gretz

absolutely not. we never let the plant cut. 

absolutely not. we never let the plant cut. 

absolutely not. we never let the plant cut. 

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

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.

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.

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. 

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

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

i am almost positive they are getting them fresh. there is a whole underground NES game subculture where new games are happening.
https://retrotainmentgames.com/

due to the length of the record if it was made any louder it would have distorted everything unfortunately. had the band been thinking of vinyl back then a song probably would have been axed.
 
just turn it up

well, we couldn't do a 1000 pressing, the rights holders have a minimum (which needs to be paid 100% up front or they won't release the rights to the pressing plant) so it would be a very large "need to fund" cost. The plus side is, once the deal of splitting the pressing was worked out, the turnaround time was about 2.5-3 months. so if we did a crowd funding thing with a set amount, if people's cards or whatever are charged, the turnaround would be more like a normal pre-order.   We won't hold up new material, have a new album before end of year and a double early next year. no worries there.

due to the length of the record if it was made any louder it would have distorted everything unfortunately. had the band been thinking of vinyl back then a song probably would have been axed.
 
just turn it up

due to the length of the record if it was made any louder it would have distorted everything unfortunately. had the band been thinking of vinyl back then a song probably would have been axed.
 
just turn it up

well, we couldn't do a 1000 pressing, the rights holders have a minimum (which needs to be paid 100% up front or they won't release the rights to the pressing plant) so it would be a very large "need to fund" cost. The plus side is, once the deal of splitting the pressing was worked out, the turnaround time was about 2.5-3 months. so if we did a crowd funding thing with a set amount, if people's cards or whatever are charged, the turnaround would be more like a normal pre-order.   We won't hold up new material, have a new album before end of year and a double early next year. no worries there.

after what we learned on this one, don't know how it's possible without a repeat of this fiasco. the only thing we can think of is a kickstarter type deal for the full amount of the license where if it doesn't fund, it doesn't happen, and nobody is charged until we know the full amount can be handed to the rights owners (which when people see what that amount is will maybe stop giving tragic hero a hard time and realize that they were absolutely bonkers to put their necks on the line to even do funeral in the first place) - hint, the license (not the pressing, the license) is more than was spent to actually make either record in the first place.

I may be biased since I went through all the hassle of having the new master done, but I think it sounds great. We had to have this pressed at GZ in the czech republic which I am not a fan of. I have never liked the Direct to  Metal cutting they do there and while they DO accept lacquers we had 2 different lacquer cutters refuse to do it if GZ was pressing, so...  it was a bit stressful for us.  This record is technically about 4 minutes too long to comfortably put on one piece of vinyl without some fidelity problems. 
we lucked out in that the song that was going to suffer the most "lesser lights of heaven" being at the end of side 1 has almost no low end in it anyway and is KIND of blown out a bit on the original album. so inner groove distortion on any song, THAT was the one to have it happen, so without even shifting songs around, the song that would have suffered the most from a long cut is the song that kind of didn't matter if it did because, it kind of sounds like that anyway.
 
the irony is, the very things we don't like about what the DMM cutting process were already built into the record anyway (mostly the lack of Bass frequencies and a little to much brightness on the top end) . So we didn't lose anything by using this process, there is a distinct lack of low end on the record and the high end is bright, so nothing changed. DMM DOES allow a longer/louder cut which can be more forgiving on the Inner Grooves, and that was what we needed more. 
 
overall (and i can say this objectively since i am not ON the album) i think this master sounds WAY better than the CD/Digital versions, there is actually a lot more clarity to everything without sounding drastically different, and when it matters, the quiet parts really get quiet to allow the loud parts to jump out more. -- the rest of the guys all commented on this when they heard the vinyl so it's not just me.