Ever wanted to know what happens in your grooves, why there are 33 and 45 rpm records, or why the hell they have a round shape? Well, we’ve found the man to answer all your questions. Loop_o, the master of the grooves, devoted vinylcutter, musician and enthusiast solves the mysteries behind the music. So put on your learning hat and get deeper into the groove with the iCrates vinyl 101!
Jeremy from Tokyo asks:
“Dear LOOP-O, I hear about it all the time, but what exactly is a dubplate?”
Decades ago a vinyl record was the most common media to be played in public as reel-to-reel was too cumbersome, compact-cassettes not yet around and the whole digital era far away. At that time a dubplate was used to produce a single copy of a track to check it in front of a public audience before finally releasing it as a vinyl record.
The term ‘dub’ in dubplate has different meanings, but it refers primarily to the Jamaican reggae and dub scene where an existing track gets stripped down to its “riddim” and then “toasted” (voiced) by different singers
These dubplates where used at soundclashes where two or more Sounds (DJ crews) compete with each other by setting up a huge sound system opposite one another. The goal is to “kill” the other Sound by using the best, most exclusive riddims and / or MC’s. Within the soundclash the Sounds would diss each other and usually the audience decided who won. It rarely happened that one sound destroying the sound system of its competitor.
To prepare for a soundclash a Sound tries to produce dubplates with the most exclusive and competitive riddims and / or toaster.
For a so called “war dubplate” an artist got payed by a Sound to diss another sound while a “special dubplate” is made exclusively for only one Sound or DJ.
Also the drum and bass scene used dubplates as their favorite media until cd-r and then computer-based DJ setups were introduced into clubs.
Today a dubplate is mainly used to make a “reference cut” to get an idea about how a mastered record will sound on the vinyl. This is especially helpful for clients who can’t attend a mastering session. Like this they can ask for changes before the actual master-lacquers are cut. (For more info see Loop-O’s article on what happens when a record is mastered)
source: http://iamjayp.com/tag/sound-clash/
Technically, a dubplate is a disc with a diameter between 5 and 12 inch. It consists of an aluminum core coated with a lacquer into which the groove gets cut using the cutting-stylus of a cutting lathe. It’s the same material as a master-lacquer-disc used in the manufacturing of vinyl records at a pressing plant. Due to the fact that the lacquer coating also includes a nitrocellulose-acetate, a dubplate is also called acetate.
As the surface of a dubplate needs to be soft to cut the groove into it is less durable than a manufactured record made from Polyvinylchlorid (PVC) – or vinyl. A dubplate deteriorates every time it gets played. The deterioration process is faster if played with a bad stylus and/or by using a heavy tracking force or wrong anti-skating setting. Like this each time its played a part of the surface, means the audio-information in the groove, is carved out. This affects mainly the highs. I therefore don’t recommend using dubplates for scratching.
Over time two alternatives to the conventional dubplate have emerged. One is the so called “Lite Reference Dubplate” which has a thinner aluminum core and a thicker lacquer coating. The benefit is a lighter dubplate which should be more durable and even usable for the purpose of scratching. The other is actually more like a kind of plastic disc than a dubplate, cut at a semi-professional cutting-lathe.
source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Vinyl_Dubplates_7_10_and_12.png
As the plastic surface is harder than the lacquer coating of a dubplate it lasts longer and you can also scratch with it. However, because of their rough surface these discs have less fidelity compared with a conventional dubplate.
Due to their potentially exclusivity, a dubplate or acetate can become a rare collectors item, especially if they are produced with unreleased tracks or special pre-released versions of well known tracks.
In the past a dubplate with a conversation between The Beatles and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys sold for $10,400 while a dubplate of The Velvet Underground & Nico was sold on Ebay in 2006 for $25,200.
From the moment Philips developed the idea of an analog laserdisc, and the subsequent digital Compact-Disc which was brought to the marketed by Sony, it became possible for everyone to burn tracks onto a CD-r and play them almost everywhere. And what of dubplates in the digital age? They may have been left behind, but they remain a wonderful gift from the past.
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.
Valentino 45
Februar 8, 2012
-maybe a nice little story here:
George Clinton’s first recordings were apparently were made in a recording booth in Springfield with his first doo-dop group of whcih they cut 4 copies – one for each of the group members!!! they would have been very similar to dubplates!!!!