Over the years of cutting at Pressure Mastering, we’ve regularly come across the claim that lathe cuts don’t sound as good as pressed records, or that they have more surface noise. When Spinner Town started, we put out a brief blog post on it, but lately we’ve noticed these same statements popping up again across websites, social media, and even on a podcast. It’s simply not true, and it worries us that people go into lathe cuts expecting them to sound worse, because, again, that’s just not the case.
So we figured it was time to revisit this properly, also we should mention, we are talking about cutting, not embossing. From a technical standpoint, there is no reason a lathe cut should have more surface noise than a pressed record, and depending on who's doing the cutting or the pressing, it can go the other way. We have certainly heard terrible pressings too. The only real material difference is lacquer versus plastic, and yes, lacquer is quieter, but we're still talking silent grooves on either medium. If a lathe cut has surface noise, that's a calibration issue, not an issue with the medium itself, which is what keeps getting implied. The same goes for fidelity. That comes down to the mastering engineer more than anything else. A dynamic cutterhead like the Vinyl Recorder with a properly implemented feedforward system can sound fantastic and hold its own against pressed records.
We're aware these are just words without evidence, so we'll be collating audio samples of digital master files, a pressing, and a lathe cut of the same audio for direct comparison. That'll also give a real benchmark on what surface noise levels are actually achievable on entry level lathes. We're heavily involved in the lathe cutting world, and it concerns us when inaccurate information circulates suggesting it's a subpar medium.
All files will be the original WAV file of a song, along with two 'rip' files, one is a pressing and one is a lathe cut and both are labelled. You can play them one after each other for a level matched comparison.
Sample 1: Lathe cut on a Vinyl Recorder T560 by Jack at The Dub Crate
Cooling Out - Digital Master
Cooling Out - Rip from Pressing
Cooling Out - Rip from Lathe Cut
Sample 2: Lathe cut on a Vinyl Recorder T560 by Ben at Plastidisc
The Advisory Circle - Skyways (Digital Master)
The Advisory Circle - Skyways - Rip from Pressing
The Advisory Circle - Skyways - Rip from Lathe Cut
Sample 3: Lathe cut on a Vinyl Recorder T560 by Ben at Plastidisc
Aphex Twin - Windowlicker (Digital Master)
Aphex Twin - Windowlicker - Rip from Pressing
Aphex Twin - Windowlicker - Rip from Lathe Cut
Sample 4: Lathe cut on a Vinyl Recorder T560 by Ben @ Plastidisc
COAM - Make Out Fade Out (Digital Master)
COAM - Make Out Fade Out - Rip from Pressing
COAM - Make Out Fade Out - Rip from Lathe Cut
Sample 5: Lathe cut on an MC-02 by Matt @ Pressure Mastering / Spinner Town
Pressure - (Digital Master)
Pressure - Rip from Lathe Cut
Pressure - Rip from Pressing
This blog post hopefully gives an honest benchmark in terms of what is achievable with a properly set up entry level system. For those of you who are new to us, we have already got a guide for cutterhead mapping and making a feedforward system which can get the best possible sound out of your lathe. See HERE.
Always remember, you wouldn’t give Jah Shaka a dodgy cut.