I hate record pressing plants.

[dreamover]

well said tre. everyone told me not to press with them, but i had a great experience. i had tons of issues with the label i licensed from and the guy i worked with (mike) even helped me out with those issues. always returned calls right away no matter how annoying i got.

also, pretty sure the records go by ship, not by plane, eventhough i got them in about a month/month and a half after i approved tests.

[punkrockvinyl25]

i have records from PP, RAINBO, UNITED...and im sure others. One thing i noticed is that having thicker vinyl really doesn't matter. i have everything fro 180g records to as low as they get (united). now i will say united records just sound bad, i think rainbo records are no different in sound quality due to thickness. maybe im missing something but i have been listing to nothing but vinyl for the last 9 months....yeah rainbo has issues....but i can say the same thing about PP. everyone makes mistakes....and i also agree with randy....this thread is funny as shit.

[flood]

imprint seems to print their jackets in Canada... or at least thats what the address on my boxes say. So thats not US based either apparently.

Every time i'ved used a US plant theres been major issues, huge delays, and general headaches for me. At pirates i have never spoken to anyone except Eric the owner, who gets back to me super fast, hits me up on Aim from time to time to bullshit and has offered really super service.. sure its more expensive and its outsourced... but he makes my life not be miserable.. case in point.. i sent out the MHTJ record about three weeks before the TFT lps.... i know have had the TFT lps for over a month.. and they still havent shipped the fucking MHTJ records... Pirates - 1, domestic plant - 0. i won't even get into the nightmare i suffered over the Album Minus band fiasco.

[forgeagain]

First of all, anybody who deals with their pressing plant that isn't Pirates Press via email is definitely in trouble. None of the plants are good at email. You need to pick up the phone and call them. Plus, this way you establish a more personal relationship with them and you might even get a little preferential treatment when it comes to pressing your stuff quicker.

Second, if you use the right places and you know exactly what you're doing, huge pressing delays and slow turnarounds are few and far between. If your shit is tight when it gets to the mastering/cutting/plating/labels/pressing/covers/etc. places then it gets done quickly. If the files are screwy or something is missing or you didn't send all the stuff in at once, it's likely that you get pushed to the back burner. I've had records at Bill Smith turned around within a week after approving tests. And the tests were like a week after they got the plates.

I know Pirates Press can do all sorts of wild vinyl and crazy covers and etc. etc. but at this point, who gives a shit? EVERYONE is doing that stuff now. At first it was "wow, that looks awesome!" but now we're at the point where every label is doing that crap with every single release. Don't get me wrong, I tried them out for two releases and I was happy with the way both turned out. I have nothing against them. They do nice work and they're nice enough dudes. I am just happier pressing records domestically, especially in this awful economy. In addition, it is actually CHEAPER to press stuff domestically these days, after all the plants realized that the brutal recession was a bad time to jack up all of their prices and lowered them back down to sane numbers.

So really, to each his own. Everybody has a different anecdotal experience with the various pressing plants. And they're always changing. United today is completely different from United 5 years ago, etc.

[vardcore]

The pressing plant guy that is mentioned on page one... wow. I thought I'd never hear his name again. He popped up recently, as some of our friends press there. I was in the middle of a conversation with someone who was freaking out with how shitty they were being treated all of a sudden. Then I had one of those, "wait, what was the guy's name?" moments. Wow. I really dislike that guy. He used to work at a different plant years ago. He is terrible. He made our lives hell with his incompetence for while. He literally sabotaged us. We were going to pull all of our records, then he left. Good timing. Never deal with that guy. He has a screw loose or something. I have heard good things about the plant, but get a different rep. That's my advice.

[xjustinxschwierx]

The guy at Rainbo that is mentioned on page one... wow. I thought I'd never hear his name again. He popped up recently, as some of our friends press there. I was in the middle of a conversation with someone who was freaking out with how shitty they were being treated all of a sudden. Then I had one of those, "wait, what was the guy's name?" moments. Wow. I really dislike that guy. He used to work at Erika years ago. He is terrible. He made our lives hell with his incompetence for while. He literally sabotaged us. We were going to pull all of our records, then he left. Good timing. Never deal with that guy. He has a screw loose or something. I have heard good things about the plant, but get a different rep. That's my advice.

greeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatt

[tre]

I just called a plant that I had forgotten about, asked about turn around times, was told "6 - 8 weeks... but could be as long as 10" so that was fun.

[matt]

First of all, anybody who deals with their pressing plant that isn't Pirates Press via email is definitely in trouble. None of the plants are good at email. You need to pick up the phone and call them. Plus, this way you establish a more personal relationship with them and you might even get a little preferential treatment when it comes to pressing your stuff quicker.

I've had records at Bill Smith turned around within a week after approving tests. And the tests were like a week after they got the plates.

This is what I'm finding out. Granted I consider myself to be just a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things at Bill Smith but I can already see my loyalty to them paying off. I've done 6 records with them in the past year or so (granted I by no means see myself as being an expert with them but things have been on the up and up)and have seen this grow because of my phone calls and being able to see those folks on a fairly routine basis. When I need an answer I simply call them and get it with no hassle so I'm definitely perplexed when I hear otherwise. I think I'm just a phone guy anyway since I see email me so empty especially when I'm trying to build that personal relationship.

tre - like I said I think things work better for some people than it would work for others. I can see why using a place like PP would be more useful for a place like Deathwish but I really couldn't see it making sense for me. It just isn't merely based on principles why I decide not to use them, I simply prefer not to based on actual product and my locality to other plants. I don't think anyone is really arguing who's wrong and who's right in any of this since no one is infallible but I suppose I've been on the good end of things thus far on this end of the spectrum.

[mcm1610]

Some of this advice should be taken to heart for all aspects of life.

If you can personally visit someone - do it. If not, call, don't email. Email is so impersonal that no one in the world gives a shit. Do it only if you have to. I hate the phone, but know it pays to actually talk to someone live.