Vinyl pressing - side length/volume

[musicdavid]

I am pressing my album on vinyl and the longest side is currently 24'58''.

Given that this is fairly long and it will affect the volume of the whole album, I am tempted to drop a song so that the whole thing will be louder.

However, some of my favouite albums such as Abbey Road and early Genesis are very long and sound fine. Obviously, not as loud as a three minute single on a 7", but not as quiet as some albums I have which, in my opinion, are simply down to bad pressings.

Anyone have any good/bad experiences pressing fairly long albums on vinyl? Any general advice?

[tomteriffic]

Whoever masters that project is going to make or break you. Wherever you go, make sure and listen to commercial copies of samples of their work.

Avoid acceleration limiters. They're there to reduce cutter overshoot but can be used in a manner comparable to the dreaded digital brick wall limiter. The highs go away, distortion appears. And you'll make the angels cry if you use them, or, more properly, let them be used.

A good mastering engineer will know how to ride the cutting pitch, much as a tracking/mix engineer rides the gain on a track or a mix. Most lathes you'll find these days are going to be AVP anyway, but every little bit helps.

One of the guys I learned from (a recording and mastering guy from back in the Chess Records days) was the first guy to put an hour onto a single disc: "An Hour With the Ramsey Lewis Trio", and it sounds fine still today. By comparison with most modern stuff, it's not as "loud", but I'm sure that the state of the art has progressed since then, so I'd not worry too much if you get a good mastering house to begin with.