From our cut, lacquered disks of the recorded music, Mastercraft Metal Finishing produced a nickel stamper disk, called a Master. This image is of our Master disks installed in the vinyl record press. Gotta Groove records produced a test press from these Masters. The recording team will listen to the sample to make sure the sound fidelity meets their high standards. We’ll let you know our first impressions, so to speak.
Here are some views of the process:
Metal master plates arrive from plating company.
Master plates are carefully installed onto the vinyl press at Gotta Groove Records in Cleveland.
Masters are installed and ready for the test press.
A glob of hot vinyl, called a biscuit, is sandwiched between two record labels, then mechanically dropped into the center of the record press.The press closes on the biscuit at 100 tons pressure at 380°F. The vinyl is squeezed to the thickness of a record with the ridges of the Masters pressed into its surface creating the grooves of sound. This image shows the placement of the biscuit between the two Master disks.
Next, the extruded excess vinyl is trimmed from the edges of the record
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The test record, with labels fused to its surface, drops onto a spindle. Now to hear how it sounds!
Photos by Matt Earley of Gotta Groove Records
If you want to know more about record production, check out this 10 minute video:
