Twelve-inch single
The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl (polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a "single" or a few related sound tracks on each surface, compared to LPs (long play) which have several songs on each side. It is named for its 12-inch (300 mm) diameter. This allows for louder levels to be cut on the disc by the mastering engineer, which in turn gives a wider dynamic range, and thus better sound quality. This record type is commonly used in disco and dance music genres, where DJs use them to play in clubs. They are played at either 33+1⁄3 or 45 rpm. The conventional 7-inch single usually holds three or four minutes of music at full volume. The 12-inch LP sacrifices volume for extended playing time.
"12"" redirects here. For the unit of measurement equal to twelve inches, see Foot (unit).Technical features[edit]
Twelve-inch singles typically have much shorter playing time than full-length LPs, and thus require fewer grooves per inch. This extra space permits a broader dynamic range or louder recording level as the grooves' excursions (i.e., the width of the groove waves and distance traveled from side to side by the turntable stylus) can be much greater in amplitude, especially in the bass frequencies important for dance music. Many record companies in the 1970s began producing 12-inch (30 cm) singles at 33+1⁄3 rpm, although 45 rpm gives better treble response.[1]
Later developments[edit]
Core sales period[edit]
Notable 1970s and 1980s releases making use of the new length opportunities of the format included Donna Summer's "Love To Love You Baby" (16 min 50 seconds), "I Feel Love" (15:45), and Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" (15:00).[126][127] The broad visual spacing of the grooves on the twelve-inch records made it easy for the DJ in locating the approximate area of the "breaks" on the disc's surface in dim club light (without having to listen while dropping and re-dropping the stylus to find the right point). A quick study of any DJs favorite discs will reveal mild wear in the "break points" on the discs' surfaces that can clearly be seen by the naked eye, which further eases the "cueing" task (a club DJs tone-arm cartridge will be heavily weighted and mild wear will seldom spoil the sound quality). Many DJ-only remix services, such as Ultimix and Hot Tracks, issued sets with deliberately visualised groove separations (i.e., the record was cut with narrow and wider spacings that could be seen on the surface, marking the mix points on the often multi-song discs).[128] Motown were one of the first to "eye cue" their 12-inch disco discs, giving DJs the track's BPM and info on the exact length of the various sections of the song - one of the earliest examples of a record company recognising how important the DJ was to become by making their product more user-friendly.[129]
Following the lead of the US club DJs, using 12-inch extended versions in the UK as a mixing tool was advocated particularly by James Hamilton of the Record Mirror music weekly paper, with him notably indicating the approximate BPM of late 1970s disco tracks onwards. Increasingly in the 1980s, many pop and even rock artists released twelve-inch singles that included longer, extended, or remixed versions of the actual track being promoted by the single.[130] These versions were frequently labeled with the parenthetical designation "12-inch version", "12-inch mix", "extended remix", "dance mix", or "club mix", before its usage becoming commonplace in the early/mid 1980s developing alongside turntabalism in use for the electro and hip-hop genres, but was regularised with the advent of the late 1980s house music scene. Later musical styles took advantage of this new format and recording levels on vinyl twelve-inch "maxi-singles" have steadily increased, culminating in the extremely loud (or "hot") cuts of drum and bass records of the 1990s and early 2000s.[131]
Many record labels produced mainly twelve-inch singles (in addition to albums) during the 1980s, lots being mostly regular A and B-sides, not remixes. Certain labels such as Factory Records, only ever released a handful of seven-inch singles. One of Factory's resident artists, alternative rock/dance quartet New Order, produced the biggest-selling twelve-inch record ever in the United Kingdom, "Blue Monday", selling about 800,000 copies on the format and over a million copies in total (not counting later remixes). It was somewhat helped by the fact that Factory did not release a seven-inch version of the single until 1988, five years after the single was originally released as a twelve-inch-only release. Besides, the seven-inch version that was released was not the original 1983 version released on twelve-inch, but a re-recording called "Blue Monday 1988".[132]