Vinyl Premaster CD...

[aleatoric]

I have a session booked Tuesday and the client is going to need a vinyl premaster CD. Target format is 12" 45 RPM for a 6 song EP. This is my first time mastering for vinyl so I am wondering what exactly I should hand the client at the end of the day. Should I just make a red-book production master? Should I provide 24 bit files on a data disc? Should I calculate when the disc flip will occur and make a note of it? I guess I am just looking for pointers on what to provide from those who have mastered for vinyl before. Thanks.

[t_d]

i do a lot of mastering for vinyl and most of the cutters i deal with prefer a data disc with 24bit files, as opposed to a redbook CD. for clarity sake i make separate discs for sides A and B.

i also tend to mono the low-end from about 150hz down. as far as i understand, most cutters will do this themselves at a a freq they determine for the specific cut, but i feel safer doing it myself, at least at 150hz.

dont' forget your client may also want a digital-distribution copy of their songs along with the vinyl masters. make sure you don't mono the lows on that one and i'll usually give them a disc of 16bit files for that.

[Cellotron]

What should be delivered depends on the cutting studio the client is using. While there are a few "old school" facilities that will still want a Red Book CD the vast majority of vinyl mastering studios can now accept hi-res wav or aiff files.

In most cases for vinyl pre-masters I provide 24bit 88.2kHz stereo wav files - one for each side with spacing already set as desired - and provide a cue sheet indicating start times for where the mastering engineer should place the spirals (aka "marker" - the wider spaced grooves to indicate track start).

If they require a Red Book Audio CD then make sure you leave at least 5 seconds between side breaks (I usually do a little longer in these cases) and provide a cue sheet indicating side break and side lengths.

Regarding differences between pre-mastering for vinyl and digital the main things to be aware of are:
* since peak levels are set by the cutting engineer and the digital peak level is of no relevance to where this will end up on the lacquer master - and since distortion in a digital pre-master becomes much more prominent when transferred to the analog realm - if you are crushing the level for the the digital version due to client request for "loud" - often it will result in a much better transfer to the analog realm if you back the applied peak limiting off to a "sensible" level. In general I avoid any clipping for a vinyl pre-master as well. Generally I don't back off the limiting so much that the balance of the mix sounds very different from what was already approved for the digital version though - but again - in general these days what I provide to the cutting engineer is very often more naturally dynamic that what ends up being used for the digital version (whether CD or download).
* high levels of high frequencies - especially from things like high hats or sibilance - will distort quickly or can prevent transferring the program - so in general avoid boosting the ultra-highs, and if you can selectively treat sibilance or other highly dynamic high frequencies do so to avoid the cutting engineer having to place an acceleration limiter or a lower set LPF across the entire program.
* ultra-low frequencies in the 20 - 30Hz region are generally difficult to cut at decent levels - so if these freq's are overly prominent you might want to address them more than you might for a digital release - but again I don't apply an HPF unless I hear there is a problem with non-musical rumble - and generally cutting engineers are able to apply HPF's or bass end cuts if they see they are needed as well.
* uncorrelated bass frequencies (i.e. panned basses playing different parts - or with stereo effects applied to them) are also difficult to cut at high levels - however to me its best to fix these potential problems in the mix and just let the cutting engineer place Elliptical EQ's or vertical amplitude limiters as they see the need for this.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Gengy]

I'm totally agree with Steve!

[aleatoric]

Wow, great informative replies. Steve, I am going to save your post as a text file on my studio cpu for future reference. Thank you. thumbsup

Does anyone have a link or info for determining total album side length for various vinyl speeds/size's?

[Paul Gold]

I have a page on my website. "All measurements are approximate".

[aleatoric]

Originally Posted by Paul Gold

I have a page on my website. "All measurements are approximate".

Nice, thanks. Those are per side right?

[Paul Gold]

Right, the longer side sets the level.

[Cellotron]

Originally Posted by Paul Gold

Right, the longer side sets the level.

...unless the client requests maximum possible level for each side, rather than having the level of both sides match. For an LP I'd generally go with matching the levels for both sides - for singles targeted towards dance club DJ's, especially with widely differing lengths, maximum for each side - although I'd say the default for most cutting engineers I know they match the levels of the sides to each other.

To paraphrase one of the first things my cutting mentor Jim Shelton said to me is "you need to find out whether each side is a world to itself (or not)."

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Gengy]

Even on this thing...the key is to hear the cutting eng. for the best final result.
Sometimes in dance music is preferable to cut the most important side (particular version or main mix that stay alone on one side) with maximum level....and the other versions on other side in different mode if the lenght side does not allow to cut high.
Cutting an LP is a different thing again.

cheers