Rebeat Digital / HD vinyl

According to Digital Music News, Rebeat’s process involves “3D-based topographical mapping combined with laser inscription technology” to burn the music directly to the stamper, which the company says results in a better product than the traditional vinyl pressing method as well as reducing the time it takes to produce a record by 60%.

Unlike the existing processes of scratching grooves into lacquer foil or manually scratching audio onto a copper plate, Rebeat claims the the HD process spends longer perfecting a computer-generated 3D modelled imprint before it reaches the manufacturing stage.
Rebeat CEO Guenter Loibl says: “We adjust the distance of the grooves, we correct the radial/tangential errors, and we optimize the frequencies. You could say we ‘master’ the topographical data, which is a totally different approach.”
If you’re concerned that HD vinyl will require the purchase of a new turntable, Rebeat says that the format is fully backwards compatible, though it will be “better realized on upcoming, HD-compatible turntables.”