DJ equipment manufacturers Vestax caused shockwaves at this week’s Plaza sound equipment trade fair when they revealed a prototype model of their new home vinyl-cutting lathe. Due for release next spring, the Vestax machine is the first new vinyl cutter to be released for over twenty years and could have a huge impact on the 12” dance market. The lathe works in exactly the same way as a lathe in a professional cutting house, using a diamond cutter to scratch grooves into the vinyl. At a predicted £4000, the DiY vinyl-maker doesn’t come cheap, but there will no doubt be plenty of people prepared to pay for the privilege of cutting their own dub-plates and acetates. At present there are only a handful of cutting houses offering such facilities or indeed cutting vinyl at all, but the Vestax cutter should provide a welcome shot in the arm for the vinyl market, as well as taking the bedroom production revolution to its logical conclusion. What with CDRs, MP3 and now DiY vinyl, it seems to be getting easier than ever for bedroom producers to get their music out there, all of which leaves us asking ‘why the hell didn’t someone think of this before?’