About HD Vinyl
HD Vinyl is a massive improvement over traditional vinyl records.
It offers better sound quality, higher frequency response, 30% more playing time, and 30% more amplitude than current vinyl records. It also eliminates the toxic chemicals currently used in the vinyl mastering process, while completely removing tangential/radial error.
For manufacturers, there’s also no quality gap between the first and last copy produced (no stamper wear).
100% backward compatibility.
HD Vinyl records can be played on any existing turntable, while still delivering major fidelity improvements.
Down the road, we'll be making our own HD vinyl turntables as well. That will maximize the audio quality playback, while opening endless possibilities for digital metadata and connectivity.
But HD vinyl records will always be playable on every turntable, regardless of when it was made.
Perfect groove technology.
HD Vinyl perfectly matches the intended shape of the analog groove, regardless of whether it’s the first or last copy manufactured from the stamper set. That allows needle manufacturers to create needles that perfectly fit into HD Vinyl’s laser-inscribed grooves.
About Rebeat Innovation
History
Everyone at Rebeat Innovation loves music and technology. It’s deeply anchored in our company's DNA.
Rebeat, founded by Guenter Loibl (pictured) back in 2001, started as a CD and DVD distributor. In 2006, Rebeat expanded into digital music distribution. By 2009, Rebeat Digital became the first digital distributor to integrate royalty accounting into their distribution application.
In 2015, Rebeat became the first (and still the only) distribution company to offer a fully-flexible distribution matrix. We called it Rebeat MES (for Music Enterprise Software) and designed it to meet a broad range of client needs. It even allows third-party aggregators to be added into our clients’ tracking dashboards.
In 2016, Mr. Loibl had this crazy idea to make vinyl records with lasers :-) We simply called it HD Vinyl. We think this is just one of many groundbreaking ideas ahead.
HD Vinyl in Detail
Step 1: Audio to 3D conversion
Our patented laser-cutting process completely replaces the toxic, unstable electroplating process used in traditional vinyl record production. Here’s more on how it works.
As a first step, we convert a high-resolution audio file into a topographic 3D map of a stamper (the master plate for creating vinyl records). Because we know the exact width of the amplitude at any time, we can virtually remove the unnecessary gap between the grooves.
We can also correct the tangential/radial error (a lacquer is traditionally cut at a tangential angle, but most turntables read in a radial angle, so the needle is constantly tilting). All of that results in 30% more playing time with the same volume of traditional vinyl records.
Or, we can use the additional space to create a completely augmented listening experience by adding that space to the amplitude. The result is that HD Vinyls are louder, with far better dynamics and much better S/N ratios.
Step 2: Laser Engraving
Once optimized, the 3D topographic map will be engraved onto a ceramic plate. We can precisely cut up to 100kHz onto the outer edge of the disk.
By comparison, a traditional vinyl record can realize a maximum 15kHz in a realtime cutting process.
Step 3: Pressing
We use ceramic materials for the stamper. This is an incredibly important detail, because it ensures that there’s no quality difference between the first and last copy produced.
In the traditional vinyl pressing process, a nickel stamper has to be replaced after a maximum of 1,000 copies because of wear. Even worse, there’s a huge quality difference between copies no. 1 and 1,000 in traditional vinyl manufacturing. That’s one of the reasons why vinyl collectors pay much more for early copies.
With HD Vinyl there’s no such quality difference: the first and the last copy are absolutely equivalent.
What People Are Saying
Pitchfork
"'High Definition Vinyl' has moved closer to a turntable near you."
The Verge
"These HD records will operate exactly the same as regular records. They will work on existing turntables, and can be used with ordinary styluses."
Noisey
"Hold on to your extremely good quality headphones!!!!"
What Hi-Fi?
"We find we're rather impatient all of a sudden."
TechSpot
"A 2016 patent filing for a high-definition analogue audio storage medium appears to be taking shape and Austrian start-up Rebeat Innovation is leading the charge."
Engadget
"Purists might scoff at the idea of vinyl needing any improvements, of course. But the fact remains that sound quality for records is all over the place and not everything lives up to the 'vinyl just sounds better, man' ."