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Topic: Thoughts on the 12 inch single format

29th Aug 2013, 6:15 PM
	YankeeDisc SUBS When in doubt.......accelerate........ Member since Dec 2010 734 Points	no, no, no, you're getting it all wrong, so now I'm gonna get medievally mathmatical on you're asses....... A 7" single playing at 45 r.p.m. has a given speed at the point where the stylus touches the vinyl, lets say it equates to fifteen inches per second (15 i.p.s.) as the disc revolves. (If you want you can work it out with Pi R squared, and all that, you're on your own....) Similarly, an LP album playing at 33 ⅓ RPM will have an equivalent speed of fifteen inches per second (15 i.p.s.) where the stylus touches the vinyl, due to the fact that a larger diameter disc playing at the slower speed of 33 ⅓ RPM, will equate with the 7" single. The quality at those two standard speeds should be equivalent to a reel to reel tape recorder running at fifteen inches per second (15 i.p.s.), which is Hi-Fi. Moving on, if you have a 12" Single playing at 33 ⅓ RPM, with a single track per side (US Columbia 12" all played at 33 ⅓ RPM, as far as I'm aware, (check the Columbia US Discography, starting in 1977 on this site), and providing the track lasts no more than 10 minutes maximum, then the mastering engineer can EQ / cut the disc, and impart into the grooves plenty of low frequency bass which was ideal for discos. It stands to reason that a 12" Single, cut to play at 45 r.p.m. at the same diameter as a 33 ⅓ RPM 12" Single, then the speed where the stylus touches the vinyl will be greater, at roughly twenty five inches per second (25 i.p.s.), which will improve the dynamics of the sound range over that of the 33 ⅓ RPM 12" Single, and the bass can rattle your back teeth..... The length in time of the 45 r.p.m. 12" would have to be shorter, about seven minutes long I would guesstimate, and once cranked up in a disco, would sound great, or is is grate, depending on how sensitive your ears are. To flip this, if you have a 7" single which plays at 33 ⅓ RPM, and there were plenty, to allow much longer duration single tracks, you were bound to lose lose a lot of the frequency range, and subsequently, they sound 'quiet', as EQ quality cannot be maintained the longer the time of the track, and due to the constraints that the cutting engineer was under squeezing too much time onto a single. Ideally, the 12" single came about in 1975 as DJs wanted longer tracks to play for their patrons, and of course, some used two copies to intermix breaks, and keep the punters on the dance floor, until they dropped with exhaustion. Froggy, who I knew (RIP Steve Howlett), was excellent at mixing tracks, and had a 3000kw system......ouch. I hope that it's all a bit clearer now....