Create your own custom vinyl lathe cut records

The Best Alternative For Creating Your Own Lathe Cut Vinyl

Good Enough For Jazz And Classical Music

An Alternative For Pressing Vinyl 

Lathe cut records and lathe cuts are made on a lathe using a cutter head with a moving voice coil drives a stylus that engraves sound waves onto a disc.

This method has long been used for producing lacquer masters, which are then used to make metal stampers for pressing vinyl. Most of the machines used for this purpose were manufactured pre-1960

Our Cutting Process Never A Setup Fee !

Each 7 inch 45 vinyl lathe cut  starts out as a square, then it is trimmed into a 7" inch round disc, after it's recorded this is the way I do them. Others use round blanks for the ease and convenience, but at a higher cost per disc.

What Are Custom Vinyl Lathe Cuts ?

Lathe cuts is a process for making instant vinyl disc. This is the fastest way to make a one off record, that can be made in minutes.

Our lathe cuts are embossed with a sapphire cone stylus on our  Scully cutting lathe can produce cuts with silent grooves having a full frequency range from 20Hz to 14Khz. High frequencies at 15Khz to 20Khz are filtered out.

Embossed Discs are not recommended for DJ work or DJ scratching

Only pressed vinyl and lacquer acetates will work for that purpose.

Most People Calling Them "LATHE CUT VINYL OR PRESSINGS" 

But in reality they are Polycarbonate discs. Today people call them vinyl pressings, but they are not, they are embossed and vinyl pressings are made with steam hot metal stampers installed in a hydraulic pressing machine. We specialize in embossing 7" inch discs that are made from clear or black polycarbonate plastic made one at a time.

Vinyl And Polycarbonate 

They are two different things, one is "vinyl" and the other is "polycarbonate", Pressed vinyl records with no grooves can't be embossed, it may be possible to be cut it with a diamond stylus, but a very costly process, especially the amount of time a diamond stylus last, only 10 hours, at $200 a pop. Polycarbonate can be cut or embossed. 

 Lathe Cut Services

• Black & Clear discs
• Lacquer Cutting In Stereo
• Custom Embossed Lathe Cut In Mono
• 7" Square 

Embossed Cut

The Pros: 

• Cost $10 to $12 per disc
• Less expensive than lacquer and diamond cut
• Excellent audio quality 20Hz -14Khz
• Very low surface noise at - 40db
• Good silent grooves
• Good enough for Jazz and Classical music
• Great for for one-off short runs

The Cons:

• Not recommended for DJ work or  DJ scratching
• May not play on inexpensive turntables and jukeboxes
• Can't be cued and dose not play backwards
• A warned out stylus will skip
• An elliptical playback stylus may or may not work
• Lower audio volume -10db
• Skips easily if recorded louder
• No stereo separation

Lacquer & Diamond Cut

The Pros:

• Stable groove tracking
• Excellent audio quality
• Louder cuts
• Good stereo separation.
• Lower surface noise at -65 db
• Can be Cued and plays backwards

The Cons:

• Cost for 7" inch vinyl diamond cut $25 to $40 per disc
• Cost for 7" inch lacquer cut $170 per disc.

Lacquer acetate Disc 

They are aluminum lacquer coated discs, also made one at a time, using a stereo or mono cutting lathe. These lathes were used in the production and manufacturing process for vinyl records. Cutting a lacquer master discs, was then electroplated to make the metal stampers used by the pressing plants.

7.5" Inch Squares by request only

Squares have the same playing time as a round 7" inch disc 45 or 33. 

7" inch Round NO MINIMUM

Number of lathe cuts per order is 25, for clear polycarbonate and black polycarbonate. Do not  ask me to do DIFFERENT SONGS for each disc, because this involves changing settings on the lathe and audio levels, EQ, settings for the high frequency limiters and compression levels for each cut, even for a few discs.

12" inch - LP 

I can make a 12" inch, disc no problem, but I'm very RELUCTANT to do so, the reason is, some audio files may have different track EQ, or vocal sibilant problems and levels on each track. I normally don't stock large sheets of Polycarbonate, only on special orders. The same goes for 12" inch paper sleeves and jackets, I don't stock them. If I do this job for you, it will be put in a freezer ZIP-LOCK bag. Go for  Polycarbonate Vs. Lacquer Cutting

Polycarbonate plastic is not to be confused with Plexi Glass. Plexi can not be cut or embossed with a sapphire or diamond stylus. On the other hand a lacquer disc can only be cut with a sapphire stylus, it is not possible to embossed lacquer.

Stereo HI-FI  

Lacquers can be in stereo or mono, a lacquer done with a stereo cutter head will result in a great stereo playback, embossing a polycarbonate disc with a stereo cutter head will result in a MONO play back with a very small amount of stereo separation and it will skip badly when playing it back.

Lock Grooves

Manny have asked if I can cut LOCKED GROOVES, yes. I'm not willing to do so, because It involves many different tracks on one side of a disc. This means setting up levels for each track, it would be so time consuming and a chance for error in losing the entire side.

Sibilant Vocal Tracks 

De-essing Is any technique intended to reduce or eliminate excessive highs in the recording or the prominence of sibilant  consonants, such as the sounds normally found in the vocal track by "s" and "sh", in recordings of the human voice.

Sibilant lies in frequencies anywhere between 2–10 kHz, depending on the individual's dental work. This causes havoc in cutting.

I WILL NOT FIX THIS THIS, THIS IS THE STUDIO'S RESPONSIBILITY. 

All AUDIO IS TRANSFERRED "AS-IS"

I'll throw in the Behringer 9024 Ultra-Dyne to clean up some sibilance.

Playing Lathe Cuts, with a magnetic cartridge, no problem.

• Recommended cartridges: Stanton, Audio-Technica, Shure, ADC, Etc.
• Try different turntables if you have a skipping problem
• Set the Anti skating for best results.
• Embossed discs will not play backwards.
• A warned out needle will tend to skip.
• Turntables that don't have a counter weighted tone arm may not work.
• A heavy tone arm will tend to skip more.
• Crosley or inexpensive turntables may or my not work.
• A magnetic cartridge is more preferable.
• Embossed lathe cut records that are recorded louder tend to skip more.
• Playback stylus pressure no more than 3.5 grams.
• Use only conical or spherical.
• An elliptical stylus may not work.

There is a trade-off - Your Choice

• LOUDER CUT = The possibility for SKIPPING
• SOFTER CUT = Lower volume = zero chance for SKIPPING
• If your record skips try different turntables. 
• NO DO OVERS and No refunds

Create Your Own Custom lathe cut Vinyl 

If you're considering putting your music on lathe cut vinyl, then lathe cuts may be the answer you been looking for. You're probably aware that it is a costly endeavor. Most artists decide not to release vinyl because of minimum order and cost. If you're going to make your own vinyl, here are the five reasons lathe cuts are more economical than pressed vinyl. 

Lathe cuts Are More Economical Then Pressed Vinyl

They are more expensive per disc as compared to pressing vinyl. There is no outsourcing because everything is done in house. You can put your music on plastic in lower quantities.

Pressing a vinyl was the only way for high volume releases:

The cost associated with pressing makes it impossible for a pressing plant to offer vinyl pressing with small quantities. 

1. Lower manufacturing costs

Lathe cuts have risen in popularity in resent years as the best solution for a limited vinyl release. The manufacturing process for lathe cut records vs pressed vinyl is faster and less expensive than vinyl record pressing manufacturing package deal.

Pressing is the method that music is put on vinyl. This is done in three steps; disc mastering, metal plating, and vinyl pressing. These steps are seldom done under one roof which adds to the high cost for small vinyl pressing quantities.

2.Dub Plate - An old term used years ago when lacquer was used

Lacquer cutting for vinyl pressing is is done the same way as for embossing lathe cuts, except for lacquer, only two disc are needed for electroplating. In embossing, a plastic disc is placed on the lathe, the cutter head then embosses a analog groove into the blank polycarbonate. This is done one at a time to reach the number of discs.

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3.  Lathe Cut Sound Quality

The sound quality of my work will sound good as pressed vinyl, as extremely close to your original master audio, with no surface noise or clicks or pops. However, some may skip if played on inexpensive turntables or juke boxes. 

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My experience, since 1972, this is the key to manufacturing high quality vinyl recordings. Be aware of record cutters out there that say lathe cut records are LO-FI novelties with surface noise, click and pops, not intended for commercial release. My recordings are good as vinyl pressings.

Cost Effective

Everything we do here is done under one roof, we make our own blank polycarbonate discs and sapphire embossing needles. This makes the most cost effective process for making affordable lathe cuts.

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4. Fast Turn Around Time 2 days In Most Cases  

Record cutting is a process for making instant vinyl lathe cut records. This is the fastest way to make a one off record, that can be made in minutes, where a vinyl pressing job can take months. Days of preparation are needed because the plating and pressing processes. 

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Loudness Vs. Length 

The length of the audio program will determine the loudness and time it takes to record each copy, the longer the song the lower in volume the record will play.

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5. Accessibility

Vinyl album sales are consistently growing each year. The pressing plants are backed up with projects, if you're a small entity they will move you to the back of the line, with turnaround times usually six months.

A minimum order from a pressing plant is more than the average producer can sell and may be stuck with unsold vinyl. This makes it very difficult for independent artists to do a vinyl release. Embossed polycarbonate disc makes it possible for any recording artist to make high quality custom disc.