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It's in the grooves


The most straightforward example of relationship between dynamics and how the grooves look is any Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture, but any dynamically wide-ranging LP will do. (Pop, Rock, or elevator music will not do, but classical chamber music should also work for my example).

As I'm writing this I have before me Telarc's 1812 Overture on vinyl. By looking at the grooves (with the naked eye) you can see where the canons hit. With even a magnifying glass of even weak strength can see where the canons hit to the nano second, and you will say to yourself, wow! It is no wonder that tone arms have difficulty staying in the grooves at that point. The grooves have shear rises and drops. The grooves are very wide, almost like the unused space between the end of the music and the label.


I also have before me Ormandy's 1812 on RCA Red Seal. This version is very much compressed compared to the Telarc. So, the grooves, compared to the Telarc, are close together. Nevertheless, the loud passages are, too, very visible compared to the quieter passages on the same disc.

This is why you can fit so much more chamber music on an LP than you can music with wide dynamics.

(Also, with an LP with both quiet and loud passages if you hold it up to the light the more uniform quiet passages will look dark black, while the more uneven louder passages will look "gray/black")

Interestingly, Jared Sacks of Channel Classics (see threads below) explanation on why the entire Mahler 2nd could not fit on a single disc, cited the wide-ranging dynamics of the piece which would not allow for it all to fit. That was brand new to me. I did not realize that digital had those types of "analog" limitations.


Robert C. Lang

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