We offer a wide variety of options for the printed elements and the pressing of your project. Please contact us with what options you are looking to have produced and we’ll get back to you quickly with an accurate estimate for your job.
After your have confirmed your estimate, you’ll need to send us your audio saved as two uncompressed .WAV files (“Side A” and “Side B”), in order to start your order. Please include a timing sheet, complete with track titles and start & end times for each, to serve as a reference for lacquer cutting. You can upload your files to smashedplastic.wetransfer.com.
Yes, you can start your order with us and supply any of the pieces that you already have. We offer full assembly & packaging services using any of the pieces that you supply.
We require 50% of your order up-front, in order to cut lacquers, create stampers, and start printing your inner labels, jackets etc. The remaining 50% is due on approval of the test pressing in order to complete your full order.
Please let us know the details of your stampers, including where and when they were produced, and we can confirm whether they will work for our presses.
The optimal audio run time that we recommend for a 12” LP cut at 33 1/3 RPM is 18-21 minutes per side, in order to create the best sounding results.
If you are interested in a 45 RPM LP, we recommend shooting for 10-12 minutes per side for the highest quality sound reproduction.
Your catalog number is a release number that you create, that is unique to your project. This catalog number is how we track the parts of your order (including how your lacquers and plates are numbered and archived). Typically, catalog numbers are made up of three letters describing the label or artist name followed by the release number – ie “SPR-112” for Smashed Plastic Records release number 112.
We will supply you with 4x copies of test pressings for each LP of your job.
If you have any questions about what to look for when reveiewing your test pressing, please check out our Guide to Reviewing Test Pressings.
We will communicate with you throughout each step of the process. We notify customers at each critical step in the process – when plates are received, test pressings pressed, inner labels & jackets printing are completed, test pressings approved, final order completed, and final order shipped. If you have any questions about your order, please contact us at info[at]smashedplastic.com.
Turnaround times vary depending on the format, options, requirements, quantity, and when we receive the critical components of your project. Once we receive all of the pieces of your order (final artwork, printed material, approved test pressings), we’ll give you a timeframe for when it will run. If you have a release date that you are shooting for, please let us know when you begin your order and we’ll discuss scheduling with you to make sure that you receive your order based on your timeline
You will need to send us a your final artwork as layered file (.AI, .PSD, .IDD) with your artwork laid out on a separate layer from the Template, Guides, and Registration layers that exist in each of our templates. Please convert all text to outline if you are sending a vector file. If you are interested in B&W printing, you must convert your file to grayscale. Please use a minimum resolution of 300 dpi if you are creating your artwork in Photoshop.
You can find all of the templates on our Templates Page.
We offer a wide range of color choices, including custom mixed colors that can be matched to any Pantone (PMS) color in your artwork. If you have a specific color in mind that you are looking for, please get in touch with us at info@smashedplastic.com and we can discuss all of the different options for your project!
Yes, we can cut a message into the lead-out of your LP. Please note that we will need this final text before your final mastered audio is sent to our lacquer cutting engineer. If you have any questions about the length of your message, please contact us.
Yes, we offer the option to cut a “parrallel groove”, which is a separate & distinct cut that can contain a different source material. This will be invisible to the naked eye, but will allow listeners to effectively listen to one of two separate recordings until the side runs to completion. This is a tehnique that is often used to “hide” a “secret” piece of music. Because a second groove is cut within the same amount of physical space, the total run time for each piece of audio side will be divided by two. If you have any questions about this technique, please contact us.