I can sort of understand records mimicing the sound of instruments, but voices are so unique, how did we ever figure out the exact carving of a piece of vinyl that when you drag a needle across it, you’ll get the same sound as x or y person’s voice exactly?
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An important concept to understand is that while sounds can be very complicated, they are fundamentally just changes in air pressure. You can think about how your ears hear the sound, which is by your ear drum moving back and forth. No matter how complex the sound, your ear drum can only go back or forth, and doesn’t feel any more complex movements. From this perspective, you can know that sounds can be extremely complex as patterns, but the fundamentals of the physics are simple.
If you then think about how the sound moves your ear drum, a vinyl record isn’t very complicated. The depth of the groove goes up or down by the same amount that you want your eardrum to go back or forth, and you end up with a recording of that sound.
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