Did you ever want to know what happens in your grooves, why there are 33 and 45 rpm records, and why the hell they have a round shape…? Well, you found the man to ask your questions. Loop_o, the master of the grooves, devoted vinylcutter, musician and enthusiast will answer your questions related to vinyl every month. So get deeper into the groove with our 101 on vinyl!
Tiago from Lissabon asks :
“Dear LOOP-O, I was always wanted to know, how is the recorded music transferred onto a master disc ?”
Loop-O says:
Dear Tiago: Right after “Vinyl is still alive?” this is one of the common questions people ask when they find out about my work.
So let me give you a brief introduction to the process of cutting a vinyl master and what you can expect when you enter a mastering-studio.
In my case one important devices in the studio comes in action right after welcoming my clients: the espressomachine. ;-)
While having a coffee i’m chatting with my clients about the project and the music we gonna work on. That is the moment, when i am getting out the first important information which enables me to make a mastering and master-cut after my client¬¥s expectation. Sometimes they don’t know about the possible outcomes as there are several ways of doing a master-cut. So it can be important to use side-information.
I guess it’s obvious that a record made for a club-dj has to fulfill different needs than a record made for enjoying at home. So for example a dubstep record should be differently treated than a folk record.
A dance record in general should be cut loud and crispy but safe so it is performing well and without problems at the dance floor even with bad stylus or wrong turntables settings. But in home situations i can expect a well adjusted turntable and pick-up. In this case i can treat the cut different.
Let’s enter the studio to start the mastering and cutting process.
Here we’ll find the most important machine in the studio: the cutting lathe. Here i work with two Neumann VMS 70 cutting lathes. One was owned by Deutsche Grammophon and the other by the Motown Record Company. With these i actually cut the master discs from which metal parts and then vinyl records are made in the pressing plant. There are basically two types of cutting processes. Lacquer-disc mastering and, since the early 80s, direct-metal-mastering (DMM). As the names imply, with the lacquer-disc mastering the master is produced by cutting into a lacquer-coated aluminium disc while with the direct-metal-mastering, a copper-disc is used. Both systems have their advantages. Although you get less surface-noise and side-effects among other with the DMM process, the lacquer-disc mastering is the more suitable choice for todays music and needs in my opinion.
The cutting-lathe system consists basically of four parts. The lathe with the turntable surrounded by an armature and a carriage mechanism. The cutter-head with the cutting-stylus which actually cut the groove into the master-disc. And two signal-processing-units. One using a high-power amplifier to drive the cutting stylus. A second one with a delay and pitch-control computer that controls the depth, width, and spacing of the grooves being cut.
Besides the cutting-lathe you’ll find many types of audio processing equipment in the studio, which are essential for the creative mastering as well as for the technical mastering stages.
The creative mastering can evoke a change of the overall sound and the feel of the music. The goal is to give the music what it needs or, for compilations e.g., to balance the different tracks. The technical mastering is used to get a 1:1 transfer, which means a cutting result with less possible audible changes on the vinyl-record compared to the original audio-files.
Before setting up the cut, the first step is to check the audio for any anomalies like clicks, pops and other unwanted noises. This also includes problems in the tonal balance, sibilance-sounds and weird stereo or phasing effects such as extreme stereo-bass. All this can eventually cause problems on the cutting and/or playback-stage and must be reviewed before.
In the next step i sequence the tracks according to the track listing I’ve got.
Here I have to check for eventual imbalanced tracks which don’t fit aesthetically into the order or do not work technically regarding their position on the vinyl. You need to know that due to groove-geometry and groove-speed the tracks at the inner diameter of the record tend to distort if not treated right. The effect is even worse if the record is played back by using phono cartridges with high compliance, which actually is the elasticity with which the diamond tip can be moved.
If there’s a problem with distorting tracks at the inner diameter of the record it could be helpful to swap the order of one or more tracks.
So before doing the actual cut I have to fix these aesthetical or technical issues.
Now we start with the cutting by doing a testcut at first. The testcut usually evaluates the final sound and helps finding eventual problems before the final master-cut is made. For this i choose parts of the audio which might be a challenge in a technical or aesthetical sense. Then i cut them with the settings i want to use for the master-cut. The basic parameters of the cutting-settings are the rotations per minute (rpm), the cutting-level, the cutting-depth/width and the groove-spacing, among others. All these settings you have to see in relation to each other and to the audio to be cut. So the running-time, stereo-content and bass are values which need to be considered as every parameter is taking space on a record. A basic rule is: higher level = more space consumption = less available playing time per side, and vice-versa. So higher level, especially in the low end,results in a wider groove depth/width and movement.
If the testcut sounds good, even with low-quality phono-cartridges, we can proceed with the master-cut onto a master-lacquer-disc. This is an aluminum disc with a 0.175 mm thick nitro-lacquer coating. For a 12 inch record the master-disc we use has 14 inch. The two inches plus are essential to handle the master-disc without touching the cut groove.
For each side of a record one master-disc is cut. So for a two-sided record we need two master-discs because they are destroyed during the production of the stamper in the pressing-plant.
The master-disc is placed at the turntable of the cutting-lathe. The armature with the cutter-head is moved before the lead-in area starts. After checking all the necessary settings the cut of the master-lacquer-disc is started with the push of a button. Then the cutterhead with the cutting-stylus moves down and actually starts to cut the groove. The cutted chip is hoovered from the stylus by a vacuum-circuit. This vacuum also sucks the master-lacquer-disc onto the turntable in order to prevent the disc from sliding while the cut is running. Then the lead-in groove is cut automatically followed by the first track which i have to start right before the end of the lead-in.
If there is more than one track on one side of the record we possibly want to implement so called trackmarks between them. To do this i cut with a higher pitch for about 0,5 to 2 seconds, depending on the requested visibility of the trackmark. The audio on the record is not affected by the trackmarks.
At the end of the side the lead-out groove is cut right after the last track has ended. Now i have to inspect the cut grooves with a microscope to ensure that the cut is flawless and the cutting-stylus as well as the groove stays intact until the end of the record.
As last step i do the inscriptions in between the lead-out groove. This contains the catalogue-nr and the side-name as well as my sign “Loop_O at D&M”. Additionally i can place any other type of text or drawing here. Thats is one of the things which makes the vinyl-media special.
Finally i place all the master-lacquer-discs of one production into a box which should be shipped the soon as possible to the pressing-plant. There the stampers which are used to press the vinyl are made from the master-disc we just cut.
If you are an artist and/or a label you will get a testpressing to approve the mastering, the cut and the pressing before the record-pressing will be finalized. Please listen very carefully to this testpressing as otherwise no warranty will be given. If problems like noises, skipping or an unsatisfying sound occur, you will need to get back to the mastering-studio and/or the pressing plant. They will take care of it. But mostly the outcome of a production are fine and so you can enjoy a media with the most aesthetical, technical and musical possibilities.
Seriously digging the grooves: Andreas [LUPO] Lubich is mastering-engineer and is co-owner of Dubplates & Mastering Under his moniker Loop_O he’s cutting vinyl-masterlacquer discs since 1999. He answers your technical questions and what you always wanted to know about producing good vinyl records.
ASK LOOP-O YOURSELF
Due the volume of requests, he cannot possibly answer them all, but perhaps yours will be chosen. We do not at this time notify you if your question has been answered. Simply check back to the site the following Month or get friends with us on facebook to see if your question is in the Latest Columns.
