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Hey -
Just a quick question/survey. I've usually used Bill Smith Custom Records for record pressing, but am thinking about trying someone new for the latest one. Recordpressing.com looks good, what with their DMM and thick vinyl, but haven't heard much about them in the pipeline. Any experiences with these guys? Or perhaps share your favourite pressing company in the U.S.? The main reason I'm thinking about recordpressing.com is they have the full package deal, with the sleeves printed and everything...anyway, thanks for your input.[/i]

From the looks of it, recordpressing.com is a broker and uses plants in Europe. As far as DMM goes, you have to go to Europe now for that.
former US mfgr Europadisc did DMM but they were just auctioned off in September and the Scientologists ended up with the DMM lathe. (Their second or third DMM lathe depending on who you talk to)

For a US mfgr, take a look at www.brooklynphono.com. I know their mastering guy, Paul Gold, a little, but have never used them.

United Pressing in Nashville is good. I've only used them one time, but know people who've gone through them numerous times, always with good results.

http://www.urpressing.com/

Recordpressing.com is also www.piratespress.com. Their vinyl looks great and is heavy. These guys use www.gzvinyl.com in the Czech Republic to press everything. They are a broker but save you on shipping. Problems i foresee:

1) they often encourage you to NOT get a test pressing, "afterall man, it is DMM. If you've listened to the source, you already know what it's going to sound like." A good case in point: Zandosis, and Atlanta band went that route and when they got their 7"s (they got no test presses), one of the songs was totally cut off the 7". Sheer incompetence.

2) The jackets they provide are flimsy. The literally sag if you hold them out straight. They printed on thin shitty cardboard. This is rather typical of European pressings though. I hate their jackets. They're shit and they wear down fast. They are a cheap quality and printed digitally. Hence the low cost.

3) I don't want to sound nationalistic but it's very hard to keep most pressing plants open these days. The rise of digital technology and the high cost of vinyl drives many labels to just not bother pressing vinyl anymore. It's not cost efficient since the price for vinyl is high. So how is this price going to continue to jump? By giving Czech pressing plants more of your biz when we should try to keep RTI, United Record Pressing, Erika and the few others open in the US. That's my take on it.

Brooklyn Phono--Paul Gold will be cutting my next two releases, one of which will be pressed at RTI (www.recordtech.com) and the other at United Record Pressing (www.urpress.com). Paul bought a stamper from Erika records and that's how he presses. His vinyl is nice. If you call Brooklyn Phono ask them to send you samples. They have several they'll send and you can see their work. They're not a cheap as United though.

United--I dig them. They're fast but my reservations run deep these days. Universal Records (the major label) quit pressing vinyl altogether. Now that this has happened about 75% of all that work has been funnelled to United. Their turn time and quality (if you pester them to rush your job) has seemed to diminish slightly. I recommend United but only if you're not going to need your records for 6 weeks. Let them take their time and your records will be fine. Rush them and they'll suck. In terms of pressing a 7", it makes no sense to use anyone but United. 7"s don't sell like they did in 1993. You're already wasting your money so just do them cheap at United.

RTI--this is the best pressing plant in the US. See 99% of all Drag City, Touch and Go, Quaterstick, Hi-Ball and Sonic Youth releases. There's a reason why folks use them. They're amazing...but you pay for it.

Erika--good quality vinyl but their prices aren't too competitive. I say use RTI over Erika.

Rainbo--stay away. They take an eternity and their quality isn't so hot.

Musicol in Ohio--they're slightly more expensive than United and their vinyl is a cheaper quality. Look at the first 10-12 Faded Captain Series releases. They are all pressed there. Faded Captain switched for a reason.

One last thing you might do for referencing Recordpressing.com vinyl is look at the last 4-5 Dischord LP's. All are on heavy vinyl with terribly shitty and flimsy jackets. No bueno. They do this though b/c of their deal with Southern in the UK.

There's my two cents...two too many most likely but there ya have it.

abcgroupdocumentation - thanks very much for typing all that out. I've used United in the past for 7"s, of course, but lately have switched to Bill Smith because a)their records are really thick and b)much more color selections. I'm glad United is still in business; where else will the punk rockers go?

Anyway, your description of the 12" jackets provided by recordpressing.com swayed my opinion waaaay over. I know EXACTLY what you mean by cheap European jackets; I have enough records in my collection with those and yeah, not impressed. I hate to say it and offend your patriotism, but I still might use 'em for a 7" down the line as I'm sure they're the only presser who can do glow in the dark records.

What I'm looking to do at this point in time is press a 12", and impressive as RTI's roster is I still think Bill Smith's vinyl is better. Sigh. I guess I'll have to go through the hassle of dealing with multiple companies instead of just one. Who makes good 12" jackets these days?

What's the consensus on Archer Records these days?

It's been a while since I've heard anthing about their quality, which years ago wasn't that great. However it's my understanding that they do a lot of house/techno/club stuff, and folks in that genre like what they get.

well, i have used rainbo records for 7" records in the past with decent enough results...the guy i dealt with, rick lepore, seemed pretty incompetent, but maybe he'd just had a major brain surgery or something--so i'll give him the benefit of the doubt, but certainly wouldn't want to deal with him again. however, the records we got from rainbo were all consistent and they didn't fuck up.

when it comes to the pick of most manufacturers, though, RTI is indeed the one. however, if you want 7" records, RTI cannot make them.

one thing to bear in mind is that bill smith records may offer coloured vinyl, but coloured vinyl, lacking carbon, is not going to be as resiliant as carbon-blackened vinyl...it looks cool, but it certainly isn't a competent factor when it comes to quality.

a mate of mine ordered some translucent red 12" records from URP in Nashville earlier this year...the records were supposed to be out around st. patrick's day, if memory serves. unfortunately, URP fucked up the order SO BADLY that not only were they not available by the time the band played the record-release show, but nearly EVERY FUCKING COPY was somehow messed up, beyond comprehension...the mistakes in the pressing seemed to vary from disc to disc, so it was possibly the way the vinyl was mixed...no-one seemed able to properly pinpoint the cause of the problem. i even looked at some of the records under a microscope; they were completely screwed. of course, my friend tried to rectify this problem as nicely as possible. they took advantage of this, and so as far as i know, a problem that they were informed of in march took until september (that's SIX MONTHS, for those of you with only five fingers) to rectify, and though they've said they would re-press the entire order--on black vinyl this time--my friend is still waiting around on them. in short, i would beg to differ with abcgroupdocumentation and say to stay away from URP entirely.

it sucks to have to say some of these things, because i would hate to see any record-pressing plant go out of business--but shit is shit, and it shouldn't proliferate just because it's a minority market.

hope that helps,
vy73's, jet.

Begging to differ is good in this case. There's no guarantee that anyone's gonna get the same results 100% of the time. In fact, over the weekend of friend of mine just gave me a copy of an LP he had pressed at United. It went bad, really bad...the whole pressing. ????

So...Gossman, I say go to RTI or Bill Smith. Bill Smith does press nice vinyl. Their plating is done at RTI (wink, wink Max). You can't go wrong with either of them. Bill Smith 7"s are nice, but don't master with them. Get your mastering done elsewhere.

www.saffmaserting.com is a good place to get mastering done (it's digital) and then have someone cut your lacquer. Or you could just have both mastering and lacquer cutting done by www.goldenmastering.com

you'll pay, but you get what you pay for when it comes to vinyl.

Good luck.

Some interesting links! Does Golden do straight up analog mastering? I couldn't tell from his page. I've always used Aardvark - some people have had bad experiences with him, but he's done okay. If I ever have something higher fidelity then my past releases, I'd probably invest the extra $ in someone more 'pro'.

With regards to jet's discussion of colored vinyl/carbon, I dunno about all that. I suppose I'll take jet at his word. In my experience...well, the oldest records I have are some mid-50s Hank Williams opaque yellow vinyl 78s, that still are in pretty good shape and sound great. Crappy see through colored vinyl sometimes sucks. Picture discs almost always suck. But opaque records, white combined with another color, marbled, etc are as good as black.

There's a lot of anti-United sentiment running around, and I understand that, but the last time I used United on a regular basis - and this was years ago - they were pretty good about fixing their mistakes. Of course I switched to Bill Smith, so that says something right there - but I also liked how United sent 7"s in a box of 3-400 I think? Bill Smith sends 'em out in packets of 100, so if you get 1000 records, you get 10 packages of 100 records each, plus individual packages for your plates & labels (ANOTHER reason to use Bill Smith, they always return EVERYTHING) and shipping can cost quite a bit like that.

Golden does do straight up analag if you mean mastering from tape, but like Saff Mastering or Bonati Mastering, Golden also dumps everything into digital to work from there. From a digital master Golden cuts lacquers, if that makes sense. There is not "straigtht" analog mastering in the US if you DMM.

There are many advantages advantages to using Golden. He masters and cuts your LP for $200 per side, about $50 bucks shipping. Saff can only master. He can't cut lacquers, but there are plenty of folks who do cut lacquers and are both good and affordable. The biggest advantage to using Carl Saff is that his work is guranteed. You don't like it, you don't pay for it. Most anyone else cannot make that offer. The downside to using Golden for vinyl mastering is that you don't know what it sounds like until you get your test press. At least with Saff you can hear your master prior to the test stage. That's rad in my book.

Bonati (http://www.bonatimastering.com/) is another vinyl "pre-master" dude like Saff. They're both good and both competitive in their pricing.

Aardvark doesn't master at all, unless you pay him extra to do it. Aardvark is simply a lacquer cutting place. He's not "mastering for vinyl" so much as doing a straight transfer from your source to a lacquer.