numanoid Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 Seriously... Bands, labels, PLEASE stop using United! I can't count the number of times I've put on a brand new black vinyl record and it's as noisy as something that's been played 50 times. If it's not pressed off center or warped, that is... If you don't care about sound quality, then what's the point? A little extra money can get you virgin vinyl that sounds good from somewhere else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamlikesmusic Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 Divided we stand, united we fall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dreamover Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 which bad united records you're speaking of? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew13 Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 aren't they the ones who fucked up AMB so bad? or was that rainbow? i can't ever remember. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xjustinxschwierx Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 I think that was Musicol that fucked up AMB. And it's Rainbo, not Rainbow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
numanoid Posted February 15, 2009 Author Share Posted February 15, 2009 Specifically, I put on my Wavves "Weed Demon" 7-inch for the first time today. It's kind of a quiet track, and all you hear is surface noise, lots and lots of it. The off center pressing was the Rob's House Records release with Gentleman Jesse, The Carbonas, etc. It's pressed so far off center that it's unlisteneable. It's the one on white, I'm not sure if the black ones are better, but it shouldn't matter. They should be able do load the stampers in the center of the press! Just about every "standard weight" pressing that comes from them is warped in some way, usually a concave warp from not being cooled correctly or something. But even if everything else is perfect, there is always a shitload of surface noise, especially on their "trash color vinyl". It really is trash... it's the leftover scraps from all of the other color pressings. And it sounds like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danthemjfan23 Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 how do you REALLY feel about them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxmartinxx Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 WTF is AMB? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aarondanger Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 The warping comes from the way they ship the records to you. NOT double boxed. We have used Musicol United Pirates press Record pressing.com For the price united is the best deal. Don't like the way it sounds? Get you record cut at aardvark or lucky laquers. When we do put out another record we will be using dave @ lucky for cuting and pressing. Musicol kinda takes forever but is often cheaper then united. Its honestly a matter of what your looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zac Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 Specifically, I put on my Wavves "Weed Demon" 7-inch for the first time today. It's kind of a quiet track, and all you hear is surface noise, lots and lots of it. The off center pressing was the Rob's House Records release with Gentleman Jesse, The Carbonas, etc. It's pressed so far off center that it's unlisteneable. It's the one on white, I'm not sure if the black ones are better, but it shouldn't matter. They should be able do load the stampers in the center of the press! Just about every "standard weight" pressing that comes from them is warped in some way, usually a concave warp from not being cooled correctly or something. But even if everything else is perfect, there is always a shitload of surface noise, especially on their "trash color vinyl". It really is trash... it's the leftover scraps from all of the other color pressings. And it sounds like it. That's why when you talk to them they don't really suggest pressing on their lowest cost records. I talked to them the other day and they say upgrading to 140g is definitely the way to go. If the labels choose to be cheaper they run their own risks.There are alot of factors that go into this honestly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dreamover Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 That's why when you talk to them they don't really suggest pressing on their lowest cost records. I talked to them the other day and they say upgrading to 140g is definitely the way to go. If the labels choose to be cheaper they run their own risks.There are alot of factors that go into this honestly. 140g is an upgrade? that's standard for most plants. i can't remember which, but i know i have some pretty bad united presses. some really big releases too. does cobraside use united? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ihprstl Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 Musicol kinda takes forever but is often cheaper then united. Musicol overcharged me, took 30 days longer than promised, didn't get me the colors I wanted, they were packaged horribly when they were shipped to me and I had about 20 that were damaged/messed up labels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zac Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 That's why when you talk to them they don't really suggest pressing on their lowest cost records. I talked to them the other day and they say upgrading to 140g is definitely the way to go. If the labels choose to be cheaper they run their own risks.There are alot of factors that go into this honestly. 140g is an upgrade? that's standard for most plants. i can't remember which, but i know i have some pretty bad united presses. some really big releases too. does cobraside use united? Yeah I know it's standard most places but 140g is still only $.90 a records, they just offer a lesser gram version for $.86. I really don't know if I have any records from United or not. I wouldn't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johntx Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 The warping comes from the way they ship the records to you.NOT double boxed. We have used Musicol United Pirates press Record pressing.com For the price united is the best deal. Don't like the way it sounds? Get you record cut at aardvark or lucky laquers. When we do put out another record we will be using dave @ lucky for cuting and pressing. Musicol kinda takes forever but is often cheaper then united. Its honestly a matter of what your looking for. ^^^^^^^^^^^^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
numanoid Posted February 15, 2009 Author Share Posted February 15, 2009 When I got mine pressed, I did the 140 gram upgrade. And they still managed to screw up my pressing. Now everytime I put on a record that sounds bad or is warped, I can look at the matrix number and it's almost always a "U" number. And I think the fact that they are willing to press at a lower weight is just so they can blame their shitty quality on the fact that you didn't pay an extra four cents per record for the heavier weight. Aardvark is a good option, but that only takes care of the plating. The vinyl is still going to be dirty, and they're still going to press things off center, and they're still going to warp your records one way or another. This is more of a cautionary post, I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zac Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 Every single pressing plants seems to have horror stories from someone, at the same time they will have no problems from other people. I guess it's kind of a gamble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mxv Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 I'm going on record saying that I've had nothing but good experiences with United and in the 2000s the vinyl quality got better than in the 1990s and earlier. Some of that noise could be due to crappy mastering/cutting. DON'T use thier in-house mastering, get it done somewhere else to cut down on potential crappy quality. My last 3 releases (jfa/faction, government issue and the cheifs) I had cut by Richard Simpson and pressed at United and they turned out beautifully and sounded great. Zac is correct, you don't have to look very hard to find someone who had a bad experience at every single plant around. Mistakes can happen everywhere. If a label gets their records and they are all off-center, they should have tried to work it out with the plant to have the mistake corrected instead of just releasing the faulty vinyl. When I do another release, I will likely use Unilted again, unless Pirates can offer me enough of an attractive incentive to use them and pay the extra money it would cost me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 My last 3 releases (jfa/faction, government issue and the cheifs) I had cut by Richard Simpson and pressed at United and they turned out beautifully and sounded great. love richard. dude does some awesome stuff mastering. highly recommended! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zac Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 I was initially going to be using Lucky Laquers for the mastering but since the record I'm doing is about 20min a side and United only guarantees up to 18mins a side, I'm considering letting them do the masters/laquers. At United they said if there was any problems with the mastering and all that on their end, if I use them they will redo all the work for free. If I get it done somewhere else I have to go back and work with the outside place and pay again. Considering this is my first record I was just planning on playing it safe and letting them do everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
initrecords Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 united outsources their mastering now, they don't do it in-house anymore. at least i know this was the case with the last few jobs i did there. also, i've pressed 20 jobs there with few problems, and any problems i did have, they made right with free records and/or credit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randysxe Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 i would recommend lucky lacquers doing cutting and pressing! so far my experience with dave has been rad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aarondanger Posted February 16, 2009 Share Posted February 16, 2009 i would recommend lucky lacquers doing cutting and pressing! so far my experience with dave has been rad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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