they might slow down, and that would affect the 80 00:04:41,520 --> 00:04:46,320 Speaker 1: playback recording, the playback quality. You would have the playback 81 00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:48,880 Speaker 1: speed up or slow down, so suddenly everyone starts sounding 82 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:52,320 Speaker 1: like their chipmunks or that they're on barbiturous or whatever, 83 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:55,680 Speaker 1: so you wanted to have a way of regulating that 84 00:04:55,880 --> 00:04:59,520 Speaker 1: and keeping it nice and steady. Another limitation in the 85 00:04:59,520 --> 00:05:03,680 Speaker 1: technology g was in sound quality and amplification. From their 86 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:07,520 Speaker 1: introduction to the nineteen twenties, these various gadgets relied on 87 00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:11,760 Speaker 1: either stethoscope like earpieces which you would plug into your ears, 88 00:05:11,839 --> 00:05:14,920 Speaker 1: kind of like earbuds, or they would have an acoustic 89 00:05:14,960 --> 00:05:19,320 Speaker 1: horn that would convey sound from a diaphragm to a room. Now, 90 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:23,320 Speaker 1: in some implementations of the invention, the vibrations passed directly 91 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:26,279 Speaker 1: from a needle to a membrane, So you would have 92 00:05:26,279 --> 00:05:28,680 Speaker 1: a membrane and there'd be a needle mounted to the 93 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:31,560 Speaker 1: middle of the membrane, and as the needle moved across 94 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:35,440 Speaker 1: the recording service and vibrated due to the actual recording 95 00:05:35,520 --> 00:05:39,080 Speaker 1: in the groove, it would transmit those vibrations to the membrane, 96 00:05:39,400 --> 00:05:41,839 Speaker 1: which would then create the sound that you would hear, 97 00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:45,080 Speaker 1: but it would be a very low volume because there 98 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:48,599 Speaker 1: was no amplification there apart from acoustic amplification due to 99 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:53,719 Speaker 1: there being a horn. In other implementations, however, there was 100 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:58,000 Speaker 1: another component in which compressed air would cause the membrane 101 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:01,560 Speaker 1: to vibrate, allowing you to have a separate horn speaker 102 00:06:01,640 --> 00:06:04,400 Speaker 1: connected by cable to the device. So you could have 103 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:10,480 Speaker 1: this implemented directly into the case for a phonograph or 104 00:06:10,480 --> 00:06:12,839 Speaker 1: a gramaphone, or it could be a separate thing. But 105 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:15,480 Speaker 1: it might make you wonder how these things actually work. 106 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:21,080 Speaker 1: How did this compressed air speaker function. Well, first, imagine 107 00:06:21,160 --> 00:06:23,040 Speaker 1: that you have a cabinet. We're going to talk about 108 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:26,040 Speaker 1: a big integrated system. Here on the top of the 109 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:29,360 Speaker 1: cabinet is the platter. That's the surface upon which you 110 00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:32,560 Speaker 1: would place a record, uh, and it's the surface that 111 00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:37,880 Speaker 1: rotates around. There's the arm that has the stylus or 112 00:06:37,960 --> 00:06:41,120 Speaker 1: needle at the end of it. There it is connected 113 00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:45,000 Speaker 1: to a horn apparatus. The horn access your loud speaker. Now, 114 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:47,039 Speaker 1: depending upon the model of device you might have, you 115 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:50,360 Speaker 1: might wind up a spring motor by turning a crank 116 00:06:50,400 --> 00:06:53,880 Speaker 1: and that would allow there the spring motor to coil 117 00:06:54,520 --> 00:06:58,000 Speaker 1: and then provide the energy necessary to rotate the platter. 118 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:00,479 Speaker 1: Or you might have it connected to an elect motor, 119 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:03,520 Speaker 1: in which case the electric motor provides the rotational force. 120 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:06,880 Speaker 1: But either way you get something that's going to turn 121 00:07:06,920 --> 00:07:09,160 Speaker 1: the platter around. That's only the tip of the iceberg. Though. 122 00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:12,000 Speaker 1: Inside the cabinet, if you were to open up, you 123 00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:14,680 Speaker 1: would find a blower, which in turn would typically be 124 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:17,880 Speaker 1: connected to an air canister. Uh, that would be your 125 00:07:17,920 --> 00:07:21,360 Speaker 1: compressor part. And in earlier versions of the technology, you'd 126 00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:24,160 Speaker 1: have a hand crank and a spring motor for the 127 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:27,920 Speaker 1: blower itself, whereas later versions used an electric motor to 128 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:30,640 Speaker 1: operate the blower. Turning on the motor would cause it 129 00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:33,680 Speaker 1: to blow air into the canister, thus compressing the air. 130 00:07:34,040 --> 00:07:35,640 Speaker 1: Now this gives me a chance to talk about how 131 00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:39,560 Speaker 1: blowers work. In these early incarnations, the blowers would typically 132 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:43,560 Speaker 1: use a centrifugal fan. Now, imagine a fan sort of 133 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:46,520 Speaker 1: like a water wheel. In fact, a water wheel isn't 134 00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:49,120 Speaker 1: a bad analogy. The fan is made up of two 135 00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:54,600 Speaker 1: parallel discs joined together by blades set between the two discs. Now, 136 00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:57,480 Speaker 1: that's the fan wheel. The fan wheel is set inside 137 00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:01,840 Speaker 1: a housing which has an intake and an output section. 138 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:06,120 Speaker 1: Air comes into the fan through the central hub the intake, 139 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:10,360 Speaker 1: and as the fan rotates, it changes the directional force 140 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:14,239 Speaker 1: of the air into a rotational forces. Trivigal force pushes 141 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:18,040 Speaker 1: it out. I know that that's being really free with 142 00:08:18,080 --> 00:08:21,200 Speaker 1: the term force there, but just bear with me, and 143 00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:23,840 Speaker 1: the air gets pushed out towards the edge and then 144 00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:26,160 Speaker 1: it makes its way through the output. So imagine air 145 00:08:26,200 --> 00:08:29,480 Speaker 1: coming straight into the center of this wheel inside of housing, 146 00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:33,200 Speaker 1: then being forced out towards the edges of the housing interior. 147 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:36,120 Speaker 1: But you've only got one way out of the housing, 148 00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:39,080 Speaker 1: which is the output valve, and that's all the incoming 149 00:08:39,080 --> 00:08:41,959 Speaker 1: air is forced out of there. The canister acts as 150 00:08:41,960 --> 00:08:45,880 Speaker 1: the holding space for compressed air, and valves allow air 151 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:49,080 Speaker 1: to pass from the intake, but not to go back out, 152 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:52,840 Speaker 1: so air keeps coming into the canister cannot escape back 153 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:55,559 Speaker 1: the way it came in. As you crambore air into 154 00:08:55,600 --> 00:08:58,439 Speaker 1: the canister, of the pressure inside the canister increases. That 155 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:01,800 Speaker 1: creates potential energy to do work, and we use compressors 156 00:09:01,840 --> 00:09:04,319 Speaker 1: for all sorts of stuff. Compressed air at very high 157 00:09:04,360 --> 00:09:07,720 Speaker 1: pressure can provide the energy needed to operate a jackhammer, 158 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:11,720 Speaker 1: for example, but your typical record player didn't need quite 159 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:16,280 Speaker 1: that much power, even for heavy metal music, which had 160 00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:20,079 Speaker 1: not been invented yet. A connector from the canister would 161 00:09:20,120 --> 00:09:22,680 Speaker 1: lead to a part of the horn on the top 162 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:26,839 Speaker 1: of the whole apparatus. Typically, the needle on the record 163 00:09:26,880 --> 00:09:29,800 Speaker 1: would control a valve and that would allow compressed air 164 00:09:29,880 --> 00:09:34,240 Speaker 1: to pass through, impacting a membrane and creating the vibrations. 165 00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:37,360 Speaker 1: So the compressed air was able to create the same 166 00:09:37,400 --> 00:09:39,719 Speaker 1: sort of vibrations that the needle would if it were 167 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:42,240 Speaker 1: directly connected to the membrane, but it would do so 168 00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:45,920 Speaker 1: with much more force, and that would result with higher 169 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:50,240 Speaker 1: amplitude sounds. Thus you would have louder sounds of increase 170 00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:56,480 Speaker 1: the volume considerably. Uh it was really loud. Actually, the 171 00:09:56,559 --> 00:09:59,400 Speaker 1: motor and blower would be really loud. The sound was 172 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:02,120 Speaker 1: really loud. So you ended up with a very noisy 173 00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:04,400 Speaker 1: device overall, and there was no way to control the 174 00:10:04,480 --> 00:10:07,680 Speaker 1: volume apart from turning off the compressor. And if you 175 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:09,600 Speaker 1: did that, the only power you would get for sound 176 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:12,880 Speaker 1: would be from the needle creating vibrations and the membrane alone, 177 00:10:13,240 --> 00:10:16,360 Speaker 1: just by making the air molecules vibrate a little, making 178 00:10:16,360 --> 00:10:18,839 Speaker 1: the membrane vibrate a little, So any sound that came 179 00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:21,600 Speaker 1: out of the horn would be really really quiet. If 180 00:10:21,640 --> 00:10:25,439 Speaker 1: you turned on the compressor, that sound would be increased dramatically. 181 00:10:26,040 --> 00:10:28,960 Speaker 1: But so you would also get the noise of the 182 00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:32,760 Speaker 1: the blower and the compressor UH as well as whatever 183 00:10:32,800 --> 00:10:36,960 Speaker 1: the the music was or the audio was, so it 184 00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:40,600 Speaker 1: was either too quiet for you to really hear, or 185 00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:42,679 Speaker 1: so loud that you would never want it in your house. 186 00:10:42,760 --> 00:10:46,520 Speaker 1: It was more meant for large public spaces than for 187 00:10:46,880 --> 00:10:49,680 Speaker 1: UH inside a home. It had just been a really 188 00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:53,440 Speaker 1: loud nuisance inside any house. An example of this type 189 00:10:53,440 --> 00:10:55,000 Speaker 1: of setup. By the way, if you ever want to 190 00:10:55,040 --> 00:10:57,480 Speaker 1: look it up, there are videos on YouTube where you 191 00:10:57,480 --> 00:11:01,040 Speaker 1: can actually listen to one of these devices and see 192 00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:03,680 Speaker 1: a full explanation of how it works. Look up the 193 00:11:03,880 --> 00:11:08,040 Speaker 1: Victor oxta phone a U x E T O P 194 00:11:08,440 --> 00:11:10,600 Speaker 1: H O N E that was produced in the early 195 00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:14,320 Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds, and there are videos on YouTube of restorers 196 00:11:14,360 --> 00:11:17,199 Speaker 1: who have these and have shown how they work, and 197 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:20,160 Speaker 1: it's pretty fascinating stuff. Now, the lack of volume control 198 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:23,360 Speaker 1: was another limitation that made those early record blayers less 199 00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:25,520 Speaker 1: than ideal for your average consumer, and to be honest, 200 00:11:26,080 --> 00:11:29,200 Speaker 1: earlier radio had the same problem. Earlier radio was also 201 00:11:29,320 --> 00:11:34,520 Speaker 1: using speakers similar to what these early phonographs and gramophones 202 00:11:34,559 --> 00:11:37,160 Speaker 1: were using. It wasn't until the invention of the electric 203 00:11:37,240 --> 00:11:41,040 Speaker 1: driven amplification that things really got going now. I'll go 204 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:44,760 Speaker 1: more into detail about that in the upcoming tech stuff 205 00:11:44,800 --> 00:11:48,320 Speaker 1: episode on speakers and headphones, but here's a quick overview. 206 00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:52,439 Speaker 1: Experiments and electromagnetic loudspeakers began in the late nineteenth century, 207 00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:55,160 Speaker 1: but the first practical ones arrived on the scene about 208 00:11:55,240 --> 00:11:59,800 Speaker 1: two decades later in nineteen fifteen, and then um those 209 00:11:59,840 --> 00:12:03,120 Speaker 1: were made by Peter Jensen and Edwin Priddham, who get 210 00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:05,240 Speaker 1: the credit for making those. It took another decade for 211 00:12:05,280 --> 00:12:07,600 Speaker 1: refinements and improvements to the tech to make it not 212 00:12:07,640 --> 00:12:10,679 Speaker 1: just practical on its own, but also preferable to the 213 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:14,960 Speaker 1: air compressor amplifiers that were already in use. In general. 214 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:17,800 Speaker 1: Electric got a patent for such an implementation, designed by 215 00:12:17,840 --> 00:12:21,640 Speaker 1: researchers Chester Rice and Edward Kellogg, and i'll talk more 216 00:12:21,679 --> 00:12:24,960 Speaker 1: about all of these people in the speakers episode. The 217 00:12:25,000 --> 00:12:28,480 Speaker 1: benefits of this technology were huge. Eventually they get playback 218 00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:32,319 Speaker 1: audio at different volume levels without compromising on sound quality. 219 00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:35,240 Speaker 1: Audio distortion wasn't nearly as big an issue with these 220 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:38,120 Speaker 1: speakers as was the case with earlier ones. In fact, 221 00:12:38,160 --> 00:12:41,680 Speaker 1: the basic design that ge patented is still pretty much 222 00:12:41,679 --> 00:12:44,160 Speaker 1: how speakers work to this day, more or less I 223 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:47,560 Speaker 1: say more or less because they become more sophisticated over time, 224 00:12:47,559 --> 00:12:50,160 Speaker 1: but they still work on the same principles, and you 225 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:53,440 Speaker 1: don't need an acoustic horn louds loudspeaker anymore, which is 226 00:12:53,440 --> 00:12:56,160 Speaker 1: pretty cool. This is as good a time as any 227 00:12:56,200 --> 00:12:59,839 Speaker 1: to address something else that purists get particular about. Now. 228 00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:03,960 Speaker 1: I've used turntable and record player a bit interchangeably here, 229 00:13:04,320 --> 00:13:06,440 Speaker 1: and that's largely because a lot of people do the 230 00:13:06,440 --> 00:13:08,719 Speaker 1: same thing. It's a common practice where people will use 231 00:13:08,760 --> 00:13:10,800 Speaker 1: one or the other to refer to the same sort 232 00:13:10,840 --> 00:13:13,600 Speaker 1: of thing. But I need to acknowledge there is a 233 00:13:13,640 --> 00:13:18,160 Speaker 1: technical distinction. A record player contains a turntable as one 234 00:13:18,160 --> 00:13:21,240 Speaker 1: of its components, but also has a built in amplifier 235 00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:25,960 Speaker 1: and speakers. A turntable by itself does not have those elements, 236 00:13:26,080 --> 00:13:29,080 Speaker 1: and instead it's a component that you would hook up 237 00:13:29,120 --> 00:13:32,200 Speaker 1: to a larger sound system in order to listen to 238 00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:35,080 Speaker 1: the output. But let's face it, y'all, I'm probably gonna 239 00:13:35,160 --> 00:13:39,480 Speaker 1: end up using these terms interchangeably, so just prepare yourselves 240 00:13:39,559 --> 00:13:45,160 Speaker 1: for slight misinformation in that respect, because a lot of 241 00:13:45,160 --> 00:13:47,680 Speaker 1: people do it, and and and old habits die hard. 242 00:13:48,160 --> 00:13:51,160 Speaker 1: At the same time, it became possible to make electrical 243 00:13:51,200 --> 00:13:55,920 Speaker 1: recordings of music using microphones. Microphones has been around for 244 00:13:55,960 --> 00:13:59,000 Speaker 1: a while. People started to understand the microphone effect towards 245 00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:02,080 Speaker 1: the end of the ninet century, but again it hadn't 246 00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:05,920 Speaker 1: really been perfected until about the nineteen twenties. And I 247 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:07,760 Speaker 1: know I've said before, I'll just repeat it here. A 248 00:14:07,800 --> 00:14:11,760 Speaker 1: microphone is essentially a speaker in reverse. The two technologies 249 00:14:11,800 --> 00:14:15,200 Speaker 1: are closely related. Before the microphone, all recordings were made 250 00:14:15,240 --> 00:14:18,920 Speaker 1: directly into acoustic horns to create the vibrations used to 251 00:14:18,960 --> 00:14:21,800 Speaker 1: cut a master record. So you would have a big 252 00:14:22,120 --> 00:14:25,240 Speaker 1: horn uh connected down to a membrane that had a 253 00:14:25,280 --> 00:14:29,480 Speaker 1: needle attached to it, and you would uh move a 254 00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:35,480 Speaker 1: blank record that was easily etched um around in a circle. 255 00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:38,400 Speaker 1: The needle would continue through the groove in the record. 256 00:14:38,880 --> 00:14:41,640 Speaker 1: You would shout or play music or whatever into the 257 00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:44,800 Speaker 1: acoustic horn. That would make the membrane vibrate, and that 258 00:14:44,880 --> 00:14:47,680 Speaker 1: vibration would be transmitted to the needle, which would carve 259 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:50,720 Speaker 1: into the record as it went through the groove the 260 00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:53,760 Speaker 1: little bitty notches that would represent sound. So it's the 261 00:14:53,800 --> 00:14:57,360 Speaker 1: exact opposite approach as what was happening when the needle 262 00:14:57,520 --> 00:15:01,240 Speaker 1: was reading sound off of a record. Some of the 263 00:15:01,240 --> 00:15:04,920 Speaker 1: biggest stars in those early years of sound recordings were 264 00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:09,160 Speaker 1: opera singers. Henrico Caruso was particularly popular as the tenor 265 00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:12,120 Speaker 1: could sing in very clear tones at a very high volume, 266 00:15:12,480 --> 00:15:15,160 Speaker 1: and that was great for those early recording sessions. Other 267 00:15:15,240 --> 00:15:18,680 Speaker 1: famous stars were Billy Murray, not the comedic actor, but 268 00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:21,400 Speaker 1: the guy Who's Sang Over There, which was written by 269 00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:24,760 Speaker 1: George M. Cohen in support of America's war effort in 270 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:28,720 Speaker 1: World War One. The first jazz record was the Livery 271 00:15:28,800 --> 00:15:31,920 Speaker 1: Stable Blues by the original Dixie Land Jazz Band in 272 00:15:32,040 --> 00:15:37,000 Speaker 1: nineteen seventeen. The first hit country record was Little Old 273 00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:41,240 Speaker 1: Log Cabin in the Lane by Fiddland John Carson, which 274 00:15:41,280 --> 00:15:47,960 Speaker 1: debuted in nineteen twenty three. Using the microphones would then 275 00:15:49,080 --> 00:15:52,520 Speaker 1: really transform things. Those early recordings were mostly done through 276 00:15:52,520 --> 00:15:57,400 Speaker 1: the acoustic corn section, but the microphones changed things up dramatically. 277 00:15:57,440 --> 00:15:59,360 Speaker 1: I'll get to that in just a second. With the 278 00:15:59,400 --> 00:16:02,960 Speaker 1: invention of the electric loud speakers and microphones, uh, we 279 00:16:03,120 --> 00:16:07,200 Speaker 1: really started seeing the recording industry transform. And this is 280 00:16:07,480 --> 00:16:10,480 Speaker 1: sort of tangentially related to turntables, but you have to 281 00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:13,960 Speaker 1: understand that the development of the recording industry is largely 282 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:17,440 Speaker 1: what made the turntable business possible. So it's really hard 283 00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:20,520 Speaker 1: to cover one without also talking at least a little 284 00:16:20,520 --> 00:16:22,960 Speaker 1: bit about the other. So I'm gonna try and keep 285 00:16:23,280 --> 00:16:27,400 Speaker 1: the recording industry history stuff to a minimum, but I 286 00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:30,000 Speaker 1: need to incorporate it a little bit in this discussion 287 00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:34,680 Speaker 1: to understand why the record player and turntable industries developed 288 00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:37,680 Speaker 1: as they did. So just a little bit more before 289 00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:41,760 Speaker 1: I go back to talking about record players. In the 290 00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:45,800 Speaker 1: famous crooner Bing Crosby recorded his first record, which is 291 00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:49,080 Speaker 1: called I've Got the Girl, and he used a carbon 292 00:16:49,160 --> 00:16:51,760 Speaker 1: microphone for the recording. I'll talk more about that in 293 00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:55,880 Speaker 1: the Speakers and Headphones episode as well. Bell Labs developed 294 00:16:55,880 --> 00:16:58,120 Speaker 1: this microphone, and Crosby would go on to become a 295 00:16:58,160 --> 00:17:02,480 Speaker 1: superstar in recording with expanding not only music but also film. 296 00:17:02,520 --> 00:17:05,479 Speaker 1: His popularity helped drive a lot of interest in the 297 00:17:05,480 --> 00:17:08,439 Speaker 1: recording industry. And while all this was happening, there was 298 00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:12,040 Speaker 1: another revolution, so to speak, in the record player world, 299 00:17:12,080 --> 00:17:14,159 Speaker 1: and this has had to do with the transition from 300 00:17:14,320 --> 00:17:18,800 Speaker 1: spring motors to electric motors. One of the earliest such 301 00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:23,439 Speaker 1: record players was the Brunswick Panetrope, which debuted in nineteen 302 00:17:24,119 --> 00:17:27,720 Speaker 1: had an electrically driven turntable as well as vacuum tube 303 00:17:27,720 --> 00:17:31,720 Speaker 1: amplifiers and electric speakers, and even had an apparatus that 304 00:17:31,760 --> 00:17:34,640 Speaker 1: could drop a new disk down once an old one finished, 305 00:17:34,640 --> 00:17:37,959 Speaker 1: and this would become a common feature and a lot 306 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:41,359 Speaker 1: of record players moving forward, this sort of automatic record changer, 307 00:17:41,359 --> 00:17:45,800 Speaker 1: which would just hold records at a certain height. When 308 00:17:45,800 --> 00:17:48,720 Speaker 1: the arm had reached the end of its of its 309 00:17:48,840 --> 00:17:54,280 Speaker 1: uh motion moving inwards from the outer edge of a record, 310 00:17:54,800 --> 00:17:58,119 Speaker 1: then that would automatically make the arm move back to 311 00:17:58,200 --> 00:18:02,600 Speaker 1: its original starting position, up a new album on top 312 00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:04,840 Speaker 1: of the first one, and then you could start again. 313 00:18:05,240 --> 00:18:08,320 Speaker 1: So the pane trope actually allowed you to have up 314 00:18:08,320 --> 00:18:11,560 Speaker 1: to five discs stored in this way, which was helpful 315 00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:13,840 Speaker 1: because again, these discs could only hold a few minutes 316 00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:16,280 Speaker 1: of music each, so if you wanted to listen to, 317 00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:19,480 Speaker 1: say a symphony, you have to have a whole bunch 318 00:18:19,520 --> 00:18:22,240 Speaker 1: of these to get from one section to the next, 319 00:18:22,280 --> 00:18:24,199 Speaker 1: and this way you could line them all up and 320 00:18:24,240 --> 00:18:28,000 Speaker 1: listen to them in sequence. Again, I'll cover vacuum tubes 321 00:18:28,200 --> 00:18:30,919 Speaker 1: and why why they are important and amplification in an 322 00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:33,640 Speaker 1: upcoming episode. Just know that those were a very important 323 00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:36,560 Speaker 1: invention to help make things like consumer radios and record 324 00:18:36,560 --> 00:18:40,080 Speaker 1: players possible. Now we've set the stage for the rise 325 00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:44,199 Speaker 1: of the DJ which happened in between the two World Wars, 326 00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:46,360 Speaker 1: and when we come back, I'll talk about the original 327 00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:48,960 Speaker 1: disc jockeys and how the record player was able to 328 00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:53,080 Speaker 1: cover from the blow dealt by commercial radio stations. But 329 00:18:53,160 --> 00:18:56,200 Speaker 1: first let's take a quick break and thank our sponsor. 330 00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:06,000 Speaker 1: Hey guys, it's Jonathan And before we jump into the 331 00:19:06,040 --> 00:19:08,119 Speaker 1: rest of this show, I just want to give a 332 00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:11,080 Speaker 1: quick shout out to a new podcast that's come out 333 00:19:11,080 --> 00:19:15,800 Speaker 1: from How Stuff Works, the Soundtrack Show, hosted by David Collins, 334 00:19:16,240 --> 00:19:18,800 Speaker 1: and I just thought it was thematically linked to the 335 00:19:18,840 --> 00:19:23,480 Speaker 1: whole turntable idea. This is a show that's specifically about 336 00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:28,160 Speaker 1: movie scores and soundtracks and how they affect the way 337 00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:32,000 Speaker 1: we perceive the films, the life they have beyond films, 338 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:35,199 Speaker 1: the inspiration and influences that went into the creation of 339 00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:39,960 Speaker 1: those soundtracks. This is my jam, guys. I love soundtracks, 340 00:19:40,119 --> 00:19:43,640 Speaker 1: So if you are really passionate about music in general 341 00:19:43,680 --> 00:19:46,720 Speaker 1: and movie music in particular, check it out. It's the 342 00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:49,720 Speaker 1: Soundtracks Show. You can find it on iTunes or wherever 343 00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:53,520 Speaker 1: you get your podcasts and now back to the show. Okay. 344 00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:57,480 Speaker 1: So N was a huge year for the recording industry 345 00:19:57,480 --> 00:20:00,959 Speaker 1: in general and ultimately for record player is in particular. 346 00:20:01,160 --> 00:20:04,320 Speaker 1: The development of electric amplification, coupled with the move to 347 00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:08,040 Speaker 1: electric motors, helped bring sound quality up dramatically and reduce 348 00:20:08,119 --> 00:20:12,800 Speaker 1: the amount of noise record players created. Meanwhile, companies like Edison, 349 00:20:12,960 --> 00:20:17,040 Speaker 1: Columbia and Victor were working on extending the playing time 350 00:20:17,119 --> 00:20:20,080 Speaker 1: of disks, making improvements to the technology to push three 351 00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:23,119 Speaker 1: or four minutes of audio to seven or eight minutes. 352 00:20:23,440 --> 00:20:26,399 Speaker 1: Western Electric was able to squeeze ten minutes of audio 353 00:20:26,440 --> 00:20:28,840 Speaker 1: on a disc when the company began to develop tech 354 00:20:28,960 --> 00:20:33,359 Speaker 1: for real films, as in real to real films that 355 00:20:33,400 --> 00:20:36,880 Speaker 1: would have sound accompanying them, so the record player industry 356 00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:41,040 Speaker 1: also actually ties in with the film industry. These improvements 357 00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:43,439 Speaker 1: did increase the amount of audio you could record to 358 00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:45,800 Speaker 1: a disc, but in general the sound quality was not 359 00:20:45,920 --> 00:20:49,439 Speaker 1: as good as what was on the shorter earlier discs, 360 00:20:49,840 --> 00:20:53,800 Speaker 1: and so the short form approach was preferable in most applications. 361 00:20:54,560 --> 00:20:59,560 Speaker 1: In N Charles Brush offered the first piezo electric featherweight 362 00:20:59,680 --> 00:21:02,520 Speaker 1: style lists. The stylist is what a lot of people 363 00:21:02,560 --> 00:21:05,480 Speaker 1: would refer to as the needle, but it's more appropriately 364 00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:07,760 Speaker 1: called the stylus. This is the part of the record 365 00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:10,600 Speaker 1: player that settles into the groove on the record. The 366 00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:13,840 Speaker 1: information recorded in that groove causes the needle to vibrate. 367 00:21:14,280 --> 00:21:17,160 Speaker 1: In a piece of electric stylus, the needle is made 368 00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:20,439 Speaker 1: of a crystal or ceramic that generates an electric charge 369 00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:23,800 Speaker 1: when it experiences applied mechanical stress. That's the piece of 370 00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:28,640 Speaker 1: electric effect. So stuff like quartz experiences this. If you 371 00:21:28,800 --> 00:21:32,760 Speaker 1: apply a mechanical stress to quartz, it will then generate 372 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:36,720 Speaker 1: an electric charge. If you apply an electric charged quarts, 373 00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:40,920 Speaker 1: it will actually exert a mechanical stress. It will actually vibrate, 374 00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:44,160 Speaker 1: and so that's why quartz crystals are used in watches, 375 00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:48,119 Speaker 1: for example. So as the stylus moves through the groove, 376 00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:51,399 Speaker 1: it encounters the variations inside the groove that represent the 377 00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:55,720 Speaker 1: audio recording. The stylist's movements caused the crystal to generate 378 00:21:55,800 --> 00:21:59,120 Speaker 1: this electric charge, which then can drive the electric speaker. 379 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:02,479 Speaker 1: Usually an amplifier in there too. But you get the idea. 380 00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:05,960 Speaker 1: No longer did the needle have to transmit vibrations directly 381 00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:09,680 Speaker 1: to a membrane, right, You didn't have to do that anymore. 382 00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:13,400 Speaker 1: Now the energy can move from kinetic form into electric, 383 00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:18,240 Speaker 1: so you didn't have just physical motions, you had electric ones. Later, 384 00:22:18,320 --> 00:22:22,159 Speaker 1: cartridges which consists of the stylists and some other components, 385 00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:24,480 Speaker 1: could have other types of pickups. So this was a 386 00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:27,760 Speaker 1: piece of electric pickup. But there are other kinds. There's magnetic, 387 00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:31,320 Speaker 1: dynamic and capacityance, and I'll have to cover those in 388 00:22:31,359 --> 00:22:34,080 Speaker 1: a different episode at some point, because honestly, I ran 389 00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:37,080 Speaker 1: out of time to cover all the different types of pickups. 390 00:22:37,119 --> 00:22:39,919 Speaker 1: But piece of electric is important because it meant that 391 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:44,080 Speaker 1: you could switch to a different method of playing back music. 392 00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:47,239 Speaker 1: This also meant that you can develop lighter types of 393 00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:50,679 Speaker 1: stylus so that you weren't causing as much wear and 394 00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:53,400 Speaker 1: tear on the discs every time you listen to them, 395 00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:56,439 Speaker 1: and you increase the utility of those discs. All of 396 00:22:56,440 --> 00:22:59,719 Speaker 1: these steps are things that made record players more attractive 397 00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:02,879 Speaker 1: in the eyes of consumers. Further down the road, another 398 00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:05,200 Speaker 1: big part of the problem with records was the physical 399 00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:09,960 Speaker 1: stuff the records were made from. At this stage the 400 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:14,840 Speaker 1: early twentieth century, the go to material was shellack. Shellac 401 00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:18,880 Speaker 1: is a material that comes from bugs in India and Thailand. 402 00:23:19,119 --> 00:23:23,520 Speaker 1: They're called lack bugs. Actually come from the female lack bug. 403 00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:27,560 Speaker 1: The resin secreted by these bugs has been used in 404 00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:30,240 Speaker 1: lots of stuff that we do process at first. So 405 00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:33,680 Speaker 1: these bugs secrete this stuff, the female ones as they 406 00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:37,320 Speaker 1: move along branches on trees in India, and it creates 407 00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:40,000 Speaker 1: sort of a almost like a tunnel that allows the 408 00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:43,119 Speaker 1: bug to adhere to the surface it's on as it 409 00:23:43,200 --> 00:23:46,520 Speaker 1: moves around. So to harvest it, workers will scrape the 410 00:23:46,560 --> 00:23:48,560 Speaker 1: resin off of the bark of the trees where the 411 00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:52,960 Speaker 1: lack bugs live. Then they'll heat it up and the 412 00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:56,119 Speaker 1: resin will melt, and usually you have it in like 413 00:23:56,400 --> 00:24:00,520 Speaker 1: a mesh bag, like a very tightly woven mesh bag, 414 00:24:00,760 --> 00:24:03,600 Speaker 1: and as you heat it up, the liquid drains out 415 00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:06,800 Speaker 1: like cheese cloth, and everything else stays inside. And then 416 00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:10,240 Speaker 1: uh you use that, you process it and it becomes 417 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:15,280 Speaker 1: kind of a natural plastic. It's very similar to synthetic polymers, 418 00:24:15,280 --> 00:24:17,840 Speaker 1: but it is a it's actually natural. You don't have 419 00:24:17,880 --> 00:24:21,240 Speaker 1: to synthesize it. But the material was ill suited for 420 00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:25,840 Speaker 1: long playing records. The slower revolutions per minute, if for 421 00:24:25,960 --> 00:24:29,720 Speaker 1: a long playing record, would create rumbly noises on the shellac, 422 00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:33,040 Speaker 1: and the medium was not really well suited for narrow grooves, 423 00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:35,960 Speaker 1: which would have effectively added more information to the disk 424 00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:39,600 Speaker 1: by cramming work grooves onto the same sized plate of shellac. 425 00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:44,120 Speaker 1: So record player manufacturers needed to find a different medium 426 00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:46,399 Speaker 1: to record upon. They also needed to find a different 427 00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:50,000 Speaker 1: way to transmit vibrations to a speaker, because those heavy 428 00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:52,600 Speaker 1: needles of the early record players would create a great 429 00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:54,440 Speaker 1: deal of whear and tear on the discs. So that's 430 00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:58,560 Speaker 1: where that piezo electric needle would come in play. Uh So, 431 00:24:58,640 --> 00:25:01,000 Speaker 1: let's get back to that in justice. Second, record players 432 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:03,919 Speaker 1: were still expensive at this time, so the industry was 433 00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:08,639 Speaker 1: beginning to depend heavily on niche markets like jukeboxes and 434 00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:11,720 Speaker 1: entertainment halls, and so you weren't seeing as many record 435 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:15,199 Speaker 1: players being sold to the average consumer. They were just 436 00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:17,679 Speaker 1: out of the price range, and people still didn't think 437 00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:20,120 Speaker 1: they were good enough to actually own when you could 438 00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:23,080 Speaker 1: go out and buy a radio instead and tune into 439 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:25,840 Speaker 1: different radio stations and listen to music that way. It's 440 00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:28,960 Speaker 1: kind of similar again to the streaming world of today. 441 00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:31,040 Speaker 1: Why go out and buy a song if you can 442 00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:34,399 Speaker 1: listen to stuff streaming especially if you can listen to 443 00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:36,840 Speaker 1: it on demand, which obviously you could not do just 444 00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:39,320 Speaker 1: over the radio unless they have a call in line 445 00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:43,919 Speaker 1: and you've just got that phone number memorized. That's beside 446 00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:49,160 Speaker 1: the point. Now. One of the pioneers of radio that 447 00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:52,720 Speaker 1: would end up helping the recording industry down the line 448 00:25:53,359 --> 00:25:56,960 Speaker 1: was Ray Knuby who got the nod from Charles doc 449 00:25:57,119 --> 00:26:01,760 Speaker 1: Herold to play a stream of music on Harold Radio Station. Now, 450 00:26:01,840 --> 00:26:05,800 Speaker 1: Harold's radio station was part of a school for radio operators. 451 00:26:06,119 --> 00:26:09,199 Speaker 1: They were actually there to learn how to how to 452 00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:13,439 Speaker 1: work these radios while on ships for example. This was 453 00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:15,679 Speaker 1: back before there were any regulations of what could and 454 00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:18,520 Speaker 1: could not be broadcast on radio. Because the technology was 455 00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:21,359 Speaker 1: so new, there were no laws to guide it, something 456 00:26:21,400 --> 00:26:23,919 Speaker 1: else that we see today over and over, especially in 457 00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:29,000 Speaker 1: realms like the Internet. By playing this music, it was 458 00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:33,440 Speaker 1: creating a new demand for record players, uh this time 459 00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:36,480 Speaker 1: in radio stations, not in the homes, but the radio 460 00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:39,320 Speaker 1: stations themselves needed the record players in order to play 461 00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:42,280 Speaker 1: the music because they didn't always have live musicians in 462 00:26:42,359 --> 00:26:44,959 Speaker 1: the studio to create whatever music they needed, so they 463 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:48,480 Speaker 1: need to have prerecorded stuff. Over in the UK, Christopher 464 00:26:48,480 --> 00:26:52,879 Speaker 1: Stone lobbied the British broad Broadcasting Company, or BBC, to 465 00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:55,679 Speaker 1: allow him to broadcast a program in which he played 466 00:26:55,760 --> 00:26:59,159 Speaker 1: recorded music. He even created a dual turntable set up 467 00:26:59,200 --> 00:27:02,040 Speaker 1: so he could prepare one record while the second turntable 468 00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:06,080 Speaker 1: was playing already another disc. So you start playing one song, 469 00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:08,400 Speaker 1: you've got another turntable you can set up your next song, 470 00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:11,159 Speaker 1: and then you just switch when it's time to go 471 00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:13,240 Speaker 1: from one to the other. You don't have any dead 472 00:27:13,240 --> 00:27:15,679 Speaker 1: air that way. His program began to air all the 473 00:27:15,680 --> 00:27:19,840 Speaker 1: way back in nine Other radio broadcasters began to follow suit. 474 00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:23,800 Speaker 1: Many of them became known as pancake turners because they 475 00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:26,800 Speaker 1: were dealing with flat discs all day long and turning 476 00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:28,879 Speaker 1: them over whenever they wanted to play a song on 477 00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:31,399 Speaker 1: the other side. The first person to get the title 478 00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:36,560 Speaker 1: DJ or disc jockey was apparently Martin Block, who was 479 00:27:37,359 --> 00:27:40,240 Speaker 1: a radio show host. He had a show in America 480 00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:44,920 Speaker 1: titled Make Believe Ballroom, and Block was covering a huge 481 00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:47,320 Speaker 1: news story in nineteen thirty five that would be the 482 00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:50,880 Speaker 1: disappearance of the Lendburg Baby, and between updates he would 483 00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:54,000 Speaker 1: play records rather than drone on or repeat information that 484 00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:56,480 Speaker 1: he had just broadcast. He would end up being called 485 00:27:56,520 --> 00:28:00,240 Speaker 1: a disc jockey by none other than Walter Winchell. All 486 00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:05,480 Speaker 1: a man overseas, it's good old Transatlantic accent, Walter Winchell, 487 00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:08,760 Speaker 1: and he described blocks work as being a disc jockey, 488 00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:11,399 Speaker 1: and it became a general term to describe radio broadcasters 489 00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:15,040 Speaker 1: who used musical records in the presentations. Alright, so back 490 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:18,000 Speaker 1: to the research work on playback media. One of the 491 00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:21,959 Speaker 1: alternatives to shellack was a mixture of vinyl chloride and 492 00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:26,440 Speaker 1: vinyl acetate, which was called vinyl light, although most people 493 00:28:26,440 --> 00:28:29,280 Speaker 1: just call it vinyl for short. The discovery of vinyl 494 00:28:29,320 --> 00:28:32,120 Speaker 1: itself was pretty interesting, as it wasn't from the deliberate 495 00:28:32,119 --> 00:28:34,760 Speaker 1: experimentation of engineers trying to find a new material for 496 00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:38,200 Speaker 1: the recording industry. Instead, it was kind of discovered as 497 00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:41,680 Speaker 1: an accident. Back in nine there was a guy named 498 00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:45,520 Speaker 1: Waldo Seaman who was working for the B. F. Good 499 00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:48,520 Speaker 1: Rich Company to find a way to bond rubber and 500 00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:51,800 Speaker 1: metal together. And Waldo was looking into creating a new 501 00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:54,120 Speaker 1: type of adhesive for that purpose, and he decided to 502 00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:58,160 Speaker 1: experiment with vinyl chloride, which had first technically been discovered 503 00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:01,960 Speaker 1: in the eighteen seventies by a German chemist named Eugen Balman. 504 00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:05,600 Speaker 1: The problem was this type of plastic was extremely rigid 505 00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:08,120 Speaker 1: and difficult to work with, and no one had quite 506 00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:10,880 Speaker 1: figured out how to fix that. Like, you could make it, 507 00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:13,520 Speaker 1: but it would just be in whatever shape you made 508 00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:16,360 Speaker 1: it in and you couldn't really work it in any way. 509 00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:20,520 Speaker 1: So Waldo got some powdered vinyl chloride and he dumped 510 00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:23,920 Speaker 1: it into a boiling solvent, and he ended up inventing 511 00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:30,200 Speaker 1: plastic sized vinyl chloride, which today we call PVC. The 512 00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:32,760 Speaker 1: result was a gel like substance that could be shaped 513 00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:35,600 Speaker 1: however you liked before it would set into its rigid form, 514 00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:37,760 Speaker 1: so you could actually work with the stuff while it 515 00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:40,680 Speaker 1: was still hot, and then when it cooled it would 516 00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:42,600 Speaker 1: be in the shape that you needed it to be in. 517 00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:45,800 Speaker 1: Researchers found a lot of uses for vinyl. The Union 518 00:29:45,880 --> 00:29:48,920 Speaker 1: Carbide Corporation was the first to create the co polymer 519 00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:52,840 Speaker 1: of vinyl chloride and vinyl acetate to create vinyl light, 520 00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:56,800 Speaker 1: which the company then trademarked. The vinyl light was harder 521 00:29:56,840 --> 00:30:00,160 Speaker 1: than shellac and could hold a finer groove as well, 522 00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:03,000 Speaker 1: which meant you could have a higher number of grooves. 523 00:30:03,360 --> 00:30:06,880 Speaker 1: Spirals around the disk to hold more information. So shell 524 00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:10,840 Speaker 1: I album can hold between eighty two one hundred grooves 525 00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:13,560 Speaker 1: per inch, and you had several inches from the outer 526 00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:17,200 Speaker 1: edge to the inner edge of the record. Vinyl light, though, 527 00:30:17,280 --> 00:30:21,080 Speaker 1: could hold more than double that amount. But cramming more 528 00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:23,520 Speaker 1: grooves onto a disc was just one way to help 529 00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:26,000 Speaker 1: extend the playing time of a record. The other was 530 00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:29,800 Speaker 1: to reduce the number of revolutions per minute. So it's 531 00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:32,320 Speaker 1: easier to understand this if we use an analogy. Imagine 532 00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:35,560 Speaker 1: that you have a long, straight road and it stretches 533 00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:38,320 Speaker 1: out directly in front of you for about two hundred 534 00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:41,360 Speaker 1: forty miles, and if you drive down that road at 535 00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:43,800 Speaker 1: seventy eight miles an hour, he'll take you about three 536 00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:45,720 Speaker 1: hours to get to the end. But if you took 537 00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:48,280 Speaker 1: a more leisurely pace, let's say you're driving at thirty 538 00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:50,560 Speaker 1: three and a third miles per hour, it would take 539 00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:53,280 Speaker 1: you seven hours to make that same journey. You're going 540 00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:55,680 Speaker 1: the same distance, you're just going at a slower speed. Well, 541 00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:59,280 Speaker 1: that's what's happening with records and RPMs. The road in 542 00:30:59,280 --> 00:31:02,280 Speaker 1: this case is the groove spiral that's cut into the 543 00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:06,080 Speaker 1: record disc. The car is the stylus and it travels 544 00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:08,760 Speaker 1: the length of the road from the outer edge to 545 00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:11,480 Speaker 1: the inner edge in that spiral. So the faster the 546 00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:14,720 Speaker 1: record spends, the last time it takes the stylus to 547 00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:18,479 Speaker 1: make that journey. So by slowing down the revolutions, you 548 00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:21,240 Speaker 1: extend the playing time. But of course this all depends 549 00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:23,840 Speaker 1: on what speed you recorded the album at in the 550 00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:27,880 Speaker 1: first place, because if you record the album at seventy 551 00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:30,640 Speaker 1: RPMs and you play it back at thirty three and 552 00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:35,200 Speaker 1: a third, it's gonna sound weird, super duper slowed down 553 00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:37,160 Speaker 1: at that point because you're playing at a much slower 554 00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:40,480 Speaker 1: speed than what it was intended. Slowing down the revolutions 555 00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:43,160 Speaker 1: wasn't really the big challenge. It wasn't like they couldn't 556 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:45,640 Speaker 1: figure out how to make a motor turn more slowly. 557 00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:48,800 Speaker 1: That was actually the easy part. The hard part was 558 00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:51,400 Speaker 1: finding a way to record the information to a master 559 00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:54,440 Speaker 1: disc at a slower speed without introducing a lot of 560 00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:57,320 Speaker 1: noise in the process, and that took some time to 561 00:31:57,400 --> 00:32:01,880 Speaker 1: solve because the slower they took the revolutions when they 562 00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:05,560 Speaker 1: were when they were actually recording, the more a little 563 00:32:06,080 --> 00:32:08,920 Speaker 1: noise could find its way into the recording system, especially 564 00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:13,080 Speaker 1: if you didn't have a very clean duplication process. The 565 00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:16,200 Speaker 1: first company to demonstrate what we would call a long 566 00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:21,640 Speaker 1: playing disc or LP was Columbia Records. Dr. Peter Goldmark, 567 00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:25,680 Speaker 1: who was an electrical engineer originally from Hungary, led the effort. 568 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:28,480 Speaker 1: He and his team developed a micro groove record that 569 00:32:28,520 --> 00:32:31,520 Speaker 1: could be played at a low speed, which necessitated an 570 00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:35,280 Speaker 1: overhaul in the duplication processes I just mentioned. With those 571 00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:38,160 Speaker 1: smaller grooves, you had to be way more careful about 572 00:32:38,200 --> 00:32:42,240 Speaker 1: contaminants during that duplication process or you would have terrible 573 00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:45,360 Speaker 1: effects on the sound quality. And he pioneered a clean 574 00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:49,080 Speaker 1: room approach to record duplication, which is not too different 575 00:32:49,160 --> 00:32:53,280 Speaker 1: from what you would find in a microprocessor manufacturing facility today. 576 00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:55,959 Speaker 1: That's why they do in order to eliminate errors due 577 00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:59,600 Speaker 1: to contamination from dust and other particles. He also introduced 578 00:32:59,680 --> 00:33:03,040 Speaker 1: a set a fire needle or sapphire stylists, and a 579 00:33:03,160 --> 00:33:06,160 Speaker 1: lightweight tone arm for a record player. This lightweight arm 580 00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:08,640 Speaker 1: placed far less pressure on a disc than the standard 581 00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:11,080 Speaker 1: needles had in the past, so you reduced wear and 582 00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:14,560 Speaker 1: tear on the records. And on June twenty one, nineteen 583 00:33:14,720 --> 00:33:17,560 Speaker 1: forty eight, Columbia Records invited press to come to a 584 00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:21,360 Speaker 1: demonstration of a new record disc technology. They introduced a 585 00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:24,840 Speaker 1: twelve inch record with micro grooves on both sides. The 586 00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:27,640 Speaker 1: playing time for each side was about twenty three minutes, 587 00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:30,080 Speaker 1: and it was played at a thirty three and a 588 00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:33,920 Speaker 1: third revolutions per minute speed. It was an incredible jump 589 00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:37,280 Speaker 1: from the earlier formats. Remember, even Western Electric had only 590 00:33:37,320 --> 00:33:39,959 Speaker 1: managed to get to ten minutes per side, so more 591 00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:43,600 Speaker 1: than doubling that and playing at a slower speed. To 592 00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:47,280 Speaker 1: show how impactful this development was, Columbia Records took two 593 00:33:47,440 --> 00:33:52,080 Speaker 1: sets of a collection of three five musical selections, and 594 00:33:52,360 --> 00:33:55,680 Speaker 1: one set was made up of conventional shellac records, which 595 00:33:55,800 --> 00:33:58,160 Speaker 1: each could hold maybe three minutes of music, and the 596 00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,160 Speaker 1: other set was made up of old light records, which 597 00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:03,840 Speaker 1: could hold up to twenty three minutes per side. The 598 00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:06,800 Speaker 1: shellac records ended up being a stack that was eight 599 00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:12,319 Speaker 1: feet tall, the vinyl records ended up being fifteen inches tall. 600 00:34:12,360 --> 00:34:15,040 Speaker 1: Because they could pack so much more music onto this 601 00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:18,080 Speaker 1: new format, So the message was clear. This new approach 602 00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:21,400 Speaker 1: greatly improved the utility of record players. You could have 603 00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:25,680 Speaker 1: an entire collection that would have taken up a huge 604 00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:28,480 Speaker 1: shelf in a room. Now it takes up a fraction 605 00:34:28,800 --> 00:34:33,640 Speaker 1: of a bookshelf because of the the amount of information 606 00:34:33,719 --> 00:34:35,800 Speaker 1: you could store on a vinyl record compared to a 607 00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:39,640 Speaker 1: shellac record. Columbia had approached competitor r C. A. Victor 608 00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:43,120 Speaker 1: before they held this demonstration in an effort to create 609 00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:46,160 Speaker 1: a new standard for records. They wanted to try and 610 00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:49,719 Speaker 1: get this set so that the average consumer wouldn't be 611 00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:54,319 Speaker 1: faced with a terrible choice of proprietary formats. But executives 612 00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:56,320 Speaker 1: that r C. A. Victor were not keen on this 613 00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:59,200 Speaker 1: idea because they had already been working on their own 614 00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:02,719 Speaker 1: solution to the problem of creating long playing albums. They 615 00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:05,880 Speaker 1: called them extended play albums, and they had settled on 616 00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:09,280 Speaker 1: a different speed entirely of forty five revolutions per minute, 617 00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:12,359 Speaker 1: which it introduced to the market in nineteen forty nine, 618 00:35:12,440 --> 00:35:15,960 Speaker 1: so a year after when Columbia debuted their new record 619 00:35:16,080 --> 00:35:21,160 Speaker 1: player format, and so began the Great Groove Wars, or 620 00:35:21,200 --> 00:35:23,680 Speaker 1: the War of the Speeds. Columbia back thirty three and 621 00:35:23,719 --> 00:35:27,560 Speaker 1: a third revolutions per minute. Victor backed forty five revolutions 622 00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:30,240 Speaker 1: per minute, and you still had seventy eight RPM albums 623 00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:33,960 Speaker 1: out there too, not to mention a few sixteen rpm albums, 624 00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:37,600 Speaker 1: not many, but a few, and the forums created some 625 00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:41,920 Speaker 1: real chaos in the marketplace. Everyone was unsure which one 626 00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:46,359 Speaker 1: to back. But it didn't last terribly long. So late 627 00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:50,920 Speaker 1: forties you've got these brutal format wars. But by nineteen 628 00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:54,520 Speaker 1: fifty one, Columbia was selling forty five and Victor was 629 00:35:54,560 --> 00:36:00,439 Speaker 1: selling LPs, so everyone was using both standards at that point, 630 00:36:00,719 --> 00:36:03,880 Speaker 1: and several record players began to support both formats. They 631 00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:07,399 Speaker 1: would include a switch that would let users choose which 632 00:36:07,640 --> 00:36:10,400 Speaker 1: rpm playback speed they wanted to use, so you just 633 00:36:10,480 --> 00:36:13,080 Speaker 1: had to make sure you matched the right rpm speed 634 00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:16,880 Speaker 1: switch setting to the album that you're listening to. The 635 00:36:16,960 --> 00:36:19,120 Speaker 1: also led to people playing records on the wrong speed 636 00:36:19,160 --> 00:36:21,440 Speaker 1: on purpose, like that's what I used to do on 637 00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:23,879 Speaker 1: occasion with our record player back home, because there's nothing 638 00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:26,600 Speaker 1: like listening to Black Sabbath as performed by the Chipmunks. 639 00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:31,640 Speaker 1: The LP completely changed the recording industry. In the early 640 00:36:31,719 --> 00:36:34,200 Speaker 1: days of record discs, you were dealing with a single 641 00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:38,480 Speaker 1: sided disc capable of holding two or maybe three minutes 642 00:36:38,520 --> 00:36:41,759 Speaker 1: of audio. Even when double sided discs became a thing, 643 00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:45,840 Speaker 1: that's still only necessitated two short recordings of two to 644 00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:48,600 Speaker 1: three minutes each. So if you've ever wondered why so 645 00:36:48,719 --> 00:36:52,239 Speaker 1: many songs stick to about three minutes in length, this 646 00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:55,320 Speaker 1: is why the media we used was limited in the 647 00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:58,800 Speaker 1: earliest days, and it's sort of set the standard now. Granted, 648 00:36:58,800 --> 00:37:00,960 Speaker 1: there are a lot of songs that go much longer 649 00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:04,560 Speaker 1: than that these days, but the reason why we kind 650 00:37:04,600 --> 00:37:07,759 Speaker 1: of have that three minute standard time link for a 651 00:37:07,880 --> 00:37:11,000 Speaker 1: lot of songs is pretty much due to the limitations 652 00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:14,360 Speaker 1: of the record industry back in the nine Dean vorties. 653 00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:18,000 Speaker 1: But the LP could pack a lot more material on it, 654 00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:22,280 Speaker 1: so now you had artists exploring the possibilities that this created. 655 00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:25,160 Speaker 1: You could use the extra space to make a collection 656 00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:27,600 Speaker 1: of songs, so you could do like the Greatest Hits album. 657 00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:30,520 Speaker 1: So instead of like recording all new material, you could say, well, 658 00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:32,640 Speaker 1: I had all these hit records, let's put them all 659 00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:35,560 Speaker 1: on a single LP, and then people can buy that 660 00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:37,759 Speaker 1: and they get the whole collection on one album. You 661 00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:41,160 Speaker 1: can charge more for it, or you could create an 662 00:37:41,239 --> 00:37:44,080 Speaker 1: all new experience with songs that are written and arranged 663 00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:47,680 Speaker 1: for the purpose of delivering a specific experience. This would 664 00:37:47,719 --> 00:37:50,000 Speaker 1: take a while. It wasn't something that everyone jumped on 665 00:37:50,160 --> 00:37:53,680 Speaker 1: right away, but the LP actually changed music as a result. 666 00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:56,640 Speaker 1: While you could listen to songs individually, more and more 667 00:37:56,760 --> 00:38:00,200 Speaker 1: artists began to experiment with creating an album experience and 668 00:38:00,280 --> 00:38:03,160 Speaker 1: which one song kind of led into another, either literally 669 00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:08,080 Speaker 1: or figuratively, so they are monumentally important albums. You know, 670 00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:12,120 Speaker 1: groups like the Beach Boys or the Beatles were creating 671 00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:15,080 Speaker 1: album experiences that would then be carried on in in 672 00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:19,680 Speaker 1: future decades by groups like Pink Floyd and even today 673 00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:22,279 Speaker 1: or you know, Michael Jackson's Thriller album you could argue 674 00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:24,759 Speaker 1: is the sort of experience where you were meant to 675 00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:28,120 Speaker 1: listen to a full album, not just necessarily a song 676 00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:31,080 Speaker 1: off the album. Create a new way to consume music 677 00:38:31,320 --> 00:38:34,480 Speaker 1: and a new demand for music as a result, so 678 00:38:34,560 --> 00:38:36,880 Speaker 1: the record player market began to make a comeback with 679 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:40,960 Speaker 1: the invention of the LP. Radio stations would not typically 680 00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:44,920 Speaker 1: play an album in full. They might focus more on singles, 681 00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:48,239 Speaker 1: which were the songs that producers identified as being the 682 00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:51,480 Speaker 1: most likely hits off an album's worth of music. But 683 00:38:51,560 --> 00:38:54,239 Speaker 1: if you were a fan of a musician or a group, 684 00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:56,960 Speaker 1: you would probably feel compelled to go out and buy 685 00:38:57,040 --> 00:38:59,360 Speaker 1: the album so that you can listen to all the songs, 686 00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:01,520 Speaker 1: not just the one that someone thought were going to 687 00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:04,400 Speaker 1: be the most popular, and you needed a record player 688 00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:07,280 Speaker 1: to do that. By the late nineteen fifties, the market 689 00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:09,719 Speaker 1: had grown enough for a new era to begin. It 690 00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:13,040 Speaker 1: was the Golden Age of vinyl, which would stretch into 691 00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:15,960 Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies. More to say on that in just 692 00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:18,480 Speaker 1: a minute, but first let's take another quick break to 693 00:39:18,640 --> 00:39:28,800 Speaker 1: thank our sponsor. Now, as I mentioned before, technically a 694 00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:32,560 Speaker 1: turntable is just a component of a larger system. It's 695 00:39:32,600 --> 00:39:34,719 Speaker 1: an element that can convert the information on a vinyl 696 00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:38,400 Speaker 1: record into an electrical signal, which went process through speakers 697 00:39:38,440 --> 00:39:41,400 Speaker 1: turns back into audio information. But it does not have 698 00:39:41,560 --> 00:39:45,120 Speaker 1: its own amplifier or speakers. Right, It's just a component. 699 00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:48,080 Speaker 1: So why would you go for just a turntable instead 700 00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:51,640 Speaker 1: of an all in one player. Well, that started up 701 00:39:51,719 --> 00:39:54,640 Speaker 1: in the late nineteen fifties and it all became the 702 00:39:54,760 --> 00:39:58,320 Speaker 1: region of a group of people we call audio files. 703 00:39:58,920 --> 00:40:02,640 Speaker 1: Audio files, I feel are very special group of human beings. 704 00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:06,719 Speaker 1: They have very strong opinions, sometimes not based on any 705 00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:11,239 Speaker 1: kind of scientifically backed data, but they feel very very 706 00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:13,759 Speaker 1: strongly about them. I'm not saying that their feelings aren't valid. 707 00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:16,800 Speaker 1: I'm just saying that sometimes they're not necessarily evidence based. 708 00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:22,160 Speaker 1: But they're very passionate about the listening experience, and it 709 00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:25,640 Speaker 1: was all a question of control and quality. It's sort 710 00:40:25,680 --> 00:40:28,320 Speaker 1: of like building your own computer system. You get to 711 00:40:28,400 --> 00:40:30,960 Speaker 1: choose which components are part of your system, and you 712 00:40:31,040 --> 00:40:33,480 Speaker 1: purchase all the different pieces and you hook them up 713 00:40:33,520 --> 00:40:36,400 Speaker 1: to create the experience you want. So you might favor 714 00:40:36,560 --> 00:40:39,239 Speaker 1: one type of speakers over another. You might say, well, 715 00:40:39,719 --> 00:40:43,320 Speaker 1: these speakers are really good. They have very crisp highs. 716 00:40:43,600 --> 00:40:46,719 Speaker 1: You can hear those high pitches really well. The base 717 00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:49,600 Speaker 1: is really strong, there's very little hiss. These sort of 718 00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:53,200 Speaker 1: elements are really important. If you're an audiophile, you might 719 00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:56,640 Speaker 1: favor one type of amplifier over another. You might be 720 00:40:56,680 --> 00:40:59,240 Speaker 1: super old school and say I only want vacuum tubes 721 00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:03,440 Speaker 1: in my amplified airs. Uh. That's more frequently the realm 722 00:41:03,520 --> 00:41:07,200 Speaker 1: of professional musicians, particularly in the realm of guitar amplifiers. 723 00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:09,600 Speaker 1: But you might occasionally find an audio file who also 724 00:41:09,719 --> 00:41:13,360 Speaker 1: argues that You also might discover the specific configuration of 725 00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:16,560 Speaker 1: different components produces exactly what you feel is the best 726 00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:19,920 Speaker 1: fidelity and sound with a minimum of noise. So a 727 00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:23,279 Speaker 1: new industry grew up around this community, one of high 728 00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:26,520 Speaker 1: fidelity or hi fi sound, And like I said, a 729 00:41:26,600 --> 00:41:28,640 Speaker 1: lot of the stuff about hi fi ends up being 730 00:41:28,640 --> 00:41:31,160 Speaker 1: a little wishy washy, And by that I mean there 731 00:41:31,239 --> 00:41:34,040 Speaker 1: are audio files who will argue for hours on end 732 00:41:34,239 --> 00:41:38,000 Speaker 1: the virtues of one setup versus all others. But at 733 00:41:38,040 --> 00:41:40,840 Speaker 1: a certain level of quality, you do reach the limit 734 00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:43,680 Speaker 1: of what human hearing can perceive. So you might be 735 00:41:43,719 --> 00:41:45,920 Speaker 1: able to put together a system that can, on paper 736 00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:50,080 Speaker 1: outperform another system, but both systems are beyond the ability 737 00:41:50,160 --> 00:41:53,840 Speaker 1: for humans to differentiate, which means that ultimately it's pointless. 738 00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:57,400 Speaker 1: You might say, well, this instrumentation shows that that system 739 00:41:57,480 --> 00:42:00,399 Speaker 1: over there is able to represent those lower those lower 740 00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:03,200 Speaker 1: frequencies much more accurately. But if you can't perceive the 741 00:42:03,280 --> 00:42:07,239 Speaker 1: lower frequencies and they aren't really affecting the quality of 742 00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:12,359 Speaker 1: the rest of the sound, it doesn't ultimately matter. Audiophiles, however, 743 00:42:12,480 --> 00:42:14,799 Speaker 1: will argue to the grave that it matters a lot. 744 00:42:15,560 --> 00:42:18,560 Speaker 1: That's a discussion for another day. In the nineteen fifties, 745 00:42:18,640 --> 00:42:22,560 Speaker 1: the primary means of rotating the turntable, the actual mechanism 746 00:42:22,680 --> 00:42:26,000 Speaker 1: that would make the platter rotate was using what was 747 00:42:26,080 --> 00:42:29,760 Speaker 1: called an idler drive or a rim drive. A typical 748 00:42:29,840 --> 00:42:33,440 Speaker 1: idler drive had a rubber wheel called the idler and 749 00:42:33,560 --> 00:42:36,600 Speaker 1: that was mounted to the shaft of an electric motor, 750 00:42:36,880 --> 00:42:39,759 Speaker 1: so the motor would rotate the shaft, thus rotating the 751 00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:43,800 Speaker 1: rubber idler wheel, and the idler wheel would be pressed 752 00:42:43,840 --> 00:42:47,760 Speaker 1: against the inner rim of the platter wheel, the actual 753 00:42:47,840 --> 00:42:51,120 Speaker 1: platform that the record turns on. So it would usually 754 00:42:51,200 --> 00:42:53,840 Speaker 1: use something like a tension spring, so it would hold 755 00:42:54,280 --> 00:42:58,759 Speaker 1: the rubber wheel tightly against the platter wheel, and that 756 00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:00,520 Speaker 1: way you would have it nice and nugs so that 757 00:43:00,640 --> 00:43:03,200 Speaker 1: when the rubber wheel turned, it would force the platter 758 00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:06,640 Speaker 1: to rotate. And uh when the electric motor spins that 759 00:43:06,680 --> 00:43:09,680 Speaker 1: eidler wheel, the wheel and turn transfers that rotational force 760 00:43:09,719 --> 00:43:12,280 Speaker 1: to the platter, but in the opposite direction of rotation. 761 00:43:12,680 --> 00:43:15,960 Speaker 1: So it's kind of like two gears turning against each other, 762 00:43:16,320 --> 00:43:19,440 Speaker 1: only we're talking about smooth wheels. They don't have teeth. 763 00:43:20,160 --> 00:43:23,000 Speaker 1: That would obviously create another issue. You would have it 764 00:43:23,280 --> 00:43:25,640 Speaker 1: make more noise and it could transmit a lot of 765 00:43:25,719 --> 00:43:28,560 Speaker 1: vibration to the system, so you don't want that. It 766 00:43:28,600 --> 00:43:31,280 Speaker 1: would be a smooth rubber wheel that's doing the turning, 767 00:43:31,840 --> 00:43:34,360 Speaker 1: but otherwise it is a lot like gears moving with 768 00:43:34,480 --> 00:43:36,920 Speaker 1: each other, or if you prefer, it's like if you 769 00:43:37,040 --> 00:43:41,640 Speaker 1: had a bicycle and you had a treadmill, and you 770 00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:43,800 Speaker 1: put the bicycle on top of the treadmill and you 771 00:43:43,880 --> 00:43:46,520 Speaker 1: turn the treadmill on and the belt of the treadmill 772 00:43:46,600 --> 00:43:49,400 Speaker 1: starts to transfer energy to the bike's wheels, causing the 773 00:43:49,440 --> 00:43:52,680 Speaker 1: wheels to rotate. UH. This is similar to what the 774 00:43:52,800 --> 00:43:55,239 Speaker 1: idler drive would do with the platter, and it was 775 00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:59,279 Speaker 1: popular for decades and in fact, there are still UH 776 00:43:59,400 --> 00:44:02,160 Speaker 1: turntables stems out there that use idler drives. But in 777 00:44:02,239 --> 00:44:04,920 Speaker 1: the late nineteen fifties some companies began to introduce a 778 00:44:05,040 --> 00:44:08,520 Speaker 1: new drive system called the belt drive. And as the 779 00:44:08,640 --> 00:44:11,440 Speaker 1: name suggests, a belt drive uses a belt to transfer 780 00:44:11,560 --> 00:44:14,239 Speaker 1: energy from the electric motor to the platter. It's like 781 00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:17,440 Speaker 1: a pulley system. The belt wraps around the platter and 782 00:44:17,800 --> 00:44:20,320 Speaker 1: a pulley that's connected to the shaft of the motor. 783 00:44:20,680 --> 00:44:23,839 Speaker 1: And it's the simplest drive mechanism for turntables. That also 784 00:44:23,920 --> 00:44:26,839 Speaker 1: means it's the cheapest, which also means it's the most 785 00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:32,040 Speaker 1: popular because it doesn't cost as much as other systems. Now, 786 00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:36,080 Speaker 1: some people argue that the belt driven turntables are superior 787 00:44:36,160 --> 00:44:39,840 Speaker 1: to all others because it decouples the platter from the 788 00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:44,200 Speaker 1: electric motor, and the belt or the the line that 789 00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:48,279 Speaker 1: connects the platter to the electric motor absorbs a lot 790 00:44:48,320 --> 00:44:52,120 Speaker 1: of the vibrations that otherwise would be transferred to the 791 00:44:52,200 --> 00:44:55,080 Speaker 1: platter itself, so that could affect sound quality. So there 792 00:44:55,120 --> 00:44:58,360 Speaker 1: are some audiophiles who say the belt systems might be 793 00:44:58,440 --> 00:45:02,399 Speaker 1: the cheapest to implement, but they also create the best 794 00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:07,200 Speaker 1: audio quality. Uh. Some audio files say that's hogwash and 795 00:45:07,320 --> 00:45:10,680 Speaker 1: that there's no evidence that the belt driven systems are 796 00:45:10,960 --> 00:45:17,480 Speaker 1: superior to other driver systems. So debate rages on in 797 00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:20,960 Speaker 1: the audio file circles, as it will forever and ever amend. 798 00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:24,400 Speaker 1: There is a third drive system for turntables. I should 799 00:45:24,400 --> 00:45:27,040 Speaker 1: mention this one came a little bit later, but it 800 00:45:27,200 --> 00:45:30,279 Speaker 1: was really really important for DJs, and for a long 801 00:45:30,360 --> 00:45:34,280 Speaker 1: time it was limited to professional turntables that professional DJs 802 00:45:34,440 --> 00:45:38,000 Speaker 1: or radio stations would use. And it's the direct drive system. 803 00:45:38,160 --> 00:45:41,560 Speaker 1: And in a direct drive system, the motor is directly 804 00:45:41,640 --> 00:45:44,280 Speaker 1: connected to the platter, so you don't have an idler 805 00:45:44,320 --> 00:45:47,239 Speaker 1: wheel that then transfers the motions to the platter. You 806 00:45:47,280 --> 00:45:50,120 Speaker 1: don't have a belt system that transfers motions to the platter. 807 00:45:50,400 --> 00:45:53,600 Speaker 1: The platter itself is mounted on a rotor system of 808 00:45:53,760 --> 00:45:57,640 Speaker 1: some sort, and it will turn in speed end time 809 00:45:58,080 --> 00:46:02,759 Speaker 1: with the actual electric motor, so there's no intermediary there. 810 00:46:03,200 --> 00:46:06,120 Speaker 1: The motor turns the turntable itself. Some direct drives actually 811 00:46:06,200 --> 00:46:10,520 Speaker 1: use a magnetic drive system. The Technic twelve hundred, the 812 00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:15,439 Speaker 1: famous turntable that was favored by professional DJs, uses such 813 00:46:15,480 --> 00:46:18,680 Speaker 1: a drive system. The big benefit of the magnetic drive 814 00:46:18,719 --> 00:46:22,000 Speaker 1: system is that you can manipulate the platter manually without 815 00:46:22,120 --> 00:46:24,359 Speaker 1: damaging the motor. If the motor is trying to turn 816 00:46:24,440 --> 00:46:27,160 Speaker 1: the platter and you stop it or reverse it and 817 00:46:27,440 --> 00:46:31,480 Speaker 1: it's using mechanical elements as opposed to this magnetic drive, 818 00:46:31,520 --> 00:46:34,200 Speaker 1: you could strip out some components of the motor. One 819 00:46:34,200 --> 00:46:36,840 Speaker 1: of the big benefits of direct drive turntables is that 820 00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:40,759 Speaker 1: they get up to speed very quickly, so they reduced distortion. 821 00:46:40,800 --> 00:46:43,560 Speaker 1: You'd hear after doing some sick DJ work like scratching 822 00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:47,080 Speaker 1: or pausing a record, if you pause it by holding 823 00:46:47,200 --> 00:46:50,160 Speaker 1: down on the actual platter so you stop its rotation 824 00:46:50,520 --> 00:46:53,080 Speaker 1: and you let up. With direct drive systems, it gets 825 00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:55,319 Speaker 1: up to speed very very fast, so you have very 826 00:46:55,400 --> 00:46:58,759 Speaker 1: little distortion from a full stop to playing at the 827 00:46:58,880 --> 00:47:03,560 Speaker 1: right speed. Magnetic drives are actually pretty simple because they 828 00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:06,839 Speaker 1: rely on something that electric motors already do. In an 829 00:47:06,960 --> 00:47:10,120 Speaker 1: electric motor, you have two major components. You have the 830 00:47:10,200 --> 00:47:13,480 Speaker 1: stator or statter if you prefer, but stater is typically 831 00:47:13,480 --> 00:47:16,880 Speaker 1: how I heard it pronounced. That's the stationary element of 832 00:47:16,960 --> 00:47:19,839 Speaker 1: the motor. That's the part that's mounted into some sort 833 00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:22,600 Speaker 1: of frame, and then you have the rotor that's the 834 00:47:22,680 --> 00:47:25,520 Speaker 1: element that actually does the rotation. The stater is a 835 00:47:25,640 --> 00:47:30,360 Speaker 1: hollow cylinder essentially that's got uh usually plates of iron 836 00:47:30,520 --> 00:47:34,200 Speaker 1: or steel in it, and that has wire wrapped around 837 00:47:34,280 --> 00:47:38,560 Speaker 1: little protrusions that come down from the center of this cylinder. 838 00:47:38,680 --> 00:47:40,480 Speaker 1: So you can think of it almost like a an 839 00:47:40,600 --> 00:47:43,440 Speaker 1: inverted gear, where the teeth are on the inside of 840 00:47:43,520 --> 00:47:46,120 Speaker 1: the circle, not the outside, and you've got wire wrapped 841 00:47:46,160 --> 00:47:49,680 Speaker 1: around each of these teeth, which represents an electromagnet. And 842 00:47:49,840 --> 00:47:54,400 Speaker 1: the opposite sides of this stator have opposite poles. So 843 00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:57,000 Speaker 1: let's say at the top it's the north pole and 844 00:47:57,200 --> 00:47:58,960 Speaker 1: the bottom it's the south pole. When you pass the 845 00:47:59,040 --> 00:48:02,640 Speaker 1: current through in one direction, what you're using alternating current. 846 00:48:03,440 --> 00:48:05,680 Speaker 1: That means that the current goes back and forth right 847 00:48:05,800 --> 00:48:08,960 Speaker 1: in directions. It goes one direction and then swaps and 848 00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:12,280 Speaker 1: goes the other direction, and it cycles through this hundreds 849 00:48:12,440 --> 00:48:16,880 Speaker 1: of times per second. As it changes direction, the magnetic 850 00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:19,960 Speaker 1: field shifts, so what was the north pole becomes the 851 00:48:20,000 --> 00:48:23,000 Speaker 1: south pole, and vice versa. So you've got that element. 852 00:48:23,320 --> 00:48:27,520 Speaker 1: The rotor also has a conductive coil inside of it, 853 00:48:28,080 --> 00:48:30,680 Speaker 1: and when you place that inside the stator and you 854 00:48:30,840 --> 00:48:36,120 Speaker 1: turn on the electricity, the magnetic field, the fluctuating magnetic 855 00:48:36,239 --> 00:48:39,800 Speaker 1: field inside the stator induces current to flow through the 856 00:48:39,960 --> 00:48:42,880 Speaker 1: coils and the rotor, which creates its own magnetic field. 857 00:48:43,280 --> 00:48:46,280 Speaker 1: And these two magnetic fields end up attracting and repulsing 858 00:48:46,320 --> 00:48:50,160 Speaker 1: each other and creates the rotational force uh that turns 859 00:48:50,239 --> 00:48:54,440 Speaker 1: the rotor. So that's your basic rotor in an electric motor. 860 00:48:55,040 --> 00:48:59,280 Speaker 1: The magnetic turntable systems, the platter itself is the rotor. 861 00:48:59,560 --> 00:49:03,200 Speaker 1: It's the it's mounted on the thing that is freely 862 00:49:03,360 --> 00:49:06,640 Speaker 1: rotating inside of this electric motor itself, so there's no 863 00:49:06,719 --> 00:49:11,799 Speaker 1: other parts to grind down. It's it's just the magnetism 864 00:49:11,920 --> 00:49:14,440 Speaker 1: that keeps the platter from moving, So if you stop it, 865 00:49:14,680 --> 00:49:18,680 Speaker 1: the magnetism element keeps going. It's just your hand is 866 00:49:18,719 --> 00:49:21,440 Speaker 1: stronger than the magnetic force, so you can stop the 867 00:49:21,480 --> 00:49:25,280 Speaker 1: record from from rotating. And when you let go, everything 868 00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:27,600 Speaker 1: is is fine because you don't have any moving parts 869 00:49:27,640 --> 00:49:30,799 Speaker 1: that are grinding against each other. It's just stopped. It's 870 00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:33,520 Speaker 1: like a break for that second, and then you release 871 00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:36,759 Speaker 1: the break and everything can turn again, So that makes 872 00:49:36,800 --> 00:49:41,799 Speaker 1: it much easier to operate without any fear of breaking something. Now, 873 00:49:41,920 --> 00:49:45,960 Speaker 1: jumping back to the nineteen fifties, in engineers figured out 874 00:49:46,000 --> 00:49:50,759 Speaker 1: how to record to stereo in vinyl. Record player manufacturers 875 00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:54,080 Speaker 1: rapidly responded to this development, creating players that could send 876 00:49:54,120 --> 00:49:57,240 Speaker 1: different signals to the left and right channels. Though early 877 00:49:57,360 --> 00:50:00,319 Speaker 1: record players that were stereo record players could not really 878 00:50:00,400 --> 00:50:04,760 Speaker 1: send out truly discrete channels to the left and right speakers, 879 00:50:05,239 --> 00:50:07,759 Speaker 1: so you would have some bleed over. So if you 880 00:50:07,840 --> 00:50:10,960 Speaker 1: were to turn one speaker completely off, uh you would 881 00:50:10,960 --> 00:50:12,759 Speaker 1: still be able to hear a little bit of what 882 00:50:12,960 --> 00:50:14,680 Speaker 1: was supposed to play in that speaker in the other 883 00:50:14,760 --> 00:50:18,279 Speaker 1: one because there was some bleed over. There wasn't It 884 00:50:18,400 --> 00:50:21,080 Speaker 1: wasn't pure left and right channels, Yet at that point. 885 00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:26,200 Speaker 1: Throughout the nineteen sixties, turntable technology evolved. In nineteen sixty nine, 886 00:50:26,480 --> 00:50:30,920 Speaker 1: Technics introduced the SP ten that was a direct drive turntable, 887 00:50:30,960 --> 00:50:34,240 Speaker 1: which became an early standard for professionals, and later models 888 00:50:34,320 --> 00:50:37,239 Speaker 1: like the twelve hundred brought the direct drive technology into 889 00:50:37,320 --> 00:50:39,759 Speaker 1: more hands and gave rise to a new art form 890 00:50:39,880 --> 00:50:43,960 Speaker 1: of DJ work. Pioneers like cool Herk, grand Master Flash 891 00:50:44,040 --> 00:50:48,680 Speaker 1: in Africa Bombada began to incorporate performance in music playback, 892 00:50:49,040 --> 00:50:54,200 Speaker 1: using turntables to interactively play up things. Instead of just 893 00:50:54,280 --> 00:50:56,880 Speaker 1: simply queuing up a piece of music, they would create 894 00:50:57,160 --> 00:51:01,239 Speaker 1: their own music and manipul you late music that had 895 00:51:01,239 --> 00:51:04,600 Speaker 1: already been recorded, which was really interesting for the time. 896 00:51:04,680 --> 00:51:07,240 Speaker 1: It still is to me today. I think it's fascinating 897 00:51:07,280 --> 00:51:10,560 Speaker 1: to watch a talented DJ work. So, for example, cool 898 00:51:10,680 --> 00:51:14,560 Speaker 1: Hirk would use two turntables playing copies of the same record, 899 00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:17,560 Speaker 1: and both turntables were hooked up to a mixer, and 900 00:51:17,680 --> 00:51:21,200 Speaker 1: what cool Hirk would do is listen to the one 901 00:51:21,280 --> 00:51:23,200 Speaker 1: album as it's playing while the second one is going 902 00:51:23,239 --> 00:51:25,680 Speaker 1: out to the speakers in the room, and when it 903 00:51:25,840 --> 00:51:29,480 Speaker 1: hit the break in a song like the climax of 904 00:51:29,520 --> 00:51:33,200 Speaker 1: a song. He could swap the mixer over so that 905 00:51:33,760 --> 00:51:37,239 Speaker 1: while that break is ending on album number one, it's 906 00:51:37,280 --> 00:51:39,560 Speaker 1: starting on album number two, and he could just keep 907 00:51:39,640 --> 00:51:43,520 Speaker 1: on extending a segment repeatedly by switching from one copy 908 00:51:43,600 --> 00:51:46,120 Speaker 1: to the other. He could just lift the stylus up 909 00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:49,560 Speaker 1: on album one, put it back a little bit, queue 910 00:51:49,640 --> 00:51:52,800 Speaker 1: it up, and then switch the mixer over again, and 911 00:51:52,920 --> 00:51:56,320 Speaker 1: you could have the break of a song last indefinitely 912 00:51:56,480 --> 00:51:59,759 Speaker 1: this way. Grand Wizard Theodore was one of the early 913 00:51:59,840 --> 00:52:03,040 Speaker 1: d j's to introduce scratching in DJ performances, and Grand 914 00:52:03,120 --> 00:52:05,760 Speaker 1: Master Flash was the first who record such a performance 915 00:52:05,800 --> 00:52:08,439 Speaker 1: on an album, and the song The Adventures of Grand 916 00:52:08,480 --> 00:52:11,920 Speaker 1: Master Flash on the Wheels of Steel from one was 917 00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:16,600 Speaker 1: the first to use scratching on an actual recorded LP 918 00:52:17,239 --> 00:52:20,160 Speaker 1: on purpose at any rate, and not as just a 919 00:52:20,239 --> 00:52:22,880 Speaker 1: comedic effect. By the way, if you've never listened to 920 00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:26,879 Speaker 1: that song, do yourself a favor. Look up The Adventures 921 00:52:27,000 --> 00:52:30,360 Speaker 1: of Grand Master Flash on the Wheels of Steel and 922 00:52:30,560 --> 00:52:34,320 Speaker 1: listen to it, because it is an awesome mashup of 923 00:52:34,520 --> 00:52:38,719 Speaker 1: some amazing songs. Is incredible. The basic setup of two 924 00:52:38,800 --> 00:52:42,440 Speaker 1: turntables and a mixer, not a microphone was the standard 925 00:52:42,480 --> 00:52:45,640 Speaker 1: for DJs for years. A skilled DJ could set up 926 00:52:45,640 --> 00:52:47,759 Speaker 1: a que on one album and get it going with 927 00:52:47,880 --> 00:52:50,239 Speaker 1: the mixer throwing the signal out to the speakers in 928 00:52:50,280 --> 00:52:53,399 Speaker 1: the room, while simultaneously setting up another track to mix 929 00:52:53,520 --> 00:52:56,680 Speaker 1: with it in real time, not just transition from one 930 00:52:56,760 --> 00:53:00,160 Speaker 1: song to another, but to create new music from these 931 00:53:00,280 --> 00:53:04,560 Speaker 1: prerecorded tracks. You could argue convincingly that the hip hop 932 00:53:04,640 --> 00:53:08,759 Speaker 1: genre of music owes its origins to the turntable, which 933 00:53:08,840 --> 00:53:11,040 Speaker 1: is pretty remarkable for a piece of technology that was 934 00:53:11,080 --> 00:53:14,919 Speaker 1: invented to playback music rather than to generate a brand 935 00:53:15,000 --> 00:53:20,200 Speaker 1: new performance in of itself. And that kind of concludes 936 00:53:20,760 --> 00:53:25,400 Speaker 1: the discussion of the analog turntables. There are digital turntables 937 00:53:25,440 --> 00:53:28,360 Speaker 1: out there, and I'll cover those in another episode sometime 938 00:53:28,480 --> 00:53:32,520 Speaker 1: further down the line. Also, analog turntables have continued on 939 00:53:32,800 --> 00:53:34,919 Speaker 1: for a long time. They started to become a niche 940 00:53:35,000 --> 00:53:39,040 Speaker 1: product again largely because there were other form factors that 941 00:53:39,160 --> 00:53:42,240 Speaker 1: came out that began to replace vinyl. You had cassette 942 00:53:42,239 --> 00:53:45,400 Speaker 1: tapes which helped replace vinyl because they were more convenient, 943 00:53:45,520 --> 00:53:47,600 Speaker 1: They were easier to carry around. You could get a 944 00:53:47,640 --> 00:53:50,759 Speaker 1: cassette player for your car. Uh. They meant that you 945 00:53:50,880 --> 00:53:53,400 Speaker 1: could take your music with you much more easily than 946 00:53:53,480 --> 00:53:56,600 Speaker 1: you could with vinyl. So even though the quality of 947 00:53:56,680 --> 00:54:01,400 Speaker 1: cassette tapes for a long time really drag behind vinyl albums, 948 00:54:02,040 --> 00:54:05,399 Speaker 1: the convenience meant more than the sound quality. For a while. 949 00:54:05,680 --> 00:54:09,160 Speaker 1: Then you had compact discs that increase the quality of 950 00:54:09,239 --> 00:54:12,920 Speaker 1: the recording, although again for a while, the digital aspect 951 00:54:13,000 --> 00:54:15,800 Speaker 1: of it a lot of people felt didn't give you 952 00:54:15,920 --> 00:54:20,680 Speaker 1: the same experience as listening to an analog vinyl album. UH. 953 00:54:20,920 --> 00:54:24,520 Speaker 1: There's some arguments that have been made that that a 954 00:54:24,920 --> 00:54:29,200 Speaker 1: good CD player against a good analog record player, the 955 00:54:29,400 --> 00:54:33,080 Speaker 1: comparison is UH is completely in favor of the analog 956 00:54:33,160 --> 00:54:34,920 Speaker 1: record player. There are others who argue that if you 957 00:54:34,960 --> 00:54:37,480 Speaker 1: were to do a double blind test where you're in 958 00:54:37,520 --> 00:54:40,640 Speaker 1: the room you have no idea which system you're listening to. 959 00:54:40,760 --> 00:54:42,920 Speaker 1: The person a ministering the test also doesn't know which 960 00:54:42,960 --> 00:54:45,879 Speaker 1: system you're listening to, then it may be that you're 961 00:54:45,920 --> 00:54:48,400 Speaker 1: not able to tell the difference. Um, if you're listening 962 00:54:48,440 --> 00:54:52,680 Speaker 1: to really really good systems, both for analog and digital. Obviously, 963 00:54:52,719 --> 00:54:55,480 Speaker 1: if you're sampling digital music at a terrible bit rate, 964 00:54:55,600 --> 00:54:57,720 Speaker 1: then you're gonna be able to tell because the quality 965 00:54:57,800 --> 00:55:00,840 Speaker 1: is not going to be there, but an versus digital 966 00:55:01,000 --> 00:55:04,719 Speaker 1: is another argument that will continue on forever, even to 967 00:55:04,840 --> 00:55:07,840 Speaker 1: this day. And of course vinyl albums have made a 968 00:55:07,880 --> 00:55:12,239 Speaker 1: big comeback over recent years. It was to the point 969 00:55:12,360 --> 00:55:16,120 Speaker 1: where if a band put out an album in vinyl 970 00:55:16,360 --> 00:55:20,920 Speaker 1: it was almost like a publicity stunt um because record 971 00:55:20,960 --> 00:55:23,520 Speaker 1: players had gone so out of fashion. But these days 972 00:55:23,560 --> 00:55:27,120 Speaker 1: it's much more common. You see it happen frequently, and 973 00:55:27,600 --> 00:55:29,920 Speaker 1: it it's easy to go out and buy a turntable 974 00:55:30,080 --> 00:55:32,880 Speaker 1: or even a full record player system out on the 975 00:55:32,920 --> 00:55:36,000 Speaker 1: market and to go out and collect vinyl again. There 976 00:55:36,000 --> 00:55:39,279 Speaker 1: are a lot of reissues of old albums that have 977 00:55:39,400 --> 00:55:42,879 Speaker 1: been pressed on new vinyl, so you can actually start 978 00:55:42,960 --> 00:55:45,759 Speaker 1: collecting classic albums again if you wanted to, and not 979 00:55:45,880 --> 00:55:50,320 Speaker 1: have to go digging through old archives of music and 980 00:55:50,400 --> 00:55:52,480 Speaker 1: hope that you find one that isn't all scratched up 981 00:55:52,560 --> 00:55:55,400 Speaker 1: and ruined. So it's a pretty cool time if you 982 00:55:55,600 --> 00:55:59,759 Speaker 1: are a fan of this music format, as i am, um, 983 00:56:00,120 --> 00:56:04,560 Speaker 1: I find that there's something extra with the turntable record 984 00:56:04,640 --> 00:56:07,279 Speaker 1: player approach. It's not necessarily the quality of the music 985 00:56:08,120 --> 00:56:09,840 Speaker 1: that's part of it, but another part of it is 986 00:56:09,920 --> 00:56:12,279 Speaker 1: the experience of listening to a full album instead of 987 00:56:12,400 --> 00:56:15,920 Speaker 1: just skipping to a specific song. Now, digital media make 988 00:56:15,960 --> 00:56:19,560 Speaker 1: it really easy for us to skip over music, whereas 989 00:56:19,920 --> 00:56:22,279 Speaker 1: analog you can't do that quite as easily. You have 990 00:56:22,400 --> 00:56:25,440 Speaker 1: to you have to kind of either pick up a 991 00:56:25,520 --> 00:56:28,160 Speaker 1: stylist and try to figure out where the next song begins, 992 00:56:28,680 --> 00:56:31,320 Speaker 1: or you just sit through it. But in many cases 993 00:56:31,400 --> 00:56:33,680 Speaker 1: that means that you can have a true album experience. 994 00:56:33,760 --> 00:56:36,839 Speaker 1: And also there's a bit of ritual to taking an 995 00:56:36,880 --> 00:56:39,680 Speaker 1: album out of its sleeve, placing it on the platter, 996 00:56:40,000 --> 00:56:43,720 Speaker 1: lifting the stylists, placing it down on the vinyl, hearing 997 00:56:43,800 --> 00:56:47,400 Speaker 1: that that little bit of scratch hiss just before the 998 00:56:47,520 --> 00:56:50,120 Speaker 1: music begins to play. There's something about that that I 999 00:56:50,200 --> 00:56:53,840 Speaker 1: think adds to the experience of enjoying music. Doesn't necessarily 1000 00:56:53,880 --> 00:56:57,560 Speaker 1: translate to every single track, but I find it really 1001 00:56:57,920 --> 00:57:00,080 Speaker 1: soothing in a way, even when I'm listening to my 1002 00:57:00,160 --> 00:57:04,960 Speaker 1: punk rock music, which I do often and with great enthusiasm. 1003 00:57:05,440 --> 00:57:08,920 Speaker 1: That was a great suggestion for an episode. Big thanks 1004 00:57:09,560 --> 00:57:11,520 Speaker 1: for all of you out there who have been asking 1005 00:57:11,600 --> 00:57:13,960 Speaker 1: me to cover more music tech. We will continue that. 1006 00:57:14,440 --> 00:57:17,280 Speaker 1: We'll do an episode about speakers and headphones, but then 1007 00:57:17,360 --> 00:57:19,760 Speaker 1: We'll start to transition to other topics as well, so 1008 00:57:19,960 --> 00:57:22,240 Speaker 1: keep an ear out for those episodes will be coming 1009 00:57:22,320 --> 00:57:24,600 Speaker 1: up in the near future. If you have suggestions for 1010 00:57:24,720 --> 00:57:26,960 Speaker 1: future episodes of tech Stuff, right to me and tell 1011 00:57:27,000 --> 00:57:28,640 Speaker 1: me what they are. The address for the show is 1012 00:57:28,680 --> 00:57:32,480 Speaker 1: tech Stuff at how stuff works dot com, or draw 1013 00:57:32,560 --> 00:57:34,960 Speaker 1: me a line on Facebook or Twitter. The handle for 1014 00:57:35,120 --> 00:57:39,320 Speaker 1: both of those is text stuff h s W. Join 1015 00:57:39,480 --> 00:57:42,040 Speaker 1: us on Instagram. You can follow us behind the scenes 1016 00:57:42,080 --> 00:57:44,280 Speaker 1: and see all sorts of cool stuff over there. And 1017 00:57:44,400 --> 00:57:48,520 Speaker 1: remember I broadcast live on twitch dot tv slash tech 1018 00:57:48,560 --> 00:57:51,840 Speaker 1: Stuff on Wednesdays and Friday's. The schedule is up there 1019 00:57:51,960 --> 00:57:55,080 Speaker 1: At that website. You can watch me record the show 1020 00:57:55,720 --> 00:57:57,760 Speaker 1: live in front of your face. You can join it 1021 00:57:57,880 --> 00:58:00,120 Speaker 1: on the chat room and can chat with me as 1022 00:58:00,160 --> 00:58:02,520 Speaker 1: I record. I look forward to seeing you and I'll 1023 00:58:02,520 --> 00:58:11,040 Speaker 1: talk to you again really soon. For more on this 1024 00:58:11,240 --> 00:58:13,720 Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff works 1025 00:58:13,760 --> 00:58:14,160 Speaker 1: dot com.