Mastering for vinyl

An introduction, in plain non technical language, on preparing your tunes for vinyl record cutting and pressing

[bentyreman]

this helped me a lot thanks, one of my clients wanted a master for vinyl and I needed to learn fast the right thing to do. I used an MS EQ to cut the bass out of the sides at around 60Hz, and a bit of high frequency low pass filtering, looking forward to hearing the actual vinyl disk now.

[absolutekarl]

No no, the RIAA eq sound is a line output signal from the RIAA re emphasis equalizer - and that is DEFINITELY the actual sound that goes to the cutter head and hence, cut to the record.  The record player you are plugging your speakers into MUST have an internal RIAA de emphasis equaliser to perform an "equal and opposite" eq to the pre emphasis that was applied during cutting.  Many "record players" have built in RIAA such as the Stanton STR8 series.  If the output from your record player was not RIAA eq'd it would sound EXACTLY as my my demo does.

[matthewhutton]

This was an excellent presentation, thumbs up.

[shellsuitstrangler]

really helpful. i have been trying to find all this stuff out for ages

[matthewv]

Informative, things that in some cases go beyond what others talk about. I had never actually heard RIAA curve audio before, it's very extreme!

[robfriedrich]

Before RIAA equalization, they rolled down below 200 Hz because records should also sound good on acoustic players. And often there was no treble boost. So non RIAA records sounds boomy and dull, because the boost of low mids and the high cut.

[robfriedrich]

By the way, the last luxurious acoustic players were released in the end of the 1920's, after this, the higher price range was with pickup and electronic amplification, when I assume, that the unit may be supported by records for a decade, they could have introduced RIAA curve in 1940, when all people who can afford a good player uses electronic playback. Maybe they had to give the players a switch to ensure, that older records doesn't sound boomy with too much low mids. Imagine shellac records, where the 10" runs 4 minutes....

[skantzeagency]

When is this other presentation coming? Very helpful information...

[ephedrinedream]

Wonderful presentation; looking forward to more.

Bass Question: What frequency do you select, below which you make the bass mono, and what tool do you use, in both the analog and digital domain.

Treble Question: Is a multi-band compressor used to control the 3-5k sibilant range in the mastering process?

I'm about to make my first vinyl-ready master from a recent CD release; wish me luck!

[nightingale]

What song is used? It sounds so interesting with either version.

[Tapepusher]

How much treble should I cut out? A high shelf from 8khz, a gradual curve from 12khz? I need some specifics please!

[nine]

I think it's ironic that I heard noise from interference from likely a GSM phone transmitting in the background in the middle of this video.

[RUfromthes]

yes, i agree with you but what about unheardable cd´s that were suposed to improve the sound of an already released LP from the mid 80´s, this regarding amplifier and analog efects to the guitars that simply disapear to a sound that one wouldn´t reconise and leading new listeners to think how bad were this big sales lp´s that sound so bad, or why a cd and a vinyl both recorded from a live digital recording, the older format sounds perfect while the cd version of it, it´s only average making one not even listen to the cd while the vinyl it´s an example of a good live recording (this directely recorded into DAT as source ). this i tried several turntables and cd players, using a ES sony amplifier from 93 with some cerwin-vega´s and mission speakers, and i´m not a fundamentalist i own hundreds of cd´s and vinyl records also have boxes filled with cassettes, reels and in mid 90´s minidisc, a bit later cd recorder from pioneer with only capability of making 3 copies from an original cd, this only to say that i´m not one of those that only hears vinyl because they enjoy the cracks of a bad taken care off vinyl, i have records that were at my home since 1969 as an example, a joan baez greatest hits, that only as some noise so low that is only heardable inbetween tracks, this a voice and guitar music, regards and health

[absolutekarl]

I hope soon, but we are very busy and it is difficult to find the time !!!!

[justinwarren]

You lost me at "RIAA seriously increases the amount of treble recorded. When we play back, that treble is taken away again, so most of, if not all of the surface noise also dissappears". What???

[andrepeniche]

Im sorry, but when you show how the RIAA sound like, you're taking a microphone and putting close to the needle, with no speakers or anything whatsoever. Specially because when you show how it "really sounds like", you're showing the track with digital EQ (at least it seems). If a record actually sounded like that nobody would EVER buy one.
When I plug monitor speakers into a record player, with no equalization, just the flat sound straight from the groove, it sounds just fine.
I'm not disagreeing with you. Yes, what you showed has logic and fundament, but it seems like you WANT to make a point whereas the vinyl is worst some how.

[absolutekarl]

Absolutely.  Our ears are analogue and cd standard digital just can't do high enough resolution to describe the analogue signal properly or fully ...

[cannissolis]

"recording at club levels" oh dear, it's about time people stop confusing signal level with SPL, that's what the amplifier is for, perhaps if more engineers understood this we wouldn't have so many godawful modern digital recordings with all the transients and dynamics missing.

[mattthompson]

Eminem sounds way better on vinyl than CD or mp3, and all the old records sound way better than their digital copies today. It came down to making all CDs and Mp3s loud, and I hate that. They all over due it. My suitcase record player sounds way better than most the systems out there that tweak every little detail. I can honestly tell the difference between Vinyl and CD/MP3; sure MP3 is great to listen to on the Bose bluetooth pairing, but it comes nowhere near Vinyl.