VINYL REFERENCE!!!

This is a journal of me looking for a place to press a record. It started off as just a bunch of links to different places that I found that did the job, and then I kept updating it with notes on each place as I researched them... so now it's this weird Frankenstein hybrid of a journal post with various plotlines all mooshed together in between all the original links and then a few new ones added on later - much later, like years and years later. Very confusing to try to follow this post in a linear fashion, so don't try. Just look at it as a notepad full of useful scribbles. I just moved the part to the top that describes the company I actually chose for my first record.




Floating to the top:

http://www.recordpressing.com (john gore used them says he's going to use them for the ghazala reissues)
-- Looks like their web-quote dealy doesn't work very well, I never got a call back, so I called the number provided and spoke with a doofy young fellow, who was very doofy, but listened to what I wanted and provided me with a quote within about an hour of having spoken to him. $800 for 200 qty. WHICH GIVES ME HARD-ON!!!!!!!!!
UPDATE: Spoke w/ another guy at recordpressing.com, and apparently the guy I talked to before was more than just doofy, he was wrong, and no longer works with the company. New guy, who was nice and professional, said that the price I was quoted by old-guy-who-ain't-here-no-more was incredibly low, and it's no wonder I called back wanting to do it at that price. He said they couldn't honor it, but only raised the price by $100 clams, which is still within what I originally wanted to hear. This covers everything aside from shipping for my order of 200 white labels / no printing plain jackets. I'm less than ecstatic, but I'm still pleased with that cost. So there's movement. as of 1/12/07 I've got an order form mailed to me that I need to study. I've been warned it's very complicated.
Also NewGuy sales dude said that their minimum order is 200.

• oogh: FIFTEEN PAGE order form!! Lots of legalese. Barf. Also, there are misspellings on every page of the order form. "submited" "rememeber"


• be aware of overage charge. they charge you in advance for an overage of 10%, i'm guessing this is standard practice, since i've read about it elsewhere. they credit you back if the overage doesn't actually occur, in my case there was overage, so i paid another bit as well. not much though, considering the entire cost. After you've shot 900 bucks out your ass, you stop counting those extra hundreds, cause you're just too numb. Or stupid. You'll make it up once you can start to sell them, you tell yourself.


• shipping cost was WAY higher than I anticipated. 200 records weigh almost 140 pounds! keep this in mind, and realize that UPS ain't cheap and they charge by weight. this is a significant part of the final cost. Multiply times three what you THINK it's gonna cost.


• test pressings for some reason are extremely static-y and don't sound as good as the final pressings. i don't know why this is, but i've been informed by some people who deal w/ vinyl all the time that this is common.

Cinchel sez: gottagroove. "they were very nice"

http://therecordcutter.com/faq/
http://www.aardvarkmastering.com/

(those are for dubplates)

Lathecuts are something I need to learn about, here's one link (of many I haven't chased down):
http://peterkinglathecutrecords.co.nz/history.htm

I begin to suspect in the future I could just order a dubplate and then make a mold from it and hand cast my own records, that would rule.


http://www.djsource.co.uk/tutorials/production/producing-vinyl-the-record-production-process/ dead link, now forwards to some music instrument sales site.

http://www.answers.com/topic/vinyl-record
(also now a dead link, but they link to other vinyl articles from this page)

http://www.recordtech.com/prodsounds.htm (tips for engineers who want to release records)
http://www.recordtech.com/vinyl.htm (yes, they make records)

http://www.gzcd.cz/en/doc/tc-master_vinyl.pdf (how to prepare a master for vinyl PDF)

http://eil.com/explore/guide/vinyl_making.asp (how is a vinyl record made?)




http://www.erikarecords.com/
http://www.recordtech.com/vinyl.htm


http://www.europadisk.com/vinyl.htm (no longer exists??)
above now forwards to:
http://www.discmakers.com/europadisk/letter.asp
which takes a very very long time to load... and they DON'T DO VINYL! So fuck 'em.

http://www.dynamicsun.com/ ($857=100 12"s) I learned from a VERY unfriendly lady who answered my phone call that the website hadn't been updated in a very long time, and everything on it was wrong. She wouldn't, however, answer many of my questions, because she was just too busy. I did learn that 100 12"s is now $959 with mastering and everything. Still, quite HORRIBLE customer service, bad first impression. Apparently they don't care to win anyone's business. Dynamic Sun can bite my buttcheek.

http://www.novamusic.com/cd-cassette.html#vinyl
Nova Music did not answer the phone. Nova Music did not respond to my email. Nova Music did not return my call -- TWICE! Screw Nova Music. They do not want your business.

more informational sites:
http://www.urpressing.com/faq.html -- was used by my buddy MJB who says he doesn't recommend them, didn't specify why, although he still might... you never know with this MJB fellow.

http://www.hiphop-directory.com/Producing/Vinyl_and_CD_Manufacturing/index.php (the hip hop directory)

your link here.

visit

my grandmother may be flying out for a short visit sometime this month with my uncle Darrel as a "chaperon".

most of my family lives in Texas. for them to visit Colorado is very rare...
when we first moved here, we had a succession of visitors for the first year or two, but i think we've had one visit with family in Colorado in the last 18 years.

a very rare treat.