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Thread Anyone ever mastered for vinyl?

  • 3 replies
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1 Anyone ever mastered for vinyl?
Hi everyone, first-time poster on AudioFanZine :D:

My wife is getting a mixtape I made recently pressed onto vinyl as a birthday gift (I am one lucky man....) and she needs my help answering the pressing company's questions about mastering the tracks. But before she sends me those questions, I wanted to get a head start on preparing the tracks that are going to be pressed.

From the get-go I'm sure a few songs are a bit (aka EXTREMELY) bass-heavy so clearly I'll have to address that, but while I've mastered a bit before, I've never done so for vinyl, so any mastering advice regarding prepping for vinyl pressing is completely welcome. Thanks in advance for those of you who can help out!
2
I've mastered for vinyl before. Here's what I'd recommend:

  • make sure bass frequencies are in MONO and aren't too heavy
  • De-ess your tracks if you haven't already, as high frequencies are more likely to create distortion during playback on vinyl
  • Low pass filter at around 18KHz
  • HPF at, say, 40Hz (these are just estimates, but you get the point)
  • Make sure bass isn't overwhelmingly panned on one side
  • Leave more dynamics than you would on a digital master
  • never divorce your wife
3
EQlikeaboss pretty much covered it. I actually just wrapped up a few remasters for my vinyl EP. For vinyl, 160/250Hz downward is usually recommended to be placed in mono. A good way to see what needs to be in mono is by low-passing and hearing what's there.

Personally I wouldn't use a de-esser for the high end, but maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea for any frequencies that are getting out of hand if you're worried about overcompressing the highs. However, if de-essing isn't working the way you'd like, try a multiband compressor on only the high end. Perhaps even consider a shelf EQ. I used a combination of the above factors when mastering my EP.
4
MagicMan73 and EQlikeaboss: Thanks for your excellent posts! Very useful info. :bravo: