


What do the numbers on a vinyl record mean?

Vinyl records come in all sizes and colours. Every record is labelled based on the number of revolutions it can make, completing a 360-degree turn in a minute. (a) What is the angular speed in rad/s?Īn RPM is Revolutions Per Minute. What is the rev/min of a vinyl record?Īn old-fashioned vinyl record rotates on a turntable at 33 1/3 rev/min while the phonograph needle travels on a track that spirals from the outside to the inside of the record. But the fact that only two copies of the original 7” on the Soul label have ever materialised has long made it the holy grail of Northern soul collecting. There are only two known copies of Do I Love You (Indeed I Do), a rare 45-rpm Northern soul track by Frank Wilson, one of which sold for $37,000 in 2009. In fact, they say that records were meant to be played at different speeds, and as long as you are not playing them at ridiculous ones (i.e., more than 100 rpm), then there is no harm in doing so. Does it damage the vinyl to play it at wrong speed? However, 10-inch discs are common at both speeds and there are exceptions (e.g. The majority of 12-inch long play (LPs) are 33 1/3 RPMs, and most 7-inch extended play (EPs) or singles are 45 RPMs. Vinyl is pressed in one of 3 speeds: 33 1/3 Rotations Per Minute (RPM), 45 RPM, and 78 RPMs. What size are 33 rpm records?ġ2-inch records are generally employed for long-format “albums” (playing at 33 1/3 rpm) that include several tunes per side, but some of today’s singles are pressed onto 12-inch disks since the extra room on the surface allows the grooves to be further apart, which results in a louder record with a greater dynamic … 7-inch discs could hold two to three songs, while the 12-inch breed fits four to five. The “rpm” is an abbreviation for “revolutions per minute” - an indication of how fast the record is meant to spin on the turntable.ģ31⁄3 RPM: These recordings are often called ‘LPs’ or ‘LP records,’ short for ‘long play,’ as the slower playback speed and narrow grooves allowed 33 rpm records to store more audio than older varieties. Speed and Diameter Vinyl records come in three speeds: 33 1/3 rpm (often just called a “33”), 45 rpm and 78 rpm. If you’re like most record lovers you’ve probably flipped speeds from time to time in order to hear your music faster or slower than normal. Vinyl records typically come in three speeds: 33, 45 and 78 rotations per minute (RPM). If you are a new comer to vinyl you may wonder what these numbers actually mean. The LP (from “long playing” or “long play”) is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of 331⁄3 rpm a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter use of the “microgroove” groove specification and a vinyl (a copolymer of vinyl chloride acetate) composition disk.
