Vinyl lacquer plant burnt crisis!!

I'm not one to yell that the sky is falling....but this is it for the "vinyl boom". At least for a year or so - until some other facility takes over production.

Why there was only 1 plant in the world making 90% of the lacquers is what is really strange...couldn't someone see that a fire like this would wipe out the whole industry?

DMM is the only other option - so more from the GZ family, as most other mastering houses aren't set up with DMM lathes.
 
Right, yeah I'm no expert (obviously!) but it seems like this is quite a major set back, hmmmmm , I think I'll continue on my s/h purchasing , I'm mostly appalled how much they charge for new albums these days, and it looks like quality will cost a shit load more in 6 months or so going forward .
LeeVing said:
Nitrocellulose is extremely volatile which could be a reason they were the only plant making them. Could be hard to get a new facility up and running with the cash needed and regulations to deal with.
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I wonder how this will affect Tone Poet et al that do mastering from the Original Tapes, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have done the lacquers for the whole year of releases yet (could be wrong ) but will be interesting to see what happens with them .
 
cul8er said:
I'm no expert, either. Here's a link that explains the whole vinyl record process.

Furnace Record Pressing | Vinyl 101: How to Make a Vinyl Record

www.furnacemfg.com www.furnacemfg.com
If my understanding is correct, the plant that burned down supplied the blank lacquer and the cutting tools? Then those would have been sent off to engineers and lacquer cutting studios?
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yep. From what I've read they supplied up to 90% of the world-wide lacquers.

The other company isn't near as big, and only shipped within Japan.

I don't think the casual vinyl fans have grasped what this means.
 
kafunis said:
I wonder how this will affect Tone Poet et al that do mastering from the Original Tapes, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have done the lacquers for the whole year of releases yet (could be wrong ) but will be interesting to see what happens with them .
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I saw this post over on the steve hoffman forum...

Joe Harley commented on his most recent Instagram post that he and Kevin have been using MDC lacquers for the Tone Poet and BN 80 Series, so happy days still ahead.
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Do you think this year will be the last Record Store Day? I am worried about this mainly because Garth Brooks had 7 million records pressed. How many lacquers did that take up? Is there a one master lacquer per however many mothers are created for the stampers?
 
they are saying the ripple won't be felt publicly until around the 2020 holiday season, and that turnaround times are going to fall around 9 months plus. this is going to be worse for indie labels and artists (and their fans!), but everyone in the industry is gonna feel it. the Japanese plant already was struggling to keep up with demand when they had 10-20% of market.

as has been noted, there is still DMM, and the vinyl industry has certainly proved resilient over the years.
 
TransformerMan said:
Another article from discogs
blog.discogs.com

Discogs Digs | Discogs

Discogs Digs is the place to start your journey of music discovery. Explore recommendations, unique stories, guides, and more.
blog.discogs.com blog.discogs.com
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eh...I think it's a bit more serious that what they are saying.

Sure, most of the GZ stuff will get pressed, as they are mostly DMM. Things of the last 10 years will get repressed from existing metal.

Is this what we want though? We probably won't notice a problem for about 6 months, but it will take a while for a plant to come online and start pumping out lacquers.

One good thing that will happen is that those albums that don't need to get reissued probably won't. Those goodwill / thrift store mainstays will be the first ones to not see the waste of a new lacquer.
 
TransformerMan said:
Another article from discogs
blog.discogs.com

Discogs Digs | Discogs

Discogs Digs is the place to start your journey of music discovery. Explore recommendations, unique stories, guides, and more.
blog.discogs.com blog.discogs.com
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so basically they say its fine because a lot of non US pressing plants (and QRP) apparently use MDC already (i dont completely believe it, maybe Pallas and Record Industry but optimal, MPO, etc i dunno about) and DMM is already used a lot (which yeah a lot of Gz but thats still the audiophile love it or hate it thing at least 30 years later).

it feels like we're basically saying "its ok HD vinyl is coming soon*"
 
Widget said:
I'm curious, was anything ever affected by this fire? Or did covid cause enough of a slowdown on the production side to stave off a shortage?
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I'd say this plus COVID-19 explains a lot of the delays and the fact that preorders are now 6 months plus in advance.
 
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