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Direct-to-Vinyl Recording Makes a Comeback (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the round-and-round-the-little-stylus-goes dept.

For many decades, gramophone records (the black vinyl discs in Grandma's attic) were made by cutting grooves directly into an acetate disc, then making a mold from that "master" and "pressing records." Nowadays, of course, we use digital recording software on our computers or even on our mobile phones. Vinyl? Strictly for fogies and maybe a few audiophiles who think analog recordings have a depth and warmth that CDs and MP3s lack. Naturally, SXSW is a haven for these folks, and among them Tim Lord found Wesley Wolfe and two German compatriots from vinylrecording.com, busily demonstrating their vinyl recording system, which is sort of the gramophone record equivalent of print on demand. Lots of background music in the video makes the voices a bit hard to hear; some might prefer the transcription -- although those who do will lose out on watching the vinyl recording machine in action. Either way. Or both. Up to you.

6 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. Collectors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's the superior medium for collectors. Some of you collect old game cartridges right? Do they feel good in your hand? Sure they do. I can use an emulator for that.

  2. Depth and Warmth by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Are generally found to be distortion and a roll off of high frequencies when one bothers to take apart the actual music reproduction.

    Some people have become accustomed to these artifacts and so prefer them.

    The only real antidote is to go to live music performances to hear what they really sound like.

    I'd recommend that for people used to modern pop recordings too. I think many would be shocked to hear what they are missing in the horribly compressed and otherwise doctored up recordings that are sold today.

  3. Back to bad times by Airon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As a professional recording, editing and mixing engineer, all I can say is NO THANK YOU.

    For those who place a premium on scratchy, error-prone, expensive, one-time and short recordings this might be neat. There are lots of reasons we started using tape in the late 40s and early 50s in the music recording industry, and loads of reasons we're recording digitally now.

    Quality, speed, cost. A direct-to-disc recording system ain't it on any of those fronts.

    1. Re:Back to bad times by petsounds · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Digital has nothing to do with this -- this is for listeners who still prefer a physical product to hold.

      As a recording engineer, you should know that tape machines are a PITA in terms of maintenance and upkeep. Not something your average indie band has the money/skills/space to keep around in working order. And good-quality tape is harder to find these days. This vinyl system, if it works as well as they say it does, allows an artist to do a small run of high-quality physical products. 180g vinyl is top quality, assuming the transfer is good. This is a great thing for indie artists. Think of it as craft beer for musicians.

  4. Gullible Moron! by t4ng* · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "...the first Super Mario he had a square nose. That’s what your audio looks like in 16-bit format. What vinyl’s actually doing is stretching those square waves and rounding them out..."

    "Well, I have no technical training at all. No mechanical engineering experience."

    Yes, and it shows. I wonder if he thinks black and white kinescope recordings from the 50's have more warmth and depth than digital HDTV.

  5. Re:Kids these days... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You know, it would not surprise me if there was a community into doing so, and that would be kinda awesome ^_^

    http://www.edisonia.com/ Recording and playback hardware, along with new blanks manufactured to period spec. (No association with them, though I've seen blanks that I think were produced by them used to record a couple of live performances)