Preparing for vinyl mastering

[Deaaaath]

Hi,
I don't know if this is an appropriate place to do this... but I figured I'd ask here first before going through the whole annoying registration process with some other board.
I am using a Tascam 38 to record an album in my basement. My plan is to release this album on the vinyl format and have been doing some research in to the mastering, plating and pressing processes.
My question involves the vinyl mastering process- before I send off my master CDR to the mastering place, should I take care of making sure all the tracks play at a consistent volume or is that something the mastering place can do?

[SteveM]

Originally Posted by Deaaaath

Hi,
I don't know if this is an appropriate place to do this... but I figured I'd ask here first before going through the whole annoying registration process with some other board.
I am using a Tascam 38 to record an album in my basement. My plan is to release this album on the vinyl format and have been doing some research in to the mastering, plating and pressing processes.
My question involves the vinyl mastering process- before I send off my master CDR to the mastering place, should I take care of making sure all the tracks play at a consistent volume or is that something the mastering place can do?

Mix it to reel and then send the 1/4" to get mastered to vinyl. I know that's not what you asked but if you want it on vinyl might as well keep it in the analog realm all the way. It's up to you but.... They do some mastering usually before committing it to CD or vinyl but it's probably not to the degree you'd want it. I think they just add limiting and stuff like that. I would call the place you're going to send it and ask them.

[Richard King]

Mix it to reel and then send the 1/4" to get mastered to vinyl.

Agree. Mixing to CD and sending off the CD defeats the purpose. Hopefully you have two half track machines. If so, feed the mix to both machines during the mix process. Keep one of the two masters as a backup. Send one to the pressing plant. Good luck with the project. Post here when you get the vinyls back. You never know, maybe someone here will buy some.

[ethyrvalve]

This is a bit of an aside, but did you folks know that the majority of places that cut vinyl lacquers will put the programme through a digital delay to make their job easier. From what i understand, a special master 2-track with a 'preview head' is usually required if you want a full analogue vinyl lacquer.
This place in Brooklyn has a special Studer A80 RC with a preview head:
http://www.saltmastering.com/
If anyone knows of other places that offer fully analogue vinyl cutting, i'd love to know.

To the original poster, I believe you will incur more costs if you get the vinyl cutter to master your stuff for level/dynamics/sequencing/et caetera rather than just cutting the disc. Cutting vinyl is a realtime process--no stopping and starting.
If you can afford it, I hear that John Golden and son out in Cali do an amazing job at both the mastering and the vinyl cutting: http://www.goldenmastering.com/
Ditto for Bob Weston at http://www.chicagomasteringservice.com/ .

[Hi_Flyer]

Prairie Cat does solid work:

http://www.prairiecatmastering.com/vinylmastering.html

He can pre-master (level out volume inconsistencies, EQ & compress the overall mix) as well as cut a lacquer.

Located near Chicago I believe.

[Theo K]

I second ethyrvalve's recommendation... John Golden mastered our last record and did a phenomenal job. We have four more releases slated for this year and are planning to hire John for every one. Mastering is not to be taken casually- if you care about what you are recording, it's worth the extra cost for a quality mastering job, and there are plenty of people out there who will do it for cheap and completely ruin your recordings. John has years of experience and took great deal of care in preserving the dynamic integrity of our recordings, and even if you do opt for some compression you can be sure he won't needlessly squish, excite, stereo widen, or otherwise fuck up your mixes (as often passes for mastering in this crazy world of ours.)

Just a cautionary tale- A friend's band some years ago decided to just let DiscMakers handle the mastering for their demo CD because it was fairly cheap. The band incorporated a string quartet alongside more traditional rock instrumentation, so there was a lot of contrast in terms of energy and volume... when they got the finished CDs the music had been compressed right up to digital zero, with about two or three decibels of variation between the loudest and quietest segments... needless to say the results were completely unusable (one track actually got quieter when the full band came in over the string intro.

Also keep in mind that pressing plants will charge you for in-house mastering- United, for instance, charges $320 to master both sides of a 12". When you consider that you are potentially paying $320 for them to completely destroy your recordings, and that a good mastering job will only be about 200 dollars more than that, it becomes a pretty easy decision.