Home Recording Disc (May, 1956)

Home Recording Disc

Marriage of Aluminum and Acetate

THE BLANK recording disc is to phonograph records what unexposed film is to photographs. Any record groove ever played with a pickup was originally cut on a recording disc. This is as true today, in the age of high-fidelity tape masters and LP records, as it was in the days of Caruso and acoustical recording.

On the old-fashioned disc, the groove was formed in wax. But the modern disc is made of a special acetate lacquer compound on a metal base. It is much less destructible than a wax disc-an important advantage for home recordists. Repeated playbacks with a high-grade pickup will not mutilate the groove.

From the processing of the aluminum blank through the compounding of the lacquer to the coating, aging and inspection of the surfaces, the manufacture of a modern recording disc is a task for perfectionists. The accompanying photographs, taken at the Paramus, N. J., plant of Presto Recording Corporation, show some of the steps in the making of a high-quality lacquer disc.