Needle playing a record. Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of the needle (stylus) of a record player in a groove on a record. A record is used to store sound. It is produced by a machine with a head which vibrates in time to the sound being recorded. This cuts a groove in the record which varies according to the vibrations. A needle can then reproduce these vibrations as it runs along the groove and these, when amplified, produce the original sound.