Experiences with mastering & pressing plants

[lo.fi.love]

Hello hello,

A friend of mine and I are working together to release a split LP sometime this summer. Since I'm in charge of the manufacturing end of things, I'm currently researching pressing plants and mastering engineers.

There is one pressing plant that I have been aware of since I first got interested in making records ten years ago: United Record Pressing in Tennessee. I've heard some rumors that their mastering isn't so great. This is hearsay, so this is not to be taken too seriously if you're currently researching pressing plants yourself.

I've also been told that it's best to be present during the mastering session. Thankfully, there are a few mastering engineers (with lathes!) here in the Bay Area.

I'm curious about other pressing plants, though. I've heard Bill Smith Custom Records is good.

Again, I only have second-hand information here. I want to know if anyone has recent experience with pressing plants and mastering engineers. I'd also like to know if anyone has any other thoughts. All comments are very welcome.

Thanks!!
Jeff

 

[The Great Cobb]

urp

We went to Roger Siebel at SAE Mastering in Phoenix Arizona. We sat in on the sessions, but you dont have to. The dude was amazing and convinced me that mastering is a complete necessary if you want your songs to sound their best. He made the songs match each other and brought the volume and dynamics up so far that A/B comparisons later were like night and day. If you are used to hearing your unmastered tracks, the ride home with the mastered cd copy will be a strange one. Because your tunes will suddenly sound alien to you. But, after a bit, and after comparing the old with the new mixes, you will be totally convinced that it was worth the 600 bucks (8 songs). He can do analog, digital, or even vinyl mastering. But what convinced me the most when dealing with him, was that he spoke about how every record is different, and how sometimes the artists vision is more important than hi fidelity. He understood that some bands like their tunes to sound less "professional studio" and more "honest". So that was a big deal to me. He worked with Elliott Smith on mastering his 4 track home recordings.

We also had records made at URP. Its expensive, and you wont make a profit on small runs unless you overcharge your fans. We have decided to not try to make a profit on the vinyl, and charge less, and instead rely on itunes sales which have been steadily increasing. Dont get cds made. Go with vinyl for feel and self amusement and digital downloads for practicality. As great as it is to see, hear, and feel the vinyl records... its not bad to check your monthly itunes earnings and find a grand sitting there that required zero packing and shipping effort on your part. But, yeah vinyl made our record sound so much more legitimate and musical. But at least for us, it meant going a few grand in the hole until they all sell and we can break about even.

Our mastered mixes that URP did made the songs sound better than they are on CD, digital DL etc. You get test pressing that you can listen to and you can make changes if you want before they make the full quantity.

Hope some of this can help you out.

ALSO; On a side note, once you get your songs up on itunes and other DL sites, it crazy how much doing interviews or getting reviews boosts sales for that month. It almost feels like printing your own money just to do an interview with even small websites etc. I mean, dont get me wrong its not a ton of money, but you can totally see that if you do 4 interviews, your profit will be 4-6 times more on your itunes monthly earnings report. Which to many seems very obvious. But i never really made any money in music until recently so its just still a shock to see sales go up as much as they do just from something as simple as getting a review or doing an interview. We are FAR from being rich but its just bizarre when you do what you do for your own amusement for years and years and money never occurs to you, then one day people are just handing you money all of a sudden for something you would have been doing anyways. Up until recently, all music ever gave me was debt. Its nice to break free of at least the debt cycle, even if you arent making a ton of it.