News

HD Vinyl Update: A Planned 7" 45rpm Record "Some Time Mid 2019"?

Michael Fremer  |  Apr 26, 2019

"Making Vinyl" Berlin is a week away (May 2nd and 3rd). AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer will attend and moderate a few interesting panels. No doubt there will be news and an update on the progress being made to realize the promise of HD Vinyl. However, at last fall's "Making Vinyl" in Detroit there was HD Vinyl news that got "caught in the cracks" and was never published.

At a breakfast meeting in Detroit Fremer interviewed inventor Günter Loibl and Rebeat publicist Sabine Stepanek. You can listen to excerpts below. In a lower level meeting room they showed prototype stampers along with a video of the laser cutting process. Watch the short video, also below:

Breakfast Interview

video

COMMENTS
PeterPani's picture
Submitted by PeterPani on Sat, 2019-04-27 02:24

... digital vinyl?

PAR's picture
Submitted by PAR on Sat, 2019-04-27 06:13

...If this new process sounds good. As yet we do not know.

Should I take, say, the Giles Martin/ Miles Showell remastering/half speed cutting of Sgt. Pepper and the White Album as examples of discs cut from digital production masters then there is no negative aspect that can be solely laid at the digitisation of the tracks IMO (and, yes, I have UK originals to compare them to).

Michael Fremer's picture
Submitted by Michael Fremer on Sat, 2019-04-27 14:03
This could be a better way to make vinyl from it. If you are against any vinyl cut from digital, then you are missing some great records that for whatever reason or reasons sound much better than the files you can download or stream on the Internet.
PeterPani's picture
Submitted by PeterPani on Sat, 2019-04-27 23:41

I agree and understand. But I wish there would be also people to develop a new analog carrier besides tape or vinyl.

Rudy's picture
Submitted by Rudy on Tue, 2019-04-30 09:05

I have a theory as to why. It's rather basic but could be far-fetched. I'll have to email it one of these days...

MrRom92's picture
Submitted by MrRom92 on Mon, 2019-05-06 20:26

I’m in no way against vinyl from digital, though I rarely buy it when the digital (hi-res) equivalent is also made available for purchase. But HD Vinyl’s marketing so far consists of a series of outlandish claims that can’t be delivered upon, “fake news” and “alternative facts”, and ideas that threaten the entire industry. There is no way that I can support what they are up to in good conscience. Just a quick glance at their own website will show a good number of complete fabrications and inaccuracies with no basis in reality.

tubes4days's picture
Submitted by tubes4days on Mon, 2019-07-15 19:36

fake news, alternate facts, complete fabrications, and inaccuracies with no basis in reality...you actually just described your own comment to a T. Brilliant!

TooCooL4's picture
Submitted by TooCooL4 on Tue, 2019-05-07 08:28

I am looking forward to trying it when it comes becomes available, i don't care about the source as long as the end product sounds good.

davip's picture
Submitted by davip on Tue, 2019-07-30 06:13

I was entirely against this in principle (and remain so if it is touted as replacement for manufacturing vinyl by stamper), but then I thought about it a little. Consider: what was the greatest aspect of the CD format on release (and the only great thing about it)? The fact that you could programme your player to omit certain tracks (and memorise that selection in some cases), e.g., The Cure's 'Faith' without 'Doubt', YMO's 'BGM' without 'Rap Phenomena', Eno's 'Apollo' without all that twangy Lanois rubbish on Side 2, Nelson's 'Quit Dreaming' without 'False Alarms', and, of course, Synchronicity without 'Mother', etc. In the same vein, what really cemented this format a few years later? The CD-R, so you could really go to town doing this. Well, how about for digitally-sourced audio and when this 'HD vinyl' tech is mature and can be done in a networked photo-booth, that we can cut our own vinyl LPs from the 24-bit files like we would a CD-R? Imagine making your own Radiohead vinyl compilation (at 45 RPM?) without having to have all the filler and paying through the nose for shoddily-pressed product? One LP with 'Exit Music', 'Street Spirit', 'Reckoner', 'Codex', and your favourite here from 'Moon-Shaped Pool'.

That's what HD vinyl could be good for, and I reckon it would fly off the shelves in a way that all that Back-to-Black crap stays on them...

LP-R. It's no bad idea.

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