Vinyl Records and analog remasters coming back?

[bigtree]

I'm doing research on remastering to vinyl. As some of you know, I'm investing in analog gear and hybrid summing and now looking into digital to vinyl remastering as a fun side line. If you are doing this, I would love to hear from you. Here is an example of what I am talking about:
Vestax VRX 2000 Vinyl Recorder

[dvdhawk]

You would have to spend a lot of time navigating the moors in the dark to get from the point of getting vinyl out of the grave to "Puttin' on the Ritz".

emvideo-youtube-sZ-aRwEbp5I.jpg

There's no doubt vinyl can sound great, but I don't see any scenario where it's the primary medium for music as it was up until the mid-80's. Yes, I know, all the cool kids are doing it - but I don't think they're taking any shortcuts in the manufacturing. I think we have one or two guys here with a bonafide lathe. I'd rather co-op with someone with the real McCoy (that knows how to use it) rather than re-invent the process.

The particular tool/toy you reference, seems aimed at the DJ market, as are the rest of the Vestax products. A good LP would far exceed the 12.5kHz specification, but not many other meaningful specs listed. The gadget in question looks like fun, but knowing your passion for audio fidelity, I think it's a shortcut I would avoid if in your shoes. Sides are limited to 15 minutes. $10 blank, $500 replacement stylus every 20 hours. One-offs would be expensive. Short-runs would be just as cost-prohibitive. It may be fun, but it doesn't look practical to me from a business POV.

[bigtree]

Thanks for chiming in, Dave. Great points.

I had someone wanting to advertise their vinyl services here a few months back. I usually don't advertise private services including most software products here ( with the exception of UAD) so I turned them down but later learned they are going to be marketing a new cutter this fall so that got me interested. I hope they chime in here and talk about that (I forget what it was called).

My wife and I were going through the numbers on this as a business and it doesn't seem like it would ever be profitable but we also thought it would be a cool service added to our hybrid studio. We were thinking it would be a cool introduction to recording for our oldest child. So its tempting to try something like this just for the hell of it. But quality is a big issue for me, thanks for pointing that out.

I do think some things that aren't necessarily profitable, can help open doors that just help the bigger picture, so its why I am interested this and so many parts to this frustrating passionate business we all so want to earn a living at. I can't stop thinking about how great the music business used to be. I have such a wonderful studio.

[Kurt Foster]

Vinyl NEVER died. It went into hibernation. Cutting vinyl is a black art and much of the knowledge is now lost. I was fortunate enough to have Leo DeGar Kulka cut a couple of sides for me once and just being there in his studio at Sonic Arts in SF was a real learning experience. What a nice man he was.

Is the Vestax only capable of cutting "one offs" or will it produce discs that can be used to produce mother plates for production runs? It seems to me cutting one offs is a narrow market.

[mberry593]

I used to cut records on Scully lathes. They had fixed leadscrews. It looks like the device you are considering has the same limitation. This requires you to make a tradeoff between very short playing time or very limited level.

The big advances in lathes were first lookahead variable pitch and then computer calculated nesting grooves. Without those capabilities, you are serious limited in what you can do.

[bigtree]

Thanks to everyone for chiming in. Looks like I have more to discuss before I make a decision like this.

[bigtree]

Ah, Found the link to the company that originally got me thinking about all this . Not much info here other than their pricing. There is no infomation on what they are planning on marketing but though some would be interested in the website anyway.
tangibleformats.com - Home

Check out the video's

About - tangibleformats.com

Some info on the business and process of making records:

[kmetal]

i can't comment on the vinyl, i'm just interested in the happenings. As far as 'analog (tape) remastering' Melodyne just came out w/ a new wow/flutter program that SOS mag quotes as 'artifact free'. for almost 4k it better be. anyway, besides that i've also read an article where a pro re-master dude uses adobe audition to reamaster original records from the 50's. wish i knew more but that's about all i can say for now.

[bigtree]

Oooooh, very impressive! Check it out:

celemony_ :: Capstan

[bigtree]