Press Your Own Vinyl With the Desktop Record Cutter

With every other means of producing, recording, and sharing music completely democratized and firmly in the hands of anyone with a beat and a dream, the ability to cut your own vinyl record from a digital file is the final frontier to absolute dance self-sufficiency. And it’s coming.

A new Kickstarter campaign originating out of Australia hopes to knock down the door with the introduction of the DRC (Desktop Record Cutter). The project, started by an engineer named Paul Butler Tayar and a tech team called Machine Pro, is asking for $10,000 AUD (roughly $8323 US) so that they can continue honing and perfecting their system.

Tayar describes their system as a “turn-key” stereo cutting system – “Audio in, blank on, and cut” – and a natural evolution for a format that refuses to die and, in fact, is rapidly gaining new life. He cites a recent International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) report about the growing popularity of the format: “While vinyl sales account for only a small fraction of the overall industry revenues, they have seen an increase in recent years in some key markets. In the US, vinyl sales increased by 32 per cent in 2013 (Nielsen Soundscan), and in the UK, they increased by 101 per cent in 2013 (BPI).”

This is not the first attempt to create a personal vinyl cutter. One such device popped its head up at the SXSW festival in 2013, called the Vinylrecorder T-560. While impressive, the somewhat vague nature of its origin – the Vinylrecorder homepage that once welcomed visitors with a cryptic “Made in Germany – No Cheat” message has since gone offline completely – had experts skeptical. Tayar’s decision to crowdsource the funding and provide vast details and constant updates has enthusiasts excited that a vinyl cutter may soon be in their home studios.

Tayar lists the initial price for the DRC at $6,500, but claims that more pledges will drive the final asking price down. Ready to start cutting your own dubplates?

Thanks to the Beatport website for this story