February 16, 2012
All She Wrote...
by Chris Randall
Okay, submissions for the AI compilation album are now closed. It may surprise you to hear that I received 91 tracks. Taking one of the ten slots for myself, that means you have a roughly 10% chance of getting on the comp, which is not bad at all for this sort of thing.
I didn't listen to every track as it came in; it kind of depended on the delivery mechanism. If someone just put a track in dropbox or embedded it on their site, I generally gave it a listen; if it came as a YouSendit payload or something I generally didn't. But my general feeling is that there is a good theme to be had here; most of the submissions are free of any genre restrictions (which was the ultimate goal) and several that I heard are pure electro-acoustic enterprises, which is interesting.
In any event, on Sunday I am travelling (by Airstream RV, of all things) up to Portland to visit the family for a few days. During the course of this trip, I'm going to listen to this over 6 hours of music and try out themes and groupings, and see if I can't come up with a cohesive album. I should have a final grouping by the time I get to Phoenix. (Hey, you guys catch that?)
So the next order of business is mastering, getting lacquers, and the pressing. While I've had hundreds of thousands of CDs manufactured, and am intimately acquainted with that process, it may surprise you to learn (or not, rather) that I have never had any vinyl pressed. I know that quite a few of you have, and some advice on the process, along with recommendations of people to talk to, would be appreciated.
I didn't listen to every track as it came in; it kind of depended on the delivery mechanism. If someone just put a track in dropbox or embedded it on their site, I generally gave it a listen; if it came as a YouSendit payload or something I generally didn't. But my general feeling is that there is a good theme to be had here; most of the submissions are free of any genre restrictions (which was the ultimate goal) and several that I heard are pure electro-acoustic enterprises, which is interesting.
In any event, on Sunday I am travelling (by Airstream RV, of all things) up to Portland to visit the family for a few days. During the course of this trip, I'm going to listen to this over 6 hours of music and try out themes and groupings, and see if I can't come up with a cohesive album. I should have a final grouping by the time I get to Phoenix. (Hey, you guys catch that?)
So the next order of business is mastering, getting lacquers, and the pressing. While I've had hundreds of thousands of CDs manufactured, and am intimately acquainted with that process, it may surprise you to learn (or not, rather) that I have never had any vinyl pressed. I know that quite a few of you have, and some advice on the process, along with recommendations of people to talk to, would be appreciated.
34 comments:
Hi Chris,
could you put up a list on which tracks (filenames?) you received so we all can make sure that you got everything?
I had some problems in the past sending AD support mails (you never received them). That's why we had to communicate using AI PMs back then. ;)
I already send you the link from our own email-domain as well as GMail, but I would feel a lot better having that feedback at least. ;)
could you put up a list on which tracks (filenames?) you received so we all can make sure that you got everything?
I had some problems in the past sending AD support mails (you never received them). That's why we had to communicate using AI PMs back then. ;)
I already send you the link from our own email-domain as well as GMail, but I would feel a lot better having that feedback at least. ;)
Oh, I'd need an edit function for the comment...
I'm sorry, it was the other way around. You always received my mails but your replies seemed to be filtered by my ISP. ;)
I'm sorry, it was the other way around. You always received my mails but your replies seemed to be filtered by my ISP. ;)
My knowledge is from long ago which means it may be obsolete. On the other hand, it hasn't been diluted by idiots who know nothing about vinyl.
Thou wouldst do well to find an engineer who works with a lathe regularly and who has a fucking clue.
Thou shalt get a test pressing.
Thou shalt not expect the test pressing to be as quiet as the final product; nevertheless you may make EQ and balance decisions based on it.
Thou couldst call the references from the pressing plant, just to make sure that these people are good.
Thou shalt cross thy fingers throughout the process.
I love vinyl, but it is and was a revolving son-of-a-bitch to get right. Now, it's much harder because it's marginalized.
Good luck,
Alan Tomlinson
Thou wouldst do well to find an engineer who works with a lathe regularly and who has a fucking clue.
Thou shalt get a test pressing.
Thou shalt not expect the test pressing to be as quiet as the final product; nevertheless you may make EQ and balance decisions based on it.
Thou couldst call the references from the pressing plant, just to make sure that these people are good.
Thou shalt cross thy fingers throughout the process.
I love vinyl, but it is and was a revolving son-of-a-bitch to get right. Now, it's much harder because it's marginalized.
Good luck,
Alan Tomlinson
Bob Weston (Chicago Mastering Service) has done excellent work on a lot of vinyl masters. He's got links to pressing plants on his site as well. I imagine he'll have an opinion on at least a few of the plants.
link [www.chicagomastce.co...]
link [www.chicagomastce.co...]
When it comes to vinyl, picking the right engineer and facility is the easy obvious bit. You know without having done it before that you want to work with someone for whom cutting is a regular job, and someone whose ears you admire. And that's all it comes down to really, if they're doing it often enough, they'll have a well serviced lathe and you can worry about other things
The tough part is picking the right pressing facility. I worked at [big UK mastering facility] as an assistant for a bit, and the thing the mastering guys there complained about most was when a client would ignore their advice and have the record pressed on the cheap. Doesn't matter how good the lacquer is if the pressing isn't an accurate copy of that.
The tough part is picking the right pressing facility. I worked at [big UK mastering facility] as an assistant for a bit, and the thing the mastering guys there complained about most was when a client would ignore their advice and have the record pressed on the cheap. Doesn't matter how good the lacquer is if the pressing isn't an accurate copy of that.
Please take pictures of the Airstream on your trip.
I wonder if some modern plugins will create sounds that would wreak havoc with the vinyl pressing process. No strong thoughts on the topic here, as I just thought of the question. I just have a suspicion that plugins that mess with phase in creating a big spatial image might generate signals that a lathe would have problems reproducing.
I wonder if some modern plugins will create sounds that would wreak havoc with the vinyl pressing process. No strong thoughts on the topic here, as I just thought of the question. I just have a suspicion that plugins that mess with phase in creating a big spatial image might generate signals that a lathe would have problems reproducing.
Sorry I missed this. I had thought to remix a BP song called "Allow Your Eyes To Adjust" from the museum sessions, but then I interpreted rule #2 over-literally. Or, really, misinterpreted it altogether. And by the time I realized I was wrong, there wasn't time to do what I'd wanted to do. Bummer!
Vinyl pressing: two coastal places that do fantastic work.
West Coast: One of the most famous has a deceptively terrible website:
link [www.recordtech.co...]
East Coast: Very popular, but frequently there's a serious wait list...
link [brooklynphono.co...]
RE: mastering engineers: there are fantastic ones with different styles. I know many of them personally, but the very obvious studio for this project is SAE.
They're right in your backyard and they're amazing. Don't give it a second thought.
link [www.saemastering.co...]
- c
Vinyl pressing: two coastal places that do fantastic work.
West Coast: One of the most famous has a deceptively terrible website:
link [www.recordtech.co...]
East Coast: Very popular, but frequently there's a serious wait list...
link [brooklynphono.co...]
RE: mastering engineers: there are fantastic ones with different styles. I know many of them personally, but the very obvious studio for this project is SAE.
They're right in your backyard and they're amazing. Don't give it a second thought.
link [www.saemastering.co...]
- c
I've worked with Golden Mastering and they have a lot of vinyl experience. Full disclosure: I am friends with JJ Golden, though that developed after working with him on a couple CD projects.
link [goldenmastering.co...]
link [goldenmastering.co...]
The Airstream is one of these:
link [www.classicairsme.co...]
(That actually may very well be the exact one. There's only a dozen or so of those of that vintage still motoring.) Needless to say, my Twitter feed will be chock full of imagery of the Big Adventure.
Regarding the plug-in thing, *shrug* I doubt it'll be an issue. We'll know when we know.
-CR
link [www.classicairsme.co...]
(That actually may very well be the exact one. There's only a dozen or so of those of that vintage still motoring.) Needless to say, my Twitter feed will be chock full of imagery of the Big Adventure.
Regarding the plug-in thing, *shrug* I doubt it'll be an issue. We'll know when we know.
-CR
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