The EM Poll

Mastering Vinyl

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Gino Robair

           

Learn about the peculiarities of releasing music on vinyl.

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Web Clips: Click for audio clips and videos that accompany the March 2008 issue of EM.

Nearly a quarter century after the CD was introduced, and kept alive in large part by club-based music, vinyl records are experiencing a resurgence in popularity. (Time magazine reported in January that record sales were up 15.4 percent in 2007.)

Musicians in nearly every musical genre are pressing records again, not only because they believe the sound quality is superior to that of digital audio (and especially data-compressed formats), but because of the large graphics and collectibility, which help these products stand out in the crowd of new releases. The latest trend is to offer a free downloadable version of the record with the purchase of the LP; this makes the release more attractive to members of the iPod generation who want instant gratification as well as something collectible.

However, simply pressing an LP or a 7-inch from your CD master does not guarantee the best results that vinyl has to offer. Often a number of decisions, and even some compromises, have to be made to get a great-sounding record.

I asked four mastering engineers who specialize in cutting vinyl — John Golden (www.goldenmastering.com), George Ingram (www.nashvillerecordproductions.com), Pete Lyman (www.infrasonicsound.com), and Richard Simpson (www.richardsimpsonmastering.net) — to weigh in on the subject. Their insights will help you understand what to expect from your release and allow you to create masters that will translate well into the analog medium of the vinyl record.

Groovin'

To cut a record, the engineer plays your master recording in real time — whether on analog tape, DAT, CD-R, or as digital files — through a lathe (see Fig. 1) that mechanically translates the audio information into an etched groove on a 14-inch, lacquer-coated aluminum disc using a precision cutting stylus. EQ and limiting are added as needed.

The resulting disc is known as the master lacquer, and the engineer cuts one for each side of your LP or single (see Fig. 2). The master lacquers are sent to the manufacturing plant, where they are processed to create the metal stampers used in mass-producing records. (To watch a video of this process from start to finish, see Web Clips 1 and 2.)

Although the master disc's diameter is 14 inches, the engineer starts cutting where a 12-inch disc would begin. The extra surface area allows for ease of handling and ensures that the critical area for cutting is free from flaws that are typically at the edges of a disc.

During the mastering session, the engineer determines how loud the resulting playback levels can be, based on program length and overall volume; how much, if any, EQ or limiting is required; and how the grooves are laid out across the disc, among other things. It's a good idea to find an engineer who has cut records in your musical genre, because he or she will know from experience what kinds of demands it makes of vinyl.

Short but Sweet

With iPods that can hold a month's worth of nonstop music and CDs that offer 80 minutes, it comes as a surprise to some that LPs typically have less than 45 minutes of music on them. Whether or not you think the amount of storage space on a record is a limitation, the amount of good-sounding space on the disc is important to consider. The rule of thumb is that the greater the circular distance over which the music is cut into the record, the better the reproduced sound quality will be.

“Most people don't realize that the distance around the inside of a 12-inch record is about half the distance than around the outside,” Golden explains. “As the distance around each revolution decreases, the high frequencies become harder for a playback stylus to read.”

FIG. 1: The Neumann AM-32 lathe at Infrasonic Sound. The large dial on the control panel at the right can be used to manually regulate the number of lines etched into the master lacquer.

As a result, the inner tracks will sound duller than the outer tracks. The high frequencies “simply can't be reproduced the same as if they were cut on the outside of the disc,” Golden adds. “And no, it can't be fixed by adding extra high end. That would add more distortion to the inside cuts.” Consequently, song sequencing for a vinyl release is very important if you want to maximize sound quality, particularly in the upper frequency spectrum.

Lyman notes that you will begin experiencing a loss of high end about halfway through an LP. “A lot of classic records were sequenced so a softer song or a ballad was on the inside, and usually the louder cuts were on the outside. I always tell clients to consider sequencing the vinyl version differently than the CD. Maybe put a softer song with less high end on the inside. You'll have a better-sounding record, especially if you keep the length of each side under 20 minutes.”

Simpson notes that even if he puts only a few minutes of music on a 12-inch record, he tries to keep the grooves closer to the outside of the disc rather than spacing them out evenly across the entire platter. “It might look like you're not getting your money's worth, because the disc doesn't look full, but it'll sound better overall.”

Length vs. Volume

In addition, there's a direct correlation between program length and loudness: the shorter a record is, the louder it can be. “There is only so much room to cut the groove,” Golden explains. “The longer the time per side, the smaller the groove needs to be, and the lower the volume must be to make it fit and to prevent skipping.”

“A lot of DJs don't want to deal with big volume discrepancies when they're changing records,” says Lyman. “So if you're doing a club track and you want strong levels, definitely keep it under 10 minutes on a 12-inch disc at 45 rpm.”

Lyman notes that records produced during the LP's heyday rarely held more than 40 minutes of music — total. “And they sounded great! Because of the CD format, albums are definitely getting longer. These days, LPs are almost always over 45 minutes, as people try to cram more and more onto records. If you have anything over 40 minutes, spread it out; make the investment and do a double-LP release.”

The engineers I spoke with recommended putting no more than 16 to 18 minutes of music on a 12-inch record at 33⅓ rpm. “Anything over 18, and you begin to sacrifice sound quality,” Lyman warns. “The longer the disc, the lower the overall volume. When you're cutting a record at a lower volume, the noise floor increases.” (Disc manufacturers often post the recommended playing times for different-sized records at various speeds on their Web sites.)

Tame the Highs

Many of the engineers I spoke with noted that a wider frequency and dynamic range can be cut into a vinyl master than can be reproduced in playback. For example, extreme transients and high frequencies will distort because the stylus cannot properly track them in the disc's grooves.

Sibilance, the high-frequency noise burst that you get when the letters s, f, and t are emphasized, is a major issue that mastering engineers encounter. “Problematic sibilants typically fall in the 6 to 12 kHz range,” Golden observes. “Because a CD can reproduce it without trouble, it isn't recognized as a problem area until you decide to make a vinyl record.”

FIG. 2: The master lacquer is a 14-inch aluminum disc evenly coated with a nail-polish-like substance. The mastering engineer etches a single, long groove into the disc.
Photo: Lucas Phelan

“I hear a lot of tracks, especially from indie musicians, that have extremely sibilant vocals,” says Lyman. “It's something I'm always aware of when I'm mastering a CD, because I often cut a vinyl master of the same project. But when I get something that's already been mastered, and we're doing a straight cut from that master, I'll watch the high end. I try to cut it as flat as possible, without causing any distortion. If I have to do any high-frequency limiting, I let the artist know and see how much we can get away with on this end before we ask someone to change their mix or remaster it. Unfortunately, a lot of the rock stuff is coming through with more high end than is going to work properly on vinyl.”

“In general, if you even think it sounds a little sibilant, chances are you should be de-essing the vocal,” Golden recommends. “My rule of thumb is de-ess the vocal when you record it, then de-ess it again when you mix. It works much better if a little is done at both stages rather than trying to de-ess it all at once. A good de-esser can actually make the vocal sound brighter because the only time it affects the voice is during the s sound.

“Some vocalists learn to underpronounce the sibilant sound — that makes all of our jobs much easier,” he adds. “But if you double a vocal that's already sibilant, you get twice the problem. Heavy compression and limiting can also make a nonproblematic vocal very sibilant: the limiter will tend to pull up the s sound because most compressor/limiters don't work at the same threshold for high frequencies as they do for mid vocal frequencies. Consequently, the limiter doesn't see the s sound and opens up the level, adding even more sibilance.”

As you'd expect, the current trend of heavy-handed compression and limiting in the recording industry does not lend itself to releases destined for vinyl. It's not uncommon for engineers to be given overcompressed masters with exaggerated highs that sound terrible on a record. Lyman recommends that artists prepare a separate master for a vinyl version of a project, one that has “a greater dynamic range and is not overlimited.”

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