After performing a dry run of the cut, Mark Santangelo revisits the source material to ensure he has the perfect settings before cutting the final vinyl master.
See how Dave Kutch and Mark Santangelo:
Fine-tune the settings from the dry run to get the perfect cut
Show the lead in and lead out on a vinyl record
Explain how they address sibilance using a Maselec MPL-2 high frequency limiter
Show where a test cut lives on a vinyl master, compared to the final cut
Discuss how they protect the cutter head from temperature and debris
A/B the test cut to the digital master
Explain why you cannot listen to the final cut before sending it off to duplication
Prepare the perfect blank vinyl record and cut the final cut
This is your chance to watch as a vinyl record is cut and learn about the considerations that go into creating the perfect master record for duplication.
Watch Dave Kutch and Mark Santangelo cut the vinyl for "Light Shine Through," only on puremix.net.
00:00:24 I'm gonna revisit just a spot or two,
just briefly because I wanna make sure
that it's exactly the level that I want.
00:00:31 -OK.
-It's exactly the land that I want.
00:00:33 Formats, for a 7-inch 45,
it's dependent on
the program running time.
00:00:41 So in the world of a 7-inch 45,
a 4 minute and 14 seconds song like this
is a little bit long,
it will be the 12 inch
33 equivalent of maybe
20, 21 minutes side,
for a 12 inch 33.
00:00:58 Hold on, I'll give them an example,
that's a 7-inch.
00:01:02 Yes.
00:01:03 It is got a cutting radius of
1.5 inches.
00:01:07 About 1.5, roughly.
00:01:09 If you see on this record,
the very outer edge
the very first line,
that is the lead-in.
00:01:17 Where the consumers
are gonna drop their needle.
00:01:20 And there's your music program,
end of the song
and then it writes the lead-out
until
it then closes upon on itself,
and we call it a lock-out groove.
00:01:30 So when your record is finished
and you're still letting it run
you always hear that (click).
00:01:36 Or it lifts up automatically,
it knows because of that space.
00:01:41 You're exactly right.
00:01:42 But it writes the lock-out groove,
that's when the cutter-head
pops and your cutting is finished.
00:01:46 So, that's the lead-in and the lead-out.
00:01:49 So, as I said, I wanted to just
check it out one more time.
00:01:54 I'm not gonna do it for the
duration of the entire song.
00:02:01 So you still set it all up,
engage,
and still just skip around.
00:02:06 -Yes.
-OK.
00:02:12 Remember, I'm also having to listen to...
00:02:14 evaluate the vocals,
what kind of sibilancies are we having.
00:02:18 So how would you just take it out
if I didn't take out enough for you?
So how we do that is that this is a
Maselec HFL or High Frequency Limiter.
00:02:27 And this is the threshold,
this is getting the program.
00:02:31 You're not seeing any
kind of attenuation right now
because I have the threshold collapsed
to almost nothing.
00:02:38 If I were to crank that threshold
it is now reducing
every 'S' or 'T'
that vocals are saying by 3, 4, 5 dB.
00:02:52 And little bit of the snare.
00:02:53 We don't want that because it
would sound like this.
00:02:56 But the trick is, to be able to
remove any potentially harsh sounding 'Ss'
without deadening your program.
00:03:04 It erases the air out of the
song if you have too much.
00:03:07 So where it's at right now it's
catching a lot of the finger snaps.
00:03:10 It's gonna catch a lot
of high-end information.
00:03:13 We don't want that. But I just wanted
to show you that so you could see.
00:03:16 I'm gonna get back into the neighborhood
on the threshold.
00:03:20 That I believe it's just
where it needs to be just in
case something harsh happens.
00:03:28 So far I'm not hearing
anything in this song
that's really causing any
kind of problem for me.
00:03:46 If you are concerned about one spot,
let's just say this is,
I'm not concerned about it,
but let's say this might be a spot.
00:03:58 I'll loop that.
00:04:08 And slowly increase the threshold
until I see it catching.
00:04:18 You see, right there, it's beginning
to attenuate that high-frequency.
00:04:22 Again, this is gonna be too much.
00:04:29 We could do a test cut of that
in a few minutes.
00:04:33 Let's do it.
00:04:34 -Let's do that?
-Yeah.
00:04:36 Because it's a 45
I'm gonna give it a little bit more juice.
00:04:43 I'm gonna bring it up 0.5 dB.
00:04:59 It's a single, you want it loud.
00:05:00 Make that loud, without distorting,
that's the trick of the game.
00:05:05 Of every game.
00:05:16 Now, are you gonna
grab a brand-new lacquer?
Are you gonna grab a piece of lacquer
that you use to do test cuts?
The answer to that question is: both.
00:05:27 I mean you can do a fresh
lacquer and do a test cut on it.
00:05:30 Because you have that extra...
00:05:33 Actually, show why.
00:05:36 Let's grab a piece of lacquer.
00:05:38 Alright.
00:05:40 I'm gonna use a 14-inch lacquer
when we're cutting a 7-inch 45.
00:05:45 So, when we cut...
00:05:47 The records that everybody normally buys
in the stores,
that have a fold-out on it,
it's a 12-inch record.
00:05:52 But we use
a 14 inch lacquer.
00:05:55 Correct.
00:05:56 What do they do, trim away the edges?
-Yes.
-OK.
00:05:59 So now, since we're doing a 7-inch
now we're actually
using a 12-inch lacquer.
00:06:03 And they're gonna trim
away the edges on that.
00:06:05 Nowadays, in manufacturing plants,
from what I've been told,
they're only asking for 14 inches,
even if you're cutting a 7-inch 45.
00:06:13 -Wasting my money.
-That is just not necessary.
00:06:16 As long as it's a wider
diameter than your 7-inch format,
this is a 12,
plenty of space for test cuts.
00:06:24 This is what we're gonna use.
00:06:27 Look how small the 12 inch looks on this.
00:06:29 So you're gonna put the test cut
on the exact same piece of
lacquer where we're gonna put
the actual music that
goes to the pressing plant.
00:06:35 Yes, on the outer diameter.
00:06:38 Because that's what's gonna get cut away.
00:06:40 Yes. That is so that
the people at the manufacturing plant
can handle it
however they need to handle
it and have lots of extra space
for them to be able to hold
it without ever getting close
or interfering with the program.
00:06:52 So, you can see, on the 12-inch diameter,
I'm gonna scroll up to where that lead-ind is.
00:06:59 -This is all gonna be empty.
-That's all dead space.
00:07:03 I can cut two versions of the song
in a test cut in the outer diameter
before I even need to get too close
to where it needs be cut for the master.
00:07:11 -Before it goes into production.
-Correct.
00:07:15 I'm gonna start the platter.
00:07:16 So you can do this manually?
Dropping the head.
00:07:19 Exactly. By having this clutch
disengaged I can roll the
carriage anywhere I want.
00:07:29 So, what I'd like to do is maybe
just go in about 3/4 on an inch.
00:07:34 Wait, we need to protect my cutting head.
00:07:36 What are we gonna do to protect
my cutting head?
They are very rare,
they're impossible to find.
00:07:43 It it blows up
I have really got some anger issues
that you don't want to ever see.
00:07:48 That will never happen, I can promise you.
I wanted to just cue up where it was
OK, so now what happens
with the cutter-head?
Now we're gonna
actually stick that needle
into that groove, the platter is
gonna get sucked down by all the holes
and that thing is gonna be
grinding out a groove.
00:08:01 I'm assuming it's gonna get hot.
00:08:03 Yes, it does generate heat.
00:08:06 There is a
helium tank, there are two tanks over here,
which keeps the cutter-head...
00:08:12 So, it's first going here,
we see in that little black dot,
bubble around,
so we know how much pressure it's under?
Correct.
00:08:20 Because we don't it to actually
make noise when it's going onto...
00:08:23 Correct, exactly.
00:08:25 Point four is usually where you wanna be.
00:08:28 See how you can adjust that by...
00:08:30 -Just a hair amount.
-Exactly.
00:08:33 That's how you know that the
helium is actually feeding into that tube.
00:08:36 So I'm assuming helium is an
inert gas that does not take on heat
so this way
wherever it's feeding will
stay in a relatively neutral temperature.
00:08:45 Exactly.
00:08:46 It's gonna get a little bit hotter
but it keeps it at a
very safe temperature.
00:08:50 And we have a meter that lets us know how
hot it's getting if it's getting too hot.
00:08:53 -Correct.
-Great.
00:08:58 For your precious head,
this is a circuit-breaker.
00:09:01 It is not engaged right now,
it is on but not engaged.
00:09:05 Left channel, right channel.
00:09:07 So those are the meters
that are gonna show us heat
and if it gets too hot it trips itself.
00:09:11 Exactly. This is the
temperature in Celsius gauge.
00:09:15 And this is the amperage.
00:09:16 And that is an instantaneous read.
00:09:19 So, high-frequencies
will generate a lot of heat.
00:09:23 It's cutting very fast frequencies
that action alone mechanically
generates a lot of heat.
00:09:30 So when you're watching the program
and may possibly worry
about little sibilancies,
as you're watching this you listen to
those sibilance sections in the vocals,
and you watch that amperage meter just pop
whenever you hear...
00:09:43 The same thing with the hi-hats,
sweeping high-end effects,
anything that's up in that range
will get interpreted there.
00:09:51 Our circuit-breakers are engaged,
we've got the carriage
cued up to where I wanna do a test cut.
00:09:58 Helium is feeding,
the clutch is down.
00:10:02 I'm now gonna engage
the clutch for the cutter-head.
00:10:05 So the next time I hit
another button it will drop.
00:10:08 So it's gonna go down one step
and then when you hit record on there
-it's gonna go down into the groove.
-Correct.
00:10:16 So it's two steps down.
00:10:17 Correct, dropping that clutch,
the cutter-head is saying:
'I'm ready to go.'
You just hit record and it will
drop and start cutting.
00:10:24 So yes, like you said,
you're gonna hear a vacuum,
that's gonna pick up the
engraving of the lacquer.
00:10:30 As it's cutting the music into it
it's gonna have to get
sucked into that
little tube which then feeds
down into our sewage.
00:10:37 With the same suction we do two things:
hold the platter
and pull out that little...
It's gonna pull the chip.
00:10:51 So that's the first step down
and then once you hit record there
it's gonna start driving in
and go down the second step.
00:10:59 Exactly. I'm in manual mode so
I'm gonna do my test cut out here.
00:11:03 So I'm gonna drop it manually.
00:11:05 I wanna make sure that
when it has dropped
that it is actually cutting
the depth that I want it to have
and that it's actually doing what
it's supposed to be doing right now.
00:11:17 I'm gonna be looking into this microscope.
00:11:19 Let's run that switch.
00:11:22 So you look at it while it's cutting.
00:11:24 When I drop the head
I'm going to then check out the grooves
and see that it's cutting the
depths that I want it to be at,
which now is set at 2 mils
and the 'land' that I have.
00:11:36 And if it all looks right to me
then I'm gonna come back over here
hit play on certain spot of the song,
do my test cut.
00:11:44 Oh, OK, got you.
00:11:46 So I'm gonna get the
microscope ready,
record button is just
gonna drop it right on.
00:11:59 It's down. I'm gonna come over here.
00:12:11 Can I look? I love this.
00:12:15 I mean, I'll never forget the
first time I've looked at this.
00:12:19 I'm gonna turn that lamp off
because that bulb will be burn
and we don't have to keep
replacing that the whole time.
00:12:25 And I'm gonna come over here
and I'll do a test cut of
the first 3 to 5 seconds.
00:12:45 So this pitch meter,
this is the LPI, lines per inch.
00:12:51 You can see how that needle is swinging
left to right,
it's constantly closing in, opening it up
closing in, opening it up.
00:13:00 Now it's opening up even more
because the beat has come in.
00:13:05 Because based on the level that we have
and the modulation
that's going on in there
it needs to allow for the room
so you don't get over-cuts.
00:13:15 And over-cut is when
you don't allow much space
for a very hot program.
00:13:21 The next time around it can
bang right into the previous groove
and break the wall of the groove
and that's when you get your
broken record sound or skipping.
00:13:49 OK, I'm gonna stop there.
00:13:53 It's still cutting,
it's now collapsed back down to
the base pitch.
00:13:59 Which is,
about 250 lines per inch.
00:14:04 So if I were to keep this going
the next inch will cut 250 lines an inch.
00:14:08 That goes to show you
how efficient it is with its base.
00:14:13 Very important,
clean your stylus the second
the cutter-head lifts.
00:14:18 I'm gonna hit stop,
it's gonna lift.
00:14:25 Why are you cleaning it right away?
Because that heat that you
talked about that generates the...
00:14:32 under the cutter-head, the chip
is practically half-melted.
00:14:37 If there were some residue,
there could be some glue.
00:14:42 So you'd rather get it
now while it's still warm and
mushy rather than solidifying on there.
00:14:50 I liken it to when you're
heating up pasta sauce.
00:14:54 After you heat it up,
put it back on to your bowl,
you wanna rinse that off right away.
00:14:58 If you let that sauce
in the pot sit there for five more minutes
you're gonna be scrubbing.
00:15:03 It's the same thing with
this and we don't want that
because if there's any chip
that's gonna get hardened on to that
that's gonna create scratches,
streaking within the grooves
and noise.
00:15:12 And you're gonna have to put a
new coat of sapphire or ruby on there.
00:15:15 -Ruby, it's a stylus.
-Sooner than necessary.
00:15:18 -Exactly.
-Which are very expensive, right?
Yes, they are.
00:15:23 They are very small,
they are expensive
and they are very finicky.
00:15:28 And they just need to be loved.
00:15:29 And sometimes they sound different.
00:15:31 They are, they are!
You get lemons sometimes
and you get ones that
you can cut for months
and it sounds fantastic.
00:15:38 And that's why you do test-cuts.
00:15:40 Exactly.
00:15:42 So I'm gonna come over here,
I'm gonna turn this off so I can
see through the microscope better
I just wanna take a
look at what that cut did.
00:15:55 Now it's moving.
00:16:02 -How does it look?
-It's great. Wanna see?
A lot of motion going on.
00:16:09 The grooves get very close
but there is a wall between,
sometimes the grooves kiss.
00:16:16 Which means,
they actually touch each other.
00:16:18 So they kiss each other, that's OK.
00:16:20 That's OK, as long as you see a wall
between the right edge
of the previous groove
and the left edge of the next groove.
00:16:27 As long as you got a line in there.
00:16:28 And then when they
totally overlap each other?
If they turn into one
fat groove for a moment
then that is an over-cut
and that's no good.
00:16:38 You gotta change your settings
and do it again.
00:16:41 Because that would be rejected.
00:16:42 So we just did our test cut
now we need to playback.
00:16:45 We're gonna listen to it,
see how the stylus is sounding,
how the music is translating onto it.
00:16:51 Are you happy with how
it sounds or aren't you?
If you're not, you go back in.
Let's do that.
00:17:00 So you don't use the
cutter-head to listen to it.
00:17:04 -No.
-That only cuts, it does not playback.
00:17:07 -Exactly.
-So you got a regular tone arm.
00:17:09 It's a one direction thing.
00:17:10 We have the tone arm here
and we go up to the rack here,
we're in the feedback mode,
which is listening
to the cutter-head,
I'm gonna switch
to the playback unit.
00:17:22 -To hear the stylus.
-Exactly.
00:17:26 What I like to do is
do a 4, 5-second
follow where I'm gonna hit play on here,
I'm gonna listen to it
and then
I can go back and switch over and
I can listen to the mastered file as is.
00:17:38 So you can A/B off of the cut
-to the digital file.
-Exactly.
00:17:47 I'll turn it up really loud.
00:17:53 It sounds pretty quiet.
00:17:56 So first you're listening for noise floor?
Exactly.
00:18:00 The second it starts
I'm gonna hit play on
this a few seconds later.
00:18:04 It's just my workflow,
I like to be able to do the A/B.
00:18:12 So, I'm listening to the test cut.
00:18:27 Mastered file.
00:18:30 Test cut.
00:19:12 If you listen to the sibilancies,
they're very similar.
00:19:31 Every time I listen to you do this
I'm still shocked how close they sound.
00:19:37 It's sounding pretty good.
00:19:38 Vinyl should not be that close to digital,
it just shouldn't.
00:19:40 I'm always amazed that it is.
00:19:42 Now that is program-dependent,
the sound quality of some records just...
00:19:47 -it changes a little bit...
-Which is fine.
00:19:49 Still,
we're running a needle through plastic
compared to a digital file
and it sounds this close.
It still fascinates me.
00:19:57 After we cut the interior cut,
which is what gonna go to the plant,
we can't pull the needle through, can we?
No.
00:20:04 So we can't listen to it
to make sure it's good.
00:20:05 That's why you do a test cut.
00:20:08 You get your settings,
get your sound,
play it back, listen to it...
00:20:12 And that's it.
00:20:13 If you like it, roll the dice,
drop the head, cut your master.
00:20:17 Put it in the box. You cannot, yes.
00:20:19 Because if you create any kind of scratch
that's just gonna show up on every single
vinyl that gets pressed.
00:20:26 Because that's really soft,
it's a different type of vinyl material
than what you would buy as
a final record in the store.
00:20:31 That's harder, this is softer.
00:20:33 This is softer.
00:20:35 The lacquer is an aluminum plate
that's machined coated in black lacquer.
00:20:41 Yes, it shows up dark purple on your
bright light but it is a black lacquer.
00:20:45 And this is an engraving.
00:20:46 And dropping the needle
to check your master is just,
-you create another scratch.
-You machine it up.
00:20:52 Vinyl already has its noises,
even the best ones are gonna have noise.
Why introduce another one?
We are good though,
we have our test cut.
00:20:59 We like the way it sounds,
time to cut the master.
00:21:04 The second tank here is the nitrogen.
00:21:12 This is loud, forgive me.
00:21:15 I'm gonna blow off any
excess of dust particles.
00:21:23 It's still looking pretty schmitzy.
00:21:25 Yes, this is because it's an older stock.
00:21:29 It collects things over time.
00:21:33 Should we have a better one?
Yes.
00:21:45 I'm gonna let you use another one.
00:21:49 For demonstration purposes.
00:21:52 What are those markings
in a perfect triangle?
You could use either side.
00:22:09 It looks like a nicer side.
It's clean.
00:22:17 Yeah, that last one looked like
it went through a sandstorm.
00:22:21 Those were at the top of the pile,
it's probably why.
00:22:26 That looks nice.
00:22:28 Human eyes can only catch so much,
can't get everything but
you look at it as best as you can.
00:22:38 -Great.
-That's great
Time to cut our master.
00:22:53 So, all the same steps?
All the same steps.
00:22:56 But now it's gonna start all the way in.
00:22:58 Exactly.
00:23:00 I was doing a test cut before,
I just wanted to drop it where I had it,
I did this through the record button.
00:23:05 Now I'm gonna hit
the button for the lead-in.
00:23:08 Which is this one held down.
00:23:13 I'll roll it across.
00:23:21 If you listen carefully you can hear
the sensors as you scroll across.
00:23:27 Here's the lead-in for a 7-inch.
00:23:30 I'll roll back a little bit,
Lock the clutch...
00:23:35 engages the vacuum as
well as the circuit-breaker.
00:23:47 Watch the carriage moving fast,
that's the lead-in,
once it stops moving fast,
time to record.
00:24:33 Kind of a cool little thing,
I'll dim the volume.
00:24:38 You can hear the high-end coming
right out of this, like a mini tweeter.
00:26:36 I see I have a quiet section right here.
00:26:38 Sometimes I like to make
it even more efficient.
00:26:40 I can crash that land
and get it even tighter.
00:26:44 I can see that it's about to kick back in.
00:26:47 I make sure I open it back up
before that section starts.
00:27:59 We're about to write the lead-out.
00:28:14 So you were able to still finish the cut.
00:28:18 But what happened?
We lost suction
and I have to troubleshoot why.
00:28:24 It looks pretty good though.
00:28:25 Actually it looks really good.
00:29:01 I like to just scroll across
to the different sections of the song.
00:29:06 Once you get as familiar
as I am with looking at a cut
you get to actually
know what section of the song it is.
00:29:17 You're like:
'Oh, there's that second chorus!'
'There's the breakdown.'
And it's interesting how
different program
produces
grooves that look
very unique to one another.
00:29:32 So now you take this,
package it
and send it to be played.
00:29:39 Yes.
00:29:41 And then that gets turned into metal,
then gets turned into a stamper
and we start making all the copies.
00:29:49 Exactly.
00:29:52 The stamper is a negative,
the male, and you have a A-side stamper,
and the B-side stamper.
00:29:59 And the vinyl is like a hockey puck
and it just smash, 'next'.
00:30:05 Smash.
00:30:06 And that's it.
00:30:07 That's it.
00:30:08 This is what we ship off
to the manufacturing plant.
00:30:12 Often they will have describe numbers,
for this particular
project we don't have...
00:30:17 Like catalog numbers
so they can inventor it?
Exactly.
00:30:21 The client, the label,
will give us that catalog number.
00:30:26 And for our purposes,
we don't have one for this right now
I'll just scribe an A
for the A side.
00:30:44 A. Then I always like to
rotate it a little bit.
00:30:52 It's always kind of nice
to create a little insignia for yourself.
00:30:57 That way you go to a record store,
you buy something
open it up
take a look at it and say:
'Yeah, I cut that one.'
So that will be on every stamp.
00:31:05 Every one.
00:31:06 So you package it up
and you send it to a platting facility,
sometimes it's also the manufacturer,
sometimes it's also the pressing plant.
00:31:14 They plate it.
00:31:16 How soon do they need
to receive it from us?
-ASAP.
-Why?
They have a very short shelf life
because, again, this is an etching.
00:31:26 And the definition that
is in the grooves is so fine
that temperature and time,
it could start to maybe dull a little bit.
00:31:36 -Information that is cut into...
-The valleys?
Yes, things could, sag...
00:31:40 in microscopic level,
something that you and
I would never be able to see.
00:31:44 This is why I sometimes see
you put this things in the fridge
if your shipping it out the next day?
Yes. It likes cold and dry.
00:31:50 So I'll put it in the fridge,
if I'm cutting two sets
and I'm done with the first set
and I'm gonna spend two and half hours
cutting the second set
I'm throwing that first one in the fridge.
00:32:01 Summertime is always
a little nerve-racking
but you can't do anything
about that at that point.
00:32:05 And then it goes to Europeans,
it's too long,
sometimes it's another issue.
00:32:09 Which is why we prefer
to ship over metal.
00:32:12 Correct. Domestic is great because
it gets there the next morning.
00:32:15 International you just make
it international priority
and just get it to
them as quick as possible.
00:32:20 I've been told it's about 72
no more than 96 hours
it should come off this platter
and begin their electroplating process.
00:32:32 When that process is completed
they create the stampers.
00:32:39 This is one example.
00:32:46 But shockingly...
00:32:48 -Thin.
-Very thin.
00:32:50 It's not...
00:32:51 You would expect it to be hard.
00:32:54 Like a solid piece but it is actually
-Flexible.
-Correct.
00:32:59 -Nice job, thank you for your time.
-Thank you.
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Owner of The Mastering Palace in New York, Dave Kutch began his music career at Tiki Recording Studios, Hit Factory, Masterdisk, and Sony Studios.
Dave worked closely with Alicia Keys' engineer, Ann Mincieli, and producers, the Kerry Brothers, who got Kutch on board to master Keys' 2007 album 'As I Am' in an innovative fashion. Dave's career never ceased to increase working onsite at Keys' Oven Studios on Long Island and expanding an extensive list of luxurious clients.
Dave has worked with artists like Dua Lipa, The Weeknd, Chance the Rapper, Justin Timberlake, Carly Rae Jepsen, Janelle Monáe, P!nk, Juanes, Blink-182, Lana Del Rey, Camila Cabello, XXXTentacion, Zac Brown Band, John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Cypress Hill, Future, Lupe Fiasco, Calvin Harris, Big Boi, H.E.R., Wyclef Jean, Mary J. Blige, A$AP Rocky, The Killers... the list goes on.
Wow, I went back a few years!
I was always going to the cutting lacquer mastering. It was the "final" moment of the production and the beginning of the manufacturing.
Glad to know that this critical knowledge is not lost.
alexfont
2022 Jan 30
Amazing content ✅ would love to see more of this process or mastering specialization.
studiosix
2022 Jan 15
I wonder what D to A they are using to feed the cutting chain.
gerard.u
2021 Oct 13
cuando estaran disponibles los subtitulos en español?
