Because we are celebrating the 7 inch’s 60th birthday, here is Bob Bailey, from the Vinyl Factory Manufacturing, showing the BBC how a 7 inch vinyl is made.
“It is 60 years since RCA record company released the first commercial seven-inch single, spinning at 45rpm.
To celebrate the anniversary, BBC News has been given access to a factory that still makes singles.
Bob Bailey is commercial manager at The Vinyl Factory and has worked at the record making plant for 35 years.” BBC
BBC’s Robert Plummer, earlier in January, also celebrated Vinyl and focused on The Vinyl Factory Manufacturing unit.
“The Wombats and Franz Ferdinand are among the artists whose seven-inch vinyl records are being sleeved and boxed at the Portalspace factory (now The Vinyl Factory Manufacturing) in Hayes, on the edge of west London.
As it happens, they are the latest in a venerable tradition.” Robert Plummer, BBC
Why don’t record companies recycle old, unwanted records just as they did during WW2?
I have seen some very interesting videos on YouTube regarding record manufacture.
It strikes me, though, I would like to know more about the “mathematics” (how the pitch of the grooves is calculated) used during the manufacture of records.
On side two of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper Album, they had to allow for the “never-ending”, chattering run-off groove — you know what I mean.
They had to get the calculations right before they even started to cut the second side of the album.
Please, just out of interest, where can I purchase a tradesman’s guide to cutting records?
By the way, portable disc-cutting lathes were also used by BBC radio reporters for “on site” recordings. One of these was actually on display during the “Music 100 Exhibition” as arranged by EMI Records for its 100th anniversary in 1997.
If you can reply to this message, then that would be great.
Regards,
Richard Elsner.