Jan 25, 2016 7:00 AM

Gallery: The Vinyl Record Factory That Makes Your Niche Music Dreams Come True

Alastair Philip Wiper
01
Creating the master
A cutting machine etches a groove into a lacquer or DMM copper disc, the first step in creating the master record.
Alastair Philip Wiper
02
Creating the master
A technician inspects a DMM copper disc.

Alastair Philip Wiper
03
Creating the master
A mastering console occupies one wall in the cutting room.
Alastair Philip Wiper
04
Making a negative of the master
A technician prepares a DMM copper disc for the cutting studio.

Alastair Philip Wiper
05
Making a negative of the master
During the galvanic step, a lacquer is sprayed with a silver layer and washed in an electro-forming bath to grow a nickel layer. The nickel layer is eventually separated to form a negative disc.
Alastair Philip Wiper
06
Making a negative of the master
After the lacquer is ready, it goes through the galvanic process again to create a positive, from which the final negative stamper used to press the record is created.

Alastair Philip Wiper
07
Negatives
Negatives awaiting further processing.
Alastair Philip Wiper
08
Used negatives
Old negatives waiting to be thrown away.

Alastair Philip Wiper
09
Polishing the negative
A technician sands the backside edge of a stamper, forming it to fit the blocks in the press
Alastair Philip Wiper
10
Negative
A stamper.

Alastair Philip Wiper
11
Vinyl pellets before they are melted
Vinyl pellets are melted to make the pucks for pressing.
Alastair Philip Wiper
12
Vinyl pellets before they are melted
Vinyl pellets before they are melted to form pucks.

Alastair Philip Wiper
13
coloured pucks before being pressed
Colored pucks just before being pressed into records.
Alastair Philip Wiper
14
Vinyl-(c)-Alastair-Philip-Wiper-1400-17
A gold puck sits between two stampers, ready to be pressed. It will become a gold record.

Alastair Philip Wiper
15
labels
Record Industry performs every step of production, including label-making.
Alastair Philip Wiper
16
Just pressed record being inserted to sleeve
A fresh red record being inserted into a sleeve.

Alastair Philip Wiper
17
Quality control - checking for imperfections
A quality control technician checks the records for imperfections.
Alastair Philip Wiper
18
a reject
A reject.

Alastair Philip Wiper
19
Punching the labels out of rejects so that the vinyl can be recycled
A technician punches labels out of rejected records so they can be recycled.
Alastair Philip Wiper
20
Packing
A worker packs the albums for shipment.

Alastair Philip Wiper
21
Some kind of archive
A record archive at Record Industry.

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