Vinyl pressing plant clarification

[dj seizure]

Been going over quite a few pressing plants comparing prices on vinyl costs.

There are absolutely huge differences in the quotes that I have been getting.

At the moment, the best midrange price that I have received is from Total Vinyl.

What makes them cheaper than The Vinyl Factory or other places?

Is there anyone that has good/bad experiences/ recommendations for a good vinyl pressing plant?

[staticcast]

There was a thread about this on the mnml forum a few months ago, quite useful:

http://www.mnml.nl/phpBB2/viewtopic.php ... nt&start=0

Apart from quality control considerations, it seems with the actual pressing plant you're mostly paying for professionalism. But given the stories I've heard about some of the less reputable plants, that's probably nothing to sneeze at....

Mastering and lacquer cutting is a different matter since it's obviously subjective and requires a lot of skill (and ideally you'd want to be there for the session). A lot of people (most?) get their lacquer cut at the mastering house and then send the master lacquer to the pressing plant, which might work out more expensive than having an all-in-one house do everything from mastering to pressing, but you have the peace of mind of knowing that any potentially "subjective" work has been taken care of before it reaches the plant, whose only job then is to squash some plates onto a plastic biscuit.

EDIT: my favourite quotes from the above thread:

A company we used once called Total Vinyl pressed the exact same track on either side of the record. There were plenty of other mistakes, but that's the one I will always remember.

...

Total Vinyl also messed up when we placed an order there. We ordered 300, only got 180. During pressing the metalwork had cracked or broke down or whatever, so they just figured "let's just throw it in a box and hope the belgian can't count".

Took them two months to come up with the rest. They are extremely cheap though.

[jameshk]

Gota make sure those vinyl's are fresh boy

[dj seizure]

There was a thread about this on the mnml forum a few months ago, quite useful:

http://www.mnml.nl/phpBB2/viewtopic.php ... nt&start=0

Apart from quality control considerations, it seems with the actual pressing plant you're mostly paying for professionalism. But given the stories I've heard about some of the less reputable plants, that's probably nothing to sneeze at....

Mastering and lacquer cutting is a different matter since it's obviously subjective and requires a lot of skill (and ideally you'd want to be there for the session). A lot of people (most?) get their lacquer cut at the mastering house and then send the master lacquer to the pressing plant, which might work out more expensive than having an all-in-one house do everything from mastering to pressing, but you have the peace of mind of knowing that any potentially "subjective" work has been taken care of before it reaches the plant, whose only job then is to squash some plates onto a plastic biscuit.

EDIT: my favourite quotes from the above thread:

A company we used once called Total Vinyl pressed the exact same track on either side of the record. There were plenty of other mistakes, but that's the one I will always remember.

...

Total Vinyl also messed up when we placed an order there. We ordered 300, only got 180. During pressing the metalwork had cracked or broke down or whatever, so they just figured "let's just throw it in a box and hope the belgian can't count".

Took them two months to come up with the rest. They are extremely cheap though.

Woah. I'm going to have to have a re route.


Total Vinyl seemed way too cheap.

I'll have to put in a little bit more research because these days it seems that putting out vinyl, I just have to pray to breakeven and that's about it. So releasing stuff on wax is for the love instead of the cash!



James maaaan, liking the attention you're getting! All the people commenting on your track is either on the label, or asking to be signed! Ahahaa! Big up yourself!

[jameshk]

James maaaan, liking the attention you're getting! All the people commenting on your track is either on the label, or asking to be signed! Ahahaa! Big up yourself!

Yeah man things are going well. Got a good feeling about this bro

[dj seizure]

I have contacted total vinyl via email about 4 times and have yet to receive a response. Slight worry if I am to hand over money to them for a press!! The problem is they are roughly £250 cheaper for the job I want... Oh how I wish they could reply just for peace of mind that they aren't just a bunch of morons!

Has any label used them with success... Anyone?!

[gnome]

Do they have a phone number?

Did you use your email address that sometimes doesn't send the email?

[dj seizure]

Do they have a phone number?

Did you use your email address that sometimes doesn't send the email?

Nahhh, Got no phone number and I used my own personal email address.

Shit sucks.

[Basic A]

If you already know there shady, why do you want us to tell you there shady?

Thread makes no sense.

Dubstudio.

/debate.

[deadly_habit]

to quote the bible of jersey shore,
"if you have to ask, it's probably a man/trannie"

[dj seizure]

If you already know there shady, why do you want us to tell you there shady?

Thread makes no sense.

Dubstudio.

/debate.

I suppose...False Hope.

The reassurance that they're good and that tons of people will come pouring in with past experiences of how great they are...

But that isn't going to happen.

Oh well.

[dj seizure]

And Dubstudio!? Really?

They just cut dubplates.

Not a pressing plant.

[Basic A]

And Dubstudio!? Really?

They just cut dubplates.

Not a pressing plant.

Well you said something about ordering in the lower hundreds, I didnt know you needed big boy runs.

[dj seizure]

It seems Total Vinyl have gone bust?

Any news on this at all?

Looking into QuickPress and OnlyVinyl. If anyone has any info on these companies it would be appreciated.

[thinking]

It seems Total Vinyl have gone bust?

Any news on this at all?

Looking into QuickPress and OnlyVinyl. If anyone has any info on these companies it would be appreciated.

Total Vinyl = Only Vinyl. They're decent, press a lot of the labels you buy like Tempa, Hyperdub etc. Generally you'll get good service if you are a large account, but most of these big accounts consist of distros (e.g. Cargo, SRD) with all their P&D labels, or brokers like AGRM.

If you're starting out, it may help to use a broker - they can usually guarantee better service from the same pressing plant as they are much bigger accounts...

There are other options, but Total will almost definitely be the cheapest in the UK. If you have any more specific questions about pressing vinyl, feel free to post/PM them.

[dannyc]

Hi feel free to drop me a message, we are a dubstep and dnb label management company who deal with many pressing plant and mastering houses! We get some.of the best prices around and accept nothing but the besta

If you wanna have an in-depth chat just drop me a line!

Nice one

[the_agonist]

we've had our eyes on these...breed came out most expensive for 300 to 500 units

http://www.breed-media.co.uk/

http://curvedpressings.com/

http://www.quickpress.co.uk/