There is magic in playing vinyl records, but there’s nothing magical about how a turntable works. Red Bull Music Academy has created an amazing 4-part interactive, animated graphic to show the inner workings of a record player.
Using a turntable that looks a lot like a Technics SL-1200, the first part takes you through the components of a deck.
Next stop is the difference between a belt drive and a direct drive motor.
Next you’re going to learn about the tonearm’s counterweight, anti-skate, tonearm and cueing lever.
And last stop will be a brief journey into the wonderful world of cartridges and needles. You will also learn how a stylus extracts sound from a record.
Check out the full guide here.