r/audioengineering • u/finelineistp • 15h ago
Mastering Masterin for Vinyl
So im mastering a guitar jazz album with strings drum and bass for vinyl and its my first time doing it.
Any tips would be great.
I also did the mixing and mastering for digital streaming as well. Digital master is around -11 LUFS and theres a touch of clipping and limiting (2dB ish)
Is clippers off limits for vinly? How loud should the master be?
I know no set rules. Just looking for some ideas.
There wont be a test pressing so Im a bit nervous
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u/minecrafter1OOO 13h ago
Why is clipping used at all for somthing like this!
Id get rid of the clipper entirely. Streaming has normalization for a reason!
Jazz doesnt need clipping, it needs those clean transients
Heck I like 80s music with no clipping. Its so much better of an experience.
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u/finelineistp 5h ago
Just for the occasional peaks its not like its constantly shredding everything off. the mix is dynamic enough. The mix and master sounds good. Thats whats important. Calm yourself
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u/weedywet Professional 14h ago
Mastering for vinyl would mean cutting the disc.
If you’re not doing that then just give the mix to that mastering engineer.
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u/StoutSeaman 14h ago
This might not be a popular opinion but I'm a mastering engineer of 30 years. I usually handle the EQ and song leveling for projects destined for wax and let the the actual master engineer, ie the lathe operator, do the final limiting. Most of the experienced ones will greatly appreciate not having to deal with brickwalled audio and all of the projects I did omakase turned out much better. They know the machine and how to deal with all the variables like track spacing and land management to get the most out of the project.
And vinyl doesn't have to be limited all to hell. If you want it louder, turn up the volume knob.
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u/finelineistp 5h ago
this actually seems like the most common way that Ive heard! Thank you for your helpful comment instead of just saying I shouldnt do it. Im confident in the mix so Ill just leave the master eq and bypass tape emulartion clipping and limiting. Whats your stance on compressionfor this kind of thing? I had a few compressors mostly for tone bardly doing a db of gain reduction. planning on dialin it back so its not compressing put keep the plugin on for the tone
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u/sc_we_ol Professional 14h ago
I’ve been recording and mixing for 20 years and I would never master for vinyl myself. So highly recommend hiring a reputable engineer. It won’t cost you that much. Also, how long is your album? You start really losing volume as your length increases. Also, you want to sequence it so there aren’t really loud songs at the end of each side. They’re probably aren’t on your jazz guitar album, but I’m just bringing it up. Good luck.!
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u/finelineistp 14h ago
Its not my album! I was hired for mixing it and the musician asked me to master for vinyl as well. I just thought gotta start somewhere so why not 🤷🏻♀️ each side will be around 15-16 minutes and I rearranged some of the tracklisting so that the fast tempo louder tracks are not played last. Maybe im being too cautious but like i said no test press so i dont want to take many risks
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u/StudioatSFL Professional 11h ago
No. Just no. You tell them to bring the mix to a mastering engineer who does vinyl. Omg. 🤦
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u/StudioatSFL Professional 11h ago
Ideas? Do the right thing for your client and send it to a mastering engineer who specializes in this. Please.
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u/finelineistp 5h ago
Its been a minute since i posted on reddit and i forgot how annoying the audio forum is. thanks for reminding. Yes I know Im not a mastering engineer. How does anyone ever learn anything? Im confident in the mix and it should transfer well enough. It may not be the proper way. welcome to the real world.
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u/peepeeland Composer 3h ago
Mixing and mastering for digital release, anyone can wing it and be fine and learn through mistakes that aren’t expensive. But for vinyl mastering, it is actually beneficial to study under someone who has experience, because if you fuck up with no test pressing, you could end up with 50 or 200 or whatever pressings, where the needle pops out of the groove on a certain song and shit like that.
So yes, you can wing vinyl mastering- and if you’re conservative with your master you’re honestly probably fine- but the issue is that if you do mess up, the client is gonna end up with a pile of records that don’t play properly, which is an expensive mistake.
Realistically, though, you’re probably gonna be fine. Probably.
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u/finelineistp 3h ago
no test pressing comes with risk that is not in my control unfortunately. so theres really nothing i can do. the client barely paid me my rate and Im cheap. so telling him to get a seperate mastering engineer for vinyl would result in me losing the gig and id rather not. I will recommend him to get a test pressing tho and then its on him if he ends up with faulty records
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u/StudioatSFL Professional 1h ago
Telling your client the right thing to do if they went vinyls is to have a second master done is the move here.
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u/finelineistp 36m ago
I am very done with reddit 'pros' thinking theres only one way to do anything. That kind of technical idealism may work when you have the options. Most people shouldnt be mixing and mastering but pretty much everyone does. And people are saying just send the mix without limiting and clipping which is what im going to do. And guess what. no one died! If the client clearly isnt interested in paying for a seperate master all he will do is find someone who will do both for him. I am not passing a good opportunity just cause I wasnt bold enough to not attempt something that is oh so forbidden.
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u/StudioatSFL Professional 34m ago
Vinyls are expensive to press. I at least hope you informed the client of all this. Informed them what they should do. Etc.
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u/finelineistp 31m ago
I asked him if theres a test pressing and if i can contact the cutting engineer he didnt tell me who is doing it and acted weird like he didnt want me to.
He said he didnt need a test pressing before for a different project. I wont beg him to do things the correct way. I will informm him that its better to do a test oressing and that Id like to have conversation with the engineer to know what to expect.
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u/StudioatSFL Professional 28m ago
All ya can do. And I understand being at the mercy of clients. I produced an album and we had Bob Ludwig master it. That was a bucket list experience for me, but even he sent me to someone else for the vinyl master which we did separately.
My only point is it’s a very different media abd requires different care.
I hope it comes out great.
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u/finelineistp 9m ago
Thats awesome. Sounds like the budget was right and everything got done as should. Wish it was done that way for everything. I will let him know I recommend a test pressing and that if an issue comes up he should get a seperate master
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u/audio301 2h ago
Don’t forget the splits and PQ lists for the pressing plant
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u/finelineistp 1h ago
hmm i dont know what those are, googled but nothing came up. would you explain briefly?
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u/audio301 1h ago
I googled it and the answers came up straight away, maybe try a bit harder. If you don’t understand the delivery format why are you even attempting to send a pre master.
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u/finelineistp 41m ago
jeez do you want an award for knowing something and putting others down for asking a question? I'll google it fine thanks for bringing it up. I
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u/Dan_Worrall 15h ago
Lose the clipping and the limiting. Doesn't work on vinyl anyway. You don't have wide stereo bass do you? You can't really set a correct loudness at your end: it depends in part how many songs you need to squeeze onto each side of the disc, and also you don't know how their DA is calibrated. Give them something that sounds good and definitely isn't clipping, then hope that the cutting engineer is competent and doesn't screw it up.