Editing Acetate disc (section)

=== Disc mastering ===

In preparation for a record pressing, acetates are used for quality control prior to the production of the stampers, from which retail copies of the record will be pressed. The purpose of the test acetate(s) (called, 'reference disks') in the mastering process is to allow the artist, producer, engineer, and other interested parties to check the quality of the tape-to-disc recording process and make any necessary changes to ensure that the audio fidelity of the master disc will be as close as possible to that of the original master tape.  The actual stamper sets can be made either from oversized lacquers or from DMM blanks (see [[Direct Metal Mastering]]).