12-inch

RCA CED VideoDisc interactive (1983 – 1986)

In 1983, RCA launched a version of their CED VideoDisc system that offered random access to enable interactive features for educational and entertainment titles. The discs were ‘banded’ to allow the user to skip to a different segment.

Two models of VideoDisc player offered the ability to play the interactive disks – the SJT400 and the SKT400 – and these could be used with their own 30-button remote control, or RCA’s Digital Command Centre which could also operate certain RCA televisions and VCRs.

Just a handful of VideoDiscs were produced that made use of the interactive features, including initially ‘A Week at the Races’ (with races arranged so that participants didn’t know which horse would win) and ‘Many Roads to Murder’ (with 16 different murder mystery scenarios). The interactive titles were housed in black caddies to distinguish them.

RCA ceased production of CED VideoDisc players in April 1984. Although CED VideoDiscs continued to be sold into 1986, there were only ever a handful of interactive titles produced and these are now rare.

A couple of titles, NFL Football CED-1 (San Diego Chargers vs. Oakland Raiders) and NFL Football CED-2 (Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Redskins), were designed for use in the Bally Midway NFL Football arcade console. This console offered live action footage via the CED VideoDisc played in an RCA SJT400 player inside the machine.

Sources / Resources

Dynaquad (1970 – 1976)

In 1969, Dynaco introduced a system to ‘derive’ surround sound from stereophonic LPs by using a passive electronic circuit called a Hafler Circuit. This was designed by Dave Hafler of Dynaco in the early 1960s and required four speakers in a diamond configuration for derived quadraphonic (2:2:4) sound.

Around 1970, Dynaco introduced the Dynaquad system for encoding matrixed quadraphonic sound (4:2:4). The system was similar to EV Stereo-4 (EV-4) introduced in 1970, and was broadly compatible.

A sampler disc for the Dynaquad system was released in 1971 on the Vanguard Records label, and by this time it was suggested that the four speakers were placed in the four corners of the room rather than the diamond configuration.

Very few records appear to have used Dynaquad encoding. The 1970 eponymous album by The Flame may have used Dynaquad, along with some of the ‘Environments’ series by Syntonic Research. There were also some LPs and 7-inch singles produced by KL Recordings in the mid-1970s.

Sources / Resources

Aretino Record (1907 – 1914)

Aretino Records were 10-inch (or sometimes 12-inch) 78 rpm shellac records with an unusually large centre hole of three-inch diameter. This was the largest spindle-hole of any record and meant the centre label was reduced to a narrow ring.

The label was based in Chicago in the US, and began producing disc records and the phonograph machines to play them around 1907. The large spindle on the phonograph meant that only Aretino Records could be played on them (though adapters were available to play Aretino Records on other phonograph machines). The players were sold very cheaply since consumers were locked into purchasing Aretino Records to play on them. This was a tactic employed by a number of Chicago-based record labels, including the Standard Disc Record (½-inch centre hole), Harmony Disc Record (¾-inch centre hole) United Records (1½-inch centre hole), and Busy Bee Records (rectangular cut-out in addition to standard ¼-inch centre hole).

Aretino records were produced as single-sided and double-sided 10-inch discs, and as double-sided 12-inch discs.

Aretino was merged with Busy Bee records in 1910, and Aretino records ceased production around 1914.

Sources / Resources

LaserDisc with teletext (1981 – late 1990s)

Teletext was a means of displaying text and basic graphics on a television that had the ability to decode the information. Invented in the early 1970s, the first major broadcaster to offer a broadcast teletext system was the BBC with its CEEFAX system formally launched in 1976.

In 1981, BBC Video released a LaserDisc called ‘The BBC Videobook of British Garden Birds’. Labelled as the ‘World’s first videobook’, as well as video of birds in flight and birdsong, the CEEFAX element allowed viewers to read additional information contained on the disc about each of the 70 birds covered.

The use of data on a home video format was said to have been significant in the development of the BBC Domesday project on LV-ROM disc.

After the British Garden Birds disc, teletext mainly appears to have been used in the 1990s to offer subtitles (sometimes in a choice of languages) on LaserDisc titles though there were some titles that had extra information on, such as Pioneer Cinema series that had background notes about the film.

Sources / Resources

Optigan Program Disc (1971 – 1976)

Optigan-music-disc-front
Optigan-music-disc-label-detail
Optigan-music-disc-optical-soundtrack-detail

The Optigan (short for Optical Organ) was an electric organ designed for home use, and used 12-inch plastic discs that stored stored samples of sounds, chords and rhythms. It was first introduced in 1971 by the Optican Corporation, a subsidiary of Mattel.

The Optigan Program Discs were themed around different musical styles such as Latin, pop or Christmas music. The discs themselves were flexible, and contained 57 tracks containing analogue waveforms that were read by a photodiode (rather like the optical soundtracks on motion picture film) after being inserted into a loading area beneath the keyboard.

Thirty-seven of the tracks were for the notes of the keyboard, with the remainder for chords played using buttons with the left hand, and percussion or sounds effects played with rocker switches. As the disc span, a light shone also through the red and white indicators on the disc, and displayed a light on the instrument to act as a metronome. The music books also came with numbers that corresponded to those above the keyboard, to aid anyone that couldn’t read music. Pitch adjustment was possible, and some models offered reverb.

The sounds recorded as optical waveforms were of actual instruments or voices, but unlike the Mellotron that used tape samples, the notes on the Optigan could be played continuously. However, sound quality was considered poor due to the optical system and the cheapness of the Optigan’s components. Despite this, a better quality version marketed by Vako Synthesizers Incorporated and called the Orchestron was sold in the mid-1970s for a time, and was used in commercial recordings such as some by Kraftwerk.

Optigan Corporation sold the rights to the Optigan to Miner Industries in 1973 (who formed a subsidiary called Opsonar to market it) but production ceased in 1976. Since then, many musicians have used the Optigan or samples of its sounds in their music, and there are even some new Program Discs being created.

Sources / Resources

Sony Writable Disk (mid 1980s – mid 1990s)

Sony Writable Disk WDM-6DAO, 4.36 GB
Sony Writable Disk WDM-6DAO, 4.36 GB
Sony Writable Disk WDM-6DAO, 4.36 GB
Sony Writable Disk WDM-6DAO, 4.36 GB

Sony Writable Disks were 12-inch diameter optical disks contained in a caddy (and their own carry case) and were designed to be used in Sony’s WDD (Writable Disk Drive) series of drives such as the WDD-3000, WDD-600, WDD-930 and WDD-931. There were also autochanger units available (Writable Disk Autochanger) such as the WDA-3000, WDA-E330, WDA-E610 and the WDA-E930 to increase capacity still further.

Of the disks themselves (Writable Disk Media), there seem to be four versions:

  • WDM-3DAO, 2.1 GB capacity, CAV (Constant Angular Velocity)
  • WDM-3DLO, 3.2 GB capacity, CLV (Contact Linear Velocity)
  • WDM-6DAO, 4.36 GB capacity, CAV
  • WDM-6DLO, 6.55 GB capacity, CLV

All discs were WORM (Write Once, Read Many) but as they were sectored, data could be added in subsequent sessions. Although the writing process used phase-change technology, it caused a permanent change, so the discs were good for long-term storage of data such as medical images, genealogical records and financial transaction records.

The Sony CRVdisc uses the same form factor, but there is an identification hole on the Writable Disk, and the CRVdisc is not sectored, so the discs are not interchangeable.

Figures

Dimensions: 32.5 cm × 34.4 cm × 1.5 cm

Sources / Resources

Memovox (early 1940s – 1950s)

The Memovox disc was used for voice dictation, and also for recording radio transmissions, for both military and civilian purposes. It consisted of a flexible acetate plastic disc onto which grooves were embossed rather like similar formats such as Audograph or Soundscriber.

Like the Audograph, the Memovox disc used a constant linear velocity system, so the disc speed reduced as the stylus moved towards the outer edge of the disc (Memovox discs were centre-start). The discs have a small locating hole near the centre-hole, to prevent slippage.

The discs themselves were often translucent, white, or green, and seem to have come in different sizes – 16-inch for the larger discs, sometimes 12-inches, down to 7¼-inches for the military version.

A Memovox recorder was used on the Enola Gay to record the communications between flight crew members when the atomic weapon was dropped over Hiroshima, and Memovox recordings exist of radio broadcasts by NBC New York and NBC Chicago at the time of the Pearl Harbor attack.

Sources / Resources

LaserDisc 3D (1990s)

In the latter years of LaserDisc production, a handful of 3D video titles were released on 12-inch LaserDiscs.

Among these were titles such as ‘America’s Greatest Roller Coaster Thrills’, ‘Virtual Sea’ and ‘Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare’ (in which the final scene is 3D). There were also some psychedelic ‘virtual drug’ titles.

These were playable on standard LaserDisc players, and came with the necessary viewing glasses to see the 3D effects.

Six software titles with 3D effects were also released for the Pioneer LaserActive home entertainment system, to be used in combination with the optional LaserActive 3D active shutter goggles made for the system.

Sources / Resources

Vogue – The Picture Record (1946 – 1947)

Vogue picture records were introduced in 1946 by Sav-Way Industries in the US.

They were 78 rpm phonograph records, mostly being 10-inch in diameter (though some 12-inch discs were also released) and used an aluminium core, with the paper artwork being pressed beneath a clear vinyl outer layer. The use of vinyl for records was unusual at the time, since most records were made using shellac, and the sound quality of Vogue records was good.

The artwork featured a colourful illustration reflecting the theme of the song, along with a smaller image of the band leader or singer.

The discs were sold individually, or some could be bought in albums of two discs.

Production ended in 1947. During their brief life, around 74 titles were released on Vogue picture records.

Sources / Resources

12-inch 45 rpm album (1970s – )

Since the 1970s, a number of albums have been released on 45 rpm 12-inch records. Strictly speaking these are not true Long Play records as they don’t share all of the characteristics of the Long Play format as introduced by Columbia in 1948 and  because of the shorter playing time, the album is split across 2 or more discs. Notable early releases included PiL’s ‘Metal Box’ album on three 12-inch discs in 1979, and releases by labels such as the Sarastro in France and HMV Classics 45rpm Dynamic Sound Series in the UK.

The 45 rpm speed was already standard on turntables, being used for 7-inch singles and EPs.

The use of 45 rpm instead of the more usual 33⅓ rpm can produce better sound reproduction. On any phonograph record, the speed decreases as the needle moves towards the centre of the record, resulting in a loss of high frequencies and an increase in distortion. Increasing the speed to 45 rpm reduces this problem (though it does not eliminate it) and should allow for an overall improvement in sound quality to compensate for the loss of convenience caused by having to turn the record over every 10-15 minutes.

Most 45 rpm albums are produced for the audiophile market and hence are also made of 180 gram virgin vinyl.

Sources / Resources