That warm, crackly sound...

September 10, 2008 10:02 AM

I'm interested in pressing a 7" record. How do I do this?

I am looking for manufacturers with an online presence who do this relatively inexpensively. I have never done this before and am wondering how much it might cost for 500 7"s (double-sided) with sleeves.

posted by inoculatedcities to media & arts (4 comments total)

Get the tracks written and recorded (use a local recording studio if you aren't doing it yourself). Get the tracks mastered so that they're sounding good, then send them off to be mastered for vinyl. I've always used Aardvark Mastering and had great luck. Have them send the vinyl masters to a pressing plant of your choice and voila.

You can probably just do everything at a place like United Record Pressing and get the full package (mastering, printing, pressing, etc) and I'm guessing you'll be quite happy with it.
posted by atomly at 10:10 AM on September 10, 2008

As an audio guy, and someone who's done this once or twice, I'd suggest this -

Find a 7" of yours that sounds really good, and see if there's any info on it about who mastered it. Occasionally, the place it was mastered will be the same place that it was pressed, or you can call the people that mastered it, and ask them where they prefer to send stuff out for pressing. If you can't get any details out of the disc itself, email the label, and see what they've got to say. I've done this on at least 4 occasions, and have gotten responses every time. This can also get you a little pricing info, as details on cost are hard to get on a lot of vinyl pressing sites without using their stupid web-form quote requests.

As an aside, (and I don't want to do any real trash-talking here) I'd recommend against URPressing - I had a friend just recently get a 7" pressed with them, and he says that it was a bad experience all around - they brushed him off when he called, and I'm fairly sure they didn't actually master the disc. The sibilants are all clipped, which is extremely annoying. He's planning on pressing a 12" in the next 8 months or so, and wants to go to someone else.
posted by god hates math at 11:53 AM on September 10, 2008

Pirates Press. They work as an agent for GZ Digital Media, based in the Czech Republic, who have a great reputation amongst small labels, across Europe and also in the USA. Having used GZ directly for several 7"s, and knowing people who've used Pirates Press in the USA, I'd definitely recommend them.

Looks like they are offering a 500pc coloured vinyl 7" package for US$1400, including all mastering, plating, CMYK labels, and jackets.

Get your advice on audio pre-mastering and graphics requirements directly from Pirates Press. The tech specs on their front page are recognizably from GZ, and even if you didn't use them, you'll probably benefit from the audio specs.

You'll need to check your artwork in a graphics tool with CMYK preview so you get a good idea of how the colour will look when printed. The only one I know of with adequate features is PhotoShop. Last I looked The Gimp wasn't quite there.

Separate to the costs above, you will need to ensure you have a good recording and you'll need to "pre-master" the audio recording. This means some minor tweaking which can be done with audio plugins in an audio editor such as Bias Peak, maybe even the free Audacity. The requirements are listed in a document on their front page. You need frequencies below 20Hz filtered out and the bass component sub 300Hz to be in phase to help keep the needle in the groove. Make sure any vocals are recorded so as to minimise sibiliance. A "de-esser" either at mixing time or on the frequency band of the final recording which contains the vocals will stop the 7" sounding sibilant. If you don't do the de-essing, in my experience, GZ don't fix it for you because they have to respect the master you present to them.

Finally, think about 33 rpm vs. 45 rpm. If you have a lot of music it's tempting to cram it all on to one 7", but the record won't sound quite as good at 33 vs. 45. Depends on your music. If you're doing something deliberately lo-fi it won't matter to you. If you're trying to reproduce the high-end sound predominant in dance recordings, it will.

Also, there is an upper limit to what can fit on a side, and you shouldn't push it too much as the record will be quieter and the audio quality worse the more you put on it.
Having said that, I've had 45s done with only four minutes of music on each side, and also done one at 33 with about 7 or 8 minutes per side -- and the latter really doesn't sound bad at all.
posted by galaksit at 1:40 PM on September 10, 2008 [1 favorite]

I should say that you can certainly take the audio to be mastered by someone, but assuming you're happy with a digital process, it is a place where you can cut costs by doing it yourself and I've been happy with the results.
posted by galaksit at 1:46 PM on September 10, 2008