On Monday 5th May 2025, AES Melbourne Section members were treated to a tour of what is arguably the world’s leading end-to-end vinyl record production facility, and certainly the most knowledgeable on the subject.
There is more to the production of vinyl records than simply pressing, and this is no more evident than at Zenith Records in East Brunswick, Melbourne.
Zenith has impressive lines of both manual and automatic presses for multiple sizes of records, all operated with pressurised hot water (160 degrees Celsius and tens of atmospheres pressure) from two central steam boilers and extensive reticulation of piping for feeding and return of heated water, steam and condensate for heat (and water) reuse. This is needed for the record press operation. The returning water is still hot – typically 60 degrees Celsius.
But wait, we are getting ahead of ourselves. There’s more work to be done before pressing.
Zenith also cut record masters. There is a room dedicated to cutting with all the electronic equipment needed to create lacquer masters, together with the cutting lathe and blank discs coated with specialty lacquer.
Recordings first need to be edited and then tailored to create audio formatted for the cutting lathe, including frequency response equalisation, playing times and track song spacings. Loudness and headroom also need to be considered at this stage, as groove swing needs to be juggled on loud passages against spacing and so playing time can be affected to avoid influencing the adjacent track walls.
The art of fitting over 22 minutes of quality stereo audio onto a 12-inch master (yes, still imperial) was explained.
It’s not that simple.
The cutting head needs to be able to respond to the full range of frequencies and amplitudes from very quiet needing small groove deflections to the loudest allowed sounds (deviations), and do all this with separate stereo tracks, and the force needed for track formation (cutting) on the cutting head certainly needs to be minimised. This is done by heating the cutter head and using a metal disk coated with thick coating of special plastic material called cellulose lacquer that softens readily and easily when heated by the cutting head then hardens quickly and so can be easily and permanently deformed or removed. This is the lacquer master for the record. The cutting process produces a thread or ribbon of waste, interestingly called ‘chip’. This stuff is rather flammable.
Zenith are also considering recording sessions direct-to-disc, the main limitation being the necessary associated recording facilities compatible with the factory production environment. Strategies include local pubs, halls and even street parties.
The production process next needs to convert the soft original lacquer master with its finely detailed grooves, eventually to a robust record stamper, and with grooves turned to ridges and capable of accurately and reliably producing literally thousands of grooved records.
The lacquer master is delicate and cannot be played without risking damage and so this needs to be preserved and protected.
The first step in the process involves protecting the lacquer master surface. This is done with extensive cleaning including ‘spin drying’ with specialty rigs, tin chloride (and silver nitrate) then coating the surface, making the acetate master conductive. It is then finally finely plated with a suitable metal without obscuring microscopic groove detail. This will be used as the master image for subsequent steps. This metallised surface then needs to be treated with a release agent so that subsequent plated images can be separated.
Once the surface is suitably protected, a solid plating of nickel metal build-up is used.
Each step reverses the 3D groove image with the grooves becoming ridges. So the plated images from the lacquer master are negatives – ridges instead of grooves, and cannot be played.
This multi-step process creates a family of images – the inverted or ridged father directly from the acetate then a ‘mother’ image is created and separated from the father plating. This ‘mother’ metal image can be played and so the process can now be checked.
Ultimately a negative image of the original acetate master will be needed for the presses. The first image taken from the acetate master would be suitable and is used as a press die but record production may need more than one press master, especially where large production runs would wear out the image or where multiple presses need to operate simultaneously to meet production demand. A second pair of steps is then required.
This process then allows multiple stampers to be made from the one source image. The result of this process is the creation of a negative impression of the cut record grooves as a stamper. This is specialist work.
Each plating step involves oversized images to ensure uniformity of plating and a rigid, removable image. These 3D images are then trimmed to size as required for each step.
We were taken through the process step by step with explanations and demonstrations safely given amongst the operating equipment. The quality of the finished product is checked at each step by both visual inspection and by test playing where appropriate. A test playing can be a pressing or it can be a plated metal image – which is easier/quicker.
Once approved, the stamper image (well, actually two images, one for each side of the record) is then loaded onto a press or stamper. Each automated stamper at Zenith can produce a finished (and trimmed) record every 30 – 40 seconds, applying a force of 150 tons and running a heating and cooling cycle each time. The press process is not directly fed vinyl plastic. Hockey puck sized blobs are used.
Link to YouTube: https://youtube.com/shorts/6jQawVkmNd0
Modern vinyl records can use a variety of plastic colours and mixes. These are described as splatter, sectored (a pizza record) and multicoloured.
Recycling is extensive. Unwanted or test pressings are re-used, with some improvement in quality with reuse as the plastic material has been further worked. But paper is the enemy of the presses. The centre label must be punched out and removed first. Then the records can be re-chipped and used as regrind. Transparent vinyl colours are great for re-use, but Opaque colours do not reuse well and make the records look marked. Zenith also manages the re-use mix. They offer a range of recycled vinyl mixes, each with its own custom appearance.
And different colours have slightly different melting points. There were lots of tricks of the trade involved in the process – another need for experience.
We were not finished.
Records need labels, sleeves and covers and these each need artwork preparation. This artwork then needs to be printed. This is specialist work. Even the humble centre label on the record presents a challenge. After printing, it needs to be die-cut. It must be meticulously dried as moisture is the enemy of hot molten plastic. Then not one but two labels need to be accurately centred and included in the press for each record.
We toured the second of Zenith’s three factory facilities in Brunswick East, where all artwork is prepared in-house. This includes artwork, printing, cutting of centre labels, folding and gluing of liner sleeves, record covers and inserts.
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Again, specialist work.
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The result of all this concentrated end-to-end capability is that Zenith can offer and meet delivery times way shorter than other production houses, where multiple separate suppliers are used. Companies needing to outsource production of the various parts in the chain will often incur delays in both production and delivery that can amount to months, and with variable reliability of dates. This is particularly true for smaller runs competing with major production demand internationally. Zenith can offer and meet production delivery times of 3 – 4 weeks and can scale production from there.
We were still not finished.
All the equipment used for production is specialised, intensively automated and extensively mechanical. This needs to be fully and accurately operational, and this takes skill and knowledge. Here, Zenith Records has gone well beyond record production.
The third factory revealed a comprehensive and automated machine shop where any part for any machine could be created from scratch. Zenith have expanded their capability here to offer a much-needed worldwide business supporting the record industry generally, as well as maintaining their own production facilities.
Again the processes were explained from the production of CAD files, the automated lathes and mills through to the finished parts. The example of the heated plattens needed for the presses was explained with attention to detail of how and why some designs failed and what was needed to fix any related design problems. Each side of the record needs to be uniformly heated and this requires passages for steam heating. But these plattens will also be subject to 100 tons of force or more each cycle whilst being heated to 145 degrees Celsius, then immediately chilled to 30 degrees or so to form the finished product.
Strength and heating uniformity need to be juggled. Here, because Zenith has detailed knowledge of the complete process, even equipment design problems can be identified, often remotely and from around the world, and properly fixed.
Zenith’s collective knowledge also allows them to recognise good and useful equipment being cleared from production shops around the world, so they have amassed an extensive collection of ‘spares’ obtained from around the world – Germany, France, Argentina, Greece, Ireland, anywhere.
All of this is undertaken with a watchful eye on efficiency and wastefulness. Vinyl waste is continuously collected, sorted and chipped for re-use. Plating chemicals are recovered. Equipment is repaired rather than replaced.
Zenith is well experienced. They produce around 20 complete album-sized records per week – artwork, pressings, the lot; and many more of the smaller-sized records.
The people
All of this work requires a skilled set of people. Zenith has this – a truly International pool of specialist expertise on all aspects of vinyl record production and machine manufacture.
Paul Rigby and Chris Moss took over Zenith Records in 2006 and have since built it up to be the one remaining end-to-end record manufacturer in Australia.
Chris had experience with injection moulding, electrical and mechanical systems and production engineering. He saw the vision for vinyl, investing in pressing plants in London, Milan, and Miami, dividing his time between these (whilst also running an almond farm in Mildura).
This led to Zenith also setting up a fully self-sufficient CNC machine shop where they make spare parts, tooling and equipment for the Global Pressing market.
Paul has been involved in physical music media since 1997, starting out at Dex Audio selling cassette duplication and CD brokering, then managing sales at a CD replication facility, then by the mid 2000s working as a broker for CD and DVD replication as well as bulk print and packaging.
In 2009, Paul established a brokering relationship with a French vinyl pressing plant, importing custom vinyl for local customers.
It was inevitable that Paul and Chris would meet, and the difficulties and impracticality of importing vinyl on a regular basis made local production a much more viable solution.
On the basis of a business agreement, Zenith Records was relocated to its current location in Brunswick East in 2012.
We thank Paul and Chris for the time and effort they put into hosting us on the night, and look forward to many more quality pressings from this plant.
Zenith Records
5/155 Donald St, Brunswick East, Victoria 3057
+61 3 9383 6572
www.zenithrecords.org
Related links:
Automated Press Manufacturer Pheenix Alpha:
https://www.pheenixalpha.com/vinylpressing
Author: Graeme Huon (Chairman)
