Please read through the following information regarding what is included and what is not in terms of mastering for our lathe cut vinyl orders.
Mastering or no mastering? – It is important that you understand that if you order your track to be cut to vinyl mastering is NOT included as part of the price. Your track will be optimized for cutting which will ensure that any problems such as panning and frequencies that can not be cut are removed. Other processing as part of the optimization might include Deessing, Eqing and Limiting / Compression – This is not done to every record we cut but might be needed if there are any issues with your track that need to be adjusted before cutting. All of this IS included in the price.
Optimizing for vinyl cutting is NOT an option and has to be done to tracks to ensure that they are wihin the parameters for them to be transfered to vinyl.
Optimizing is not mastering and it is HIGHLY recomended that you purchase mastering for your lathe cut vinyl dubplates to ensure that they sound as good as possible when cut to vinyl.
If you were to go down the route of pressing a batch of records you would pay and get the tracks mastered before cutting which results in pressed records sounding as good as they do. You can get your tracks cut to vinyl with out mastering but it is not advised, however it is possible.
There is a simple rule to follow here and must be noted when cutting any music to vinyl – if your track sounds like crap before its cut then it will still sound like crap after it is cut!
Our vinyl mastering service will ensure that your track is treated and prepared in the best possible way to ensure that your cut record sounds every bit as good (if not better) than a pressed vinyl record – Loud, Clear and uniform!
To Clarify – If you select “No Mastering” when ordering your tracks will only be optimized for cutting with no mastering added.
Please get in contact with us to discuss this further is you have any questions about mastering or how to get the best finished result for your cut vinyl and we will be happy to advise.
Please note that files that have been mastered else where may not be optimal for cutting as other mastering houses or producer mastered tracks will not be mastered for vinyl which is a completely different process than normal digital mastering. We are of course happy to cut tracks mastered else where BUT the results may differ to tracks mastered in house, You will find there might be differences between your supplied digital master and the cut record.
We do not send digital copies of vinyl masters back to customers as part of the order nor offer this option as part of the service if you require digital masters these will need to be ordered and processed as a seperate order as digital masters will be treated and processed completely differently to vinyl masters.
Things worth noting regarding your tracks or mixdowns when thinking about getting tracks cut to vinyl:
Wide stereo effects – Putting super wide panning on your tracks so wide that it is out of phaze will not transfer to vinyl, Having tons of reverb on your track will not transfer to vinyl it is very important that you understand that vinyl is a very old format that works in a completely different way to digital audio. What ever you send to be cut will be edited (if needed) to be able to be cut to the record and if you use crazy ideas in your production these may not be possible to cut to vinyl and will be removed.
Loudness – Putting limiters and expanders on your tracks before sending to us for cutting is a VERY BAD idea and will not make your track louder on the record – if anything it will create more frequencies that will not be able to be cut and your record will not be louder. The BEST PRACTICE is not to add these kind of effects to tracks if you want them cut to vinyl. Headroom is VERY important and files should not be maxed out or clipped when they are sent for cutting – we will refuse any tracks that are sent for cutting with excessive loudness or clipping on them.
Sibalance – High frequency noises such as a vocalists “Ssss” or “Tsss” will not transfer to vinyl and if you are mixing a track with vocals which is to be cut to vinyl we would advise to treat your vocals with a desser to remove these frequencies as they will not translate to vinyl well and will need to be treated.
Stereo bass – Will not transfer to vinyl and will need to be treated – a general rule of thumb with vinyl is to ensure everything under 120hz is in mono
If you are in ANY DOUBT then please do reach out before ordering as the last thing we want is our customers to not be happy with how their music sounds on the finished cut record it may sound like there are so many potential issues but what we are trying to point out here is that vinyl records have limits to them and we have to work to those limits – there is no software plug in that will make your records sound better so please do not try and cheat the system.
We offer a full “Mix and master for vinyl” package if you wish to have your tracks mixed and mastered specifically for a vinyl cut – please get in touch for more info