Create your own vinyl lathe cut records & lathe cuts

The Best Alternative For Creating Your Own Lathe Cut Vinyl Record

Good Enough For Jazz And Classical Music

Lathe cut vinyl records the best alternative for pressing vinyl records today, after the Apollo Masters Corporation fire in Banning, CA that occurred on February 6, 2020.

Embossed records are not recommended for DJ work or DJ scratching

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

What Are Custom Vinyl Lathe Cuts ?

Record cutting is a process for making instant vinyl records. This is the fastest way to make a one off record, that can be made in minutes. Our lathe cut records are embossed with a sapphire cone stylus on our vintage Scully record cutting lathe that is producing records with a silent groove having a full frequency range from 20Hz to 14Khz. High frequencies at 15Khz to 20Khz are filtered out.

Our Record Cutting Process Never A Setup Fee !

Each embossed vinyl lathe cut record starts out as a 7 1/2" inch 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.

Most People Calling Them "LATHE CUT VINYL RECORDS OR PRESSINGS" 

But in reality they are Polycarbonate records. Today people call them vinyl record pressings, but they are not, they are embossed records 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 discs 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 records can be cut or embossed. 

 Lathe Cut Services

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

Embossed Cut

The Pros: 

• Cost $8 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

An alternative for pressing vinyl records

Lathe cut vinyl records are recorded on a disc recording lathe that uses a moving voice coil to drive a stylus that engraves the sound waves onto the disc. This method has long been used for producing lacquer masters, which are then used to make metal stampers for pressing vinyl records. Most of the machines used for this purpose were manufactured pre-1960.

Lacquer acetate records

They are aluminum lacquer coated discs, also recorded one at a time, using a stereo or mono record 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

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

7" inch Round NO MINIMUM

Number of lathe cut records per order is 25, for clear polycarbonate and black polycarbonate. Do not  ask me to do DIFFERENT SONGS for each record, 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 records.

12" inch Record - 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 any more, 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 the 7' inch EP instead.

X-Ray Film

Since the 1980's many people have begun experimenting with these lathes to produce one-offs records, using clear polycarbonate plastic, using materials such as picnic plates, squares sheets, and X-Ray film. X-ray  film when embossed is extremely noisy, this is the reason why I will not do them.

Embossing Plastic 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 phonograph records 

Lacquers can be recorded in stereo or mono, a lacquer recorded 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 record 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.

Recommended Cartridge For Playing Lathe Cut Records, are Stanton 681's or most magnetic cartridges.

• Stanton 681 D6800SL works great.
• Try different turntables if you have a skipping problem
• Set the Anti skating for best results.
• Embossed records 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.
• Crosley or inexpensive turntables may or my not work.
• A magnetic cartridge is more preferable.
• Embossed 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