I am putting out a record that will be pressed from 1/2" tapes directly to vinyl, and I was wondering where I should send the master tapes to (plating + pressing)?

Of course, the master tapes will be sequenced perfectly with leader tape, contain test tones at the beginning, and the sides of the records will be noted, so no extra mastering will be needed.

Is there a place that can take my 1/2" tapes make plates, then press them, and insert into sleeves? And most importantly, is the place good?

I recently did the same thing for a 45 rpm. The test pressings sucked, and so did the finals. Unfortunately, the band didn't really listen well enough, and when I finally heard the product, changes had been made and there were 1000 records in the drummer's closet. Not making that mistake again.

recommendations?

dan wrote:recommendations?

I recommend RecordTech Inc. in California:

http://www.recordtech.com

They are a plating and pressing plant and they also have their own vinyl mastering studio, AcousTech Mastering:

http://www.recordtech.com/lp.htm

Note: AcousTech Mastering is one of the few vinyl mastering studios left in North America that still cuts vinyl in pure analog. That means they do not use a digital delay to feed their lathe when they master from analog tape.

Acoustech and Kevin Grey are well known in audiophile circles as being an excellant (though maybe not cheap) place to cut vinyl. Steve Hoffman (one of the best remastering engineers around) has done a lot of stuff with them.

dan wrote:
Of course, the master tapes will be sequenced perfectly with leader tape, contain test tones at the beginning, and the sides of the records will be noted, so no extra mastering will be needed.

this is not exactly true. the RIAA eq curve will have to be added.
unless you are cutting to metal, which few people do, a laquer master will have to be cut before plates can be made. get this done by a profesional. i would not trust a pressing plant to cut laquers.

do a search on the forum for mastering and you will find many suggestions. may i recomend j.j. and john golden (goldenmastering.com)

as for pressing, Bill Smith custom records does a bang up job. RTI is great as well.

-elisha

elisha wiesner wrote:

dan wrote:
Of course, the master tapes will be sequenced perfectly with leader tape, contain test tones at the beginning, and the sides of the records will be noted, so no extra mastering will be needed.

this is not exactly true. the RIAA eq curve will have to be added.
unless you are cutting to metal, which few people do, a laquer master will have to be cut before plates can be made. get this done by a profesional. i would not trust a pressing plant to cut laquers.

do a search on the forum for mastering and you will find many suggestions. may i recomend j.j. and john golden (goldenmastering.com)

as for pressing, Bill Smith custom records does a bang up job. RTI is great as well.

-elisha

AcousTech Mastering is not a pressing plant. AcousTech Mastering is a real vinyl mastering studio that just happens to be inside the same building as a pressing plant, which is a big advantage since the lacquers can be plated immediately after being cut.

Golden Mastering is a fine mastering studio and J.J. and John are excellent mastering engineers, but unfortunately they do not cut vinyl in pure analog. They use an Ampex ATR machine to play back master tapes and they use a digital delay to feed their lathe, whereas AcousTech Mastering uses a Studer A80 which is equipped with a preview head and delay loop and also they have two mastering consoles (one which duplicates the EQ for the groove depth computer), another thing which is required to cut in analog without a digital delay.

As for Direct Metal Mastering, only the following mastering studios still do that:

*Abbey Road (England)
*Exchange Mastering (England)
*GZ Vinyl (Czech Republic)
*Optimal Media (Germany)
*Pauler Acoustics (Germany)

There are no more mastering studios in North America that cut direct to metal and the last U.S. maker of DMM copper blanks closed in summer 2005 (Europadisk). Copper blanks are still being made in Europe by GZ and Optimal Media.

mr. Humphrey Bear,

what is with the big ass type?[/b]

elisha wiesner wrote:mr. Humphrey Bear,

what is with the big ass type?[/b]

I use a size 16 font which is a good compromise between the tiny microscopic font everyone else uses and the big font (size 18 ) I used before.

GZ is good.

Plus they are realitivly cheap.

and they do 210 gram LP's , which I have never seen.

dan wrote:Of course, the master tapes will be sequenced perfectly with leader tape, contain test tones at the beginning, and the sides of the records will be noted, so no extra mastering will be needed.

I don't think any vinyl (or metal) cutting house would simply turn on the lathe and start cutting your lacquer master without listening to your tape first and probably making some adjustments (level, eq, high frequency limiting, low frequency summing, etc).

Unless you're a mastering engineer who has used a cutting lathe, you will not be familiar with the electrical/mechanical limitations of the cutting lathe, and of vinyl record playback. Without having a good understanding of these principles, you will not have taken them into consideration when doing your mixes.

The cutting/mastering engineer will most likely need to alter your tape. But you can let him know that you are completely happy with the sound of the tape as it is. And ask him to only make changes that are required to cut the lacquer master.

That lacquer master then needs to get sent immediately to a pressing plant (where they can do all the metalwork / make the parts for record pressing).

-bob

I recently had a project pressed by The Exchange, the test pressing sounds fucking amazing.

Just the same as the mixes I gave to them, but maybe like a bit better too.

I'm normally happy as long as the mastering engineer didn't fucking anything up, but this is great! I'd recommend them to anyone.
Unfortunately I'm not aware whether it was done DMM or not as I wasn't there for the mastering.