How to review your vinyl test pressings (part 1)
Producing a vinyl record requires some special attention. Reviewing test pressings from your vinyl manufacturing provider is one of those special items, and this series goes over how to do that.
You can also reference the Greg Lloyd Mastering Studio Vinyl Test Pressing Guide.
What is a test pressing?
In vinyl record production, a test pressing is a set of multiple sample records that are pressed from the same metal plates that will be used to press the full production run. Test pressings are made as a final check to make sure the record meets your full approval, before the complete manufacturing run is pressed.
Why should you review test pressings?
Making vinyl can be expensive, and you don’t want to have to redo a pressing of 50,000 records because a mistake got made, but wasn’t caught before manufacturing took place.
With many pressing providers, you waive your right to a refund if you don’t approve a test pressing. That means you’re on the hook for paying for another complete production run if a mistake happens during production, and you chose not to review and approve a test pressing first.
Reviewing your test pressings does take a little bit of extra time on your end, but it’s time well spent compared to the months of time and potentially thousands of dollars lost if you have to remake a full production run to fix something.
Why are multiple copies of a test pressing sent out?
Because vinyl is an imperfect medium (that’s why we love it!), a certain amount of surface noise and random clicks/pops are to be expected, and this noise will vary a little bit from disc to disc. That’s perfectly normal. One of the great things about vinyl is that each individual disc really is something unique and one-of-a-kind.
Multiple test copies are sent out so that you can compare multiple discs to each other. If a potential issue that you hear reoccurs in the same location across every test disc, that’s a clue that you might be dealing with a legitimate manufacturing issue, rather than the expected sonic variations that normally occur disc to disc.
How should I review test pressings once I receive them?
Here’s the method I like to use:
Pick one of your test copies at random.
Listen through that copy in its entirely, both sides, cataloging any potential issues as you go. I like to start a stopwatch when I drop the needle, so I can note the timing of any potential issues.
Cross-reference any potential issues you hear with your other test copies (this is where the stopwatch comes in handy again). If an issue occurs on just one test copy, you can be confident that same issue won’t recur during the full production run. If an issue is present in the same place across all of the test copies, take note and contact your production manager: you may have a legitimate manufacturing issue.
Listening for the basics
When listening, I like to start out by first making sure all of the basics are covered:
Make sure all of the tracks are in the correct order, and are placed on the correct side of the disc.
Make sure that the test pressings contain the correct songs. This might sound obvious, but I’ve heard of mixups during production where the wrong audio accidentally got sent to the pressing plant somewhere along the line, and this was only caught when reviewing the test pressings.
Make sure that the test pressings contain the complete, finished versions of your audio. I’ve also heard of mixups where an early version or a rough mix of a song got sent out by mistake instead of the finished version, and you’d want to catch that.
Check the gaps (or lack thereof) between songs, and make sure they’re playing back as intended.
If you’ve requested any special details like a locked groove or a parallel groove, make sure those are functioning as intended.
Make sure the catalog number you’ve chosen (e.g. “SIA-002-A”) has been correctly etched into the inner run-out area closest to the center label of the disc. The catalog number should have an A or B appended that correctly notes each side of the record.
Next time in this series, we’ll go over some potential sonic issues common to vinyl manufacturing, and talk about what to do if you find a legitimate manufacturing issue when reviewing your test pressings.
The Greg Lloyd Mastering Studio Vinyl Pressing Guide and Mastering FAQ are regularly updated resources, and here to answer even more of your mastering questions.
