Vinyl Is Back!
Last year we have seen the big come back of vinyl… a format which was officially declared dead in the 80’s when CD came out.
Well, fast forward 30+ years and we are still talking about it! In actual fact, while CD sales keep going south, vinyl sales are on the up. In fact, last year vinyl sales broke the 1 million mark for the first time since 1996!
This has led the industry to organise a new Top 40 chart just for vinyl.
As a mastering studio, we have seen a big increase in demand for vinyl mastering over the last couple of years as well.
Mastering for Vinyl
Mastering for vinyl requires a different approach than when mastering for digital formats such as CD.
Certain frequency ranges need to be kept at bay in order to have a good groove tracking and the phase of the signal needs to be kept in check as well.
Compression and EQ need to be applied within the physical/mechanical limitation that the groove/needle combo suffers from.
In other words, if not prepared carefully, you will force the cutting engineer (people like me) to intervene in an intrusive way to make sure the needle won’t jump out of the groove or I’ll blow the cutting head up.
As a result, the masters prepared for vinyl sound generally a lot quieter, than the ones mastered for digital media and they are normally delivered at a higher resolution as well (2496).
This is why a CD master should NOT be used to cut a vinyl.
WHY CHOOSE US?
In the summer of 2022, our commitment to vinyl pushed us to open a new mastering suite on the same premises as Press On Vinyl in the North East.
Having our mastering studio within a vinyl pressing plant (right next to their cutting and pressing departments) ensures that every stage of the vinyl production is overseen and that test presses are checked even before they are sent to you.
Moreover, this will allow us to gather a much deeper understanding and knowledge of the whole vinyl manufacturing/lacquer cutting process.
