Making It

This episode is for the true-vinyl heads, audiofiles, and analog recording nerds. We talk to Aaron Zimmer of Leesta Vall Sound Recordings about recording music directly to vinyl with a vinyl cutting lathe. 

This completely analog way of making a record was pioneered by Alan Lomax, the original ethnomusicologist who brought us some of the foundational blues and folk recordings in the American music canon.

Now Aaron and Leesta Vall are the only people left making records in this way with a vintage 50s cutting lathe and a tiny studio in Brooklyn.

Each record they cut is completely one-of-a-kind, just an artists’ performance directly to vinyl and nothing else. Aaron walks us through how this unique, direct-to-vinyl recording process works and explains why he will never allow anyone to make digital copies of his records.