The Secret Society of Lathe Trolls

atduskgreg · Joined: 06 Sep 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Portland, Oregon

Hello. I am thinking about starting a very small-scale on-demand vinyl duplication service. I was wondering what lathes I should be investigating, what other peripheral gear I will need, and what general price range I should expect to pay.

I am very excited to have found this forum as there is doesn't seem to be much other useful vinyl-cutting related info around. Thanks in advance for your advice.

Aussie0zborn · Joined: 11 Mar 2006 Posts: 69 Location: Australia

Hmmm. Don't give up your day job. You need at least $20,000 - $30,000 to do it properly (Neuman VMS 66 or VMS70 with SX74 head) or a little less for Scully lathe with Westrex 3DII head. Anything less than this gear and you are not in business.

As they say, either play hard or go home. Anything less in the way of disc cutting simply won't do in today's world where even DJs are suddenly sound engineers.

atduskgreg · Joined: 06 Sep 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Portland, Oregon

Aussie0zborn,

Thanks for the response. I definitely appreciate that it takes a serious investment like that to put together a really professional setup. What I'm trying to do is something a little short of that. I want to get gear that's cheap enough that it will allow me to charge very little for pressing records. To start out at least (before we build up a high volume of customers) that means cheaper gear/not as good gear and I'm ok with that. You could almost think of the business plan as novelty pressing: making a dozen or so copies for a band that is mostly going to be selling their album on CD. "Vinyl pressing for the rest of us."

Anyway, do you know of any setups in the under a couple thousand bucks range? That would really be what it would take to make our idea viable. We have some technical ability (though no experience working on lathes specifically) so a certain amount of refurbishing would be possible.

Thanks again for the help.

cuttercollector · Joined: 11 Jun 2006 Posts: 268 Location: San Jose, CA

Hi, others here understand much more about the business and artist relationships, but as far as equipment goes there is not a wide and continuous range of plug and play gear out there.
There is the pro gear used to cut most of the albums you have, as Aussie0zborn replied. There are some other things too such as ortophon heads and a few things put together with other lathes and electronics etc., but really only 3-4 companies ever made pro stereo heads. These were meant to be used with their electronics packages, although again others made compatible ones like Haeco for Westrex etc. There are mono pro amps and heads too (also see below). All of this is out of production, well used, and has been passed from studio to studio, been modified, rebuilt etc. etc. Not a game for the faint of heart or low of cash!
Beyond that there are the 3 modern dub cutters discussed elswhere on this site at great length. These are (forgive me) not really designed for pro mastering, but to allow djs to make "dubs" of their material for playback in clubs. They are stereo, they do work and represent an encouraging trend that all this is not a dead issue (as does this website).
Beyond (below?) this are all the mono systems and recorders made for everything from radio station and school use to home use from the 1930s through about 1960. The best of these (like Presto) were capable of pro. results and at least 78 records were mastered on them with good (for the time) results. They are a step or two down from the modern dub cutters in fidelity, even at their best.
Down at the bottom of the disc cutting world are the home units, which even at their best produced recordings somewhat lower in level, higher in noise and distortion and more limited in frequency response than commercial 78 records of the era. Still, properly set up and restored, they can produce pleasing recordings almost as good as the early mono home tape recorders.
I won't even count the specialized dictation machines which don't really produce generically compatible records, though again, they are fun disc recording devices.
I don't know if all this fits into your business model, but I hope it helps.
I would love it if there was a machine out there similar to the old portable rek-o-kut or presto machines, but stereo, and of at least as high quality as the dub plate cutters. I would love to go make location recordings with such a machine for the novelty value, but also to do masters for plaiting and pressing. AFAIK, such a machine does not exist. Especially not for under $5K.

atduskgreg · Joined: 06 Sep 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Portland, Oregon

cuttercollector, thanks for the incredibly detailed and useful response! This is exactly the kind of information I was looking for.

It sounds to me like my best bet might be one of the dub cutters as a starting place. And then, if the business is paying for itself, moving up to something more sophisticated.

Thanks!

flozki · Joined: 19 May 2006 Posts: 55 Location: switzerland

get a scully for nice price. possible for under 5k i think.
buy a vinylium sc-99 head and a vinylcut amp rack......

the best you can do.

there are several pro mastering rooms cutting with sc99 heads now....

or if stereo is not an issue. try to get an old ortofon monohead. very good and rough..... if amps are a problem. ask at vinylium. if there is no chance.... i guess i can organize..but check ebay, vinylium or other sources first.