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Guidelines for getting your record cut

Mastering:
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         You do not need to master your album/songs/sounds specifically for vinyl (basic vinyl mastering for our lathe cuts is included in the price of your records) but we do recommend that you have your album/songs mastered. The more consistent the EQ's and levels are from song to song the better and more cohesive the album is going to be. Having it mastered for CD is fine, we can definitely work with that.

If you do decide to have special mastering done for vinyl we ask that you send us the CD master too - we will evaluate both of them and use the one that works best for our purposes.

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The thing about Volume:
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        The closer your runtimes are to the Maximum allowed, the lower the volume we will need to cut your record at. Loud Sounds (especially low frequency sounds) take up a lot of space on a record - The louder the sound, the farther the grooves need to be spaced apart and the less music you can get on a side. For example:

     At 20 minutes per side (33 1/3 rpms) a 12" LP will be cut

with peak volumes at  0 db.

     At 15 minutes per side (33 1/3 rpms) a 12" LP will be cut

with peak volumes at +4 db.

     We do not cut extremely loud records (no matter how long the sides) because they don't sound as good - to put it another way, we don't cut records for the Radio where every song needs to be louder than the one that came before it. Instead, we cut records to listen to. Records with the widest possible dynamic range and the lowest possible amount of distortion with a very good S/N ratio.

 

Audio Formats we accept:
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Digital files:

     If you can send us wav, aif, flac, or other uncompressed files it will sound much better, but we can use any of the following:

mp3, wma, m4a, ogg, avi, mid, flac, mov, amr, aac, au, aif, raw, dvf, vox, cda, gsm, dss, wmv.

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If you send uncompressed wav files  88/24 is our preferred  resolution.

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Analog Tape:

1/4" reel to reel at 3.75 or 7.5 or 15 or 30 IPS. (1/4, 1/2, or full track)

1/2" reel to reel at 3.75 or 7.5 or 15 or 30 IPS. (1/4, 1/2, or full track)

     There will be an extra (one time) charge of $5.00 per minute

to do a setup from Tape.

IMPORTANT! :  

     Don't send us a master, send us a copy of a master! 

If you send us a master, you do so at your own risk.

We will take good care of it once it gets to us but if gets lost or damaged on the way here  that is your responsibility, not ours. Same thing with returning it to you, we can not assume any responsibility for it once it leaves our hands.

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HEY! - Naming Your Songfiles:
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     For Side A put an A1, A2, A3 etc. at the front of the songfile name. 

(for example: If the filename is "thismusic.wav" and if it's the first track on 'Side A'  change the name to "A1thismusic.wav ")

For Side B do the same thing using B1, B2, B3 etc...

Once you have all your songfiles properly named put them in ONE FOLDER and then name that folder with your Name and your OrderNumber for example:

"JohnSmith123456"

Now ZIP the folder !

IF you are doing custom labels, please use one of our design templates (below) and then put your final layered file or a 'flattened' PDF output or the original artwork in a folder called 'Art'. Now put that 'Art' folder into the folder you made for your music and now:

Please ZIP the folder !

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HERE'S HOW TO ZIP A FOLDER:

MAC

WINDOWS

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You will not be able to upload the folder unless it is ZIPPED!

Zipping the folder will make the upload easier for you and make the download and sequencing of your tracks easier for us.

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Upload your .zip file here:  Dropbox
  
Download label design templates: 
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(or any cloud service (googledrive, wetransfer etc.)
and then email us the link)
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