Scribing the catalogue number after a successful cut
John Richards of Diverse Records and Ray
Technical Information
Getting the best sound possible requires the best people and companies and a demand for quality from all involved in the production process.
After obtaining the best sound source available the most important link in the production chain is that of the Mastering Engineer. In today’s Digital world he must be fully equipped to deal with the many formats available, and be experienced enough to marry them to the Analogue cutting process in order to achieve the desired results.
DIV 001 Alison Krauss+Union Station "New Favorite" was, we believe, the first DSD to Analogue transfer.
From the beginning we have used Ray Staff, who currently operates from Alchemy Mastering, Centre Point, London. He has been around studios since his first job as tea boy at Trident Studios during the “All things Must Pass” sessions in 1971 and went on to master some of the greatest albums of the era, including:-
Led Zeppelin
"Physical Graffiti"
"Presence"
David Bowie
"Hunky Dory"
"Ziggy Stardust"
Elton John
"Madman Across The Water"
"Honky Chateau"
and worked extensively with:- Cat Stevens
Joan Armatrading
T Rex
The Sweet
Mahavishnu Orchestra
Nick Cave
Genesis
Van Morrison and many others.
Ray’s mastery of the disc-mastering lathe has seen him achieve some remarkable cuts. Proud owners of Monty Pythons “Matching Tie and Handkerchief” would have noticed that the B-side had two spiral grooves cut in to it, one contained the tracks shown on the label and the other was a hidden third side. This was probably the first double cut album ever!
Together with Barry Grint (at Trident) a Blow Monkeys twelve-inch single was mastered with both the A and B-sides double cut. Finally, just to prove the point Ray also mastered an album by Johnny Moped for Ace Records. For this he double cut the first track on the A side, the grooves then joined together and the rest of the side continued!
Ray's studio is equipped to handle any Digital or Analogue format and the resulting signal is fed into a beautifully maintained Neumann VMS 80 lathe using an SX74 cutter head and Neumann SAL 74 cutter amps.
Once the Lacquer has been cut the choice of pressing plant is paramount if the inevitable production losses are to be minimised. All of our DIV LP's (except DIV 001) have been pressed at the Pallas plant in Diepholz, Germany. In our opinion it is the best plant in the world giving consistently excellent results.
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