Gramophone record

A gramophone record, (also phonograph record - often simply record) is an analog sound recording medium: a flat disc rotating at a constant angular velocity, with inscribed spiral grooves in which a stylus or needle rides. Analogue audio recording onto a disc was the main technology used for the storing of recorded sound for most of the 20th century. By 1988 digital media such as the compact disc surpassed the gramophone record in popularity, but gramophone records continue to be made (although in very limited quantities) into the 21st century, particularly for DJs doing live remixes and for local acts recording on small regional labels. Used records are still sold in decent numbers and remain a common part of many music collections. Most major releases still recieve a vinyl release, sometimes with bonus tracks and artwork.

Preservation of disc recordings

Due to the nature of the recording medium, playback of disks can cause degradation of the recording. In some cases, the equipment for playback of certain formats (e.g. 16 and 78 RPM) is manufactured only in small quantities, leading to increased difficulty in finding equipment to play the recordings.

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Where old recordings are considered to be of artistic or historic interest, record companies or archivists will play them back on suitable equipment and record the result, typically into digital form, where the results can be distributed in whatever form is suitable without further damage to the record. Nimbus Records use a specially built horn record player to transfer 78's, though standard record players with suitable pickups are probably more typical. Having digitised the results, the sound can be manipulated to improve the resulting recording, for example, removing the sound of scratches.

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The home enthusiast can copy their vinyl recordings using equipment available on a modest home computer simply by linking their record player to their sound card with a suitable cable and using suitable recording software. This allows the recordings to be converted to whatever format the listener wishes; allowing the owner to listen to a favorite record, perhaps bought in the 1960's and no longer available, on the latest of MP3 players.

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In an attempt to preserve the historic content of the recordings, disks can be read optically, processed with software that calculates the velocity that the stylus would be moving in the mapped grooves and converted to a digital recording format. The resulting sound clip in most cases sounds better than stylus playback from the original disk. Having an electronic version of the original recordings enables archivists to open access to the recordings to a wider audience. This technique also has the potential to allow for reconstruction of damaged or broken disks. (Fadeyev & Haber, 2003)

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