A vinyl workshop proved itself a cut above by capturing musicians’ tunes in record time.
The University of Huddersfield held a vinyl cutting session so visitors could record their tunes and spoken words to the classic format.
During a single day, 25 musicians, singers and poets cut 12 records on a mobile vinyl cutting lathe, supplied and manned by Henry Bainbrigde, of Dub Studio, Bristol.
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Recording to vinyl is a lengthy process compared to digital recording and event organiser, Dave Smith of the university’s archive, believes they may have set an unofficial record (pun intended).
Dave said: “It doesn’t sound like much but the engineer who brought his lathe up thought it was some kind of unofficial record.
“It’s quite a skill because you have to heat the vinyl to the right temperature for it to cut properly.
“The people who came were over the moon to have something on vinyl to take home.”
Once considered an outdated and cumbersome format, love for the old 12-inch album or seven-inch single has swelled in recent years.
Collectors enjoy its warm sound and the fact you get a proper sleeve.
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Dave said: “Most of the people who came were collectors interested in the physicality of vinyl and we tapped into that desire.
He added: “We did it on Record Store Day deliberately and it all fitted nicely together.
“We’re already talking about doing one next Record Store Day so watch the space.”
Traditionally artists or bands would record directly to vinyl through a glorified funnel.
This was replaced by reel-to-reel tapes which enabled editing of the recorded sounds before they were cut to vinyl.
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Today the majority of recording is done digitally using PCs or Macs running programs such as Pro Tools, Cubase and Ableton.
While such programs are cheap to buy, easy to use and reproduce sound faithfully, some artists and engineers miss the relative simplicity and warm sound of analog recording.
Indeed Jack White, one of half of The White Stripes, often records using entirely analog gear.
