Vinyl Records

Zack · Post by **Zack** » Wed Sep 02, 2015 6:11 pm

Hey, does anyone have any experience in getting vinyl records pressed? I've been working on a handful of songs for the past year and I've been debating on investing on getting this material on wax. I think a lot of my hesitation is due to not being 100% happy with the material I'm working on and whether I should be shooting to fit this on a 7" or a 12". Is it more worthwhile to continue writing so I could fill a 12", try to cram these 5 songs onto a 7", or just forget the whole thing because just releasing digitally is the most realistic thing I can do?

What are your thoughts on 33.3rpm on 7" records? I have a friend who works for a mastering service (he's also playing rhythm for me) who has said that the quality drops quite a bit in comparison to 45rpm on a 7". I've also read a bit on how songs that are typically more mellow tend to go towards the end of the side because of a loss of fidelity, how big of a deal is that?

Fakir Mustache · Post by **Fakir Mustache** » Wed Sep 02, 2015 7:26 pm

Depends how long your songs are, if only a minute or two it shouldn't be any problem.

Zack · Post by **Zack** » Wed Sep 02, 2015 7:55 pm

The five I've got in total are sub 11 minutes, although it fluctuates occasionally. So I could in theory fit those on a 45, but I'm not sure if it's ultimately worthwhile.

Fakir Mustache · Post by **Fakir Mustache** » Wed Sep 02, 2015 8:12 pm

That should be fine in 33 1/3. It shouldn't sound much worse than the middle of an LP I guess, at least it's probably not a lot tighter.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 6:01 pm

bear in mind minimum runs etc, it's usually 100. and it costs about the same to get 500 done as it does 100. so unless you're confident aobut selling them you'll have loads of records sitting around your house for years.

Zack · Post by **Zack** » Tue Sep 08, 2015 7:14 pm

yea, thanks stewart, I should record and see what kind of feedback I get from it. See if it's even a worthwhile investment.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Wed Sep 09, 2015 1:05 am

stewart wrote:bear in mind minimum runs etc, it's usually 100. and it costs about the same to get 500 done as it does 100. so unless you're confident aobut selling them you'll have loads of records sitting around your house for years.

i say go for it and just put them everywhere.

MutantParty · Post by **MutantParty** » Thu Sep 10, 2015 5:46 pm

I'd recommend picking out just 2 songs out of the bunch and putting your best foot forward with those 2.

Keep it at 45rpm because
1) You'll be able to have wider grooves and that translates to having better bass fidelity on the record and
2) 33rpm 7" are whack.

Its also a good move to limit it to 2 because if you're putting it out yourself, you'll still have songs from the session to put on another record following this release and if you ask any label that deals in vinyl, they're more prone to putting out a record from an artist that already has a physical release under their belt. So when that label comes knocking after you've sent them your initial 7", great news! you've already got a handful of songs ready to roll in your back pocket.

Thats just my 2 cents.