Cutting vinyl lacquers trains mastering engineers in balance because an unbalanced mix cuts poorly

Engineers who learned on vinyl cutting benches developed heightened sensitivity to frequency and dynamic balance, because the lacquer system gives immediate physical feedback: an unbalanced or over-compressed program cannot be cut cleanly. Eddy Schreyer notes the cutting process itself adds roughly 15% distortion or more, so any imbalance is exposed at once — unlike a CD, which accepts any signal without physical rejection.

Examples

Eddy Schreyer credits lacquer cutting as the most important training for understanding balance, precisely because the medium punishes an unbalanced cut.

Assessment

Why did cutting vinyl lacquers provide balance training that a digital-only workflow cannot replicate?