Vinyl is back. It's been back for several years. Not as a novelty and not just among audiophiles, viny has returned as a legitimate release format that artists across genres are choosing intentionally. If you're thinking about a vinyl release, or if a client is asking about one, this is the post I'd point you to first.
Vinyl is also a format that rewards preparation and punishes assumptions. Most of the problems I see come from clients who didn't know what they didn't know. Differences in how you need to prepare the mix, fit the format, plan for the timeline, and calculate the cost. This post covers all of it, we touch all these ideas to give you useful information for making good decisions before you've committed to anything.
The Mastering Chain: Who Does What
Before getting into specifics, it helps to understand how the process works from mastering to finished record.
My role in a vinyl project is to prepare the premaster — the audio files that go to the cutting engineer. This is similar to digital mastering in many ways, but with additional considerations specific to the format. What I deliver at the end of a vinyl premaster session is two WAV files: one for Side A and one for Side B, sequenced, leveled, and prepared to make the cutting engineer's job as straightforward as possible.
The cutting engineer takes those files and cuts the lacquer. This lacquer is usually albumium coated with nitrocellulouse and the physical disc that becomes the basis for the pressing. This disc is electroplated making a metal father (or in short runs a stamper). This stamper is used in a press to make vinyl redords. Those are packaged and prepared for delivery. Most plants operate as a turn-key operation: you deliver a digital premaster and they handle everything through to finished records. You don't need to manage each step separately.
Vinyl premasters are additional work compared to a digital master, and I charge accordingly. That said, doing the vinyl premaster at the same time as the digital master is significantly more efficient than doing them separately, the session setup, the listening, and the decisions about the record all happen at once rather than being duplicated. I offer a discounted rate for clients who do both in the same session, and I'd recommend that approach to anyone planning both formats.
Mix Considerations for Vinyl
This is where vinyl parts ways most significantly from digital, and where the conversation should happen before the mix is finished.
Low End and Bass
Vinyl grooves move vertically (up and down) for stereo information and laterally (left and right) for the sum of the signal. Deep bass that's wide in the stereo field creates groove geometry that's difficult to cut and can cause the needle to skip during playback. This is one of the most common mix issues I encounter in vinyl projects, and it's one that's much easier to address in the mix than in mastering.
The practical fix is an elliptical filter. Basically a high-pass filter applied to the side signal that narrows bass content below a certain frequency to mono. I have one, and I use it when needed. But it's a correction applied to whatever the mix gives me, not a substitute for mix decisions made with vinyl in mind. If there's extreme bass content that was intentional in the mix like a wide, sub-heavy low end that's fundamental to the sound, an elliptical filter changes that. That's worth knowing before it happens, because my goal is to deliver the mix the artist intends in the best way technically. This can be a discussion and there can be some give and take, but the trade off is usually level.
The simple version: vinyl can't handle the same low-end levels as digital. Bass takes up more physical space on the disc. If you're planning a vinyl release, the mixing engineer should know about it.
Sibilance and High Frequencies
The RIAA equalization curve used in vinyl recording boosts high frequencies during cutting and reduces them during playback. This is a standard that's been in place for decades and exists to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the format. The practical effect is that sibilance and sharp high-frequency transients can become problems on vinyl that weren't problems in the digital mix. A mix with heavy sibilance on the vocal, or very bright, aggressive high-end content, may need additional work (read reduced in amplitude here) before it cuts cleanly.
This isn't a reason to avoid vinyl, it's a reason to plan for it early. A mixing engineer who knows a vinyl release is coming can make decisions that make my job easier and the final cut better.
Format Decisions
The LP - 12" Records
Most releases I'm doing these days are 12" 33.3RPM format. This is probably the most common format when someone says "I'm planning to release on vinyl". A standard 12" LP at 33⅓ RPM gives you the most runtime per side of any common format, typically in the range of 18 to 22 minutes per side at a reasonable cutting level. That relationship between level and length is worth understanding before you lock your sequence and song count (more on this in a second). The 12-inch 33 1/3 is the format most listeners own a turntable for, most plants support without question, and most packaging is designed around. If you don't have a specific reason to go another direction, this is where to start.
The EP - 10" Records
The 10" format comes up occasionally, but many pressing plants I work with don't offer it. Unless you have a specific plant in mind that supports it and a specific reason for the format, it's generally not worth planning around. Again, nothing wrong with a 10" but if you're pressing records, why not get the full-size LP?
Level vs. Runtime
For the relationship between cutting level and side length I've covered this in detail in a separate post: Vinyl Cutting Levels. If you're trying to figure out how many songs fit on a side at a given level, that's the reference. I have the full rundown of why level affects playtime and the cutting chart to help you decide between on level, format, and runtime tradeoffs.
Sequence
Sequence matters more for vinyl than for any other format, for reasons that are both technical and creative. I've written about this in detail in Sequence Is Story. The short version: the track that ends each side and the one that begins it are decisions worth making intentionally. And the technical realities of vinyl (inner groove distortion, the level and runtime relationship, the A/B split) all interact with sequence in ways that can create problems if sequence is decided after everything else is locked.
If vinyl is part of the plan, sequence needs to be part of the conversation before mastering begins.
Test Pressings
A test pressing is a small run of records, typically just a few copies, pressed before the full production run so you can listen to the actual vinyl before committing to the full quantity.
Lots of my clients skip them. Budget and timeline are usually constraining factors. I understand both, but I recommend everyone do a test pressing. A test pressing is the only way to know what your record actually sounds like on a turntable before it's pressed at scale. Issues that aren't audible in the digital files like a cutting problem, a pressing artifact, or something that got introduced somewhere in the chain show up on a test pressing. Finding them there is significantly better (and less expensive to fix) than finding them after five hundred units are in a box.
I offer test pressing evaluation as a service for clients pressing vinyl.
The Reality Check: Cost and Time
Artists coming from CD manufacturing (or streaming for that matter) are often in for a significant surprise when they get their first vinyl quote.
CD manufacturing, even in small quantities, has historically been close to $1 per unit. Vinyl is a different proposition. Per-unit costs at moderate quantities are typically in the $20–30 range as a rough starting point, and that's before you get into packaging decisions. Full color, gatefold jackets, printed inner sleeves, special packaging, etc. . . these add up. I've seen quotes above $50 per unit for fully loaded packages.
The margins on vinyl are narrow, especially for independent artists selling at retail. A record that sells for $30 doesn't generate the same return as a $15 CD did when manufacturing cost $1 per unit. This isn't a reason not to press vinyl. There are real reasons to do it, including the listening experience, the collectability, and what it means to release something physical and intentional. But it's a financial decision that deserves honest numbers, and the honest numbers are often higher than people expect.
Lead Times
Pressing plants have variable lead times that change with demand, and I'd rather not quote specific numbers here since they fluctuate. What I will say is that historically, lead times have been long. At some plants in 2019, they were quoting nine months or more. If you're planning a vinyl release around a specific date, the conversation about pressing needs to start much earlier than feels necessary. Getting a quote and a timeline from your pressing plant before you've committed to anything is worth doing early in the process.
A release date next month and a nine-month plant queue don't fit together. Plan accordingly.
When to Start This Conversation
The answer is almost always earlier than you think.
If vinyl is part of your release plan (even tentatively) reach out before the mix is finished, before the sequence is locked, and before you've gotten a pressing quote. The earlier I'm part of that conversation, the more options are available at every stage. Especially if vinyl is a new thing for you, I'm always happy to help guide clients through any release issues. If you don't want to have a conversation with me about it, this blog post and the two linked posts I reference give you everything you need to know to make more informed decisions.