Pre-Mastering
The first step in getting your music pressed to vinyl is to have everything recorded, edited, & mixed at the proper levels. After that, you will need to make a few decisions as to how you want your music to flow and fit on each side of an the 12” LP or 7” that you want to create. Before lacquers are cut, you will need to sequence your songs, with the your desired amount of quiet space in between tracks. Once you have all of your audio saved as two files Side A.WAV and Side B.WAV, we can begin the process of cutting the lacquers, which will serve as the basis for the metal plates that will be mounted in our press to create your record.
Lacquer Cutting
Our lacquer cutting engineers use a machine called a lathe to cut grooves in a nitrocellulose coated aluminum plate called a lacquer. They will cut a lacquer for each side of your project, taking into account the overall length of your audio, the speed you would like it set up for (33 1/3 vs 45 RPM) and the frequency response in your songs. If you have any concerns about bass response, distortion, etc. please let us know and we can examine any potentially problematic areas before completing the cut.
Plating
After the lacquer cutting process is completed, the lacquers for Side A and Side B are sprayed with a solution of silver and then submerged in a Nickel bath that has an electric current running through it. This electric current causes the Nickel in the solution to bond with the silver particles, creating the negative plate that will be mounted in our press to create the vinyl positive that is played on your home turntable.
Pressing
With these plates, we will run a set of Test Pressings, which will serve as a sample for you to review. This is a critical step that requires close review. Once you have reviewed these test pressings and have approved them, we will schedule your job and produce the full run that you have ordered. Any potential problems that you may identify can be corrected before approval of the test pressing – new lacquers or plates can be produced.
Quality Testing & Packaging
As we press your order, we inspect and test the physical elements of the records, as well as the audio of the finished product. We will produce more records than you requested as an overage, in order to make sure that you have the final amount of records that you need.
After your full order has been pressed, we allow the total order to fully cool under the weight of special cooling plates, in order to ensure that they remain perfectly flat. Once they are fully cooled, we will insert them by hand into paper sleeves for protection and then assemble them into jackets, add inserts, download cards, posters, shrink wrapping, stickers, and other elements of your final packaging. We will then notify of your completed order and arrange a time for pick-up or delivery.
