Lacquers and lathes are mechanical devices and unlike the digital domain there are consequences in the analogue world when you increase level, or put things more out of phase due to M/S processing which is becoming more and more popular. When mastering to a lacquer things like extreme top end and bottom end as well as phase or more to the point out of phase program can cause issues in the transfer, particularly if you are trying to stay true to the mix, which is the essence of good mastering. 

In the digital world the 1s and 0s don't get any wider or deeper or use up more space on the disk. Also the sound of playback off a vinyl record will differ from a CD. That is the nature of the beast. So the approach to mastering for vinyl is different. Please let us know if your project is for vinyl release or even if you anticipate it may be for the future. For a little extra charge and new production parts you can save yourself a lot of headaches. Same goes if you are going for a vinyl release and then wish to go to CD in the future.

Vinyl has been enjoying a healthy resurgence in recent times but is still a niche thing and unfortunately less and less mastering facilities are cutting less lacquers and worse still getting rid of their lathes. Mastering for vinyl is a different thing as indeed is recording and mixing for it. We are living in a mainly CD world so most engineers who mix and master don't really consider this as more than likely their material will end up on CD.

An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. We often find difficulties cutting supposed "vinyl masters" by engineers who have had no experience with lathes themselves.

TIPS TO HELP YOU PREPARE FILES FOR VINYL MASTERING

Masters:

Masters are accepted on CD or DAT. Accompanying the master must be a clearly legible TOC (Table of Contents) or cue  sheet showing the Start and Finish times of each track, the Artist and Title, track names, Label and Catalogue Number (if used) and if you like, any inscriptions required on the vinyl runout grooves - limit 10 characters. Failure to do these things may make the process take longer than needed and the extra time will be billed out to you. Unless specifically instructed otherwise, we will cut your master exactly as it is presented. We can of course EQ, limit, compress, re-edit and if necessary burn a pre-mastering CDR or cut a dub plate for your approval, at an extra cost.

Playing Times:

Vinyl Discs have limitations on side lengths which vary according to the recording technique used. The longer the sides, the quieter the music has to be cut, but we will always try to make your music as loud as possible. The following table lists the typical dB levels available for the various formats of discs.

   
A and B sides:

There MUST be at least 30 seconds of silence between sides A & B. The written start and finish times must not include this silence. Making a pause command is not enough. 

CDR:

The best way to do this is to record a 30 sec "silence" track and insert it between sides A& B, so it shows up as "silence" on the TOC and we will know when side A ends.

Any special instructions (eg fade track 3) must be included with the TOC or cue sheet. All tracks should be level matched and EQ'd to your taste. Unlike CD's, vinyl levels are relative. There's nothing to be gained by squeezing a master though a digital maximiser such as a TC Electronics Finaliser set on 'maximum' to produce a constant digital level of O dB, unless you particularly like that sort of sound.

In 'n' Out Of Phase:
When a recording is "in phase", the stylus moves nicely from left to right. When it's "out of phase", the stylus moves up and down, causing it to jump out of the groove given half a chance. In the "good old days" of expensive studios, most good consoles had a 'phase correlation meter' on the output. Since phase is irrelevant to CD, this expensive extra is usually unavailable to today's engineers, leading to major headaches when trying to cut vinyl from digitally recorded or mixed masters.

Especially critical is the bottom end - when this is out of phase, the recording can be near impossible to cut. Extremely "subby" dance mixes usually present the biggest problem but are OK if the bass & kick are in phase. It's not such a problem for lo-fi garage recordings, unless the feedback gets REALLY trebly and piercing, which will be removed during cutting anyway. Well-recorded acoustic stuff is no problem at all. Most problems come from live recordings made from the desk, or from stereo samples where a plug-in DSP has removed a solo instrument or leaving the rhythm track. Using Stereo widening plug-ins is often disastrous, and may cause the inner tracks to sound dull. Mono samples panned near to the centre don't have the same problem.

How can I tell if my mix is out of phase?
If you don't have a phase correlation meter on your desk or in your hardware, try reversing the phase of one side of your mix and listen to the result in Mono, panning both sides to the centre. If the mix is entirely in phase and the levels match, then the result will be almost silence. Reverbs and flanged/phased sounds won't entirely cancel because they rely on being a bit out of phase to work. As long as the result is mainly high frequency, there won't be a problem. If heaps of bottom end still comes through, there will be a problem and the record may need a remix in order to be cut at all.

Hint: Many mixers invert the phase of the signal from the Aux sends, so you can send one side of the mix from an Aux send, return it to another channel and then mono it as above to check the phasing.

Be sure to bring phasing up with whoever is mixing your next recording and we won't have to spend 6 hours $1,000 dollars of studio time and $300 in acetates waxing those phat beats.