Talk:Acetate disc

lead section

Hi Hux, The creation or use of acetates is not limited to the process of mastering vinyl records. This needs to be clear in the lead paragraph. My recent edit made this clear, while your revision [1] obfuscated it. Also, the lead section should be a summary of the other sections, not a duplicate. -- Austin Murphy (talk) 20:10, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

I see your point and agree. I made a slight change to the lead though, which wrongly implied that they typically contain acetate. -- Hux (talk) 18:02, 9 November 2008 (UTC)

Value

Not sure it makes sense to keep the link to the meanwhile expired eBay auction for the Velvet Underground Nico Acetate. Best would be to link a screenshot but I don't think there is one. (At least I didn't find it in internet.) However there is a website that contains the text of that auction. I added the link.
As an alternative, one could link the screenshot of the first auction, which is available at realitystudio.org. But the item wasn't sold at this first auction so I did't add the link.
Perhaps someone knows a better solution for the problem of doing the links in this reference? - Asigler (talk) 23:51, 6 April 2011 (UTC)

The first auction, which didn't lead to a sale, in web archive: "eBay VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO 1966 Acetate LP ANDY WARHOL (item 300054910309 end time Dec-08-06 20 27 23 PST)". Archived from the original on 2006-12-12. - Tosi F (talk) 15:39, 22 June 2019 (UTC)

Why "Acetate"?

I am both surprised and disappointed to find an article describing a LACQUER disc under the heading of "acetate disc", which maybe a popular misnomer for this kind of record, but certainly not its correct name. In the article itself it is quite correctly stated that the coating of these discs is nitrocellulose, and there's no acetate involved in their production nor in the final product! Please consider changing the lemma to "Lacquer Disc" and either remove the lemma "Acetate Disc" completely (best way to do it IMHO), or make it a redirection, and maybe put a sentence in the article explaining that lacquers are sometimes called "acetates" by less-than-knowledgable people. 94.222.114.205 (talk) 20:29, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

The previous comment still isn't addressed either here or in the article. If acetate discs are made of nitrocellulose lacquer, rather than cellulose acetate, why are they called acetate discs? Cellulose nitrate contains zero acetate. Plantsurfer (talk) 23:14, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

The short answer is that it is impossible to say with certainty.

Pros in the recording industry are usually very particular about correctly calling them "lacquers" and justly rail at the misnomer "acetates" (as exampled by the initial posting above), while radio broadcasting pros have been calling them "acetates" practically since their introduction. The latter term, unfortunately, has been broadly entrenched for the better part of a century and nearly everyone except recording engineers (and, increasingly, scholars and archivists) uses it. I've tried to do my bit here at WP to point out the correct term, but for better or worse WP guidelines require editors to follow common usage and not try to dictate it, so any such efforts must be confined within narrow limits.

The likeliest hypothesis I have encountered was, IIRC, advanced by Dr. Michael Biel, widely acknowledged as the foremost authority on the development of broadcast recording technologies during the 1930s:

Circa 1934, several materials were being tried out as an alternative to heavy, fragile, gritty shellac for distributing pressed electrical transcriptions of prerecorded material for radio broadcast, and one of them was cellulose acetate. To repeat: these were pressings, not individually cut discs. At that time, a simple ten-for-a-penny single-use disposable steel needle was still the standard playback stylus for both home and broadcast use. An imprecisely formed needle point, which the "mineral filler" (pulverized stone) in a shellac disc would rapidly grind down to fit the groove, could quickly inflict heavy wear or serious damage on a softer material such as acetate, so special, select, high-quality steel needles were stocked for playing acetate pressings. When lacquer recording blanks were widely introduced in the US in late 1934, apparently it was recommended that "acetate needles" should be used for playback. A confusion of terms arising from this association is probably the source of the error.

My humble apologies to Dr. Biel if I've misreported him in any significant particulars; his circa late 1990s postings on the subject may still be available in the archives of the 78-L online discussion group. AVarchaeologist (talk) 06:10, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

Image description "... acetate from 1999 with extra centre hole."

the second hole in acetates/dubplates is NOT an additional "cente" hole! - it is to fixate the plate to the platter to prevent it form slipping (which would cause wow/flutter in the recording) during the cutting process, where much higher contact pressure of the stylus is necessary than in playback process... ! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.134.151.197 (talk) 20:35, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Fixed. AVarchaeologist (talk) 04:48, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

History

Can anyone add a section on the history of recording on acetate? Did it pre-date vinyl? — Preceding unsigned comment added by DarthTaper (talk • contribs) 02:43, 17 January 2015 (UTC)

Deterioration

The article mentions nothing about how fragile acetates are, either due to their base (glass cracks) or chemical composition. Delamination is a big factor. I'm not the one to add this info, but it would be nice if someone could. - kosboot (talk) 17:16, 23 November 2020 (UTC)