The vinyl production process is a Rude Goldberg Machine
Or, ‘some considerations for maintaining control within the vinyl production process’.Pressing and manufacturing vinyl essentially means dealing with a massive succession of moving parts that work very similar to a domino chain or perhaps more optimistically, a Rude Goldberg Machine.A Rube Goldberg machine, named after American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, is a chain reaction-type machine or contraption intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overly complicated way.Once the very first stage is decided in vinyl production, it has the potential to impact the end product, and each step of the process is critical to the next. It’s very hard to course-correct (without losing a lot of money or time). Especially in today’s world, when just getting a plant to agree to press your vinyl is a win let alone the myriad of other production issues. The major difference with this analogy however is that you never really get to finish or control your Rude Goldberg machine (if you’re pressing vinyl). Instead, you just have to consistently refine your approach, and manage each of the many important parts already set in motion, deciding what part to use, or how extravagant to make it, within an ever-changing set of ridiculous confines (lead-times, price changes, raw-material shortages, shipping costs etc etc). Labels are trying to make the best decision at each stage before it falls apart, managing the people and issues at each of those stages, all while (hopefully) keeping the best interests of the artist, the music, and of course, the label front of mind.There is no right or wrong way to approach how vinyl is made, and this isn’t me telling people to do it one way or another (I just have fun geeking out and writing about my passions).Most of the labels I know will operate differently from the next, and will have done it differently at some point over time. The manufacturing process can depend on so many subjective small things such as; budget, the time you have, the amount of vinyl being pressed, your location relative to a plant, what color vinyl or effect you want at a specific plant, or years of previous positive or negative experiences with certain people at certain stages. This is why the vinyl production process is both fascinating and frustrating, to me. With so many moving parts, and so many potential options at each stage, it’s hard to navigate, but rewarding when you see it successfully through to completion and that vinyl is in hand. Why am I documenting this now? I’m not an engineer, but if you’re here, you probably know I produce vinyl, and have done it in multiple different ways now to know a bit about the options and dominos in play. A conversation I continually have with artists, is what mastering engineer to use and what effect/color of the vinyl is desired. Those sound like very innocent, easy, decisions, but they are an example of two cogs in this Rude Goldberg machine that can have massive effects on how you go about getting vinyl made (if you’re obsessive like me). I am sure some labels choose to not communicate these decisions with their artists (as the label is often the expert after all), and it’s not always needed, but if an artist is coming to the table with thoughts and opinions on those topics (just as an example), I try to guide them to the goal they had in mind and show them the impacts each decision will have. Instead of trying to write long email responses, full of ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ and in the spirit of sharing my experience since day one, I started to put together a quick infographic on the choices we have, and it snowballed into something a bit bigger, which I’m sharing here should it be helpful for others. The example scenario that made me put pen to paper was as follows. If I use a specific mastering engineer who would cut the lacquer too, but he was based in England and my plant was in the US, what did that impact, and was it the best decision for this record? Did this record need lacquer oversight? Did I need to use an EU plant? It got me thinking about the many decisions in the machine. The infographic contains three routes to produce vinyl that I have seen throughout my short time on this planet so far. There are more options than this, and there are many variable stages within these stages (reserved for the experts in these fields). You could replace the word ‘control’ with ‘quality’ if you like, but ‘quality’, like most things in this process, is subjective. Some would argue DMM is better quality, some would argue Lacquers are not needed. Some would argue to never let a plant look after your lacquer. the only true way to know is to do it and see if you’re happy with the quality at the end of the machine. A couple of examples to highlight the potential chain reactions in the vinyl manufacturing process, as outlined above:Identifying who masters your record, who cuts the lacquer (whether it’s the same person) and the role a plant plays in the lacquer process is an important step at the beginning of the process. If your mastered files don’t translate well to vinyl, then the process is only going to highlight this fact (loudness, dynamics, stereo-width etc, poor tests etc). And similarly, a mastering engineer can make a piece of vinyl sing, if the process is done well. If your mastering engineer passes files to your lacquer cutting engineer that don’t translate well to cutting vinyl, then complications can occur. Similarly, if your mastering engineer is the same as your lacquer cutting engineer, or they are on the same page and often work together, this tension may not ever exist. If you choose to not cut a lacquer and opt for a DMM process (aka the Scientology approach - just joking…), then the end sound may be different (not necessarily *worse* may I add - this process is still a much-debated choice it seems - I have experience with this approach too). If you put the lacquer production stage in the pressing plant’s hands completely, then you are putting a significant amount of trust in them to get a key component right. You do, however, remove one person from the chain, which has its positives and negatives. For me at ASIP, over time I have frequented all three of these options outlined. Nowadays, I tend to go for Option 1, specifically if we have a record that needs extra care in the cut due to dynamics or length for example. But if it’s a straight-forward cut, I make sure the masters are at their best, and entrust the couple of plants we have years of positive experience with, to process the lacquer (Option 2). As mentioned before, both routes have their pros and cons, and both can be better than the other depending on the situation and the many variables that go into this almighty Rude Goldberg Machine. Who and if(!) you master files for vinyl; who cuts your lacquer; the quality of the lacquer material that day, what pressing plant you choose and where they are based in context to you or your distributor; the experience of the plant technician; the colors or effects on offer at the plant; the temperature of the press, the plant’s unwritten terms on recutting a lacquer or cleaning a stamper; the plants subjective-versus-objective response to your imaginary test press problem; how much shipping costs at each stage; I could go on. Let’s not talk about that record turning up bent in half, wet, on your porch at the very last hurdle. This is why, you could be the biggest artist or label in the world with the most amount of money at your disposal, pressing 500k records and they all, still sound terrible. Or, you could be an artist or label that cares about the process, and understands the impact of their decisions at each stage, ending up with the best sounding vinyl they could imagine. That’s part of the magic with this crazy, overly complicated process that makes no sense whatsoever when you sit back for just a minute… We’re aiming for a simple outcome; for you to listen to music and hold a piece of art in your hands. But it’s all worth it.