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From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad Hello, the two short video features on lacquer manufacture, record cutting, and galvanic processing/pressing are very instructive and honest. In the first, we can understand why a lacquer is so expensive: it is slow to manufacture and the reject rate is 50%. I use TRANSCO myself. There used to be talks about "spring" and "autumn" lacquers, the first being quieter. This has to do with temperature and humidity during the drying by evaporation that we see. Many different methods of depositing the nitro-cellulose lacquer have been tried, and no doubt at some stage controlled-atmosphere drying could have been introduced. Working dust-free would also have prevented the rejects. However, the whole technology was superceded by error-correction codes making dust specks irrelevant in the digital domain. In the processing we see something very interesting: they are preparing an original metal negative, a "father", but they call it a stamper and use it as a stamper. This is something you would only do for small runs (I suppose most modern vinyl record production is small run), otherwise you would go the whole process of making a metal positive, "mother", and only from that make the stamper, the "son". Here, you would have to go back and cut another lacquer if you needed to exceed the print run of the first stamper; the matrix number scribing would be different, and so you would easily be able to distinguish between print runs. I have a small story from real life to end this comment with: you know that I have made a fair bit of research into the physical marks on 78s that have a discographical bearing. For instance, in Europe we have been blessed with a lot of original scribed under-label information from Victor (acoustic and electrical) on the Gramophone Company (and later some Electrola) pressings, because the presses were different, and the whole metal surface was more or less used right through to pressing. Now, I have in front of me a Danish shellac pressing, early-to-mid 1950s, Pathé PT1005; one side being "Liebeslied (Valse)" (Kreisler-Arrang. A. Bernard), Armand Bernard et son orchestre á cordes, matrix no.CPT 9407-21. Under the label it says "Made in France" in elevated reversed, which means it was stamped into a negative. Near the centre is the familiar AUDIODISC logo (which means they were not using PYRAL), but there are no holes for a drive pin. However, on the same circle as AUDIODISC it says: USE OTHER SIDE. Tableau!! There may be many reasons why they disobeyed this advice, but imagine that they advertise the fact! Possibly they had had to reject the "good" side and lacquers were - as always - expensive. Kind regards, George Kind regards, George