i'd like to press vinyl, what pressing companies provide good product?

[sneakyimp]

3 minutes ago, oasisish said:

No clue about quality but:

 

https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2022/04/26/2429225/0/en/Copycats-Media-Introduces-Vinyl-Record-Manufacturing.html

I've been sternly warned about newcomers to vinyl pressing -- pressing vinyl is quirky and inexperienced companies can roll out a lot of junk. Or so I've heard, anyway. Copy Cats appears to specialize in CDs. I will sniff around some more, though. Who knows, they may just be a broker/agent for one of the other pressing companies?

[derkwithano]

7 hours ago, sneakyimp said:

Thanks for the warning. Not really sure what transpired there, but I doubt Dreamworks or Universal made any licensing deal with Ross/ETR without our consent. Nobody paid me a cent in royalties -- or even offered me a copy of it.

Not defending the label but they do seem to (technically) do things properly. They’ve pressed a lot of popular releases where if they didn’t license it, they would’ve gotten nailed by the owners. 

[N8TRU]

10 hours ago, sneakyimp said:

Ehhh i should not have mentioned it. I got defensive when youspinmeround said I have 'no experience.' It's SDK in the movie Eurotrip. I share credit with three other guys.

That's really awesome. Matt Damon is a great actor and that's a really cool accomplishment.

[mike]

11 hours ago, sneakyimp said:

Thanks for the warning. Not really sure what transpired there, but I doubt Dreamworks or Universal made any licensing deal with Ross/ETR without our consent. Nobody paid me a cent in royalties -- or even offered me a copy of it.

They absolutely will license it without telling you (Dreamworks is long gone and the UMG catalog dept is people you've likely never met just working the company's product. You might get lucky and have someone there who thinks "it would be cool to have the band involved," but a lot of times that doesn't happen).  And the royalties would still be administered by UMG, coming from the licensing fee they took from ETR, so check your statements with them. 

[sneakyimp]

Has anyone ever ordered a *new* record and gotten bad product? Any real-world examples?

[mitchard]

37 minutes ago, sneakyimp said:

Has anyone ever ordered a *new* record and gotten bad product? Any real-world examples?

As a consumer, all the time. Especially in recent years. It seems like every other new pressing I have gotten lately is jacked up in some way. Scuffs, scratching, warps, etc. Or they just don't sound good in general. Plant QC has became quite the issue through the pandemic boom.

[sneakyimp]

14 minutes ago, mitchard said:

As a consumer, all the time. Especially in recent years. It seems like every other new pressing I have gotten lately is jacked up in some way. Scuffs, scratching, warps, etc. Or they just don't sound good in general. Plant QC has became quite the issue through the pandemic boom.

This is what I've heard, and precisely what I'm afraid of. Have you any idea which plants were responsible for the botched product? Wanna name any names about the records?

[unknown pleasures]

This entire thread feels like a performance art piece to me. 

[turk99]

As a consumer, I like Pirates Press. All my favorite ska and punk bands use them. 
 

my friend is releasing his music and is using cdbaby to get on the streaming service and press his vinyl. 

[moonbeams]

I press all my records at Packaged Sounds in UK. https://packagedsounds.com/

Tom Reiss runs it and he's been a good buddy of mine through these forums for a decade now.
They specialize in very artistic colored vinyl. Here are some pics of records they pressed for me. They also printed the artwork:

 

[bjorn]

I would say the hate against Pirates is overblown. I think the main issue was with many of their splatter/haze/etc. records having a grainy residue. Some of their records are a bit noisy, and they used to sometimes have a low level whooshing sound (this might have been a DMM issue... but I haven't noticed this in years). But honestly, the majority of what they put out sounds quite good. Maybe most importantly, I have personally never experienced an off-center pressing from them, and that is the defect that I find to be the most infuriating and detrimental to the sound of the record.  Compared to the garbage quality I've seen from places like United, I'd rather take something from Pirates/GZ any day.

[moonbeams]

As a fan, half the records I get pressed at GZ are scratched up from their paper inner sleeves.
Also not a fan of direct metal mastering. Though recently I've seen labels that have their own lacquers made, but use GZ for the pressing.

[sneakyimp]

On 6/17/2022 at 3:45 PM, unknown pleasures said:

This entire thread feels like a performance art piece to me. 

The off-topic responses do tend to undermine its intended purpose, which is to identify a reputable, reliable vinyl pressing organization that is actually accepting orders.

[sneakyimp]

On 6/17/2022 at 8:01 PM, turk99 said:

As a consumer, I like Pirates Press. All my favorite ska and punk bands use them. 
 

my friend is releasing his music and is using cdbaby to get on the streaming service and press his vinyl. 

I had no idea CDBaby offered vinyl pressing. I guess the be-wary-of-newcomers warning should be applied. I'd be very curious what results your friend gets.

[sneakyimp]

On 6/17/2022 at 10:21 PM, moonbeams said:

I press all my records at Packaged Sounds in UK. https://packagedsounds.com/

Tom Reiss runs it and he's been a good buddy of mine through these forums for a decade now.
They specialize in very artistic colored vinyl. Here are some pics of records they pressed for me...

These look nice! Thanks for the link. I had been looking at The Vinyl Factory. I have some contacts in UK so this is interesting.

[smailtronic]

3 hours ago, sneakyimp said:

The off-topic responses do tend to undermine its intended purpose, which is to identify a reputable, reliable vinyl pressing organization that is actually accepting orders.

Keep in mind that the vast majority of people here aren't regularly pressing records. To find a facility that's currently accepting orders, you'll probably have to start reaching out to pressing plants.

[Deadtous]

Two month turnaround, short run experts and all done in-house. You'll be hard pressed to do much better than these guys.

 

https://www.mobineko.com/

[dreamover]

I haven't used Smashed Plastic (Chicago) but I know people who work there and the quality of the stuff i've seen come out of there's been good. Not sure on what wait times are like. I've used Gotta Groove (Cleveland) the most and was always happy with the product. The one time there was an issue, they were quick to address it and replace all the records. Both also do jackets/packaging.

The first record I pressed, I used Pirates Press. I was mostly happy with the product, but would've gone elsewhere if I had known better. One of the reasons they get a bad rap is because audio quality on their releases is sometimes not great. A big reason this is the case is that they will use whatever you give them and you'd be surprised how many people have given them 128 kbps mp3s and things not properly mixed for vinyl. Most other plants will have higher standards because they don't want to have to deal with pissed off people when the record sounds like shit. The record I had was properly mastered for DMM and sounds really good. Unfortunately, some of the jackets were printed off center and had a thick line on one of the borders that wasn't present in the proofs. Their single pocket standard jackets have super thin spines which is kind of a bummer. Also, the hidden shipping costs are definitely higher because they ship from GZ in Czech Republic. As @smailtronicsaid, pressing domestically makes a ton of sense, just from a shipping cost standpoint. 

[xgrantx]

Honestly you will find good and bad stories about every plant. I don't think there's a plant in the world where mistakes never happen or shoddy work slips through.  The most difficult thing right now is probably finding any plant that will take new clients and will do it without a 12+ month turnaround.  The plant I use isn't taking new clients.  I loved Rainbo back in the day (now defunt). I pressed at United and it's been  mostly good to great quality but they are cranking out tons of stuff and super backed up.  The worst pressing I've ever received was from Bill Smith Custom Vinyl (now defunct)who was supposedly the best around.  I've had hit and miss with Palomino but they worked to help fix it. Musicol have done several for me and did a pretty nice job overall every time.  I've only done one through Pirates Press  besides flexis and I had no issues besides some jackets dinged in shipping from Europe.  I pressed an LP at My45 in Germany and it was really nicely done.   I pressed at Archer in Detroit and it was no frills but a solid pressing.  There have been a few more probably too.  You'd save money if you do it piecemeal and put it together yourself but if you want it shrink wrapped I guess it's best to have the plant handle it all.

[hexrecords]

On 6/18/2022 at 1:21 AM, moonbeams said:

I press all my records at Packaged Sounds in UK. https://packagedsounds.com/

Tom Reiss runs it and he's been a good buddy of mine through these forums for a decade now.
They specialize in very artistic colored vinyl. Here are some pics of records they pressed for me. They also printed the artwork:

 

Those look beautiful!  Well done!

[sneakyimp]

Not that anyone cares, but just got off the phone with discmakers. I asked who they use to press their vinyl (which takes 26 weeks for delivery) and they declined to answer. The person explained that they have numerous partners and must opportunistically use whoever is available, depending on market circumstances.

[xgrantx]

20 hours ago, sneakyimp said:

Not that anyone cares, but just got off the phone with discmakers. I asked who they use to press their vinyl (which takes 26 weeks for delivery) and they declined to answer. The person explained that they have numerous partners and must opportunistically use whoever is available, depending on market circumstances.

I would consider that 26 weeks a “starting point” and after the 3-4 delays you’ll get it in maybe 42-52 weeks. Dealing with brokers also adds in more finger pointing vs dealing with a plant direct. A broker has your money but any problems will be due to the plant and harder for you to deal with direct. You’ll have to hope they intercede and stick up for you. 

[SeeMoreGlass]

I saw you mentioned Gotta Groove Records in Cleveland. I am currently in the middle of pressing my album with them and it has been a pretty smooth process so far. I just approved my lacquer and it sounded great. Any question I have they have answered within a day or two. So far I have no complaints. I'm not scheduled to actually get it until spring of 2023 but I think you are going to run into that with all pressing plants at the moment. 

 

Best of luck! SDK was a jam and my band used to play it all the time at our practices....

[Gumbo72203]

You want to go with Dunk! Pressing.  They've been cranking out really nice products and are about to scale up in a big, BIG way.  Their turnarounds are not crazy, and they are some of the nicest people.  Shipping from Belgium.  I have so many of their records, and they all sound great.  They're still small enough to care about the product and not just crank out shit to make product.  They're good people, I know them personally through their festival.  You can tell Wout and Luc that Greg sent you. 

 

https://www.dunkpressing.com/

[sneakyimp]

I'm happy to report some progress. A friend had wisely advised me to make sure I had everything in hand (artwork, masters, possibly my own lacquer, money) before contacting the pressing company. I decided it was finally time to look at getting lacquers cut -- even though I was worried about getting a lacquer cut and nowhere to press it -- and finally talked to my mastering guy (Alex DeTurk, who is really great) and asked who he'd recommend to cut a lacquer and he referred me to Scott Hull at Masterdisk. This really broke the log jam.

 

Scott Hull is not cheap, but he's quite well known and Masterdisk has some of the best gear in the world. His secret weapon is his studio manager, Mickie Steier, who is super nice and friendly and who directly introduced me to 3 different contacts at three different pressing companies. She first mentioned Vinyl De Paris, saying they had done some 'beautiful test pressings.' She also said Microforum in Canada was good. And lastly, she connected me to someone at Gotta Groove. Mickie's introduction cleared away a lot of the suspicion I might otherwise have encountered by contacting these companies directly because they know she works at Masterdisk and that she's serious. It also reassured me to have her recommendation because Masterdisk knows what they are doing.

 

I contacted all 3 companies and learned that Gotta Groove currently has a 10-month turnaround time. Microforum estimated  26 to 28 weeks for turnaround (although I think they'll let you pay a rush fee to reduce this considerably) and VDP said their turnaround time was 14 weeks. I decided to go with VDP and have sent off my artwork. Unfortunately, everyone in Paris goes on vacation in August, so this will slow things down by 4 weeks, but I should receive my vinyl around November if all goes well. I've received my test lacquer from Scott Hull and I played it and I'm PUMPED.

 

My experience with Scott & Mickie at Masterdisk has been really encouraging, and VDP has been very helpful, too. They answer all my questions clearly and promptly, and I'm impressed with their attention to detail so far.