Assessing Test Pressings

[Thor]

Put it on a turntable and play it, see how it sounds?

(am I being too obvious? )

[romeojesus]

things that come to mind and I have experienced:

-put on turntable and check if the hole is centered (check this also for the final batch)..have a close look at the cartridge while the record is spinning..if the tonearm wiggles from side to side the centering was bad...

-check if the TP is flat and not bent...(check this also for the final batch)

-mono check the testpressing ( I once had a bad laquer cut with severe phase issues cut from 1/4"tape..turned out that the playback machine was not alligned properly) it sounded ok in regular stereo, but when mono´ed everything above approx 8k disappeared

-playback the TP on a low grade turntable and check
if it jumps the grooves...sometimes narrow cut records will play very well on technics 1210 etc. but skip heavily on cheaper players, because there is not enough "land" between the grooves...also phase issues in the low frequency range can result in shallow grooves that make the cartridge skip..

-check for clicks and pops..I had a TP where the laquer was not treated properly by the pressing plant, so every copy had a small (almost unvisible) scratch, which coulds be heard as a click on every copy...

- lately I only do attended sessions when it comes to cutting the laquer..(first of all because it is much fun)
Once I used a plant that offered pressing including the cutting and on the
testpressing one track turned out to be reduced about 3dB compared to the other tracks...I complained and they recut the thing with sounding good..there was no
apparent reason why they lowered the volume on this track (it did not have excessive bass or highs when compared to the other tracks..that would have risked a bad transfer or risked the cutting stylus!!??)
So check, if the person operating the lathe changed volume or eq on some tracks and if this is acceptable to you

- check if the visual markers are set properly..
once had a copy where the lathe operator set a marker during a break/dropout/quiet passage during the track

[IIIrd]

I had some tp's back from United recently and was very happy with them. Good plant.
You need more than 1 tp....if you have a noise or tick that occurs in the same place on more than one tp...then it's introduced and shouldn't be there...

everything that romeojesus applies too.

[beingmf]

It's handy to have various cartridges in your arsenal. DJ's prefer different models from the HiFi home user.

Apart from that +1 on romeojesus's post.

[Greg Reierson]

All good advice. Sync the source file and the LP and A/B. Besides the obvious stuff, listen for groove echo, rumble, noise during the lead-in, noises between bands, etc. Also listen to the difference channel for phase and distortion issues. Note any problems (clicks, thumps, etc.) and check the other samples at the same place. If noises happen twice in the same place on different disks then there's a problem with the stamper. If occasional ticks and pops happen randomly and not at the same place from disk to disk then it's probably fine.

[lu432]

A good test is to run the vinyl through the first set of grooves, where you first drop the needle, before the music starts. This area should be pretty quiet and almost totally click free.

Also check the color of the vinyl in most cases if your pressing black vinyl it should come back looking glossy, a good indication that the plant used virgin vinyl as opposed to regrind. Regrind will always look dull.

As stated before check for warping. Warping is a big issue caused by heating and cooling issues at the plant. Everything from the extruder and the puck to the labels and how much time the vinyl is left sitting before packaging can cause warping issues. Warping is a big headache at plants.

Good luck on your project bro

[Adam Dempsey]

Originally Posted by Greg Reierson

All good advice. Sync the source file and the LP and A/B.

+1.