Acetate disc
[1] In addition to their use in the creation of masters, lacquers were widely used for many purposes before magnetic tape recorders became common, and in the modern era they are used by dance music DJs.
Most noticeably, vinyl records are comparatively lightweight and flexible, while lacquers are rigid and considerably heavier because of their metal cores.
The record's sleeve is typically nothing more than a generic cover from the manufacturing company and the disc's label is similarly plain, containing only basic information about the content (title, artist, playing time, and so on), which is usually typed but may be hand-written.
These top-quality blanks were intended for cutting the master discs that, once silver-coated, would be electrodeposited with nickel in order to electroform parts used in making stampers (negative profile metal moulds) for pressing ordinary records.
Lower-grade blanks were formerly made for home use by amateurs and may be very thin and flexible, may have a cardboard rather than a metal or glass base, and may have noticeably dull or slightly orange-peel-textured surfaces.
One pump usually provides suction for both the turntable and the chip tube that pulls away the fine string of nitrocellulose lacquer removed by the groove-cutting stylus.
The manufacturing facility is one of only two in the world, the other being Public Record (the lacquers of which are labeled MDC – the name of their principal distributor, based in Japan).
[6] This led to industry experts fearing that the vinyl production supply chain would be put under stress with heavy demand and only one factory worldwide.
Disc recorders designed for amateur home use began appearing on the market around 1940, but their high prices limited sales, and then World War II brought their production to a halt.
It was not unusual for a carnival, circus, amusement park, or transit hub to offer disc recording in a booth for a modest fee.
Countless discs were cut at parties and family gatherings, both for immediate amusement value and to preserve audio "snapshots" of these events and of the voices of relatives and friends.
Schoolchildren and adults alike used them to practice speeches, amateur musical efforts were immortalized, and snippets of radio broadcasts were captured, all limited by the three- or four-minute maximum playing time of the 78 rpm large-groove format which was still standard for all home-use records.
In the dance music world, DJs cut new or otherwise special tracks on acetates, in order to test crowd response and find potential hits.
Dubplates were used by reggae soundsystems worldwide, and later adopted by producers of various dance music genres, most notably drum and bass and dubstep.
Actual acetate dubplates are declining in popularity, and being increasingly replaced by CDs and vinyl emulation software for reasons of weight, durability and overall cost.
