Quality Control Application for Vinyl Records (Records Industry B.V.)

Record Industry B.V.

‘Record Industry, located in Haarlem, is one of the largest and most automated vinyl pressing plants in the world. The company's roots trace back to 1958 under the name Artone Pressing, later known as CBS / Sony Music. Since 1998, the factory has been operating under its current name. What makes Record Industry unique is that the entire process occurs under one roof. This includes everything from audio processing and master cutting to record pressing. Even the printing and packaging are handled in-house. In some instances, the audio recordings take place in the in-house Artone Studio.

https://www.recordindustry.com/

Background and Context

Quality control and digitization is a time-consuming process that currently takes place largely manually. In addition to audio recording, quality control requires specialized knowledge and intensive listening to detect errors such as pops, clicks, skips, and other degradations. By automating this process using software analysis and visual feedback, it is possible to: - save time, - ensure more consistent quality assessment, - scale up vinyl digitization projects, - and create digital test pressings as an alternative to the physical product.

The goal of this project is to develop a web-based application that: - can digitize vinyl records on multiple turntables simultaneously (A and B sides per record), - automatically analyzes the audio for quality issues after recording a side, - visually presents the results through an interactive waveform and timeline, - and supports users in quality control and any follow-up actions.

Within scope

Recording audio from vinyl records (A-side and B-side separately), scalable with multiple turntables simultaneously. Automatic audio analysis Detection of: - Clicks and pops - Skipping - Possible distortion, noise, loss (repeating depending on record speed 33/45 RPM) Visualization of: - Waveform - Timeline - Highlighted problem areas (to be listened to in the application) Web-based user interface Storage and management of audio files and analysis methods Export of audio files (needle drop / digital test pressing) Communication with MySQL database (reading metadata from orders / storing analysis results)

Out of scope (optional / future)

AI-driven Analysis Comparison with the master audio file (source)