Apollo Masters (lacquer master supplier) fire

[lj]

First, we had the fire destroying master recording tapes at Universal, and now this.

Vinyl record production hurt by California factory fire

 

[Rudy]

Correction--it's not a vinyl pressing plant. This is a more important link in the chain--Apollo is the only one of two producers of the lacquer master discs used to cut records on the cutting lathe. (The other is a tiny company in Japan that provides only a small fraction of the rest.) Mastering studios have these lacquers in stock, but once supplies dry up, there will be a backlog of reissues waiting to be cut. And that will also leave some of the pressing plants idle if they don't find a replacement soon.

There used to be something called DMM (Direct Metal Mastering) where they cut to a metal disc, but without having a spare minute to check, I don't know if they are still using this process or not. And I think it requires different cutting equipment.

 

[Murray]

There used to be something called DMM (Direct Metal Mastering) where they cut to a metal disc, but without having a spare minute to check, I don't know if they are still using this process or not. And I think it requires different cutting equipment.

There's a paragraph in the article that lj linked to, that mentions DMM:

"Another mastering process, called direct metal mastering, was developed in Europe and does not require a lacquer process. But it's expensive, and not many machines are in operation, engineers said. Most companies using this system are at capacity."

So, it appears that DMM is still in limited use, but the capacity doesn't exist to make up for a shortage of lacquer blanks.