The fate of Soviet record megafactories

Aprelevsky

The first record production plant, opened in 1910 by German businessman Gottlieb Moll. With the advent of Soviet power, the factory passed into the hands of the state, receiving the official name Aprelevsky and the popular name Gromushka. The production was located in the village of Aprelevka, in the Moscow region.

About 400 thousand records were released from factory conveyors in the first year of existence alone.

He continued to work during the Second World War, releasing a recording of the only song “Get up, huge country.” The plant was repeatedly shelled and bombed, but was successfully restored, continuing to function until 1997. However, since 1991, Gromushka has been operating at a loss. The collapse of the Union and the advent of discs played a role.

Today, the giant's buildings are in a deteriorating state, and most of them were transferred to private entrepreneurs for warehouses. As a result, about 40 different companies are located on the territory of the former legend.

Let's talk about vinyl

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Moscow Experimental Plant Recording

MOZG was opened in 1978, almost immediately earning the title of production that produces the best vinyl. It was here that the original records were made, from which numerous copies were subsequently replicated.

Less than 10 years after the start of work, MOZG partially switched to the production of copper plates, improving the quality of the products, which were also imported. The company managed to start releasing the first CDs.

The plant closed in 1992, having been resold to a private individual.

However, after privatization, production was never restored. In general, MOZG “did not survive” until the beginning of the 21st century, and in 2001 a trading store was opened on its territory, which is still open today.

Historical section

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Leningrad record plant

Vinyl production appeared in the former Leningrad in 1948, 2 years after the decision of the USSR Council of Ministers. The main equipment for the plant was the equipment of the German vinyl factory Tempo, which came to the Union after the Second World War. In the first year of operation, about 500 thousand records with various compositions were released.

In 1956, the plant was retrained as a manufacturer of long-playing records. The enterprise was repeatedly transferred from department to department, and only in 1964 it became part of the state one.

Like many other factories, 1992 was a disastrous year for this enterprise.

It was then that he released the last batch of records. Afterwards, the territory was transferred to a private enterprise, whose activity consisted of leasing non-residential premises. It is noteworthy that in 2022 it also closed.

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Riga Order of the Badge of Honor Record Factory

The enterprise was founded in 1950 on the territory of the former Bellacord-Electro and became part of Melodiya 14 years later. In 1973, in addition to vinyl, he began producing cassettes.

Over the years of its existence, it produced tens of millions of records, and was awarded the Soviet Order of the Badge of Honor.

The company produced products not only for Soviet citizens, but also for export. Domestic records were successfully sold in Germany, Cuba and even Vietnam.

The last year of existence of the Riga plant was 1992. Then the enterprise was privatized. In its place, a private recording studio was opened, which went bankrupt by 1999.

Sound aesthetics: who produces vinyl records in Moscow and why

For any audiophile and music lover, the highest point in the development of his hobby is a separate room filled with sound equipment. An impressive system with oxygen-free copper wires, expensive headphones and an easy chair. And in the center is a vinyl record player surrounded by shelves of vintage records.

In order to find out who in Moscow and the Moscow region releases records and who listens to them, the VM correspondent first had to go to the nearest store selling vinyl discs and contact the buyer who was modestly studying the assortment on the distant shelves. His instinct was right - Igor Veshnyakov turned out to be a long-time audiophile and came to the hall on Leninsky Prospekt in search of new records for his collection. Igor looks to be 35-40 years old. Leather jacket, blue jeans. On the jacket there is a patch of the legendary American rock band Guns N Roses.

– To be honest, all the music that I’m currently looking for – and now, for example, I’m looking for the album “Nevermind The Bollocks” by the Sex Pistols – can be easily obtained through streaming services and online stores. A couple of clicks and that’s it, the file is in your hands. But the aesthetics of vinyl itself, when you need to chase the desired album, explore more than one store - there is some kind of special magic in all this, Igor told us.

– And when you come home, you take the record out of the sleeve, put it on the player and lower the needle... There are simply no words. This is a whole ritual that cannot be repeated with any other medium. Well, of course, we can’t forget about the sound quality itself. It seems to me that digital recordings will never produce the same level of sound as analog media. It is also a great pleasure to interact with other vinyl fans who come to the store in search of their favorite albums. They all form a very strong community that actively exchanges news and finds on thematic resources.

It’s easier to get vinyl today, according to Igor, than at the beginning of the decade. In recent years, the number of companies that release records has increased (but not in Russia), so reissues are being made more often.

Production

Inspired by vinyl records, we decided to see where they are made. We voiced our interest in the manufacturer of these media, and we were invited to look at the preparation of records for printing, as well as find out what the vinyl industry in Russia is like in general.

Boris Grebenshchikov, Lolita Milyavskaya, Dima Bilan, Monetochka, Leps, Bi-2, Melnitsa and many other Russian and foreign performers came to “Ultra Production” to publish their music / Photo: Anton Gerdo, “Evening Moscow”

"Ultra Production" is located on People's Militia Street. At first glance at a small, inconspicuous building located between five-story residential buildings, it is not very clear where vinyl records can be produced on a large scale. However, they later explained to us that the production itself is located in a completely different place and looks like an ordinary industrial workshop, where outsiders are not allowed.

Entering the building, we found ourselves in a cozy room, where everything said that here people are doing things directly related to music - from an old Soviet radio to photographs on the wall, which depicted artists who came to Ultra Production for publication your music. Boris Grebenshchikov, Lolita Milyavskaya, Dima Bilan and many other famous performers smiled from the images.

We pass by the recording studio, where, if desired, you can record your album immediately before transferring it to a record, we go straight into the workspace. The now stereotypical “On Air” sign is attached to the door. In the room itself, which is hidden behind the door, the recorded music is transferred to vinyl. One of the characteristic features of the company is its readiness to transfer sound to a record from virtually any media. You can bring your recording on a flash drive, cassette or magnetic tape.

In the center of the room there is a console with several monitors, displaying a huge amount of various audio information that is difficult to understand for the average person. The winding lines, graphs and columns obviously showed what frames the sound needed to be driven into in order for it to sound right on the record. Around the table there are impressive-sized speakers, shelves with blanks, and, finally, the machine itself for cutting blanks. In appearance, it resembled a lathe, only more elegant and sophisticated.

Sitting at the console, immersed in work, was Stanislav, a mastering specialist who was preparing a new record for recording.

– First you need to prepare a master disk. This is a metal-aluminum blank coated with a layer of acetate varnish. For each side of a vinyl record you need one blank,” said Stas. – From a computer where the sound has been mastered in advance - that is, the music is adjusted to vinyl recording standards, the file is transferred to the amplifier, and from there to the cutting head, which, oscillating, cuts the audio track.

Equipment is a very sensitive thing. When cutting a record, almost any external vibrations can disrupt this process. / Photo: Anton Gerdo, “Evening Moscow”

Needle on varnish

Mastering (the process of preparing and transferring a recorded and mixed phonogram onto any medium for subsequent reproduction - “VM”) is an important part of the process. You can’t just take an audio track and transfer it to disk, otherwise the sound will be extremely poor quality. The sound must have certain frequency characteristics so that there is no distortion during playback. There are also smaller details - for example, the recording parameters change from the edge of the disk to its inner part, since the relative speed of the needle movement in the latter case is higher.

The equipment, Stas noted, is very sensitive. When cutting a record, almost any external vibrations can disrupt this process. This may be difficult to detect immediately, but noise may appear in the recording due to unexpected fluctuations.

“The worst thing was when they laid new asphalt on our People’s Militia Street. The endless sound of a jackhammer. It was impossible to work, we had to wait until the builders went on break and seize that moment,” Stas complained to us. - And so, even a car under the window can ruin the recording. In a good way, a cutting table also needs a vibration compensator, but it’s impossible to get one today. They don't produce them anymore, just imagine.

Equipment for creating vinyl is a sore subject. Nowadays, no one is producing anything new, and spare parts for existing ones are very difficult to find. As it turned out, even the machine that is in Ultra Production was assembled from two non-working ones. In fact, much of the technology that was used to record when the medium was popular has simply been lost today. Only in the last few years have enthusiasts appeared who have undertaken to revive the production of such machines, but so far there are very few of them.

Meanwhile, the stylus had made the specified number of revolutions, and the master disk already looked quite ready to be placed on the turntable.

“Well, you can listen to him, but not for long,” Stas laughed. – The varnish will get scratched quickly. Now you need to check that the tracks are laid correctly. After all, if they, for example, are too close to each other in some place, then the needle on the player may well jump to the adjacent track. The sound quality itself also needs to be carefully checked.

Having connected a microscope to the device, the technician begins checking. In our case, the process had already been practically completed; all that remained was to look at a couple of tracks at the center of the record. However, a full check takes about an hour or two.

– After the master disc is cut and checked, it is sent to the workshop where galvanization takes place. A layer of silver is sprayed onto the master disc, after which it is lowered into a special bath, where nickel adheres to the disc, filling the tracks. After a couple of days of “soaking,” the disk is taken out, the resulting coating is carefully removed, and a negative disk is made from it, on which the circulation will be printed. In general, two weeks pass from the start of sound preparation to the appearance of the sleeve with the record. But this is ideal. We usually still finalize the sound, which sometimes takes a lot of time. You have to discuss everything with the performers, and some people don’t like it if their recording is changed in any way. So everything could take a month.

Vinyl Sensei

In the meantime, Andrey Belonogov, head of the record label and production of vinyl records Ultra Production, joined us. He said that today you can order records for production not in the usual black color, but in fact in any of the existing palettes. A number of performers really like this, for example, Lolita, whose record, at her request, was made in bright red.

“In fact, from my own experience I can say that there is no specific category, say, age, that would prefer vinyl,” Belonogov continued. “Everyone listens to him, from young to old. Preferences don't matter. Some people take pop music, others rock or jazz. It's more likely just a preference in the medium. Agree, it’s a whole art to take a record out of its beautiful cover, put it on the player, and set the desired volume. A real ritual.

– Who among the performers comes to you? Mostly indie artists?

– Yes, there are a lot of newcomers and labels that no one knows. They always strive to record on vinyl. Another thing is that the budget may not be enough. But we always try to accommodate what we can offer,” added Andrey. – But in general, all major artists order from us. Rock, pop, rap. The now popular singer Monetochka made her album here, for example. Label BlackStar, L'One, Leps, Bi-2, Melnitsa. Yes, many people. You saw the wall with our clients. We update it periodically. We also publish foreign performers. These are mostly old artists; there are often problems with rights, because major labels prefer to print abroad and then bring them here. Although Universal in the CIS prefers to print here.

It turned out that Ultra Production is already legendary abroad. As Andrey said, one day they were approached by Brazilian metalworkers who were advised of Russian manufacturers by a Chinese friend who also worked with the company. According to that Chinese, the best that was printed on vinyl for him was made in Moscow.

In addition to the capital, there is a small workshop for producing records in St. Petersburg, but they make records there to order and one at a time. Therefore, in fact, there is only one vinyl manufacturer left in the entire CIS. The nearest similar production is located in the Baltic states.

In the Soviet Union, the vinyl industry was dominated by , which united several factories under its roof: the Aprelevsky Record Plant, the Leningrad Record Plant, the Riga Record Plant, the Tbilisi Recording Studio and the Tashkent Tashmukhamedov Plant. Their quality varied greatly. For example, the highest quality records came out of the press of the Riga plant, they were even sent for export. But the records from the Tashkent plant did not differ in quality, according to music lovers. They had a characteristic “sandy” crackling sound, which, as experts say, appears if the newly printed disk is not allowed to cool properly.

However, today none of these factories are in operation. The last of the Mohicans was the Aprelevsky plant, which released its last edition in 1997.

But how do collectors feel about the Soviet heritage? Frankly speaking, no way. As collectors say, there is no shortage of these records on the market, and, accordingly, there is no demand either. You can sell sealed Soviet vinyl in perfect condition for only 100 rubles. And if you scour thematic forums, you will see that sets of records of 100-200 pieces can be purchased for 1000-2000 rubles.

Priests of magnetic film

Surprisingly, along with the passion for vinyl, interest in audio cassettes is gradually returning among audiophiles and music lovers. First, in 2007, the company Burger Records appeared in California, which was able to attract about a thousand indie artists and small labels. This was due, in particular, to the economic factor. It cost about two dollars per copy to publish the album on cassette, and these recordings were already sold for five “bucks.” However, the process was spurred on, oddly enough, by a marketing move by Disney, which released the soundtrack to Guardians of the Galaxy in the same form in which the main character of the film listened to it - on cassette. After that, such modern stars as Justin Bieber, Eminem, Twenty One Pilots and Kanye West made their releases on cassettes. And the famous singer Nelly Furtado even released one of her albums exclusively on cassettes.

Rock and roll on diaphragms

In the post-war period, the Soviet government had another problem: the intervention of Western “rock and roll” and “jazz” in Soviet culture. The authorities, through the artistic councils, tried as best they could to prevent “corrupting capitalism” from entering the homes of Soviet music lovers. But people wanted to listen to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and they got underground “bone records” - these were recordings that were made on X-rays. Viktor Tsoi will sing: “You were ready to give your soul for rock and roll, extracted from a photo of someone else’s aperture.” The film “Hipsters” by Valery Todorovsky, shot in 2008, demonstrated the process of recording such underground “jazz on bones”.

With the advent of tape recorders and cassettes, the demand for vinyl decreased and circulation fell. To record sound on tape, factories were no longer needed - it was enough to have two tape recorders. Besides, the CD era was already looming on the horizon. gradually stopped releasing records. The "Titanic" of the USSR music industry seems to have sunk.

Photo: Wikipedia

For a time they produced socks, plastic products, forms for the Unified State Exam, and even produced packaging for instant noodles. Buyers of these goods were probably surprised to see the inscription on the label: “Manufacturer: Aprelevsky Record Plant.”

Sheet music by numbers

Vinyl records are associated with the image of a DJ who masterfully puts them into the player and mixes the tracks. But, as it turns out, this image is far from reality today. DJs are increasingly switching to digital and playing from a laptop.

“Vinyl is a fetish,” says DJ VEGAN.DJ. – The process is fascinating. It requires great skill. And in general it's cool. I would love to play turntables. But this is very expensive and impractical. Because it is impossible to always carry thousands of tracks and equipment with you. At the moment I have everything in one backpack. These disadvantages are stopping me from switching to vinyl."

It turns out that special programs like Ableton Live have long been created that allow DJs to write and play music. “It’s convenient and practical,” continues VEGAN.DJ. – Few people know that you can DJ through it, so everyone is surprised. They think that if I play through a MacBook, then this is an imitation of vinyl, but there is a completely different mixing principle.” He is also sure that on club acoustics it is difficult to notice the difference with a track in WAV format.

In general, the concept of “DJ”, that is, “disc jockey”, was introduced in 1934, when the American commentator Walter Winchell called his colleague Martin Blok this way, who, during breaks between news, inserted music from records, creating the complete illusion that the radio broadcast was being conducted from the dance hall . The program received impressive ratings and a new term entered youth culture.