As we now enter our 18th year of operations, we are excited for the future of the record format, and we look forward to continually implementing our own innovations and advancements in the specialization of making records.
Here is a brief timeline of Gotta Groove Records innovations and contributions to the advancement of the phonograph record format, from the very beginning of rebuilding our pressing machines to the installation of our new DMM cutting lathe:
2009
Gotta Groove Records is founded, and immediately becomes the first pressing plant with its own online ordering system (eventually branded as the Record Builder).
2012
Gotta Groove Records participates in a program with NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio which offered up to 40 hours of engineering work for each of nine participating companies in the program. Some of the press augmentations developed during the program are still being used on certain record pressing machines at GGR.
2017
Gotta Groove is the first pressing plant to install a newly-built press made by Nashville-based Record Pressing Machines. This was the first new pressing machine built in the USA in over 30 years.
Also in 2017, in collaboration with Nipro Optics, Inc., a new type of record plating was developed –GrooveCoated Stampers TM— which employs a lubricious plating surface that dramatically increases the lifespan of electroformed nickel record stampers. Some of these stampers can press over 4,000 copies of records before detectable frequency loss occurs in the program.
2019
A second computerized automated pressing machine built by Record Pressing Machines was installed at GGR.
Also in 2019, GGR acquired equipment from the famous record label printing operation Hamlett Printing Service in Nashville. This acqusition allowed GGR to continue offering the so-called “Hamlett Style” overprint labels that many record companies have used for two generations.
2017-2022
Gotta Groove collaborates with Sherwin Williams to produce a new nitrocellulose lacquer formula for the manufacture of blank lacquer master discs. During the course of this five year time period, GGR produced several batches of lacquers using two different types of curtain coating lines (pressurized and non-pressurized), a custom designed spin coating line fabricated by NiPro Optics, as well as a variety of spray systems. While a few records were successfully cut on these GGR-produced lacquers, the project was ultimately abandoned, primarily due to the challenges of curing such discs as well as the internal and external economies of scale limitations for the format. GGR continues to recommend master lacquer blanks produced by the Public Record Company in Japan (so called “MDC’s”).
2023
Gotta Groove Records acquired the record plating operation of NiPro Optics in Irvine, California. The operation was completely dismantled, transported to Columbus, Ohio, and re-installed in a new state-of-the-art industrial facility. Approximately one-half of the equipment arrived in a 53′ trailer on April 10, 2023 and stampers were successfully being manufactured on April 11, 2023. The operation is named The Electromastering Lab, and it produces thousands of stampers per month for several pressing plants in North America, Canada, Argentina, and Lithuania.
Since the initial installation in 2023, the facility has added new technology made by Sibert Industries for the processing of record stampers.
2024
Gotta Groove introduces another new type of record stamper, which is chemically treated after the plating process to give it a more lubricious effect, without the need for a different type of plating. This new type of stamper is called GrooveCoat Lite TM.
2025
Gotta Groove Records and Sonopress enter into a strategic partnership to market a new type of material and manufacturing process for making records — injection molded PET records, marketed as EcoRecords or GrooveWax. This new forumulation and process makes incredibly true sounding records, far superior to any other type of injection molded records produced in the history of phonograph records. Additionally, in 2026, a dramatic new color variant was launched which would not be feasible to make via traditional vinyl pressing — the InkSplosion variant.
2026
Gotta Groove Records installs a new Direct Metal Mastering (DMM) cutting lathe at its Columbus, Ohio plating facility. This new design lathe was developed by Thorsten Scheffner of Organic Music during 2020-2022, and GGR’s is one of three Scheffner lathes built to cut copper blank masters. For the first time in over 30 years, records can be cut onto copper masters in the United States! The first record cut on this new lathe was the album You Get Lost by the band Mantis (cut in early April 2026).
Additionally, GGR will be producing its own copper blank masters at its Columbus plating facility through its self-developed proprietary plating process that yields the softest copper cutting surface that is possible without the use of acid plating. This process is environmentally friendly, as well as safer for its operators when compared to traditional acid plating. The brand name of these discs is GrooveMetal TM, and GGR will supply these blank discs to other cutting houses who currently operate or who add DMM cutting lathes to their studios.
