On Record: Direct-to-disc cutting with BBC Introducing, Metronome and Plates.

Last week BBC Introducing East Midlands hosted an event showcasing Nottingham artists at the city’s latest and greatest music complex, ‘Metronome’. The lineup featured a range of experienced and recently in-demand local musicians including, Alfie Sharp, Alice Robbins, Jacob Fowler and Reflektor.

Based within the Confetti music hub is also independent record cutting company, ‘Plates’ who were enlisted for their services in this historic moment where performances from the event were going to be cut live, direct-to-disc.

The plan was to run audio from the Metronome live music venue into the first studio, where a live mix would be done, then into another studio, where some mastering and safety measures would be applied, before reaching the final stage in the record cutting room and going straight to an original 1960s record cutting lathe, which would then cut the groove onto a record.

The process of record cutting already has considerable dangers and rarely takes place in a live setting; too loud and you risk blowing your cutterhead, too many high frequencies and you risk distortion and any lapse of concentration or wrong moves on the basic controls can end up causing thousands of pounds of damage in a split second. With that in mind, as the technical operators and engineers sat at their consoles, the air was filled with anticipation and excitement for what was about to take place.

The bands sound-checked on stage, whilst everyone in the studios made uncomfortably concise adjustments in preparation, right down to the last few minutes. Before long, the venue was full and the first act was being announced by the host, BBC Introducing’s Dean Jackson.

Seconds before the first act, Alfie Sharp, starts, the turntable motor is set in motion, a fresh blank disc prepared and all equipment set up so that once the song begins, the record will already be cutting.

Cutterhead on, vacuum pump on, stylus heat on, audio feed off, lead in groove, audio feed on, record cutting. This all happens in the space of 10 seconds. The needle drops and the record is now being cut live in real-time, a piece of music history only possible at a handful of places worldwide.

Minutes pass as everyone at their stations monitors their equipment carefully in silence, transfixed until the final notes ring out and audience applause begins to fade. As the final lead-out groove ends and the cutterhead lifts, the engineers and audio team give a unanimous cheer.

Job done.

We’d like to thank Confetti, Metronome and Plates for this collaborative opportunity as well as BBC Introducing, Dean Jackson and all acts involved for their hard work. More live direct-to-disc cutting TBC in the near future- watch this space…