Maybe, like us, you’ve always wondered how vinyl records work ie how they transmit recorded audio to record players. The Vinyl Factory explains in a 36 second Instagram video! Today we learned:
– It starts with a metal lacquer
– That lacquer is cut on a lathe in a mastering studio
– The audio is etched into a spiral groove—a kind of 3D fingerprint of the sound
Then they stamp that groove into soft PVC using high pressure and heat.
Each side of the V-shaped groove holds one channel of the stereo mix.
What really landed for us was the explanation of playback:
– As the record spins, the stylus sits in the groove
– The bumps and ridges make it vibrate
– Those vibrations are turned into an electrical signal
– That signal becomes the music we hear
No fluff, no overcomplication—just a solid visual breakdown of the science behind the sound. The icing on the cake is the ASMR visuals of vinyl being cut and pressed!
If you’ve ever stared at a spinning record and wondered *how on earth does this actually work?, this is the best explanation we’ve seen in under a minute.
Have you ever really thought about what your stylus is doing while a track plays?