great article on record pressing. just the right amount of detail and
length. all i can say is: what a freakin' complicated and obscure
process it is!

in the back of my mind i thought you could scrounge up and old record
lathe and cut some records in a back room if you had the time and
inclination. but it's so much more complicated than that. so, so, so
much more complicated and resource-intensive.

clearly this is something to be left in the hands of dedicated
experts.

great article on record pressing. just the right amount of detail and
length. all i can say is: what a freakin' complicated and obscure
process it is!

in the back of my mind i thought you could scrounge up and old record
lathe and cut some records in a back room if you had the time and
inclination. but it's so much more complicated than that. so, so, so
much more complicated and resource-intensive.

clearly this is something to be left in the hands of dedicated
experts.

I spent many years cuttting records and while I haven't seen the piece I can
tell you that it's a lot more complicated than people think. Part of the
problem it that it takes a long time to learn just how to cut a disc. Remember
this is an energy conversion process and they're always difficult. A phono disc
takes electrical energy and converts it to mechanical energy. The
microphone/loudspeaker is another energy conversion and just think how much
time we spend talking about how loudspeakers and mics "color" the sound and how
many different mics and loudspeakers there are and how they all sound
different. Well, every time you cut a disc you start that process fresh and you
have to find out what happens to the program material when you convert it.
Experience helps but you have to cut and playback and most of all you have to
look in the microscope to see what the groove looks like. You have to look at a
lot of groove before it starts to make sense at all. You can learn it but it's
harder today because there isn't the volume of cutting that there once was.
Before you cut a disc yourself you cut discs to other people's specs and that's
where you learned how the process worked. Took a couple of years cutting 8
hours a day. that's a lot of discs.
Plus it takes a certain frame of mind. A lot can go wrong with a disc, some
things things that no one but you will ever know. You must be willing to throw
a disc out if it isn't right and that takes a certain fortitude that not many
have. Trust me, it's hard to toss a disc for a defect at 3am with the air
freight guy on double overtime waiting for it and you've got to get it out or
the record misses its release date. But you're got to do it. That's tough.
And record pressing is a whole 'nother thing, starting with the plating process
that creates the stampers that go into the press.
But that's a subject for another time.
Phil Brown

"Phil Brown" wrote in message
...
great article on record pressing. just the right amount of detail and
length. all i can say is: what a freakin' complicated and obscure
process it is!

in the back of my mind i thought you could scrounge up and old record
lathe and cut some records in a back room if you had the time and
inclination. but it's so much more complicated than that. so, so, so
much more complicated and resource-intensive.

clearly this is something to be left in the hands of dedicated
experts.

I spent many years cuttting records and while I haven't seen the piece I
can
tell you that it's a lot more complicated than people think. Part of the
problem it that it takes a long time to learn just how to cut a disc.
Remember
this is an energy conversion process and they're always difficult. A phono
disc
takes electrical energy and converts it to mechanical energy. The
microphone/loudspeaker is another energy conversion and just think how
much
time we spend talking about how loudspeakers and mics "color" the sound
and how
many different mics and loudspeakers there are and how they all sound
different. Well, every time you cut a disc you start that process fresh
and you
have to find out what happens to the program material when you convert it.
Experience helps but you have to cut and playback and most of all you have
to
look in the microscope to see what the groove looks like. You have to look
at a
lot of groove before it starts to make sense at all. You can learn it but
it's
harder today because there isn't the volume of cutting that there once
was.
Before you cut a disc yourself you cut discs to other people's specs and
that's
where you learned how the process worked. Took a couple of years cutting 8
hours a day. that's a lot of discs.
Plus it takes a certain frame of mind. A lot can go wrong with a disc,
some
things things that no one but you will ever know. You must be willing to
throw
a disc out if it isn't right and that takes a certain fortitude that not
many
have. Trust me, it's hard to toss a disc for a defect at 3am with the air
freight guy on double overtime waiting for it and you've got to get it out
or
the record misses its release date. But you're got to do it. That's tough.
And record pressing is a whole 'nother thing, starting with the plating
process
that creates the stampers that go into the press.
But that's a subject for another time.
Phil Brown

I'm looking forward to reading Scott's article, because, like Phil, I put in
two years in a disc-mastering room very early in my audio career. The
studio did a ton of what we would now call corporate A/V plus several
'5-a-week' religious radio programs, all of which was delivered on vinyl
pressings. Then, about a third of the mastering was music. When I started,
it was a monaural room using a Scully lathe with a Grampian cutting head,
can't remember the number. Later we went to a Neumann lathe and added a
stereo Westrex head. As Phil said, disappointment can be defined by blowing
something at minute 32 of a 36 minute LP.

Steve King