How to a vinyl record made
How Vinyl Records Are Made (feat. Third Man Records) | WIRED
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today we're going to take you step by
step through the vinyl record making
process from cutting the record to
pressing the record to making sure the
sound and quality are good
[Music]
first the lacquer coat
most records you've heard have been done
on lacquer
there is one company in the world that
makes the lacquers that we use it's
called MDC they're in Japan it's
basically the same as nail polish but it
hasn't fully hardened yet the lathe is
the machine that cuts the lacquer this
one is a 1974 VMS 70. they stopped
making them in 1980. the stylus cuts the
lacquer it takes about two and a half
hours to cut a record
the excess called The Hot Chip collects
at the bottom the programmer is also an
important part of the lathe it holds all
the details of cutting a 12 inch 33 12
inch 45 or 7 inch 45 or even a 10 inch
it programs where the drop is and where
the run out Groove goes a 12-inch record
has about 19 minutes of songs per side
that equals about on average 300 to 400
lines per inch with small grooves per
side the grooves create a sound as the
stylus moves back and forth and up and
down creating vibrations
there's a hundred and twenty seven
things that can go wrong if it's too hot
while it's cutting it burns the lacquer
and falls on the lacquer and makes a
noise if it's too cold it's not able to
dig or cut through the lacquer well
enough and you get noise from it just
trying to push its way through so we're
simultaneously heating it and then we
also have the helium to make sure it
doesn't overheat and because the lacquer
is delicate it's affected by heat
humidity temperature cat hair greasy
chicken fingers so you can't blow on it
to clean it which is why we have the
nitrogen
we need to make sure the lacquer stays
clean during The Cutting we use nitrogen
to clean the lacquer
and we use methyl ethyl Ketone to keep
the stylus clean
so the record is finished it goes around
twice makes a lot Groove and pops up and
you wheel it over here and clean it
immediately we bring the
etching platform over here and I Etch in
The Matrix number by hand
is very small and very difficult so in
this one the Matrix nowhere is
1996. this is side A I do TMM for third
man mastering TMP for third man plating
I used to put my initials
wmd and someone's like that's a little
bit weird so now I just abbreviate my
name to war and that is a finished
record once Warren is done mastering we
send the docker off to be turned into a
Stamper so we can manufacture records
this process is called electroplating
and it's done at outside facility the
process of electroplating entails
covering the lacquer and silver nitrate
and dipping it into a nickel bath the
Stamper is a reverse image of the
lacquer
once we get the Stamper back we conduct
test pressing and a quality check to
make sure that the record sounds good
every time they have to change the
samper they go through a very stringent
cleaning process they clean the surface
of the mold meticulously they make sure
there's no dust because it'll actually
transfer through this these things are
not much more than three four mils thick
so if you have like even a little bit of
roster uh like resin under the Stamper
itself it'll show through in a visual
non-conformance and actually can have
playback issues on it once we have the
artist approval on the test pressing
we're good to go into production
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first we prep the labels and dial up the
extruder the extruder gives us about 200
grams of vinyl grade PVC or polyvinyl
chloride that we place into the Press
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the pressing process itself is only
about 45 seconds long
the puck is very hot around 300 degrees
when it's set into the pressing chamber
high pressure steam is being delivered
into that mold all of the Steam and
chilled water passes through the side of
the mold first and then travel to the
outside so the as it's going under
pressure it's causing the material to
flow from the inside out your Hydraulics
will kick in to press that material and
spread it out in the mold evenly and
kind of hold it in place for a second
while it's still heated
and then chilled water is introduced in
there to cool the mold off lock in the
shape so that when it's removed flashing
can be trimmed off of the edges there
foreign
rule is after around a thousand hits you
should be looking at any audio
deterioration at that point so paying
closer attention to that and our
operators know on their counter on their
press that where they're getting to but
you know when the records are coming out
and there's no divots and there's no
flare-ups of any kind it's kind of cool
you know can't argue with something that
sounds good
we press any color you can imagine all
kinds of Customs splits and eclipses and
all kinds of mute concentrates inside of
color bases but nothing really sounds as
good as black the different colors of
PVC melt at different temperatures we
need to set the machine to specific
temperatures depending on the color for
example oranges and clears need to be
running at cooler temperatures because
they're much softer once the record
comes out of the press we do a quick
visual inspection we look at the
flatness and label orientation initially
once we finish the visual inspection we
send it to an audio quality control
check audio issues that we're going to
identify things like swishing noise for
example that could be just an issue with
the material and how it was pressed or
it could be a problem built into the
Stamper there is another thing that we
refer to as stitching or no fill where
the material is not filling all of the
grooves of the Stamper and then when it
comes off some of that material is just
missing once we listen to the record we
may also inspect the grooves
occasionally we'll find a record that
when it's on the turntable the stylus
will kind of weigh favor a little bit
that can have an effect on the audio
depending on the frequencies and things
like that that can kind of alter so when
we see the needle wander a little bit
we'll take it and put it onto a
microscope and do a measurement of how
bad is the wavering how far off does it
go from Center and can actually set up a
measurement as the record is rotating
and then he knows there's a certain
number that we want to stay within if
anything is wrong we can do a variety of
things namely checking the settings at
the press and with the Press operator if
the record looks good we will do the
final step in the process we place it on
the spindle to let the vinyl flatten
then label pack and prepare the vinyl
for shipping
foreign
it's not something that exists only on
your computer or your phone it's
three-dimensional your nervous system is
designed to take into sound it heals you
it's a nutrient it's like vitamins you
feel it it's like getting a massage or
eating a beautiful sandwich
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