Vinyl Records Pressing Plant

[crowquill]

Heya, so my band is about to hit the studio to record our album, and we are weighing options when it comes to getting it out in physical formats.

Now I'm wondering if you guys know any vinyl pressing plants that are cheapo (I live in Sweden so it should preferably be in Europe).

[Troubled Beast]

You sir, are in luck. Europe happens to house some of the finest vinyl pressing plants in the world. Here is a list, of course please refer to the "Europe" section of the list. This of course requires some decent footwork on your part, but nothing good comes easy. I trust you will have a good experience.

http://monoequipped.wordpress.com/vinyl ... ng-plants/

Keep in mind the GZ (Czech Rep.) - Pirate's Press (SF/CA/US) relationship; recent reports from some Pirate's clients here in the US are less than favorable in terms of customer service, turnaround time and quality of product versus a few years ago before the current resurgence in vinyl production. I do not know if that is an indicator of a decline in GZ's quality, or if that rests in the hands of Pirate's Press operations. This is a major digression; but I feel this has a lot more to do with Pirate's Press themselves and less to do with the quality of work that GZ can turn out. GZ would be a viable option if you can deal with them directly within the EU; side stepping a third party like Pirate's Press. "Fuck those guys" so to speak.

Good luck!

[Troubled Beast]

I forgot to mention, in terms of vinyl manufacturing...you get what you pay for. If you go the true "Cheapo" route in pressing an LP you are best off taking that route through an inherently cheaper medium (CD, cassette, digital), lest you look like you are only making a vinyl record for the format-fetish crowd. I trust you don't want to do that.

So price shop between those myriad manufacturers there in Europe (I have not); I do not anticipate a wide range in pricing, making records is expensive. Mastering (the actual process of cutting the original "master" plate that makes the records) can turn out to be far more pricey than one imagines. Then there are the various setup charges; center ("donut") label printing; the full press run; and finally shipping. In the US that last part can be a particularly expensive, surprising and bitter motherfucker. Vinyl is heavy, and depending on how many you want to press, that weight can add up and it seems fuel surcharges only go UP these days.

The key way you can cut costs overall, is in the packaging. I would feel that most bands, particularly independent & underground ones would prefer a GREAT sounding record over a GREAT looking package at the cost of poorly-represented music in the form of a shitty sounding record. In most cases I've seen, the production of a nice jacket and insert can easily match or outstrip the already hefty costs of producing the record itself. There are tons of creative, effective, yet cost-efficient ways to make cool packaging for a record that will itself be inevitably expensive to produce. Use your imagination in that regard. That is where you will truly have room to save money. Do not skimp on the effort and expense to make a great sounding piece of plastic that will reproduce your music the way you intend.

Again, this is all a very large and roundabout way to answer your initial simple question, but the "cheapo" qualifier sent me into over-explanation mode.

Basically, if you are looking for the most "cheapo" means toward a physical release, vinyl is definitely not it. While it is the best, it is never the cheapest. I think that is for a good reason. Again, I wish you the best of luck.

[E.C]

try www.my45.de for a quote - we used them for the HEXIS 7" and it both looks and sounds great. it's a really small plant only run by like 2 or 3 people.

they can do the sleeves/inserts as well, however the minimum for sleeves is 500 so if you're only looking to press a smaller run of records (100 or 250)...watch out.

[crowquill]

Troubled Beast, thank you for some very good information.

And E.C, good to hear! I'm checking them out right now.

[tre]

Keep in mind the GZ (Czech Rep.) - Pirate's Press (SF/CA/US) relationship; recent reports from some Pirate's clients here in the US are less than favorable in terms of customer service, turnaround time and quality of product versus a few years ago before the current resurgence in vinyl production. I do not know if that is an indicator of a decline in GZ's quality, or if that rests in the hands of Pirate's Press operations. This is a major digression; but I feel this has a lot more to do with Pirate's Press themselves and less to do with the quality of work that GZ can turn out. GZ would be a viable option if you can deal with them directly within the EU; side stepping a third party like Pirate's Press. "Fuck those guys" so to speak.

I am, and have always been a huge supporter of Pirates Press. They certainly are more expensive, but I always got amazing customer service and we rarely had any issues with quality. But I will agree that the turn around time has grown quite considerably over the past year or so. They used to be able to turn around a record in literally 2 weeks (when I needed a rush) but now, they are up around the 6+ week turn time... which still beats the 10 weeks I am looking at for current projects in some US plants.