VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Potsdam-Babelsberg

VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Potsdam-Babelsberg was the only vinyl pressing plant in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). All vinyl releases pressed in the GDR were produced in this plant. Operated under this name from March 1955 to June 1990. Please use this entry only for releases between March 1955 and June 1990 identified by the runout schemes further down. You can add a "Pressed By" without any numbers to LCCN field for these releases. History of the facility in Potsdam-Babelsberg: before 1938: factory for umbrella sticks 1938 - May 1945: Tempo (2), Owner: Otto Stahmann sr. May 1945: confiscated by the soviet military administration May 1945 - April 1946: Tempo (2), Tenant: Otto Stahman jr. April 1946 - July 1946: machines were disassembled by the soviet military administration and taken to the Soviet Union October 1946 - March 1953: Lied Der Zeit GmbH, Tenant: Ernst Busch April 1953 - March 1955: Owner: VEB Lied Der Zeit (nationalized) March 1955 - June 1990: Owner: VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin (renamed) July 1990 - 1991: Owner: Deutsche Schallplatten GmbH (reprivatized) The production in Potsdam-Babelsberg ended in 1991. After that the machines were sold or scrapped and the facilities demolished. 1956: first vinyl was pressed (only 7" and EP) 1961: last shellac was pressed 1962/63: first vinyl LP was pressed (all GDR vinyl releases before 1956(7", EP), 1962/63(LP) were produced by Gramofonové Závody) In the early 1970s a new building was constructed for more production capacity and transition to full automatic production using Toolex Alpha presses. 1985: first Direct Metal Mastering (DMM) vinyl was produced How to identify vinyl: 1963 - 1971 1963 - 1967 the catalog number and the matrix number are stamped in vinyl runouts. 1967 - 1971 only the catalog number are stamped in vinyl runouts. Examples: 560002 A 604003-1 A5W - X 825415-1S F9W - X After that, the three character combination indicates the date and probably a symbol for the vinyl mastering engineer. The first letter stands for the month of manufacturing, the number for the last digit of the year.(lacquer cut, pressing can be done later). (A - M) (I) was not used, probably because of confusion with J and 1 A = January, B = February, C = March, D = April, E = May, F = June, G = July, H = August, J = September, K = October, L = November, M = December Examples: A5 = January 1965 F9 = June 1969 The last letter of the combination indicates probably a symbol for the vinyl mastering engineer. Known letters are: W, S, G and GR. The letters after that indicates probably technical details of the vinyl cut. They can be separated from the date/engineer combination with a - or a 0. Known letter combinations are: N, M, R, S, X (often turned to the side), SDX, STA, STR, KU, RU, SD, SK, G, U 1971 - 1991 Runout scheme: # ## ### - YX XYY ZZ WW Examples: 5 60 085 - 1B H72 W N 8 56 195 + 1B H86 E D 8 56 501 + 1B A90 I C 462 979 + 2A E89 I C # ## ### is the cat. number (the format can be different according to the label) - (can be also a + in the late 1980s and 1990) YX Y is the side number (1 = side A, 2 = side B, 3 = side C and so on), X is the version number of the cut (A - Z) XYY is the date of manufacture (lacquer cut / DMM cut, pressing can be done later.) X stands for the month (A - M) (I) was not used up, probably because of confusion with J and 1 A = January, B = February, C = March, D = April, E = May, F = June, G = July, H = August, J or I = September, K = October, L = November, M = December YY stands for the year (71 - 90 for 1971 - 1990) ZZ one or two letters, indicates probably a symbol for the vinyl mastering engineer. Known symbols: W (1971 - 1984) GR (1971 - 1978) S (1975 - 1976) K (1977 - 1978) E (1979 - 1990) EN (1981 - 1986) I (1986 - 1990) N (1988 - 1990) WW one or two letters, indicates technical details of the vinyl cut. Known symbols: N (1971 - 1986) possibly stands for Neumann VMS/SX combination NT (1971 - 1986) possibly stands for Neumann with tracing generator M (1971 - 1977) MT (1977 - 1981) C (1984 - 1990) is officially documented to stand for "copper cut" (Kupferschnitt) - probably something similar to DMM (perhaps an unlicensed predecessor???) CU (1983 - 1988, according to other sources up to 1990) is officially documented to stand for copper cut plus UC compander use D (1986 - 1990) probably stands for Direct Metal Mastering (DMM) or Digital??? DU (1986 - 1990) stands for "D" plus UC compander use DT (1990 - 1990) OU (1987 - 1990) possibly a deciphering error for DU? U (1983?/1985? - 1990) is officially documented to stand for UC compander use (a vinyl record noise reduction system designed to be highly compatible with playback without UC expander, gives 10-12 dB improved signal/noise ratio when played back through a suitable UC expander ("UC" = "Universal Compatible"). □U (1987 - 1988) possibly same as "U" or a deciphering error for DU? Notes There are often additional, numbers, letters or faintly inscribed "geometric" marks. These are stamper numbers added during pressing. The runouts are machine stamped (there can be certain exceptions). The actual release date can be the same year of manufacture or later. It can't be earlier than the year it was manufactured though. Do not derive a release year from the manufacturing date code alone. Please also note the printed information on the release and the center label variant.