Preparing Your Master for Vinyl Cutting

I suggest that for vinyl (and only for vinyl) you keep an eye on hard panning during mixing. The more stuff you put all the way left or all the way right, the more unstable the groove is going to become. That's because a stereo vinyl groove contains one channel being cut vertically while the other is cut laterally. If you imagine the face of a clock and you keep the panning between 8:00 and 4:00 and 3:00 and 9:00, this will keep the groove from changing widths suddenly which can cause problems with tracking.

It has also been proven with testing that any mix going to vinyl will suffer some phase loss from being maxed out in level through a modern day digital multi-channel compressor. Whether your mix master CD-R is the hottest on the planet or is at -10 db from 0 doesn't effect the outcome of the volume of your record.

The volume of your record is directly linked to the total time of each side. This means if you intend to have it played in clubs by D.J.'s the time per side should be around 12-13 minutes for 12" records. When the side length is less than 9 minutes the loudness will be at the max for 33 1/3 cuts. However for EVERY minute over 13 or so you lose about 1 db in volume on the side, in most cases. Projects intended for DJ/club use, leave 3.5 seconds of silence between tracks. This allows enough time for a good size marker between the cuts on your release.

For 7" releases, at 33 1/3 RPM total side time should not exceed 6.5 minutes. At 45 RPM, sides should not be longer than 4.5 minutes to maintain a zero level cut.

Now let's talk about so called "S" distortion. When the master has too much hi frequency on vocal "S", "T", "F" sounds, it will end up OVERLOADING the playback styli, causing noticeable distortion. This also happens when hi-hat's, cymbals or any hi-freq. sounds that are in your mixes are too hot. This can also mean the louder your record is cut the worse the problem will be. So... have all the fun you want for compact disc mixing, but for vinyl mixes I suggest BEFORE adding compression, or any digital processing, save the mix for vinyl production as untouched as possible.

Formats: CD-R (NO DATA FILES), D.A.T. tapes, 1/4 inch open reel tapes are acceptable. The old law says never send an original master anywhere, so make a quality copy preferably on CD-R. Each track must be identified by a track ID number. This also applies to D.A.T. tapes. D.A.T. tapes must be in sequential running order. D.A.T. re-sequencing can be done if needed.