Abnormal Grooves - why vinyl is better than CDs and MP3s

Some vinyl records have cleverly arranged grooves to delight and confuse the listener. Here's my collection.
Listen to the radio show here: festivalofthespokennerd.com/tv...
Read about other strange grooves here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unusual...
Twitter: / moulds
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[@EebstertheGreat]

7:49 Real horse racing is also basically a really tedious way of rolling a die.

[@millomweb]

If you don't want boring, set up an automatic Worms game.

[@jeffjackson6354]

If you don't want tedious run Worms with actual tanks.

[@zwz.zdenek]

Throwing a wrench into the gears, real horse racing is a tedious way of just burning your cash.

[@shahabazkhan1]

No, it totally depends on the performance of the horses, if you have like 4 champion horses then you choose one of them right? It's basically a sport. You can't say a whole world cup event of some sport is a tedious way of rolling the die can you?

[@Llamagoyf]

@@shahabazkhan1 I can and I will.

[@GFmanaic]

Admit it, you just wanted a good reason to play with the ladybug book.

[@SteveMould]

It's *really* fun.

[@mal2ksc]

When I heard the track "touches itself" I instantly thought "demonetized!"

[@Netherexio]

@@SteveMould My sister has the same exact book and I always try to find it.

[@logangrove4103]

Lol this was so funny

[@philippemichelvidori7248]

@@SteveMould I never hold my vinyls like this

[@TristanBomber]

We just need to encode "Dormammu, I've come to bargain" on that lock groove.

[@MrDoboz]

Someone has to make that lol

[@peppidesu]

you don't need to encode anything. the thing inscribed is literally the waveform of the music

[@dumchican]

@@peppidesu Well, it's encoding air pressure into side to side movement of a metal stylus. It's kind of like encoding something from written on a piece of paper into a punch card or as ascii, it conveys the same information, it's just in a different format.

[@albert_the_cool8092]

Its been two years but SynthRose you are an absolute genius

[@maxrodgers5702]

@@albert_the_cool8092 agreed

[@billyfairbank]

"Where have I hidden your keys?" lol! Your poor parents.

[@Kenionatus]

Good thing it's only got three possible answers :)

[@ryansamarakoon8268]

How do you even engrave into a tiny vinyl with tools a kid would find?

[@evelynphipps610]

@@ryansamarakoon8268 He could just change the face of the card

[@ryansamarakoon8268]

@@evelynphipps610 no the card just acts as a pointer to a specific track on the vinyl. You can't store data on them

[@janemorrow6672]

In a pigsty.

[@AuroCords]

This means that time travel to the past IS possible! All we need is a machine that travels forwards, and THEN switch the battery around like on that toy robot. Nobel prize please.

[@unclejimmy7]

I know you're just making a joke here, but the analog to flipping the battery around would be negative energy or mass. In theory, if you had negative energy, you could reverse the flow of time.

[@djedg10]

Reverse the polarity!

[@jasondashney]

...but don't cross the streams.

[@twirlipofthemists3201]

Important safety tip.

[@bjornnilsson1222]

Auro Cords 💩💩👻🖕🏿🖕🏿🖕🏿🖕🏿🖕🏿🖕🏿👦🏿👦🏿💍🤙🏿👅🤙🏿👶🏿👶🏿👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀💋👄✍️✍️

[@dan_tr4pd00r]

Favourite bit of insanity about the Matching Tie and Handkerchief record: even though it says the record comes free alongside the matching tie and handkerchief, you weren't always guaranteed to get one or the other with your purchase.

[@davideranieri5553]

Coincidentally, I listened to Sgt. Pepper for the first time on vinyl after having it on CD for a long time. I remembered the phantom track at the end, but of course, it lasts a limited amount of time on a CD. I spent a good minute or two waiting for the thing to finish before realizing the track was looping on itself... I felt like an idiot afterwards...

[@duroxkilo]

@Human Resources chill bro, nothing travels faster than light :}

[@thedoublek4816]

There were also vinyls which only consisted of locked grooves. Those were made for DJs (hip hop and electronic) who wanted to do some live remixing by playing some loops, like additional rhythm tracks etc., over the main track and were aptly named "DJ Tools". A popular kind of those tools were focusing on drum breaks, like those instrumental drum solos often found on Funk records (think "Amen Brother", "Funky Drummer" or "It's a New Day"). The locked grooves contained loops which had to have a certain tempo in order to seamlessly loop over (most turntables have a pitch / speed control, so adjusting the loop tempo to the main track you want to "enhance" is not a problem anyway), 133 1/3 BPM. However, hitting the right groove could be tricky.

[@ReferenceFidelityComponents]

They’re not called “vinyls” they’re called “records” or “LPs”

[@wj11jam78]

groovy

[@vasilivanich3842]

"I'm trolling (...), obviously everyone agrees that CDs and MP3s have better audio quality than vinyl, that's not controversial" lol

[@TarekMidani]

Lol, sorry but CD's contain highly compressed forms of audio 😂 your title is actually correct, vinyl is better

[@MovingThePicture]

Tarek Midani CDs are uncompressed 🤦

[@truephysics2835]

Sigh, this is going to be a comment chain I assume... No, vinyl does not give you "better" audio. The compression for MP3 is essentially inaudible, though yes, it does exist. However, it is absolutely nothing at all compared to the inconsistent and horrible frequency response you get from a vinyl player. You can not produce high amplitude signals in the high and low-frequency range from a vinyl, so the players often have amplifiers to boost these frequencies, that is they have equalisers. The equalisers are not all exactly the same and thus you get different audio from different players. Also, the vinyls themselves have tolerances, degrade, have issues with dust, ... If you are after high fidelity, vinyl is the wrong thing to look for. That doesn't mean it sounds bad though. Just like tube amplifiers which are way, way "worse" than solid state since they are horribly non-linear, they can produce nice sounds. It is just utterly wrong to say they are more accurate to what the artist wanted it to sound like, that is they are not high fidility.

[@Noise-Bomb]

To clearify: Every sane person.

[@ViniOnTheRocks]

Vinyl is romantic. That I can give it.

[@pun-isher1501]

I once made a playable disc out of vinyl in 10 minutes. That is a *record*

[@Milamberinx]

I once made a playable disc that represents the heavenly body on which we live. That's a world record.

[@MarkTillotson]

Letter printed in an English newspaper in 1978 went something like: "Dear sir, I was born in '33 and am now, in '78, aged 45 - is this a record?"

[@gabriel38g]

Playable Disc from CD in 5 minute video kzbin.info/www/bejne/r6acYmZvgal8mZY

[@-danR]

5 minutes later, you accidentally stepped on it. Record broken.

[@unnamedchannel2202]

@Human Resources, it was the Mirror. But now it is broken as tubeist- dan accidentally stepped on it.

[@SteelSkin667]

Really interesting stuff, while I did know about infinite run-out grooves, I didn't realise that those multi-track records existed. I too really like vinyl records not because of how they sound, but because of the way they work. Not to mention the artwork.

[@DamiontheSpawn]

Want to know something even crazier? There are records that when played the needle moves from the center outward. Techmoan has a great video on it.

[@georgeprice7922]

DamiontheSpawn And then there's Jack White's "Lazaretto", which not only has the inside out groove, but hidden tracks pressed into the labels (one plays at 45 and the other at 78).

[@paulmichaelfreedman8334]

@@DamiontheSpawn Think about it , had trey done that from the start (AND CDs also play from the centre outward) it would have made the mechanics of a record player much easier.

[@paulmichaelfreedman8334]

@Jayden Whitcomb The natural properties of vinyl and Tube amps sort of hide distortion, especially the amps tubes have a natural compressor function, rounding the distortion peaks and making it sound less distorted.

[@Trev9]

@@paulmichaelfreedman8334 soft clipping

[@consubandon]

Somewhere here, amongst my three-sided Monty Python records, I've also got a copy of the 1812 Overture from the early-1980s days of audiophile digital vinyl. In order to more fully reproduce the cannon shots (the engineers of this particular record were very, VERY proud of the fidelity of these cannon shots, and the record came with the warning these shots could break poorly constructed loudspeakers), the phonograph needle had to swing so violently it would have crossed the normally-adjacent grooves, and so, at the appropriate moments in the recording, the spacing of the grooves abruptly becomes much, much wider than elsewhere on the disk, in order to allow for the physical motion required to reproduce this far louder sound. You can easily see the altered sections from several feet away, where the groove suddenly looks almost like the trace of an EKG. In that vein, w-a-y back in the early days of television, there was once a challenge demonstration featuring a man who was familiar with so many recordings of different musical compositions, he could correctly identify a piece of music just by looking at the groove pattern on the surface of a vinyl record, even with its label masked-over. He would have had no trouble whatsoever identifying The 1812.

[@raykent3211]

Techmoan has a video about a record that plays from the middle outwards. Ta for this, my friend had a horse racing multi-groove one.

[@maker-matt]

Its Bolero - inside out and is still available. and there is a very good reason for it. not just a gimmick

[@casey6556]

And now he’s done one on the horse racing one too!

[@SlavomirDanas]

Steve talks about playing music from a CD holding in hand an installation medium of Microsoft Windows...

[@Ultima2876]

The way he throws around those records makes me die inside

[@jca111]

Ohh man - I can deal with the Crosley but don't touch the record surface. Not to mention the tossing of the records onto the floor!

[@wellivea1]

Zero Cool Why? I mean, if you *want* noisy records with audible damage, sure. You don't have to spend a ton of money or anything, just be careful when you're handling them and brush them off with a carbon fiber brush before each use. There's also replacing inner sleeves that use paper rather than plastic (or plastic lined paper). All of that would probably have a max one-time cost of $40 max (the sleeves coming in packs of 50 or more).

[@wellivea1]

They're not like CDs where you can scratch them up fairly bad and still get no reduction in audio quality (not that you should be scratching those either, though). You will get recurring clicks or pops where there is a scratch and a contant scratchy hiss where there is embedded dust, and with improper long-term storage you can get mold, etc that is very loud.

[@timverma]

because Steve clearly prefers to listen to his music on cd so he doesn't care about the audio quality at all, they are just there for memories. the quality isn't going to be so bad as to be completely ruined, so the few times a year he used them this way won't matter.

[@wellivea1]

Timothy Verma Well, if that's how he likes to use them, sure. But this is meant to be educational, he should have shown at least a little bit of care for them. Even when you're pretty careful you can drop a record and create a long gash like that. Putting one onto carpet which is riddled with small, tough fibers and stuffed with dust (vinyl attracts it's own worst enemy, dust, very well) just shows a complete lack of thought imo.

[@dextertreehorn]

Maybe Steve is more kind of "user of this robot toy" ....

[@adamruth]

Mad magazine did this in the 70s. They included a flexible record as a tear out insert. It had multiple grooves, possibly more than two. As I recall it was only the ending that was different, so you wouldn’t know which groove you had right away. Basically, each groove had a different punchline.

[@ViniOnTheRocks]

I'm so glad you started with that sentence.

[@nilswegner2881]

Vinícius P. da Silva why, when the title is true?

[@CockatooDude]

+Nils Pc Vids Just because vinyl is capable of sounding good doesn't mean it sounds the best out of all formats.

[@nilswegner2881]

CockatooDude no but definitely better than mp3 and other digital crap

[@CockatooDude]

+Nils Pc Vids "Other digital crap" Like what exactly?

[@dupisdisasterpiece1058]

DJ Slinus Certainly better than mp3 (Because mp3 is just lossy garbage) But certainly NOT flac or wav.

[@EnergyWell]

I love that when I start one of your videos, I am typically over confident about the subject matter, and then you completely upend my knowledge from the bottom up and I learn so much anew.

[@macronencer]

"The way I played with it was to try and figure out how it worked." YES! That is the story of my childhood. I even extended that tendency to my parents' possessions. When I was 10 I took my dad's tape recorder to pieces and reassembled it. Luckily, I got it right...

[@GuyNamedSean]

It hurts me so much to see you casually tossing those records around and placing them on the floor. I was taught as a kid to be very meticulous about keeping vinyls clean.

[@olik136]

At the time vinyl was the goto medium most people didn't care as much as todays enthusiasts do- and yet most of todays records are from that time and work fine...

[@AnimilesYT]

They are probably cheap ones no one wants to have.

[@schregen]

I don't believe you. Because records were never called vinyls until the hipsters came along a few years ago. Their name is records.

[@spiritusinfinitus]

I loved the fact that they were well used and filthy! Just to think of all the brittle "78" records we used to throw around like Frisbees as kids and "scratch" rapper style. Some may even have been priceless now for all I know. No idea what happened to any of them or what would've now been a vintage record player. You can't take any of this crap with you, so have fun with it and let it give you some good memories instead of it being overly precious. There's probably something similar in a museum somewhere for the people who care.

[@douglas.turner]

Well, that record player isn't doing them any favours, either...

[@MikkoRantalainen]

6:30 As there are two interleaved spirals, the easies way to swap to another spiral is to raise the arm using the lever, wait for half a turn and lower the arm. That should get you to the middle of another spiral if your lever doesn't move the player arm anywhere.

[@perniciouspete4986]

The anti-skating mechanism makes that difficult, though.

[@bpoldauf]

OH MY GOD, how can you handle your records this way, I was not able to finish the video seeing you touching the grooves and throwing the records on the floot, ABSOLUTELY BARBARIC

[@CoolDudeClem]

You say you love vinyl, but you're using a crosley turntable?

[@nilswegner2881]

CoolDudeClem yeah, this person does not have the right of talking about the war between analog and digital because of course his records will sound worse than CDs when played on one of these record grinding machines

[@nickminadeo8386]

DJ Slinus why should it be a war? Why can't people enjoy both...analog and digital should be side by side, not competing. It's just a waste of time to compare, they're too different

[@candykanefpv98]

and grabbing the record by the grooves.

[@nickminadeo8386]

If you want to get nit-picky, it's technically one groove...

[@thugasaurusrex6004]

Nick Minadeo I love you lol

[@CalebMaclennan]

Trolling meter: off the charts, certified platinum.

[@rohitchaoji]

Never thought I'd see Steve Mould casually whip out EVOL. Great album. My favourite by them,

[@GamerX-2000]

I had a toy train when I was younger. It had a blue disk that was my first experience with learning how solid state storage works. The disk was also a gear(by that I mean it wasn’t really just a disk, but a gear), and when the train was turned on, the gear would spin. The gear had little bits that stuck out of it, like inverted grooves, that when the reached the part that was reading the information, it would play sound. I loved this toy and never disassembled it, so idk how it played sound, but it sounded like the parts sticking out were hitting pins that played music, like a music box. Because the inverted grooves were all the same length, it played different sounds based on where the grooves were, so the song was only as long as one rotation of the disk.

[@ryanburr8419]

Those were some clever records, I especially loved that robot. I think what all the examples come down to is the experience of the medium being fun and unique. Not technically better (although vinyl sometimes suffers less from the loudness wars less making them better in one way) but a unique experience that many people appreciate.

[@LaGuerre19]

"Daddy? *_ERRRGGH_* Followed by the sound of gunfire." lmao

[@deathsheir2035]

He said "medic"

[@sapphireskies9129]

Anyone else crying inside with how he is handling the records😫

[@naibafabdulkobor4301]

@Sapphire Skies - Not just inside, ask my neighbors ...

[@kotofey_ivanovich]

yes

[@Mikeztarp]

"Where have I hidden your keys?" So as a kid, you were like the Riddler? xD

[@janemorrow6672]

In a pigsty or on a spaceship?

[@theguyinthefunnyhat]

Some locking grooves/run-out grooves contain "noise" which, when recorded to a tape and put into some old computers, run programs. You could also include an SSTV signal into the run-out to have a slow scan image of the album cover, photo of the artist or anything really.

[@novameowww]

Could you run Doom on a vinyl?

[@dylantowers9367]

@@novameowww You can't actually run doom on a vinyl, as it isn't Turing Complete. You can store the executable binary on the vinyl though. It's not that different to storing binary data on an audio cassette, which is what the ZX Spectrum did.

[@novameowww]

@@dylantowers9367 I think that might've been what I meant but I honestly can't remember. Thanks though!

[@thedoublek4816]

There is a video on KZbin, where somebody managed to boot an old computer from a vinyl, forgot the title though.

[@zimbag]

Love the low key relaxed presentation, Thanks mate.

[@thepianoaddict]

A record does have multiple grooves. One on each side.

[@bdf2718]

+Zero Cool Did you read the "one on each side bit"? Read it again if you're unsure.

[@David-ne2wx]

bdf2718 Funny guy

[@munjee2]

Not if its single sided like many often are

[@baranoid]

@Error 909 Not Found it's like a don't repeat rather than don't repeat list. neat.

[@johnb6723]

Lol.

[@caiocc12]

The thing is that by restricting the usage of content so much by excessive copyright enforcement, less and less people get exposure to the content which will lead to less and less people consuming it, reducing profits.

[@Metal_Tao]

What?

[@Milamberinx]

I think The Beatles are doing ok.

[@Gabu_]

@@Milamberinx For how long? I don't know a single young person who listens to The Beatles.

[@twobob]

@Fester Blats "their" copyright nonsense. Pretty sure it has zero to do with "them"

[@Sammie_Sorrelly]

It's complicated. In isolation, exposure is a good thing, of course - but since the piracy boom in the 90s and the streaming services which provide a legal alternative but still pay musicians basically nothing, the general perception is that music is something that's inherently free, which makes it hard to make any money as a musician because people only *buy* music as an additional extravagance. As a musician, I'm quite happy with the idea of my music being freely available to anyone who might want to hear it, but I also want to make enough money from it that I can afford to dedicate a significant amount of my time to it, hone my craft and make the best music I can. So... as things are now it's not an easy problem to solve.

[@rickybasilone8989]

I love watching you discover and explore stuff, it's so inspiring

[@alicyjinx8923]

I'm someone who grew up listening to CDs and MP3s and I think Vinyl sounds really nice, and dropping the needle on the record and then watching the needle slowly make it's way to the center of the record is a very tactile and mesmorizing experience. I'm also endlessly fascinated by older technology and audio formats...that's why I have 3 different tape decks and an 8 track player XD

[@electricpaisy6045]

I also enjoy that but what is somewhere between sad and annoying to me is that since the rewive of vinyl people romanticised it so much, they will tell you it's better and they won't accept any scientific explanation why they are wrong with that. They even get angry about it sometimes.

[@jamespyacek2691]

Both of my cassette players are broken. But I have plans to fix them. Then I'll buy a turntable.

[@ToMeK3001pro]

"it's too precious" *plays the vinyl backwards few moments later*

[@kindlin]

It sounded like it was dying. And it definitely wasn't designed for that.

[@mrsuperguy2073]

"it was hard questions like where have i hidden your keys" - fucken killed me

[@jopmens6960]

Vinyl = music + random ASMR

[@reiniervanzwieten7092]

If you have a clean vinyl and good gear there are no crackles

[@Callie_Cosmo]

Reinier van zwieten well then you would loose the best part of listening to vinyl :/

[@off_Planet]

@@reiniervanzwieten7092 That is, in fact, a lie. A vinyl record will always have a poor noise performance when compared to digital audio. It's funny how Vinyl Stans are pretty much all physics deniers.

[@reiniervanzwieten7092]

i didn't say anything about noise. I was talking about crackles. I am not stupid i know about audio :P. It's just stupid how some people think that vinyl always has crackles while that's not the case. And when i point it out they think i'm saying vinyl is superior(which i am not saying is the case)

[@shreyanshdarshan3199]

Minutephysics, kurzgesagt, and now you! Today is a good day 😂

[@jesselanting3931]

Shreyansh Darshan now we just need a cpcgrey vid and it will be complete

[@shreyanshdarshan3199]

Or a 3blue1brown vid 😊 Edit: Smarter Every Day just uploaded 😮😮

[@PratikPatel]

So did physicsgirl

[@Henrix1998]

jesse lanting And Vsauce

[@notmyname5449]

Almost the same comment was on SmarterEveryDay's video today ;)

[@jahrenskiashkevron1499]

10:24 This is Steve as you should know him.

[@zanryll]

On alt J's album this is all yours there is a lock groove before the final track. This way you have to manually move the needle past the groove to listen to the "hidden" track

[@cathyerley3057]

Steve, you crack me up the faces you make sometimes, but I learn something new with each of your videos, like multi-groove records. (I too used to take my toys apart to see how they worked. Still do, in fact!)

[@joystickmusic]

oh man the dust and fingerprints on your records! O_O

[@Ricocossa1]

I agree the lock groove on sgt peppers is creepy as hell. I remember when I first listened to it. My record player just stops when it hits the end, so the sound would get lower and lower in pitch until it stopped. When you don't expect it it's quite creepy.

[@andrewballard780]

Thank you so much for all your incredibly entertaining and informative videos. You are a legend, keep up the good work.

[@xja85mac]

I love your hand keeping on turning the record inside the logo. Good job!

[@DaveShevy]

I love this video so much! Wish I could like it twice:) Thank you as always!

[@Badassvidsz]

No problem just make more accounts ................lol :-)

[@Beateau]

One of my favorite lock-grooves is on a Mars Volta vinyl that sounds just like a dripping faucet.

[@PiotrBarcz]

The lock groove is: 1. Yeah, meant to keep the needle from skidding off onto the label, deafening everyone in the room with the scratching and to keep the needle from wearing down really quick 2. The biggest reason, I think, on 33 rpm records and other more modern records is to give the machine's auto-stop mechanism time to actually lift the needle and return it to it's cradle

[@tomharner83]

I don't know what I expected when I clicked on this video.... But this was awesome! My family started getting into record again... We'll be in the look out for these weird records now.

[@samoopsd]

10:58 wow, TF2 was confirmed years ago in a toy with subliminal messages, valve really out did themselves!

[@hsavietto]

I'm not really a fan of vinyl recods, but touching their surface with your fingers makes you look like a savage.

[@AndrewKay]

Or like a DJ.

[@hsavietto]

Andrew Kay thanks for reinforcing my point!

[@SocietateaAscendenta]

Shhhh...........

[@pow9606]

Hey you lay off my fingers OK

[@jawa7609]

Just here to keep the chat and video alive! Thanks Steve, I actually lol'd!

[@styleplague]

Very happy to find your channel!

[@55Ramius]

Very interesting. I remember playing around with those rotary string pulled sound toy. Pull string after positioned dial to hear a cow or something. If you give the string a small tug at the right time you can get it to say- This is what a cow sounds like - then tug and it would be a chicken sound or something. I used to confuse my little niece with it. lol

[@ChertineP]

55Ramius yes! The See N Say, right?

[@55Ramius]

Yes ! That was the name. I could not for the life of me remember what it was. : ) My niece is grown and has her own business now. Also she does not confuse cows with chickens anymore, after therapy .... lol

[@mchevre]

Hey! I have Evol on vinyl too. I'll have to check that out, never noticed it.

[@Warhawk76]

I love the anecdotes about the toy and your childhood. You are I seem to be close in age, and I was always taking stuff apart as a kid too, so good times hearing about that

[@burkeysvids]

My dad had that horse racing record - it blew my mind as a kid! I always thought it was a skip that cause the randomness, I never knew it was 8 seperate tracks. It's really kind of cool to have discovered an answer to that question of how that works - 30 years after I had that question!

[@davidvirgilio4166]

I think it would be interesting to record a known sample of white noise onto a high quality vinyl record, play it back on a high quality player, digitize it with a good ADC, then correlate that with the original white noise. It would interesting to observe the noise which is introduced because of the vinyl. Perhaps even doing the playback at different speeds to measure how the dynamics of the needle movement affect the system.

[@volbla]

Wouldn't it be only harder and more ambiguous to try and distinguish noise from noise? Why not just do it with a plain sine wave and compare that.

[@W4LL37SK83R]

Because noise has many frequencies but a plain sine wave just has one. Also I assume the idea was to analyze the difference using a computer or something like that, not just listening with your ears.

[@davidvirgilio4166]

Volbla - Good question. A key word I used is *known* white noise. So I can compare the output of the system to the known signal. There are ways of doing that computationally on a computer. The advantage of doing it this way is that the response of a linear system can be determined with a very short sample. A disadvantage would be it's harder to detect nonlinear behavior such as harmonic excitations at a given frequency. So yeah putting other signals in there such as a sine wave which rises in pitch and sweeps out the entire spectrum would be a good idea. Thanks!

[@volbla]

I think i understand _slightly_ better. I'm glad if i was any sort of help :3

[@MarkTillotson]

Just play a popadum, that's close enough.

[@luka9843]

1:20 you can see the record getting scratched and vinyl shavinga coming up.

[@nrgzrbunny7775]

Luka Agulashvili I think it's just dust already on the record

[@thepatchinatior]

loving this window into your childhood here, steve

[@jacobduncan87]

Very cool I collect vinyls and never knew about the multiple tracks I'll have to keep an eye out for those. I learned something new today.

[@DavidGreen_au]

Wow. That was a blast from the past. I had the Monty Python record and the Horse racing game (back in the days of antiquity). Transferring Side 2 of Python to a cassette tape (as none of ever did back then :) ) was a problematic, involving several restarts to get it right.

[@deepblue8143]

Ah Crosley, the number one when it comes to audio Fidelity and quality.

[@hajoact]

The shittest quality I've ever heard/seen.

[@sadsongs7731]

9:07 "through the magic of buying two..."

[@lewismassie]

A small Steve disassembling his toys to mess with people is an amazing image

[@TmoVie93]

I can't be the only one thinking at 8:32 : "Piiigs in Spaaaaaaaace!"

[@unoriginalusernameno999]

OUTRO MUSIC please!

[@Nil_Echo]

Godspeed You! Black Emperor has a locked groove for the F#A#(infinity) album making a really cool ambient riff, and Tool's Opiate has a secret track where the groove splits and half the time you play it, the needle goes into a different groove.

[@timothyjohns3561]

9:58... LOL... btw: you now owe me a new Macbook.... because mine is covered in the mouthful of coffee I was drinking.

[@DIO-nm2ut]

2:10 he said funny guys

[@PierreThierryKPH]

Monty Python, amazing yet again!

[@guilhermeaandrade]

This was really cool. I though I was going to hate this video but I ended up loving it. Congratulations.

[@rachelrodgers9171]

I love this guy's expression when the robot did the ''gunfire'' sound as it plays the voice backwards.

[@tobyjackson6514]

No wonder vinyl sounds worse, when its played on a crosley.

[@Knaeckebrotsaege]

yeah the intro and that crosley on the floor made me stop watching pretty much instantly

[@ophello]

Wait a minute. Does every question start with “where do they live”? How does that tiny vinyl have all the questions?

[@trollenz]

"what pictures to together ?", "where do they live ?", "match the beginning sound ?" and "how many are there ?" are the 4 different questions, remaining 2 tracks are for right or wrong answer.

[@wesleycassford]

Wow thank you for this I was losing my mind trying to figure it out

[@Antilevitation]

that openingstatement, i love you

[@JimmyLundberg]

Thanks for the brilliant video. Really interesting! Cheers

[@BensWorkshop]

I'm not surprised your vinyl sounds worse than your CDs. If you handled my records like that or got them anywhere near that turntable I wouldn't let you in my house ever again.

[@nilswegner2881]

Benedict White I wouldn't either. And please, please throw that Crosley out and grab some vintage equipment

[@nathanielscreativecollecti6392]

Or a U-TURN orbit

[@nilswegner2881]

Nathaniel Neubert yeah or if you really want something not expensive but new get an atlp120

[@halo3odst]

Or i could just be that vinyl doesnt sound as good as CDs.

[@halo3odst]

Alright, allow me to put the debate in the ground where it belongs *10" open reel deck at 15 IPS.*

[@Redspl]

christ allmighty, why is your record so dirty

[@deadeyeduncan5022]

Just look at how he's handling them, shouldn't have to ask.

[@eanerickson1968]

Reds it’s so filthy

[@scytube]

The way he’s middle-finger massaging that vinyl at the end, while not for a second breaking eye contact …

[@kamoroso94]

That's really groovy, Steve.

[@kirillfedtsov]

Sonic Youth!

[@cerebralaudio5587]

I'm glad you were trolling with the title of this video, and admitted it up front... I was ready to watch this video and write a comment about the inaccurate nature of it... Fortunately there is only two things to "complain" about: you are totally handling those records incorrectly. And, please, get a better turntable than a Crosley...they are absolute garbage. As for the other content: yeah, I knew about the lock groove and multiple grooves things... But there are things that you can't do with a record that you can with a CD, such as hidden tracks... I've had at least one CD where you won't find a track until you go back past the first track... I've also had CD's that you didn't find all the tracks unless you were willing to skip out to track 60 or 80, when the last listed track was actually 10 or 12... How is that possible? It has to do with the ways CD's are encoded... They contain a "header" that is kind of like a table to contents to the CD. The specs for the header allow for some interesting and unusual track arrangements... So, either way there were creative things you could do with both CD and records...kind of makes them equal in my book...

[@nilswegner2881]

CerebralAudio it is a shame, that he was Trolling with the title, because it is just true what the title says

[@cerebralaudio5587]

Hahaha - nice attempt at a reverse-troll... I'll play along. ;) The simple fact is: it is objectively provable via scientific measurement that digital reproduction is more accurate (aka better) than analog reproduction. (I'm not talking about crappy low quality lossy encoding formats, but correctly created, non-lossy CD's, FLAC encodings, etc.) On the subjective side: your ears may *prefer* the sound of analog reproduction from vinyl, tapes, etc. But that does not make it better (in the objective, scientific sense) than digital reproduction.

[@TheGreenDoggoOfWisdom]

My Green Day record has a hidden track. Vinyl can have hidden tracks.

[@baruchben-david4196]

As I recall, every record player I ever used, automatically brought the arm back to its resting place. I never heard anything in a lock groove.

[@jeanpauls123]

You could have included Eyes of the Heart a 3 side jazz album by American pianist Keith Jarrett, the fourth side is a continuous silent Groove very good for testing "rumble and hum" ( unwanted noise from the motor and magnetic interference feeding back into the pick-up cartridge) On a good quality Hi-fi record deck.

[@kakurerud7516]

if you directly capture a vinyl record to a cd (or equivalent quality format NOT applying frequency 'loudness' compression) and do a blind test, you can not tell the difference without guessing. I use to do this test on all sorts of snooty "audiophiles." It was fun times. They can also not tell if both sources are vinyl or digital. (also I found out the low limit for stereo sampling rate is around 33khz before they notice something's up) and yes it is true the older the subjects were the less highs they are able to notice.

[@kakurerud7516]

I use to do evil stuff like record the raw output from a cartridge (dont matter what kind) and then apply the equalization to the wav file's output during playback.

[@robertromero8692]

Kakureru D I love what you did. It really does expose the whole "vinyl is better" nonsense. There have been other such tests exposing similar nonsense involving amplifiers, speaker wire, etc.

[@georgekolbaia4246]

Kakureru D Michael Fremer can tell a difference :) (I am at Analog Side)

[@jeremystanger1711]

"That's not controversial"

[@CockatooDude]

In fairness it shouldn't be. You can make digital audio sound however you want. The same cannot be said for records.

[@deadeyeduncan5022]

@@CockatooDude Yep, you can make them sound however you want. And that's why nothing sounds like it should sound.

[@gavinjenkins899]

Sure some silly people believe anything you can say. I think he just meant to say something more like "objectively true"

[@reiniervanzwieten7092]

Like modern vinyl is mostly stuff recorded digitally and then ported to vinyl so same quality as the digital stuff. But because of the nature of digital audio if audio hasn't been digitised it is better.

[@threepe0]

@@deadeyeduncan5022 absolute nonsense.

[@jedgrahek1426]

I love the pretty pink Siamese Dream vinyl, and the see-though green of Pisces Iscariot. And I've listened to the copies of the White Album and Abbey Road on vinyl that I got from my dad at least as many times as listening to them digitally. Playing the White Album loud on a good system, knowing everyone in the building is hearing Back in the USSR.... feels great.

[@macronencer]

I have Matching Tie and Handkerchief, but it was on cassette, and I had no idea about the double groove thing. Now I need to go and check whether I have all the tracks that were on the vinyl version!

[@Henrix1998]

Doooon't touch the vinyl with your dirty fingers! Only touch the edge or the middle

[@AndrewKay]

That's what they said to Grandmaster Flash, too.

[@MarkTillotson]

Remember to clean the fingerprints off with emery cloth and white-spirit now...

[@Blitterbug]

...or with a hammer :)

[@coriscotupi]

I never expected to live in a time where someone would need to explain to newer generations how a vinyl record works, that the needle goes down a spiral groove, etc. The future definitely has come.

[@rayrowley4013]

Can you show how you made your own recordings to see if your parents knew where their keys were? Also how do the cards work do they physically change something?

[@bobbart4198]

... ' Matching Tie and Handkerchief ' in the original vinyl is AMAZING ... I bought this thing when it first came out in '75 (the US release of the 1973 album) and played it for an hour before I got the odd track to work. Still got it, still use it ...

[@GroovingPict]

a record doesnt start out as a "blank disc", it starts out as a lump of vinyl about the size of a hockey puck... it is pressed by metal stampers which has the negative of the grooves, which both flattens the "puck" into a disc, affixes the paper labels to it (theyre not stickers!), and gives it its grooves all at the same time. A vinyl record has never been a "blank disc". Labels are not stickers: stickers are self-adhesive; labels are just plain paper.

[@tookitogo]

GroovingPict hah, I didn’t see your comment until after I posted mine, saying almost verbatim what you did! (Except I didn’t mention the labels.) GMTA!!!

[@whitepointstarproductions8905]

Lathe cut records would fit what he described but you're right yeah

[@MarkTillotson]

Hence the term "pressing". BTW: www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/29/bone-music-soviet-bootleg-records-pressed-on-xrays

[@shickster1]

An excellent example of manufacturing: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hneXcmetmdOLobc

[@deadeyeduncan5022]

"affixes paper labels to it" So you're saying they put a sticker on it....because that's what a sticker is.

[@danielsmith7105]

Better experience yes, playing a vinyl is more of an event. But its not better sounding. A properly high bit rate mp3 encoding is indistinguishable from a vinyl or CD in terms of sound quality to the human ear, which is all that counts. Vinyl just sounds different, a kind of difference which many from the older generations prefer. Im not an audio snob, ill play whatever sounds better to me,no matter what the cost or format. I dislike the vinyl sound myself.

[@nilswegner2881]

Daniel Smith how to you play a vinyl? Vinyl is just the material the discs are made of. Their actual name is records or LPs in this case

[@andreasleonlandgren3092]

Then again the vinyl is gentler on the ears so you can listen for a longer time Than to 192khz 32 bit.

[@gavinjenkins899]

it doesn't sound better to ANYONE, because evn if you like the imperfections, the imperfections could be perfectly mimicked on CDs anyway

[@bizarrefruit]

Really cool video, I also love bone records from countries where rock music was censored; using X-ray vinyl to print music on was such a clever idea.

[@gigglysamentz2021]

3:48 I assume it's also convenient to have a bigger space for sound by having a wide lock groove