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
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.
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.
Tyler Bisson of Audio Geography cuts vinyl records. vinyl cutting at Human Head recors, Johnson ave, East Williamsburg Brooklyn NY
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:
“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.”
