They all wanted to know about this new type of dubplate that didn’t wear out and sounded different to acetates. We had people like Roni Size coming through the door within weeks. I got involved with people like Pinch and the crew that he was involved with at the time. It turned into something more than that very quickly and I discovered that there was a huge market here in Bristol. “My idea was to buy a lathe to get dubplates for The Heatwave. “ Me and some friends set up The Heatwave soundsystem in 2003,” he explains. It was this that drew attention to Bainbridge’s lathe when he first set it up in Bristol. With the plastic discs cut by Souri’s diamond-tipped styli, the dubplates can last much longer. Most traditional record lathes cut into oil-based acetate, which in the case of dubplates means the grooves wear out more quickly. One of the unique features of Souri’s system is that he has developed unique cutting styli that can cut into plastic. It’s a tabletop system that works with a standard turntable (both Dubstudio and Peckham Cuts use the trusty Technics 1210), and compared to traditional lathes it’s incredibly compact. You have to go to him in the South of Germany, spend 15 hours training to use the lathe, and at the end of the 15 hours he will know whether he’s going to sell it to you or not.”įortunately for both Bainbridge and Jones, they passed Souri’s test and were able to purchase lathes of their own. He had too many problems with DJs buying them, not listening to his instructions and breaking the machine. “He looks after his clients really well but he won’t supply records or styluses unless you’ve been to his workshop, bought the lathe, had the training, and you buy all the stock from him and all your repairs have to go through him.” “ The guy’s called Souri,” Bainbridge explains. Traditionally dubplates have needed to be cut using a master cutting lathe, but one inventive German man developed a unique system that opened up access to dub cutting away from the exclusive and costly professional studio world. Henry Bainbridge’s Dubstudio in Bristol and Dominic Jones’ Peckham Cuts in South London may be distinct operations in different cities, but they share a common catalyst in starting their studios. We caught up with two such operations to find out where dubplates fit in the modern music world. However, the lure of freshly cut acetates still holds weight with a certain kind of DJ in these more vinyl-friendly times, and fortunately there still remain dedicated places that keep the platter turning for those who want their secret weapons on wax, not to mention a whole host of other consumers with less club-minded needs. While plenty of mastering studios have continued to offer the service in the mean time, the culture is far from common practice like it once was. Considering the added time and cost of cutting dubplates and the added weight in the record bag, it would be understandable if even die-hard dub cutters migrated over to the convenience of digital.Īt a time when dubplates were the predominant way to play unreleased music out, cutting houses such as Music House and Transition became infamous go-to destinations with lengthy queues at peak time on a Friday night. 10 years on and the technology has become even more convenient, and even a predominantly vinyl-oriented DJ could bring a couple of exclusives to a gig on a USB stick and pop them in a CDJ-2000. The UK garage scene was equally motivated to cut plates, and then grime and dubstep followed suit and broke the clandestine practice to a whole new generation.Ĭertainly by the time dubstep came around CDJs were already rising in popularity and the digital DJing boom was just around the corner, so there was naturally an aesthetic choice made by those who chose to cut plates rather than burning CDs or playing files. Equally the practice was a natural fit once jungle came along, where the fierce competition between DJs was constantly driven by those with the most cutting edge unreleased material. In music culture, the tradition of dubplates and the ‘specials’ cut onto them reaches back to the days of sound clashes in Jamaica, where having exclusive tracks to win over the dance was of utmost importance. Vinyl can be a costly habit however you choose to engage with it, but few facets of a wax-centric life demand as much dedication as dubplates. Written by Oli Warwick Published on August 28, 2017įrom Jamaican soundsystems to jungle, garage and grime, dubplates have long played a crucial role in DJ culture. Meet the studios keeping dubplate culture alive
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