Backcueing records

[bandit957]

Anyone else ever backcue a record? When I was on my college radio station in the 1990s, I had to do this.

I think for some records you'd turn the turntable backwards a half-turn, and for other records it was a quarter-turn. It depended on whether it was an album or a 45. The turntable there had a neutral setting that allowed this. You would place the needle on the beginning of the record when it was on neutral, then spin it backwards to just before the music began. (Also, I remember a promotional 45 of some song that had the same song on both sides, but it looked like one side had been covered with Elmer's glue, and someone had written on the label, "Play other side." Guess which side I played?)

There was also a small local AM station in the 1980s where any big hit song had a scratchy sound at the beginning, probably because of it being backcued so many times. When I used to buy used 45's, there were a couple of them that had this same scratchy sound at the beginning.

[Life in Paradise]

Anyone else ever backcue a record? When I was on my college radio station in the 1990s, I had to do this.

I think for some records you'd turn the turntable backwards a half-turn, and for other records it was a quarter-turn. It depended on whether it was an album or a 45. The turntable there had a neutral setting that allowed this. You would place the needle on the beginning of the record when it was on neutral, then spin it backwards to just before the music began. (Also, I remember a promotional 45 of some song that had the same song on both sides, but it looked like one side had been covered with Elmer's glue, and someone had written on the label, "Play other side." Guess which side I played?)

There was also a small local AM station in the 1980s where any big hit song had a scratchy sound at the beginning, probably because of it being backcued so many times. When I used to buy used 45's, there were a couple of them that had this same scratchy sound at the beginning.

Did it many times when I was working in AM radio in the 80s.  we had quite a few "burned" records where I would start the record and then "pot" it up (bring up the sound) going from one song to the next to hide the burn.  We went to tapes in the 80s for some of our more used songs and I know that they faded away to CDs and now everything is digital and on computers.

One thing to note, there was a laser type vinyl record player created (even in the 80s) that could read those old records and play them without the wear noise.  As far as I know, it has never been marketed to the masses because the cost would be excessive, and people didn't worry about their vinyl records since they had CDs and now things like Spotify.

[capt.ron]

Us house / techno DJ's called that "cue burn"... when one finds the first beat and then backs it up right before the beat and throw it at the right time. A few of my old 12" tracks had cue burn but not too bad.

[catch22]

Yes, back in my college radio days.  Our turntables had a felt pad on top of the platter.  This allowed one to cue/backcue the record, then for playback use one hand to engage the turntable while holding the record stationary with a finger then letting go at just the right time.

We had problems with scratching too, so we eventually put the "top 40" stuff on Collins cartridges to get around that.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

I read this thread's title as "Barbequeing records", and I wondered who would BBQ a record xD.

[hotdogPi]

I read this thread's title as "Barbequeing records", and I wondered who would BBQ a record xD.

It's like burning a CD.

[kevinb1994]

I read this thread's title as "Barbequeing records", and I wondered who would BBQ a record xD.

It's like burning a CD.

Disco Inferno?

[Big John]

I read this thread's title as "Barbequeing records", and I wondered who would BBQ a record xD.

It's like burning a CD.

Disco Inferno?

Disco demolition night https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAJfOcnYYEQ

[dlsterner]

I read this thread's title as "Barbequeing records", and I wondered who would BBQ a record xD.

It's like burning a CD.

Disco Inferno?

Burning Down The House?

[dlsterner]

Nah, never did.  I like to think that I had some respect for my LPs and my turntable motor.  I had (still have) a nice LP collection from the pre-CD days.

Then again, I was never running a radio station like many of the previous posters.

[ErmineNotyours]

I too was a college DJ at a station in 1990 that was still primarily playing records.  Before this, the last 80s top-40 station to come on the air in Seattle, KHIT, started in 1984.  The previous stations I had heard played all their songs from carts, so it seemed strange to hear signs of real records being played on this new station, with cue burns and one turntable being faster than the other.