Vinyl Cutting by leading LA Mastering Engineer

Interesting article on Vinyl Cutting by leading Mastering Engineer Pete Lyman (Radiohead, Ben Harper, Best Coast and No Age):

American sales of vinyl records grew 36% in 2011, for a SoundScan total of 3.9 million albums. Lyman says that vinyl makes up 60% of Infrasonic’s mastering jobs, and that his vinyl work has grown 230% over the last five years — 40% in the last year alone.

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“We want to educate people about what vinyl’s supposed to sound like,” Lyman said. “You can’t skimp on this last part of the process. It’s your art.”

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As recorded music grows more ephemeral and digital, and artists are capable of producing and mixing in home studios, the hair-pulling aspects of mastering and cutting quality vinyl are a reminder that an LP is an artifact. It takes a kind of alchemy to forge it from sound waves and raw plastic.

Read the full article at the LA Times >…

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