Private vinyl record pressing VS. Lathe cut records ...

Private vinyl record pressing VS. Lathe cut records: Has any one done this?

Lately I’m thinking about ordering lathe cut record. Pressing records would be pretty expensive, but lathe cut would be much cheaper, if you only want a few copies.

But, Lathe cut records are inferior than vinyl record, as far as sound reproduction is concerned. (at least most of the case)

Has any of you here ordered lathe cut records?

It is cheaper however they're not meant to be played that much. I believe they are even below dub plate quality in longevity but if anyone else has insight please chime in.

yea i get the impression these are good for novelty / maybe to press your own recordings to sample, but they are nowhere near archival grade.

This is what I know:
Lathe records that produced today are not made of acetate / lacquer disc,
which was used in 60s and 70s.
Most of Lathe records are made of clear or black PVC, not acetate disc.
(lacquer discs has been out of production for long time.)

Unlike acetete disks, they don't deteriorate after a few time of playing (but, I heard that acetate / lacquer disc sound better than PVC, but again, acetate would deteriorate quicker...) However, PVC are not made for making record,
I heard it is challenging to archive hi-fi sound.
But, not all record cutters are created equal. Many lathe record service providers use old cutter (like those made in the 50s' for recording speech), and some service providers use high-end record cutter (like Neumann VMS70 lathe cutting system, for instance.)
lathe record is made exactly the way how dub-plate is made.

Some lathe record service providers claim that it can archive almost comparable sound quality to vinyl.
Interestingly, lathe cutting records seem to be popular among (very) indie rock musicians,
but not hip hop and house, dance music scenes in the US.

I'd like to hear from MPC Tutor about this topic, since he produced this:

Tape to Dub Plate Vol 6 - Brush Bap Breaks

http://www.mpc-samples.com/product.php/ ... ap-breaks/

JVC wrote:Interestingly, lathe cutting records seem to be popular among (very) indie rock musicians,
but not hip hop and house, dance music scenes in the US.

i can confirm this as i met a guy through that scene who would cut a record on almost anything you gave him.

sound quality was not at all what they cared about - it was a very punk-rock aesthetic. it was all about the novelty.

i think yer just gonna have to bite the bullet and report back.

@tapedeck, it's an amazing time to profit off of vinyl and vinyl like releases with all of the reddit kids wanting to buy anything stamped "limited releease"

Hilarious considering every record pressed has at least an overrun of 200 pressed for loss, or possible malfunctions in the pressing process and not including the 25 or so test press copies.

@tapedeck, it's an amazing time to profit off of vinyl and vinyl like releases with all of the reddit kids wanting to buy anything stamped "limited releease"

Well, for lathe cut records, it seems that most of people are making lathe cut to keep themselves, not for selling...

By the way, some people are calling lathe cut as dubplate (I think it is valid though, since it is exactly the same process):

http://www.stampthewax.com/2016/01/21/m ... dubplates/

It looks like fun to me...

Hilarious considering every record pressed has at least an overrun of 200 pressed for loss, or possible malfunctions in the pressing process and not including the 25 or so test press copies.

Well, if you are planning to press more than hundreds, then I think that pressing records should be better choice. I'd rather press records than having lathe cuts, if it is affordable.

If you do get a pressing done, make sure you get the actual master plate sent to you.

Depending on how well your vinyl does, a lot of these factories will end up pressing up your sh*t on the side to sell for themselves.

Also, find a plant that can do order fulfillment as often the cost to send to the buyer is cheaper direct from the plant than it would be if you were doing it by hand in your mothers basement.

I did a limited run of 12 back in 2016 with ONECUTVINYL.COM. Soundwise, it was awesome to hear my music in the analog realm and it sounded good. They said they do lathe runs but my product ended up being in vinyl, so I can't exactly tell you about lathe quality. But for 12 vinyl records, it was cheap for $300 or so.

Follow their guidelines and you'll have a smooth transaction. They actually take your wav files and that is used to make the discs. No metal master fees.

Ill-Green wrote: But for 12 vinyl records, it was cheap for $300 or so.

I hate to break it to you, but $300 for 12 copies is not cheap. That works out to $25 a record. Just looking here at invoices of associates that have had several different pressings done over the last few years. The actual cost to get 300 copies of 12" vinyl pressed is about $1200-1400.

Now with jackets (0.45c), color stickers (3x3" sticker 0.95c), hand numbering (0.25c), additional test presses ($3.00) and freight you end up looking about $1700-1900 USD

Now, if you guys choose to do a 7" vinyl, then that cuts down costs significantly, where basically you could get 400 copies pressed, black or color with jackets and stickers for about $1100-1200 USD which will also include shipping to different parts of the world to different online record dealer spots. In my opinion it makes more sense to sell 7" pressings as they have the novelty, are cheaper to ship and sound good.

There are cheaper options than that with other pressing plants that will charge less per copy but then rinse you on other additional costs so depending on the time of month (such as when labels are doing bigger orders, you get put to the back of the line, you could save or end up spending $200-300 more in total.

i think that is cheap for such a small run. yer talking about hundreds of copies - of course cost goes down the more you get.

tapedeck wrote:i think that is cheap for such a small run. yer talking about hundreds of copies - of course cost goes down the more you get.

Right but paying $25 per copy is kind of ridiculous if you actually plan on putting some of those copies up for sale. Personally, I'd rather hold off until I have something more substantial product wise to offer and press more.

Be more likely to move more copies to the customer at a lower cost of $12-15 a record than pay $25 and expect someone to spend $40 for my vinyl. Now, I understand people are willing to pay more for the stuff that Chopped Herring, Daupe, etc presses as they're pressing exclusives of established artists which will garner that added cost in price per copy.

Richie, I’m pretty sure that Ill-Green ordered Lathe cut records, not pressed records. Because making lacquer & plating would easily cost more than three hundred bucks, and price difference pressing 100 and 400 copies are quite small.
And, It doesn’t look like One Cut Vinyl even offer record pressing service. As far as I see it, they specialize lathe cut record only (confusing, but they use vinyl plate!)
I think I do see cons & pros of ordering Lathe (basically dubplates, good for very short runs, each lathe cut is unique) and having record pressed (set up fee is expensive, but cheaper than lathe if you need a few hundred copy or more)

I don’t think pressing vinyl record is option for me, it is too expensive, and I don’t need 300 copies (unless I can sell them…)

@JVC I know man, I'm just sharing what I know about costs and hopefully the insight can benefit someone reading, that's all really.

Alternatively, you could go real cheap and get some flexi's made at around $0.25c each and offer them up at $4 dollars to cover your costs. Then you'd be getting your music out there on a novelty medium and possibly turn a small profit to put towards a more substantial pressing, just an idea.

richie wrote:

Ill-Green wrote: But for 12 vinyl records, it was cheap for $300 or so.

I hate to break it to you, but $300 for 12 copies is not cheap. That works out to $25 a record. Just looking here at invoices of associates that have had several different pressings done over the last few years. The actual cost to get 300 copies of 12" vinyl pressed is about $1200-1400.

Now with jackets (0.45c), color stickers (3x3" sticker 0.95c), hand numbering (0.25c), additional test presses ($3.00) and freight you end up looking about $1700-1900 USD

Now, if you guys choose to do a 7" vinyl, then that cuts down costs significantly, where basically you could get 400 copies pressed, black or color with jackets and stickers for about $1100-1200 USD which will also include shipping to different parts of the world to different online record dealer spots. In my opinion it makes more sense to sell 7" pressings as they have the novelty, are cheaper to ship and sound good.

There are cheaper options than that with other pressing plants that will charge less per copy but then rinse you on other additional costs so depending on the time of month (such as when labels are doing bigger orders, you get put to the back of the line, you could save or end up spending $200-300 more in total.

Actually I sold them for $35 each and they were 10 inch records, not 12 inch. I made some resin figures to go with the records. There are only 12 in the world, so rarity plays a role here too. For anything, I should've sold them for $45.