transcription or recording lathes are used to make grooves on a surface for recording sounds. these were used in creating sound grooves on wax cylinders and then on flat recording discs originally also made of wax, but later as lacquers on a substrata. originally the cutting lathes were driven by sound vibrations through a horn in a process known as acoustic recording and later driven by an electric current when microphones were first used in sound recording. many such lathes were professional models, but others were developed for home recording and were common before the advent of home tape recording.