How do you cut a record?

2012, Record Cutting

Mar 242012

So how do you cut a record? To start, it turns out you cut it, literally. Cutting the laquers is the first step, and for that you need a lathe. We took our mastered files for the upcoming Electric Cowbell split 7″ featuring Brooklyn’s Super Hi-Fi on one side and Seattle’s Polyrhythmics on the other to Paul Gold at Salt Mastering in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Paul loaded our tracks onto his system, slapped a blank laquer disc on the lathe, and with a little level adjustment and trial and error began cutting our laquer. Laquer discs have aluminum in the middle and are heavier than your normal record. You can play them with a needle too, and this can get you an acetate disc-what the Jamaicans call a dubplate- but acetates degrade quickly when played, so it better be really important if you give it a spin. Once our laquers are done, Paul will ship them to Desmond at Mastercraft in New Jersey, who will electroplate the laquer, coating it with metal to create a reverse image of the sound grooves on the laquer called a stamper. When Desmond ships the stampers to Joyce (one for each side of the record), at Hit Bound records in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, she’ll put them on the pressing machines and press the grooves into vinyl. Voila, a record.