Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson  NEVER try to second guess the vinyl mastering engineer!
Every cutting system has its own unique limitations as does the length of the material and its position within the sequence. If you don't have extensive vinyl mastering experience with the system being employed, all you'll accomplish is to screw up the sound of your record.
Other than watching the sibilance and p-pops, making sure anything that's centered is really well centered, leaving off the peak limiter and avoiding out of phase low frequencies, there's no reason a great sounding mix won't make great sounding vinyl. |
yes, you are absolutely right to say this if you cut in UK or US and the cutter is working properly. simon from the exchange in london does a great job most of the time and I am pretty sure you do to... but the situation in germany is very different. often there is no real sonic quality control, cuts are made on-the-fly with presets (even they claim they have quality control, I know most of them cant afford to actually perform it) so the client has to be very carefully with checking the cut for distortions.
also, over here if you are heading a certain impact on the dancefloor youll have to do a good part of the leveling yourself since the vinyl masterings here in germany dont have a very good sweetening / compression sound in my ears. some of them do cut good - but then, hey! they all sound the same! they carry a sonic signature that you have to pay for even if you want your material to translate as 1:1 as possible and you dont want to sound like all the others who go 2 the same cutter... its hopeless.
i dont want to generalise, I am sure there is someone who can cut a good plate ON THE FIRST TAKE in germany - but I didnt met her or him yet...
my recomendations have been made upon having to accept the fact that if I want a good vinyl cut Ill have to master it myself and try to avoid the possible traps and physical limitations from scratch... the first cut is ALWAYS bad over here, its after that 1st or 2nd reclamation cut that you start doing corrections, tweakings and then things get better... way better.
I wish I could trust the cutters over here but there has been too many messed up cuts in my life ;-)
and then simon is always louder and brighter... ha!
robert