Contacts of low-run, cost-efficient vinyl pressing plants in Europe?

WCN · September 17, 2018, 03:42:09 PM

Anyone with current recommendations for pressing 10" records? It seems very few people are offering them at the moment...

I second the request if anyone has experience of information about https://www.100vinyl.com/

CosmicWeaponOfThule · September 17, 2018, 10:18:55 PM

Currently something I'm having done at mobienko is delayed with no real given reason. It would seem their equipment is very picky with audio specs and other things. If there is any issue or things are not cookie cutter there is problems, which is very frustrating.

Has anyone known of or used?

http://monotypepressing.pl

totalblack · September 18, 2018, 01:02:41 PM

Quote from: CosmicWeaponOfThule on September 17, 2018, 10:18:55 PM
Has anyone known of or used?

http://monotypepressing.pl

I have a friend who has been using them fairly exclusively for the last year and has had great experiences, said that the communication + product was great.

impulse manslaughter · September 21, 2018, 10:10:17 PM

I have 2 records in production with Mobineko right now. Shipping is now 215 euros within Europe instead of free. I checked out Monotype Pressing and the prices are very tempting. Any more experiences here on this board?

GEWALTMONOPOL · September 25, 2018, 02:49:47 PM

Monotype have been good so far. I'm yet to receive the LP's though but the TP's sounded very good and their service has also been good.

One place I will warn everyone about is 8Merch. I did the ABSCHEU LP there and although the quality of the work was good their customer service is awful. I tried placing further orders twice and got snooty emails about the necessity of forms for copyright organisations and from there no more replies. Avoid!

Eastern Embargo · September 22, 2019, 11:31:20 PM

Bump, any further updates on Monotype pressings?

I've always liked the quality of Steinklang vinyls and someone mentioned Audio.cd does their pressing, but their site is no longer in operation?

pentd · June 02, 2020, 08:26:29 PM

been working with monotype for cd's for a few years now and never a problem. i don't know where they make vinyls... or how their vinyls sound... but for cd's it's xlent.

but back to original topic:
for vinyl seems there's not too many good things to be heard about mobineko. apparently some dude in the uk handles the bizznezz, but production is in taiwan, so the shipping alone is crazy. last week i received a crappy sounding LP from a project for ikuisuus records, droning space travel music... so a clean cut is imperative. but whoa: crackling and popping throughout, on both sides.... totally different from test pressing, which had no issues - what i did for mastering is on the test press, not the whole batch of finished products. now label boss timo has to go through the whole drag of reclamation bla bla bla and more delay... so at the moment i have the feeling that Vinyl Plant in estonia and RANDmuzik in germany have the highest quality, but they're not the cheapest. at this point i'm just tired of crapp and would rather pay for quality than save... what... 50e? 100e?

deutscheasphalt · June 02, 2020, 10:17:53 PM

Avoid duophonic, Germany. They're cheap but not worth quality-wise.

pentd · June 04, 2020, 11:41:18 PM

mobineko gossip: to continue the ongoing drama regarding the aforementioned record on ikuisuus label...

"For future reference no matter where you press, we have some strong warnings on our order system that pressing "ambient / experimental" music on vinyl is very difficult and many turntables struggle to playback this kind of material because it contains a lot of white and pink noise at difficult frequencies. Especially when you have 20+ minutes per side lacquer is not a suitable cutting medium for anything like this and you should really cut on DMM like we recommend.

Almost all marks on the vinyl I was able to easily wipe off with a soft anti static cloth. They are rubbing against the inners for hours at a time in planes and trucks, you are going to get oils rubbing off from the lining and there's not much anyone can do about it."

mobineko boss claims he tried some records from this batch, and just "cleaned the record with an antistatic cloth" and magically fixed the issue (didnt work here, not even washing gently). also argues that the annoyance might be the sleeves during shipping... hmmm... the records came in black paper bags which have plastic bag inside... so: bad sleeves?

then: what pink noise? maybe on harsh/noise/full blast distortion records, but not here.
and: many good sounding drone/space ritual records exist. here audio does not go stupid deep, low, wide, or loud.
again: the test pressings sound xlent, why such a huge difference between those and duplication?

ca.1,5 years ago our band made an album at vinyl plant, estonia.. bad sequencing, their mistake, they fixed it super fast... no arm wrestling required.. also they sound xlent, and the corrected batch arrived on time for the gigs.

deutscheasphalt · June 05, 2020, 12:04:59 AM

Quote from: pentd on June 04, 2020, 11:41:18 PM
mobineko gossip: to continue the ongoing drama regarding the aforementioned record on ikuisuus label...

"For future reference no matter where you press, we have some strong warnings on our order system that pressing "ambient / experimental" music on vinyl is very difficult and many turntables struggle to playback this kind of material because it contains a lot of white and pink noise at difficult frequencies. Especially when you have 20+ minutes per side lacquer is not a suitable cutting medium for anything like this and you should really cut on DMM like we recommend.

Almost all marks on the vinyl I was able to easily wipe off with a soft anti static cloth. They are rubbing against the inners for hours at a time in planes and trucks, you are going to get oils rubbing off from the lining and there's not much anyone can do about it."

mobineko boss claims he tried some records from this batch, and just "cleaned the record with an antistatic cloth" and magically fixed the issue (didnt work here, not even washing gently). also argues that the annoyance might be the sleeves during shipping... hmmm... the records came in black paper bags which have plastic bag inside... so: bad sleeves?

then: what pink noise? maybe on harsh/noise/full blast distortion records, but not here.
and: many good sounding drone/space ritual records exist. here audio does not go stupid deep, low, wide, or loud.
again: the test pressings sound xlent, why such a huge difference between those and duplication?

ca.1,5 years ago our band made an album at vinyl plant, estonia.. bad sequencing, their mistake, they fixed it super fast... no arm wrestling required.. also they sound xlent, and the corrected batch arrived on time for the gigs.

How many copies did you press? If the test pressings sounded good the same matrix should be used for pressing the batch. Unless they cut the TPs and fucked you over.

I appreciate the difficult (financial) situation a pressing plant service might find itself in dealing with a faulty batch - essentially "repairing" means to trash everything and do it all over again.
However, if you make an offer to manufacture records within physical limits and the customer provides data according to the specifications you've set, to me this is a guarantee that the vinyl will play and you should be held liable if it doesn't.
To avoid all confusion you should probably work with a pre-mastering engineer who knows how to prepare a cut or better yet cuts themselves and who you trust to prepare releases that are important to you. If you prepare the material yourself and you're not familiar with lacqueur or DM cutting physics, the dynamics and frequencies might come back to haunt you. Especially if you just send the files over expecting a cheap run without test pressings. Vinyl has physical limitations and not "anything is possible". Then again, this also doesn't mean nothing crazy is possible. As a pressing plant, if 20 minutes per side is a concern to you - don't offer it. Also utterances like "lots of white and pink noise at difficult frequencies" sound like someone is playing you for a fool.

impulse manslaughter · June 05, 2020, 04:52:56 PM

I decided to part ways with Mobineko after 2 releases I wasn't really happy about (micro scratches, dirty records). I have now 3 releases in production through Deepgrooves in The Netherlands. It's not the cheapest option but they seem to deliver quality. I saw a comment on 8Merch from Poland which I used for a cassette release a while ago and I have to say I was quite happy with the results and communications. Can't comment on the vinyl though.