As in the title, it’s basically print on demand vinyl. Upload your files and you can order a test press for about £30 or so. Once you are happy with that you can order in bulk (minimum 25) or sell individual on-demand copies via their website.
One of their main selling points is that they are quick, no waiting months for your records, and this certainly seems to be true. I ordered a test press a couple of weeks before Christmas and received it in about ten days, but I’d pushed the levels a bit too hard and it had a little distortion that was particularly noticeable in the sub heavy parts of the last track on each side. It was only really noticeable on headphones, and I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t even have clocked it, but I knew it was there and wasn’t happy to sell them like that. First time mastering for vinyl, learning experience and all that.
Dropped everything by a few dB, cut some sub from the inner track on each side and ordered a mk2. Got that this morning and I am really pleased with it. Bass reproduction and stereo imaging are really quite good. Minimal surface noise. The vinyl itself is 140g and feels reasonable quality. Sleeve cardboard is quite thin, but they also print a proper inner sleeve (as you’ll see in the pic below) and the printing quality is great.
I’ve always wanted some of my music on vinyl but there’s no way I’m going to sell enough to justify a normal run, so this is ideal for me.
I was a bit sceptical, the “how we make them” bit is pretty vague, from what I can gather reading between the lines they are essentially high quality lathe cuts, and I know they can be a bit hit or miss, but it wasn’t exactly crazy expensive compared to the alternatives and I’m glad I went for it. Trying to decide which tracks to do next now.
Hmm id be very wary of this at the moment. They have a lot of marketing fluff but very few details of how this actually works because they have a patent pending. It sounds like theyre pitching it as if its high quality lathe cutting, except they arent using PVC so maybe their patent is for the compound theyre using.
At any rate, you can either buy records off them at a pretty high cost per unit or you can sell through them and they keep as much as 80% of the profit which is… not great.
Totally get why it’s an attractive prospect. I’ve printed runs from 100 to 250 and it’s always a gamble. I’ve hedged my bets and printed 100 and sold them out easily, and then gone big and printed 250 and they haven’t sold as well as hoped and now I sleep on piles of boxes. It’s just that there have been a lot of folks claiming to have solved the problems of smaller pressings before and maybe these guys have some cards up their sleeves but at the minute it just sounds like kind of marketing speak and it’s just rebadging lathe cutting that they distribute and take a large % cut of.
But yeah otherwise the options are small runs of lathe cuts (bladud flies are great) but which are probably gonna cost you 20 quid or more per unit and you’ll have to sell for 30, or using the kind of mid weight companies who will do runs of 100 for a reasonable cost (press on vinyl) but definitely aren’t the top drawer quality either.
I’m def still interested to see what these guys come out with eventually but definitely gonna be a bit wary of them until they’re more forthcoming about what it is they’re actually doing differently.
There’s a few of these companies coming out now aren’t there. Cool you’ve had a good experience with the test and the quality looks good from the photos
What’s the price per unit if you go forward with an order?
Cool, well that’s not too different to what I paid when I went down the DIY lathecut route for a release a couple of years back. That came out at about £534 (for 30) all in and including postage. But I ordered the blank sleeves separately on ebay and got a pal to screenprint them so there was a bit more admin/logistics on my side.
Actually while on the subject… has anyone used any other Lathe cut companies? Bladud Flies seem to bet the go-to guys whenever i ask anyone but anyone had any other good experiences?
Plastidisc would still be my goto for a DIY release. Ben (Soundhog) really knows his stuff and the two releases he’s done for me blew me away. He’s really personable/communicative about it all too. https://plastidisc.com/
Fatcat have also just started their own lathe service. My good pal Sam (Holiday Ghosts) is the cutter and he’s done quite a few good-looking cuts (including my last single). But I’ve not heard any or seen any in person yet, so haven’t been able to actually do a listen test. https://www.fatcat.online/lathe-cutting
Had a read and like the cut () of this guy’s jib but shame he doesnt do 12", though his reasons are absolutely fair enough. Will def think of him for 7" or something though!
) of this guy’s jib but shame he doesnt do 12", though his reasons are absolutely fair enough. Will def think of him for 7" or something though!