The last time I read any article on the subject was a few years ago (other than that Neumann in Nairobi) but the situation was that many of the old lathes and pressing equipment had been scrapped and that there was a frantic effort being made to track down remaining lathes and presses, refurbish them, and put them back to use to accommodate the renewed popularity of vinyl. Much of it was being found in odd places and there was a lot in Eastern Europe, including several facilities still able to cut and press vinyl records. Much of this kit was well past sell by date and results could be variable... Rumble from worn bearings in the lathe was even reported!
A cutter head is like a giant MC cartridge in reverse and is driven by an analogue signal from a power amplifier. I can well imagine that digital add ons for controlling the position of the cutter head etc will have been added. The continued growth of vinyl may well by now mean that new lathes and presses are being built, but I fail to see how anything but driving the coils of the cutter head from a power amplifier would make any sense. I can see that it is certainly possible that said power amps could be driven by a "digital pre-amp" and DAC from the digital master recording, and that the RIAA EQ could be applied digitally in this "digital pre-amp", but the signal from the DAC would still be analogue to the power amps, which then drive the cutting head.
If "everything I thought I knew about disc cutting" has been supplanted by some new digital technique I've never heard of in the last few years then I will stand corrected...
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