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the How to Press a Record Thread


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Oh, I'm just joking around. I think this thread is awesome; I was just surprised that no one has posted since March. Maybe that speaks to how good it actually is. It's the definitive thread on "how to press a record!"

Anyway, I did just want to vent. Rainbo has always been top notch and I don't plan on switching any time soon. Still, I have five projects in production right now and there's a few things going on that make make me shake my head in bewilderment. I get the feeling that they're just super busy.

I was just reading a thread on here about Manny. I'm glad I didn't have to go through that! It would have given me a heart attack.

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Do you know what the turn around time at Rainbo is at the moment? Dave from LL told me that I'll probably have a project I'm working on sometime in late July. Seem realistic at this point with summer in full swing?

Neverminddddd: Dave gave me a call literally half an hour after I posted this letting me know that the reference lacquer will be here on Saturday at the latest with the customary 24 day turn around to follow for full project completion. So I'll be getting N&B 001 by the first of July! :)

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Do you know what the turn around time at Rainbo is at the moment? Dave from LL told me that I'll probably have a project I'm working on sometime in late July. Seem realistic at this point with summer in full swing?

Neverminddddd: Dave gave me a call literally half an hour after I posted this letting me know that the reference lacquer will be here on Saturday at the latest with the customary 24 day turn around to follow for full project completion. So I'll be getting N&B 001 by the first of July! :)

Wait ... you'll get what by July 1st? Maybe test pressings, but if you haven't even gotten your reference lacquer from Dave, you're still quite a ways away from full completion.

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That's what I thought as well, but he told me that the full turn around would be 24 days give or take when counting in the time to ship out the tests - he said those would be here within 10 to 12 days of approval of the reference lacquer. Seemed like a really quick turnaround to me as well so I'll just assume the original late July date.

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That's what I thought as well, but he told me that the full turn around would be 24 days give or take when counting in the time to ship out the tests - he said those would be here within 10 to 12 days of approval of the reference lacquer. Seemed like a really quick turnaround to me as well so I'll just assume the original late July date.

Rainbo told me on tuesday I would have test presses in 10-12 days. Going to guess I will get mine completed by mid July. At least I hope. Kind of got pushed back because I was waiting on the band to approve the reference lacquer.

I have two releases. I ended up doing one through Dave & Rainbo and the other through record pressing

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That's what I thought as well, but he told me that the full turn around would be 24 days give or take when counting in the time to ship out the tests - he said those would be here within 10 to 12 days of approval of the reference lacquer. Seemed like a really quick turnaround to me as well so I'll just assume the original late July date.

Something must be getting lost in translation; maybe Dave means that it takes him 24 days to complete his part in the process? Here's what my experience has always been though ...

Once you approve the reference lacquer, it usually takes Dave about 7-10 days to cut the vinyl master. Sometimes he's quicker depending on how busy he is, but homeboy is definitely busy most of the time. Plus, when you give the approval, it's not like Dave immediately jumps on the mastering. Rather, the project goes in his queue at the end of the line and you have to wait for Dave to work his way back to it.

So let's just assume things go smoothly and Dave finishes the masters and sends them via FedEx to Rainbo on Friday (15th). They arrive on Monday, and providing you have all your paperwork done and the deposit paid, Rainbo's turnaround time for tests is 2-3 weeks. With a few of my recent projects they were super fast and I got tests in less than 2 weeks. Most of the time it's closer to 3, occasionally even longer.

For the sake of this post, we'll say 2 weeks, which still puts you at July 2nd. Once you approve those tests, Rainbo's turnaround time is 4-6 weeks, although it can definitely be longer if the plant is backed up. I'm still waiting for a record for which I approved the tests on April 20th. That's seven weeks, if you're counting. In fact, I just got a pdf proof for the label artwork, which I originally submitted on April 17th. I digress. I'm venting again.

Anyway, if absolutely nothing goes wrong (and unfortunately, things often do in this biz) I think you're looking at early-to-mid August in terms of having actual records in your hands.

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Chuck knows what's up. It's a safe bet to just say 3 months start to finish on a pressing these days. There are exceptions, but don't count on it.

A month for lacquers and plating. A month for tests. A month for finished records.

Is everyone in the world using Rainbo right now? I have two projects there currently. And another one is getting finished at Erika. That one has taken forever!

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Looking for some input from those with a little experience in these areas.

Not really how to press a record, more of some technicalities surrounding the pressing of records.

I thank you in advance for any advice you can pass along on any of these topics!

Split Label Releases: Especially International (more specifically w/ 1 other european label for a european band). More-so when sharing a pressing internationaly. I have no experience of European plants or the differences in "the proicess". Never done a split label release at all, but really want to see this band out in the us. Cannot however budget my own master and full pressing w/ everything else I have lined-up.

Band Share / Payment: I have worked it out well on stuff reissued of cassette, and with friends bands on vinyl. Is there a general standard % of the press for the band though? Does it differ when shipping them overseas?, What about represses or when not having to make up a master? What about a payout as opposed to sending the band copies to sell (like if the band broke-up or simply preferred real money).

Label's Share of Digital: Typical label share after digi-distro fees... don't want to the band or my label short.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Looking for some input from those with a little experience in these areas.

Not really how to press a record, more of some technicalities surrounding the pressing of records.

I thank you in advance for any advice you can pass along on any of these topics!

Split Label Releases: Especially International (more specifically w/ 1 other european label for a european band). More-so when sharing a pressing internationaly. I have no experience of European plants or the differences in "the proicess". Never done a split label release at all, but really want to see this band out in the us. Cannot however budget my own master and full pressing w/ everything else I have lined-up.

Band Share / Payment: I have worked it out well on stuff reissued of cassette, and with friends bands on vinyl. Is there a general standard % of the press for the band though? Does it differ when shipping them overseas?, What about represses or when not having to make up a master? What about a payout as opposed to sending the band copies to sell (like if the band broke-up or simply preferred real money).

Label's Share of Digital: Typical label share after digi-distro fees... don't want to the band or my label short.

Split Label Release I have no experience with overseas split label releases...but for it's probably going to be a total pain in the ass and massively expensive to ship the bulk of the pressing to the other country.

Band Share / Paymen Typically this is somewhere in between 10 to 20% of the pressing...depends on the band, sometimes the band will forgo copies in lieu of royalty payment on the releases...but it's a case to case basis.

Label's Share of Digital all the money should go in to helping cover the debt of the physical release(s) manufacturing costs...that's the way I plan it out. But royalty distribution is another case to case deal that varies.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Started up a label a little while ago (Reveille Records) and just put out our first release (BOXER's Undertow 12") and I've learned a lot throughout the whole process that I'd like others starting out to know. I think it'd be a good idea to have a like tips section added to the first post.

Anyway, here are some things that I think should be in it because it's important to know.

- Media mail saves you money, use it when you can.

- T-shirts can't be shipped media mail (common sense you'd think but some people don't know)

- Make sure you add a little extra to your shipping price to compensate for mailers, tape, etc.

- Shrinkwrap may seem pointless but it helps bands out a lot when they take them on tour, keeps from the inserts spilling out and the records from getting caught on things.

- You pay for shipping from the plant in most cases and it's expensive.

- Having a PR company can be helpful, but you can also do a lot of it yourself, just make sure you keep track of whom your contacting and who responds. Make an excellent sheet of sites, blogs, forums, podcasts and their contact email.

- Don't under estimate the power of music forums, post on all of them and not just to promote. If people like you they will support you in your efforts.

- Post your music on torrent sites. Beat them to the punch. It makes you look good and is going to get posted anyway. Plus there are dedicated punk/hardcore download sites and most of those guys are heavy into music and will support bands they like.

- Try and personalize every package you send out. People appreciate this and will return to checkout or buy your next release if you treat them well.

- Use your friends for help as much as possible. That's what friends are for and most likely they will be stoked to be a part of it.

- Don't just focus on selling records, work at getting the band heard by as many people as possible and then sales will come in. promote the band in general.

- Save the mailers you get from buying records and re-use them.

- use limited run's digital download card service. You print them your self and it'll cost you like $10 in total.

- find a small label you like and email them asking for tips. The dude from black numbers gave priceless help when I was getting things off the ground.

Most of this is common sense but there's a lot of things going on when you put out your first release and sometimes you don't think about certain things.

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in response to your line about limited run for download cards, if you use bandcamp's download card tool, it will cost you about 2 dollars as opposed to $10.

Yeah, sorry I was just calculating in for paper and ink. I think it cost me around $3 for 250 d/l codes. Good to know about Bandcamp though, I didn't know they offered that.

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  • 1 month later...

sent you a PM Jason, but would like to toss Markley over at econopress into the covers section. great DIY printer who does excellent work, has really fast turnaround times and prices are amazing.

have done our last three 7" covers through him and for any offset printed stuff we need smaller than 11"x17" we will never go through anyone else again but him.

hes been doing all the printing for tankcrime, prank since the early 2000's I know halo of flies has done a number of things through him, anyway we use to use imprint or a local printer here for our offset print needs, in comparison his turnaround time was less than a week before we had records in hand shipped from CA to NC and at literally half the price it cost through imprint. needless to say he will be our go to guy from here on out

http://econopressprinting.com/

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  • 2 months later...

sent you a PM Jason, but would like to toss Markley over at econopress into the covers section. great DIY printer who does excellent work, has really fast turnaround times and prices are amazing.

have done our last three 7" covers through him and for any offset printed stuff we need smaller than 11"x17" we will never go through anyone else again but him.

hes been doing all the printing for tankcrime, prank since the early 2000's I know halo of flies has done a number of things through him, anyway we use to use imprint or a local printer here for our offset print needs, in comparison his turnaround time was less than a week before we had records in hand shipped from CA to NC and at literally half the price it cost through imprint. needless to say he will be our go to guy from here on out

http://econopressprinting.com/

added them to my version of the OG post on my website...going to change the original post to being just a link to that page as I can only really keep up with updating one of them

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in general, expect to give the band 10-15% of the pressing as gratuity for doing the release, same with the label...or paying up front royalties in lieu of records.

yes you would need the masters audio files if they are available.

what is the 10-15% referring to, percentage of total revenue? as in, if i pressed 1,000 LPs and sold them at $10 a piece, i should expect to give as much as 30% of $10,000 = $3,000 to the band and label? thanks for the help!

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what is the 10-15% referring to, percentage of total revenue? as in, if i pressed 1,000 LPs and sold them at $10 a piece, i should expect to give as much as 30% of $10,000 = $3,000 to the band and label? thanks for the help!

depends on the deal, generally I was speaking of giving the bands and/or label 10% of the actual copies of the records.

***********************************

also, totally untrelated note: in case it's never said been in here, if you're doing a 7" there will basically be $0 in profits unless you either sell more than a 1000 copies instantly or you're charging $8 each.

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