A cat, a gramophone, a song.
Flaming Lips “pressing” video: A+R plant (March, 2012)
Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips explains how the band’s psychedelic vinyl is pressed.
“Many thanks to A+R for letting us take over their plant!!! Pressing vinyl like this slows the process down a lot. We hope you guys dig the results. Thanks to Daniel Huffman and Zac Cox for the 12 hour days!!” -The Flaming Lips
http://flaminglips.com
http://twitter.com/theflaminglips
http://twitter.com/waynecoyne
http://www.arrecords.com/
In the comments section:
mackjackson1982: The presses and stampers are actually designed to be pressed with a paper center label. That amongst other things is the reason why all their records are coming out pre-warped.
An article on the same topic here:
“I Poured Flaming Lips Vinyl, and Boy Are My Arms Tired” by Audra Schroeder
http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/dc9/2012/03/i_poured_flaming_lips_vinyl.php
Erik Peterson’s hifidelics pinboard
The Triple Decker Record (Sept 2010)
Featuring Jack White of Third Man Records (among many other hats, of course).
World’s Fastest Record (Record Store Day, 2014)
“Jack White’s World’s Fastest Record RSD (Record Store Day) Recap.”
RSD 2014 Live Cutting “Reflection” (by tragwag)
Note: This is a post by Tyler Bisson, known on Lathe Trolls as “tragwag.”
I wanted to write something up about my experience making live lathe cut records in Brooklyn, NY at Human Head Records on Record Store Day 2014. There are a few photos of the event, and at some point there may be video.
It was quite the endeavor, moving my Presto 6N and associated gear out of its cozy studio space. Pictured is me next to the table that both 6N’s call home:
I got everything packed up and working without the help of my usual monitoring chain and meters, though it took about 4 hours. (I usually use an audio interface and Mackie Big Knob to route my signal to the cutting gear). Once at Human Head I got setup as quick as possible, and had people watching as I did so.
The setup was in a good spot, but quite loud as there was a stereo playing, facing right at me.
Folks came in and out throughout the day, either handing me flash drives or emailing files from their smartphones. I charged $10 for a one sided square 7″ and $15 for double sided, up to 7 min per side.
It became apparent that when people asked what the maximum time was, they intended to use 100% of it…
Many people had me fade out their 7+ minute tracks at the 7 min mark.
So the actual cutting of the records took a lot longer than I anticipated, mostly due to the long file length of the majority of records.
I stayed busy the whole day, holding on to flash drives from folks who were to come back later and pick up their records.
In total I did about 25 records, some shorter but mostly double sided, long sides.
The most rewarding part for me was getting to meet people interested in the process, and answer their questions while being able to show them exactly how lathe cut records are made. In this weird niche of the industry, most clients either don’t care to know how lathe cuts are made, or still use words like “press”, “print”, “vinyl” when talking about lathe cuts. So this live gig gave me a rare chance to really get to know the people ordering records from me. The things I always want to say to clients who try interesting musical techniques (I studied music in college), I finally got to say to them while making their records. Most people carried on a nice conversation with me about their bands or music while I made their record.
Personal highlights include:
- a band this guy was in at 7 years old (started when he was 5, currently 20 something)
- a 4 year old singing “you are my sunshine” and “this land is your land”
- a world music ensemble recording, featuring vocals in Cambodian language
- customers helping to organize the signup sheet, or running to get people who’s records I was about to cut
- meeting a person who lives down the street from me
Thus ends my personal ramblings about RSD-2014, it was busy and fun, and most of all helped me feel more connected to the musicians I do work for.I look forward to going back to Human Head in the near future for another live cutting gig – we plan on taking appointments for each record, and specifying a shorter time per side limit for the sake of getting more people in.
Here’s a short write up:
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/37/17/dtg-bb-record-burning-2014-04-25-bk_37_17.html
If more footage or coverage come from the event, I’ll be sure to post!
-Tyler
Audio Geography Studios
http://www.audiogeography.com
Vinyl Terror and Horror
Who did this? I love it.
Update, courtesy of Tape: It is actually two women who have a website called http://vinylterrorandhorror.com.
Vinyl -terror & -horror is a collaboration between Camilla Sørensen and Greta Christensen.
Our approach to music starts from a visual and sculptural practice. Turntable deconstruction and rearrangement of the vinyl media in all imaginative ways is strongly influencing our sounds.
We are working in the field of cinematic soundscapes with a high tolerance level of possible hi- fi disasters.
Sentimental heartbreaking sequences where the opera singer is looping and the birds are singing backwards……. untill the breakdown of needles and chaos taking over. Cut up and mistreated records looping and creaking from dust and sloppy treatment. Pick-up`s being pushed disrespectfully over grooves. Records spinning backwards and forwards while played from multible pick-ups simultaniously. Meanwhile the lady in stilletoes just keep onwalking down the stairs.
Repetitive arrangements, dark sounds, neck breaking mixes, film-amateur sound effects, scratches, quieks, vinyls, terror and horror.
Old: Found here, which doesn’t really explain any further:
In the realm of Christian Marclay, certainly.
Happy Record Store Day, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/19/arts/music/record-store-day-underscores-a-small-renaissance.html?_r=0
“But all that news — grim as it is — obscures one of the more surprising success stories in music: the perseverance, and even growth, of independent stores around the country, helped partly by Record Store Day, a campaign that comes to 2,000 stores around the world on Saturday.”
Tragwag’s Presto 6Ns
I visited AudioGeography’s Tyler Bisson in Bethel, Connecticut, USA, and we compared his two 1940s-era Presto 6Ns record cutters, which are separated by 2420 serial numbers.
They are not the same. So we geeked out on the differences.
Our man Kris Dorr (aka Kris D) of Washington state is one of our Presto 6N experts. He wrote me after I posted the video and expressed that he wished he could overdub a response track. I wish he would, too! Apparently we got some historical stuff right, but a few of our hunches are wrong here. As with many on this forum, we are often shooting in the dark, doing our best to recapture knowledge which is on the verge of getting lost. The nice thing about Presto 6Ns is that they can work great even if you don’t use the equipment quite in the way it was originally intended. For example, several on the forum (including Tyler and Mike Dixon/piaptk) use them to emboss, which works great even if it isn’t their original purpose.
The best introduction to the history of Presto record cutters is on Alan Graves’ terrific site:
http://www.televar.com/grshome/Presto2.html
This video debuted in this chat threat, a few months ago:
https://www.lathetrolls.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4671&p=28580
Tyler’s site: http://www.audiogeography.com/
Here’s Tyler doing his thing at Record Store Day, 2014:
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/37/17/dtg-bb-record-burning-2014-04-25-bk_37_17.html
Presto 6N: Adjusting Idler Wheels
In Part 2 of my visit with Tragwag aka Tyler Bisson, we take the platters off and talk about some adjustments to the idler wheels which might improve the torque and speed of your Presto system. Among other things.