VINYL MASTERING

Some believe one has for the medium Vinyl and for one digital release make two different masters. This isn't necessary if you don't give the track excessive loudness through hypercompression, as in the past, or brilliance in the highs, as is common nowadays. The track would sound wonderful on vinyl and there would be no need to make two different masters of your music.

However, this is how it is handled nowadays, in the digital second age. Therefore, it usually makes sense to prepare an extra master for vinyl (vinyl mastering), as this is often not so sharp in the highs. Our mastering tips list a few things to keep in mind when Online mastering for vinyl records should be considered in order to get a good sound of the music.

The Mono compatibility is extremely important, especially with the medium vinyl. Especially loud sounds with strong attack times are problematic here and can lead to the needle jumping if you overdo it. On the other hand, strings and pad sounds are given less weight in the Vinyl Master. A good mono center from about 300 Hz down is desirable.

It is essential for the vinyl master to remove the stereo information in the bass range in order to achieve a rich and central bass sound and to avoid later jumping the needle on the record. Since the track is supposed to breathe, you have to work carefully on the compression, so you only try to weaken the peaks with a low Treshhold value but not to mix the whole song into a dynamic pulp.

A track to be released on vinyl should be a certain dynamism kept to sound good and clean on a record. Again, it always depends on the genre and the song itself. Processors are also to be avoided Add overtonessuch as an exciter that will later "shrill“Can sound. Overall, you have to be careful with the high frequencies (S-sounds) of a vinyl master. If no precautions are taken, they can either "muddy" or to "sharp" to make noticable. These procedures can be identified on the basis of the production of a vinyl.

EQ'ING IN THE VINYL MASTER

When eq'ing I use a low-cut filter at around 40Hz to minimize possible rumble on the record. With a Hicut filter the upper frequencies are limited. For a vinyl master are here 17kHz a good approach, as a record cannot always reproduce this faithfully to the original. Try a very gentle one with different slopes roll off to achieve. With a gentle roll-off (e.g. 6 db or max. 12 db/oct. as edge steepness, you can definitely set your hi-cut EQ for the vinyl master at 15 khz.

With the so-called "Half Speed ​​Vinyl Mastering" in the Lacquer cutting process it is even possible to display a frequency response of up to 25 kHz. This is because instead of 33/13 RPM (revolutions per minute) with only 16 2/3RPM is worked. The advantage of this is that the precision when transferring all information from the Vinyl Master is significantly increased. So you have less distortion, better transient response and benefits from a greater dynamics.

S-LUTES

As already mentioned, you can S sounds on a plate "shrill" to make noticable. To avoid this, I'll describe two approaches:

1. With the help of the bandpass filter a De-esser's, let's look for the “sharp” frequency between 3-10 kHz (depends on the song). Then carefully adjust the de-esser. This should be done with feeling so as not to weaken too much of the particular frequency. It always depends on the song, so it is difficult to give exact values ​​here. That will not only made this way at Vinylmaster, but can be particularly important here to help you clean sound to ensure the plate. For the pros: Pull okatve over the core frequency at the same time 
2.  alternative approach is the use of an EQ. We also use it to find the specific frequency and extract it in a narrow band (high Q value), with -1 to 5 dB. The timbre of the whole track is influenced here, but this can be wanted. There is NO the one perfect solution.

MID-SIDE EQ'ING

Stereo information be in the bass range not just removed for vinyl masters, is here though inevitableto prevent the needle from jumping. It sounds better overall when the bass is more central. For this purpose, the low frequencies are removed from the side signal with a hipass filter. In theory, this can be done with any audio processor that has a Mono bass control owns, can be realized.

Brilliance is understood in our context as an "addition" of heights in the range of approx. 6-20 khz, which process is relevant in vinyl mastering. Here, large jumps in level and extreme energy weighting, in the upper Khz range, should be avoided in the mix as a matter of urgency, because due to the manufacturing method, the cutting and the nature of the vinyl, it can lead to the pressing plant rejecting the production, or - which in our eyes is still a lot Worse is - the record or needle on the record starts jumping and your music doesn't sound good anymore. You can mitigate this with a lower one Overall loudness - anything between -12 and -20 LUFs (but please don't nail us on that).

If the Press Shop or specialized editing studios (cutting) have received the order, there are two ways to produce master slides for the pressing of your music.