Who Here Has Pressed Up Their Own Vinyl/Records?

[heBAY]

Can anyone recommend a vinyl pressing service in the US that gives the best bang for the buck? I'm especially looking at the members who have been/are in bands.

[ddohnggo]

if you want the most bang for your buck probably through these dudes:

http://www.piratespress.com/

they're a middleman for a czech republic pressing plant called cz. quality is good for the price.

[get_mo]

I've heard good and bad things about piratepress.

[sunkenshoes]

A few years ago me and the band I was in at that time, wanted to press some 12'' records. It turned out to be so fucking expensive, that we blew it off. I heared there is also some way that you buy "clean" vinyl records and then get the music engraved in it. This is supposed to be a lot cheaper, but I never really looked into it myself.

[arem]

Erika Records in California take real care in pressing quality records. More expensive but worth it in my book. http://www.erikarecords.com/

United Record Pressing in Tennessee is the standard place that most hardcore and punk records have been pressed for years. Cheap prices but the quality def isn't on par with Erika. http://www.urpressing.com

[snickersnicker]

United is the best quality-value ratio. Pirate Press has pressed a lot of records that sound like shit.

I heared there is also some way that you buy "clean" vinyl records and then get the music engraved in it. This is supposed to be a lot cheaper, but I never really looked into it myself.

Are you talking about lathes? From what I understand, this isn't really that cheap. A few of my friends with shitty 'noise' projects have done lathes through Peter King in Australia and it cost them quite a bit.

[Mr Fingers]

Are you talking about lathes? From what I understand, this isn't really that cheap. A few of my friends with shitty 'noise' projects have done lathes through Peter King in Australia and it cost them quite a bit.

You pay a lot per piece (I think it's somewhere between $10-20 each), but it's still a lot cheaper than getting a conventional pressing plant to do very small quantities. Most plants simply won't do less than 250 records or so..

[ddohnggo]

for super punk quality/cheap - bill smith custom

http://www.billsmithcustomrecords.com/

[snickersnicker]

Bill Smith was what I was thinking of, not Peter King. That guy directed Lord of the Rings, haha. But yeah, Bill smith does lathes. Personally I think lathes (and short runs) are pretty lame, but if that's what you feel like doing...

[jyoni]

* peter jackson

dunno much about this, we used to have an outfit here that everyone used, but they are now gone. disappeared along with Prince and Husker Du, go figure.

[poly800rock]

is the place in colorado still open? the prices there were great back in the 90's. oil prices might have killed the price of records though

[snickersnicker]

* peter jackson

Fuck all these dudes with their boring last names!

[jyoni]

Fuck all these dudes with their boring last names!

I know, I know

Must have been hard for his ancient ancestor...nothing to say about the guy except....."oh, yeah, he's the son of Jack"

[ddohnggo]

peter king does lathes in australia as well.

[Mr Fingers]

But yeah, Bill smith does lathes.

Naw, you had it the first time. Peter King does lathe cuts only, Bill Smith does normal pressing only. Unless your friends got Bill Smith to cut acetates for them..?

[readytoignite]

are people seriously recommending lathes? if you're doing an edition of 10 to sell to art wank friends and don't mind that the records have a lifetime of a few dozen plays then go for it.

nobody mentioned rti, minimum of 200 but are very solid. www.recordtech.com. i think there's only a handful of places that press vinyl in the us so it's probably worth doing a full comparison cost-wise

[ddohnggo]

i did a record through RTI, 180 gram. it was expensive, but the quality is amazing.

[Calden]

United Record Pressing in Tennessee is the standard place that most hardcore and punk records have been pressed for years. Cheap prices but the quality def isn't on par with Erika. http://www.urpressing.com

+1, I used United years ago for a few 7"s. The results were great, but the recordings were very lofi garagey stuff, so quality was never really an issue.

[heBAY]

This is what I like to see...seriously...good info in here. Thanks for all of the responses and keep 'em comin'.

[heBAY]

are people seriously recommending lathes? if you're doing an edition of 10 to sell to art wank friends and don't mind that the records have a lifetime of a few dozen plays then go for it.

nobody mentioned rti, minimum of 200 but are very solid. www.recordtech.com. i think there's only a handful of places that press vinyl in the us so it's probably worth doing a full comparison cost-wise

+rep a-comin'.

[RFKorp]

Don't even think about lathes. They sound like crap and they don't last at all. Every spin degrades them like a motherfucker.

United is good. Everyone I know who's used them has been pretty happy. But they aren't always the best on the "something is wrong with the test pressings and I want you to investigate why" front. So I'd encourage you to go with someone else like Aardvark (http://www.aardvarkmastering.com/ ) to make the master lacquer to then send off to United to plate and just start stamping out records.

[Mr Fingers]

Yeah, basically never trust the pressing plant to do the mastering. It may be cheaper, but it's a total gamble that you may be paying more to fix. Use a dedicated mastering house for the cutting.

RTI does a lot of pressings for major labels and larger indies – heavy/fancy vinyl editions that look and sound great.

Europadisk in NYC pressed some of the nicest/heaviest records I've ever seen, all Direct Metal Master, but I just searched them and I guess they're closed. I think they were a go-to plant for loud/crisp house/hip hop 12"s back in the 90s, like all the old Strictly Rhythm 12"s were pressed there.