Vinyl

The cover was a little dusty, but when Jake pulled the vinyl record out of its protective case, it had been untouched since the day it had been put away. His uncle had just recently purchased a record player - though what had possessed him to do so in this age of CDs and digital media was beyond any of them - and truth be told, Jake was pretty excited to try a record out. He knew what they were obviously - he wasn't that young - but he had definitely been born well after they were out of style. CDs had already ben taking over cassette tapes when he was growing up - he'd never heard a record actually playing before, much less be the one to actually set it in motion.

He knew the basic concepts. You set the record in motion, and then you put the needle on the outside edge away from the ridges to keep the music from being damaged, and somehow those ridges would translate into music that played through the speakers. How exactly that worked he didn't admittedly understand, but he didn't really need to to actually play one. His uncle had had to point out to him, though, that there were different kinds of records, each of different sizes, and thus requiring different turning speeds, so it was important to make sure that the player was set to the right speed before he played the record. It wouldn't damage anything to play it at the wrong speed, but the music wouldn't sound right.

Everything about it felt so delicate as he put the surprisingly heavy vinyl record into the player and set it in motion, watching it turn for a few rotations before gingerly picking up the needle. He was desperately afraid of putting that down wrong. It seemed like such an easy mistake to make, and these records hadn't been in production for years. They weren't like CDs that could be produced by any idiot at home with a computer. Jake didn't even have the slightest clue how to go about recreating a vinyl record.

There was a slight scratching sound as he set the needle down, but his uncle reassured him that that was how it was supposed to sound. He watched the needle slowly slide inwards towards the ridges, and as it slipped between them, the music simply started. There was no fade in or fancy intro of any kind. There was just music, and a soft staticy background noise that came with the territory.

Jake couldn't quite explain why, but he liked the way the music sounded more here in this lower quality format than on any CD he had ever listened to. There was just something about it that made the music feel more... alive, somehow. Authentic maybe. He wasn't sure, but he liked it.

He spent the entire day playing his uncle's collection of records from beginning to end. The more he listened, the more he wished people still made records. He would have loved to get his own record player, and start his own vinyl collection of his favorite albums from his favorite bands.

Maybe he'd have to go learn how to make vinyl records after all.