The vinyl revival will suddenly become more accesible if you’re an Australian band looking to press an album or single.
With just one local pressing plant (Zenith in Melbourne) capable of a substantial run, Australian bands have been starved of choice with the cost of having a record manufactured offshore compounded by shipping costs. A new plant is set to open in Sydney’s inner-western mid-year, according to the facility’s manager Vincent Chen.
“The new plant will be fully self-sufficient with full analogue mastering, a Neumann disc cutting system, stamper making facility, fully automated record presses, and a manual press for specialty records such as picture discs, split and splatter colours,” Chen said.
“For total control over production, a record jacket making machine from Germany is also being installed.
“We have assembled a specialist team with previous technical experience to make this a reality - our plating manager was head of EMI’s plating department before moving across to their CD factory Digital Audio Technologies Australia to head up the plating department there.
“He uses the EMI formulas which he has adapted over his many years of experience for best quality. Our disc cutting engineers spent many years cutting No. 1 hits so there is no learning curve as there is with other new plants around the world.”
More news as it comes to hand.
