Whilst the vast majority of recorded material benefits from the sheer convenience and reliability of digital storage and playback there is a growing number of audiophiles who, for some reason, prefer their music collection stored as a spiral groove on black vinyl disks. To support this trend the Australian company Machina.Pro are planning to introduce a desktop disk cutting machine called the DRC.

The company references a report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) indicating a steady growth in the sale of vinyl records from a low point in the mid nineties. Sales in 2014 continued the trend and were at an 18-year high. The DRC is a complete Desktop Record Cutting package capable of cutting vinyl or vinyl-like material. The process can be automated using precision engineered technology to make it as simple as possible for users, new to cutting, to produce a successful finished product. The machine design is also flexible enough to allow custom control, upgrades and modifications that would be of interest to the more experienced engineer. 

The DRC was created by Paul Butler Tayar and the team at Machina Pro and they have launched a Kickstarter campaign with a goal of $10,000 AUS to fund development and expand the project infrastructure to help reduce production costs which currently work out at around $6,500 AUS per unit. Quoting from Tayar on their Kickstarter page “The goal amount reached will dictate pricing, this is the most exciting part to us, if we all get involved, we can make the DRC more attainable for everybody.” Well they needn’t have worried because the campaign finishes on December the 31st and they have already been pledged over three times their target.