From Factory To Hi-Fi

You love your records. I'd nearly bet they're precisely structured, their plastic sleeves free from any wrinkles. Collectors don't come much more serious than those who have fallen in love with vinyl albums. And whether your passion is rock vinyl, jazz vinyl or just about any genre under the sun, have you ever thought about just how that perfect little piece of wax gets into your hands and on your turntable? It's a surprisingly simple process.

Logically, the method of producing and pressing the records of today has its roots in the steps first provided by Thomas Edison's photograph. But a medium is necessary before anything similar to a vinyl record is produced. In the studio, a master recording is made, where musicians, producers and audio engineers work hand in hand to perfect the recorded sound.

Once the master is obtained, a lacquer is placed on a record-cutting machine. The polish finish dries out to a perfectly shiny exterior during its production. As it rotates, electronic signals from the master recording are transmitted to a cutting head, which holds a stylus. An engineer moves the cutter and a microscope then inspects the test groove and adjustments are made to the cutter. Since the recording is one continuous groove, a computer observes the cutting and modifies the spacing between the grooves as needed. Although not a vinyl record yet, it's beginning to take shape.

From there, the imprinted lacquer is sent to a pressing plant - perhaps a more industrial-looking environment than most vinyl album enthusiasts would like to admit. Then the varnish is rinsed with soap and water and sprayed with liquid tin chloride and liquid silver. Creating an inverse of the lacquer, the resulting metal master has ridges as opposed to grooves. Then the metal master is utlized to produce a metal record, also known as the mother. A stamper is born from the mother. The stamper is put on a machine, which punches a hole in the center and removes the edges to make a diameter of 12 inches. Negative versions of the original recording known as stampers will be utilized to make the real vinyl albums.

To finish, the stamper is put in a hydraulic press. Black Polyvinyl chloride pellets are placed in an extruder, which turns them into small "biscuits". The biscuit is then placed in the press which has two stampers mounted within - one for each side of the record. Steam softens the plastic while the stampers create impressions of the master recording onto soon-to-be-vinyl albums. Cool water is then used to solidify the disc. The final step? Finding its place in your vinyl record collection and on your turntable, whether its rock vinyl or jazz vinyl.