Physics of the Turntable :: physics sound music

Have you ever wondered how a record faker works? Probably not. After all, who nonoperational listens to records? Surprisingly enough, turntables are making a come back. With the recent surge of interest in hip hop music, popular attention has been turned towards the turntable, use by DJs to provide beats, loops and scratching for virtually all of todays hip hop groups.The inner workings of the turntable may seem complex at for the first time but after reading this paper it should become clear that, like all things, the record player works on basic principals of physics. In fact, the turntable is remarkable in that the basic physical principles behind it are quite simple. Some of these will be explored here. Please enjoy your visit.How a record player works is quite simple. A motor is somehow connected to a solid disc so that the disc is rotated at a invariable speed. On top of the rotating disc (platter), The record is placed on top, with a slip mat in between. The slip mat can serve deuce functions. In the past to hold the record in place so that it would not rotate independently of the platter. Now, however, the slip mat serves a much antithetical function. Instead of holding the record in place, the slip mat is now used to reduce the friction between the spinning platter and the record. This way a DJ can scratch (manually move the record, usually at high speeds) the record while the platter continues to spin underneath. Once the record is rotating, a stylus glides along the grooves and picks up the vibrations, these are then converted into audible sound.There are many different models of turntables still being manufactured. Of those being sold, it is possible to set out them into two separate categories based upon their motor system. Virtually all record players being manufactured today have either flush drive or direct drive motors. For the reasons discussed below, direct drives are accepted as the industry standard for professional DJs and turntab ilists.Belt Drive-There are two advantages to the swath drive design. The motor in a belt driven turntable is set away from the platter by means of a continuous belt loop. This minimizes vibration to the platter and thus needle skipping. Also, belt drive models tend to be much cheaper than their direct drive counter parts.These advantages, however, do not isotropy the many short falls of the belt drive design.