New company Vinyl Carvers have developed
the everlasting dub! “We’ve come up with a way of
creating one-off and short runs of tunes that last nearly as
long as normal records,” explained Werner Freistaetter.
Werner and partner Tina Troestl have been working on the project
for over three years. “Traditionally dubplates have been
used to get fresh material from the studio straight out to the
club DJs for testing and promotional purposes,” said Tina.
“Unfortunately though, these dubs are only good for around
20 –50 plays before the quality deteriorates. We have
come up with a way of getting amazing quality on a durable record.”
A dubplate is also known as a laquer or acetate and is the initial
component for mass printing vinyl records. For those who don’t
know, a dubplate is not actually a record. It’s a special
disk made from a large metal plate coated in plastic. A cutting
lathe cuts the master (one each side). Metal stamps are then
made from the master to press records from hot plastic.
“The traditional cutting head of the lathe
consists of a sapphire head (needle),” explained Tina.
“The laquer on a dubplate is not a very tough material
and is easily worn away by the average needle on playback. “The
problem that all developers have encountered is the ability
to cut a really deep (loud) and wide (large stereo image) groove
into a really tough material. We needed a really tough cutting
head and now we’ve found it.”
Djmag ventured to Vinyl Carvers in London’s Highgate area,
armed with our own tune, to see this amazing new cutting lathe
in action. And we were impressed. The cutting lathe clamped
onto a standard 1210 turntable. And the cutting process didn’t
take long, but involved very precise control over the temperature
of the vinyl record.
“We use two different
types of vinyl,” explained Werner. “One is a very
thin and completely clear plastic, which is perfectly light
for scratching and can easily be marked with a marker on the
underside, making it the perfect scratching tool.” Favourite
scratch samples can be recorded onto one .wav file and we’ll
put it on one piece of vinyl for easy use. “We tested
a record with a locked groove and put a counter on the platter
to see how many plays were possible before the audio quality
deteriorated and it went into the thousands,” claimed
Werner. “However each record created can only have music
on one side and producers are encouraged to only have one track
per side to enable a deep and wide groove to be cut for optimum
sound quality.”
Tracks can be posted to Vinyl Carvers as audio or data CD (.wav),
and can even be e-mailed as a high quality MP3 (320kbps). The
first record costs £50, which includes mastering (if required),
and each additional copy is £30. To find out more and
to get your very own everlasting dubplate cut call Vinyl Carvers
on 020 72674071 or visit their site at www.vinylcarvers.com |
