gretz

absolutely not. we never let the plant cut.

see. NOW we are getting reports of different variants having different playback on the same turntable AND of turntables that were able to play one, now not being able to play another. basically it is a total shitshow and nobody behind the scenes can figure out how to solve it

The problem is, everyone that approved the test presses has a setup that can not currently replicate the skip. So it just so happened that the several people that approved it had the "ideal" setup. (we still don't know exactly what that is)

actually quite the opposite. since there was no issue at the test pressing phase and there are no visible or tactile blemishes on the stamper then it DOES come down to inconsistent cut so the onus is on US. (had we had united CUT it, then it's a different story. If they run another batch off these stampers, we will have the same thing happen because whatever it is, is part of the lacquer that was submitted. the tests were approved by multiple people (as were production copies) so it really is a perfect storm anamoly.

i now have a "better put THIS needle on" needle to check test presses

agree. keeping in mind. the 2.5 needle is BRAND new. i just happened to change it recently. the one i put back on i would not call worn out, but i would say was at the very least broken in. .5 is more in the realm of reality.

drastically with the first needle, like 2.5 grams. when i saw the antiskate fixed it i swapped needles and set everything back again, then it was like a .5 adjustment

it's a tough call. if it was IN the vinyl, as in. a problem for everyone across the board, getting united to turn the press back on to make replacements would be a different story. The fact that the same record plays different ways on 2 different players falls under "this cut was on the borderline of playing on every player". If we recut it quieter (which is probably the solution) it would be late 2021 before we had them in hand - based on what we have been told of backups. then, we HAVE to get the originals back from people. not sure what the solution is.

it appears to be "player based" I was actually one of the people it was affecting. In fact, i gave two copies (an orange and a clear) to Dan Weyandt that were doing it to me, they do not do it for him. The tests showed nothing (i was not one of the test pressing approvers) and the people that approved the tests have no issues still on production copies. I can now play them (i tried 10 different copies in various colors) after adjusting my antiskate, and swapping out needles. Basically we are dealing with a "borderline" issue at the cutting phase that, while there is nothing inherently wrong with the press, it IS a master that is going to cause problems with certain setups (based on the issues i am seeing really GREAT turntables are having it as well as cheap ones). if united pressed more, the same issue would be there, if we exchanged copies currently for people, the issue would still be there. basically if we do a repress we will have it recut from scratch.

i think you will find that a lot of newer releases do not come out on vinyl at release date for a bit. You may see CD/Digital with "vinyl at a later date". You also might see a lot of already released things coming out in NEW versions (since the lacquers wouldn't be needed if the plates still exist from prior pressings). GZ is going to get slammed because it is common knowledge this doesn't effect them. So there are going to be longer lines in production there.

the problem is, the Japanese lacquer plant (MDC) is not taking on any new clients, they said as much when this happened. So any cutters not already getting supplied by MDC and that were using Apollo are literally shit out of luck. What Apollo was making (and MDC in Japan) is literally an insanely specialized thing that is the first step of ANY record getting made. This is really bad.

a lot of labels set test press deadlines for December for RSD (smart) this is a MASSIVE blow to anything new. While DMM is safe, there are only a few places that do it (and none in the US, in fact the only 2 DMM lathes in the US are owned by the church of scientology). What is going to happen is the few DMM capable places -- the big one being GZ in the Czech Republic-- will be the go to for everyone. So not only will we see fewer new releases but the majors will back them up with their larger orders. In the meantime, most of the smaller plants esp. in the US are going to take a massive hit. This is not good for any aspect of the music industry.

the original recording had serious technical issues. we are pretty convinced the guitars are completely out of phase on the whole thing. It also didn't help that those prior reissues were literally just a pressing of the CD audio with no real mastering being done for vinyl

still don't see that happening anytime soon unfortunately

Technically meeting in the middle of Represses/Reissues. Not straight represses... different sources, different packaging. Stuff that has been on vinyl before but put out on vinyl in a better way. We learned a lesson on that one. This is being handled differently.