ElasticStage - Print on Demand Vinyl

Anyone else tried this service?

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’ll definitely be using them again I think!

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Think this is the first time I’ve ever ‘liked’ a post on the For Musicians board…

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Hah! £30 well spent then :wink:

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This is lovely, glad you had a good experience with it.

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this is something I’d been wondering about actually

also for the reasons of getting a physical copy of tunes I made myself

so cheers!

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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.

Oooh this is really interesting, thanks for sharing!

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