Lathe Cut Vinyl Records: Audio Comparisons and Reviews
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
- [2024 Update: Little Elephant has updated their lathe and printing equipment.
- Audio: Now the cutoff frequency issue is gone and the stereo imaging is still superior to Tangible Formats, though the noise floor is still worse due to the quiet sound level. So I'd say audio-wise this is now tied for first with Tangible Formats, at 4 stars instead of 3.
- Artwork: this is improved as well, regarding both the cover and the label. The printer lines are no longer present (though the cover still feels sticky and bows outward like before). So now I'd put this at 4 stars instead of 3.]
[2023 Update: Tangible Formats can make proper 7" sleeves instead of foldovers, adding one more star to their Artwork category]
NOTE: This is my first informational video (and first time using Final Cut Pro). Please give me feedback on how to improve, in case I make more!
Music credits:
"Now That You Found Me" by Rego Sen:
- open.spotify.com/track/1kbALj...
- / now-that-you-found-me-...
"Sixteenth Summer" by Rego Sen:
- open.spotify.com/track/0V9Sxy...
- music.apple.com/us/album/sixt...
"Greenhorn" by Zen Finger Painting:
- open.spotify.com/track/6X4asc...
- music.apple.com/us/album/gree...
Jump to:
0:00 Intro
0:16 What are lathe cut records?
1:01 My criteria for choosing a service
Reviews of services:
2:24 One Groove
3:45 One Groove - see jacket and label
5:12 One Groove - hear audio recordings
5:54 Little Elephant
6:23 Little Elephant - see jacket and label
7:45 Little Elephant - hear audio recordings
8:33 Tangible Formats
8:57 Tangible Formats - see jacket and label
10:10 Tangible Formats - hear audio recordings
10:49 Winner and Conclusion
Ratings:
One Groove: www.onegroovevinyl.com/
Service: ★☆☆☆☆
Price: ★★★★★
Artwork: ★★☆☆☆
Audio: ★★★☆☆
Overall: 5.5 / 10
Little Elephant: www.littleelephantcustomvinyl...
Service: ★★★★★
Price: ★★☆☆☆
Artwork: ★★★★☆ (see update at top of description)
Audio: ★★★★☆ (see update at top of description)
Overall: 6.5 / 10
Tangible Formats: www.tangibleformats.com/
Service: ★★★★★
Price: ★★★☆☆
Artwork: ★★★★★ (see update at top of description)
Audio: ★★★★☆
Overall: 8.5 / 10
See more of my lathe cut 12" LPs and 7" records played here: / cin9cfbvwhc 
Видеоклипы
I love how campy this video is but also how great it is! Super insightful!
Great job
I love how one groove sounds🤷♂️ noisy but it sounds much closer to the original recording than other two.
I appreciate your honesty and the time and effort you put into this research, especially the very long turnaround times my competitors have. That is the reason I don't bother with jackets and labels it gets complicated and time consuming, since I have no experience in printing !
Does Tangible seperate the songs on the record for you?
@@mickeylilly6057yes, all three services I used had visible gaps between tracks
This is great! I have been looking into possibly getting a few personal recording cut to vinyl for fun. Love the review and comparisons. You just confirmed my thoughts about trying Tangible Formats.
Thank you. Great information. Appreciated.
Nice video! Thank you for the insight 🙏
That Little Elephant audio sample was f---ing horrible! A crazy change in the tone of the original recording.
I also have use all three services.
Tangible was the worst in audio mono/stereo. They cut good deep groves, but it was 90% mono. Extremely disappointing. Did not have any printing done.
One Groove: Audio was the best! Nice deep cut, and in perfect stereo. I asked them to make the groove wider and they fit 24-minutes on one side. (After a second request). Low noise floor compared to the other two. Printing was as you said.
Little Elephant: Absolutely the best printing. I use them to print my jackets but not lathe the audio. Worst audio cut, shallow groove and soft audio in the groove. Which leads to much noise that can be heard in soft music sections. Also you can hear every time the gap is made by hearing the motor start to move the cutting arm. Stereo was good, but I was very unsatisfied with the cut.
Bottom line: Use One Groove for the cutting. Use Little Elephant for the printed jacket.
Wow, such a different result from mine! Do you have samples to share?
This is a very informational video, have you ever heard of the lathe cut record service called "intheclouds" records?
Thanks! I hadn't heard of intheclouds before. Do you know if they make sleeves with proper spines, or just foldovers? I couldn't tell from their website or instagram reel.
@@regosen from what I've seen, they have gatefolds, with spines
I'm thankful for this video, very informative. I have a new album I'm making and I'm trying to see which company I want to go with this time. So far, I've tried One Groove, and Little Elephant. One Groove was the first I tried back in 2019. I was actually able to communicate with the record cutter, but he didn't seem like he wanted to communicate too much, but he did reply to my messages. When I got my first records from them, the 12 inch jacket was just thick paper. It's ok, it looks fine with the poly sleeve, but it is flimsy and not solid. The record looked nice, but the label looked a little washed and small compared to a regular label. The thing I like best about them is that the music sounds pretty much like it does digitally. The stereo is full and it sounds great and loud. However, I ordered 5 records, and they forgot to space one of the tracks. But that's how I knew it was the first record they cut and that's the one I kept for myself.
Little Elephant on the other hand, awesome service like you said, very nice people. I ordered two records, one double LP and 20 copies of 7 inch records. The LP just didn't sound right, it had feedback on it, it sounds like a mic with slight feedback. The volume was very low, and overall, it just didn't sound that great. However, my 7 inch records sounded perfect. In other words, the quality of Little Elephant matched the music on my 4 song EP. It sounded like an old record from the 60s! I love it when vocals distort a little like they did with old records from the 60s. However, the volume was still low. But I really loved these little records, even the jacket is fine with me as long as I keep the poly sleeve on. So little Elephant is my go to for 7 inch records, they did a great job with mine, I fell in love with them and the stereo width was still there. They even fixed one of my tracks that had bass hard panned to the left.
Now I'm curious about tangible formats for my next record. I've been thinking about trying one groove again, because this album is one that I want to have great audio for. I'm not convinced with Tangible Formats yet. The one turn off I saw in your video is that they reduce the stereo width, but the quality was still there. Some of the panning on my album is very important, it's what makes the songs what they are. I just don't know who to go with now. I want the best looking record, and Tangible seems to look great. What do you think I should do? Sorry for all the writing, I got into it lol. Thanks for the video.
I would still go with Tangible Formats, I have a lot of hard panning in my music as well, but I just think of each format as a different way to experience my music. So I guess I'm saying to embrace the differences. :)
@@regosen You know, you're right about that!
I'm getting a one-off record of my bands new album from Tangible Formats any day now. Pretty excited. What carrier do they use to ship records?
how did it turn out?
Wow, the little elephant result sounded dreadfull. No idea how you could give them 3 stars for that.
Yeah, it kinda sounded a bit weird on the treble. Some pre-mastering would fix that though.
I'd give them 1 star max for that screeching piercing tone. It sounds absolutely horrendous through my Sennheiser headphones. By far the worst audio sample.
Lathe cuts are more often made out of plastic garbage. Material is for free. They are noisy and stylus often skips at the beginning. But sometimes you order a vinyl reissue for 25 eur and get a plastic lathe cut which never saw a vinyl...
Omg, for those prices the first and second records are scams
This does not make a good publicity to lathe cuts, when in fact they can sound like a pressed record if manufactured properly.
You can get lathe cuts made on neuman lathes for this price. Check out studios that also do mastering and lacquer cutting, usually they have proper equipment.
It's sad.. They can do better then that I believe.. Tangible was only one that I would consider okeyish - but if I can figure out massive difference on laptop speakers I'm afraid that it would stick out of any good pressings... If I had a chance to do it in my home, and the quality will be that - ok, I'm a loser ... But that they do it like that - I'm dissapointed even more... This really CAN sound better on vinyl! They probably have been in a hurry... "free" mastering is really no mastering - just cut this, do that .. all really to not skip, not to sound great - IMO...
Its an expensive pretentious gimmick.the sound is trashy.why bother? Cd is the way for amateur no money artists