painolevyistä

Painolevyistä refers to a type of sound recording medium that was widely used in the mid-20th century. They were also known as record discs or vinyl records due to their physical composition. Made of a flexible material, typically polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or a related plastic, these records featured audio recorded in analog format on their surface.

The process of creating a painolevy was labor-intensive and required a specialized machine called a lacquer cutter. The engineer or artist would record a performance onto a metal stamper, which was then coated with a layer of nitrocellulose, a resin that adhered to the PVC material. The stamper was then pressed into a plastic blank, creating a mirror image of the audio. These mirror-imaged records would be stacked, and a layer of PVC would be applied and re-molded on top, blanking any information that wasn't the intended audio on the outer surface.

Before becoming commercially used, painolevy made their way into the early sound recordings. Their initial use can be attributed to the experimental phase of recording sound, dating back to the late 1800s. Companies like Gramophone Company were among the first to adopt the technique. Early commercial releases of this technology emerged in the 1900s.

Painolevy played a crucial role in the history of music distribution, paving the way for vinyl to become a staple format of music consumption for generations to come. Although they were eventually surpassed by newer technologies, they remain an important piece of audio recording history. The lasting impact of painolevy is a testament to innovation and the drive to seek better means of reproducing sound.