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

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    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.
  • Image may contain Human Person Lab and Machine
    Alastair Philip Wiper
    02

    Creating the master

    A technician inspects a DMM copper disc.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
    03

    Creating the master

    A mastering console occupies one wall in the cutting room.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
    04

    Making a negative of the master

    A technician prepares a DMM copper disc for the cutting studio.
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    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.
  • Image may contain Human Person Machine Building Factory and Lab
    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.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
    07

    Negatives

    Negatives awaiting further processing.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
    08

    Used negatives

    Old negatives waiting to be thrown away.
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    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
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
    10

    Negative

    A stamper.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
    11

    Vinyl pellets before they are melted

    Vinyl pellets are melted to make the pucks for pressing.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
    12

    Vinyl pellets before they are melted

    Vinyl pellets before they are melted to form pucks.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
    13

    coloured pucks before being pressed

    Colored pucks just before being pressed into records.
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    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.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
    15

    labels

    Record Industry performs every step of production, including label-making.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
    16

    Just pressed record being inserted to sleeve

    A fresh red record being inserted into a sleeve.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
    17

    Quality control - checking for imperfections

    A quality control technician checks the records for imperfections.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
    18

    a reject

    A reject.
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    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.
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    Alastair Philip Wiper
    20

    Packing

    A worker packs the albums for shipment.
  • Image may contain Shelf Furniture and Building
    Alastair Philip Wiper
    21

    Some kind of archive

    A record archive at Record Industry.
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